More on The Craft of Writing

I’m doing some thinking about the second part of my two part workshop, and being a writer, decided I may as well think and type at the same time. Now that I consider it, I do some of my best detailed thinking about a story as I type it.


Back to class. The second part deals with making a story interesting. That’s a tough one. Actually making it interesting is more than just plot or story line. Consider an oral story teller or an instructor. A great oral story teller can take a mundane story and tell it with such style and skill that it becomes interesting. A good instructor can take mediocre class content and present it in a way that makes it interesting. I think the point is that writing in an interesting way is more than having a good or average story. Much is in the presentation. I don’t think you can have one without the other. You must have a story that has something to it, but you must do your best in the presentation or writing.

Doing that maybe isn’t a simple thing. It’s a combination of characters, setting, active and passive writing, and managing mood and drama, among many other things. It’s how well we do with these and presenting them with narrative and dialogue as a team that makes a story interesting.

Let’s take a look at characters or characterization. It’s easy to make them flat, and hard to bring them to life. For me, the key is making them alive and real in my head. If I can do that, then it’s not so bad a job to put them on paper. I’m not one who uses character sheets or profiles. I discover and learn about my characters as they grow, develop and reveal themselves to me in my writing. They naturally have a physical look to them. I sometimes forget they could have good days and bad days, be surly or phony or tired or fed up or depressed. They might tend to follow my moods, but I don’t think so. Sometimes I must stop and think how one of my characters might feel or react in a given situations. I’m at that point right now with Windslow, Hillary and Trish in book three, The Book of Twisted Truths. I stopped writing a scene I was in the middle of because I wasn’t sure how they each would react. Being a visual thinker, they have played out the scene in my head. I learned that Windslow was hurt and stuck out with some anger. Hillary was embarrassed and felt some self worth slipping. She covered up with lies that are pushing her into depression. Trish was the hardest of the three. She is becoming protective and a bit pushy. Now I can get back to the scene.

Back to class, again, I can’t just use what I wrote above. I have to finish the scene and give thought to whose point of view would work the best. I began the scene with Windslow. Intuitively, Hillary’s situation is a bit more intriguing and Trish is just playing “mom.” I began the scene from Windslow’s point of view and now will stick in a scene break and finish out the episode from Hillary’s view.

Now a bit about passive and active writing. At first, what I read about passive writing and passive sentences confused me. Actually, I started this sentence like this: “At first I was confused…” Right away the word “was” grabbed me. I have learned to watch for it. It’s usually a sign of passive writing and can also be passive sentence structure. To sort them out, I learned that, “The medal was given to the winner,” Is a passive sentence. We don’t know who did the giving. Who gave the medal to the winner? We don’t know. By changing it to, “The judge gave the medal to the winner,” the sentence is no longer passive in structure. The other form of passive writing is just that—passive writing. Think of it as presenting something after the fact rather than happening in the here and now.

My wife, a second grade teacher, gave me some interesting insight. Second grade students rarely use passive writing. To them, everything is unfolding before them. Hmm… For passive or in the past writing, the word “was” is usually a flag again. “There was a table in the middle of the room.” You could ask, “The table was in the middle of the room. Is it still there now?” It puts the story as something that happened in the past and you are recounting what took place. Making your writing active puts it in a mode of happening right now. It helps draw the reader in. Edit out the “was.” A large table dominated the room.” That keeps it from being passive, puts some attention on the table (which should be important to the story) and makes the writing active.

A quick bit about mood and drama. Mood is something an oral story teller can insert with inflection, speed of talking and more. Think about a movie or play for a moment. In a movie, the background music can help with the mood. You don’t have music in a novel, but don’t forget simple things like a storm brewing or dark clouds, candles flickering out or flames sputtering. Many things can work to covey a mood in lieu of background music.

I would have liked to spend more time on mood and drama, but my fingers are getting tired, and I’ve used about as much time at work as I dare in typing this. Back to work for me. Back to writing for you.