Story Sensei

I wrote earlier in my Book Creation Process that just before I start writing my manuscript, I’ll take time to write down blocking notes. For me, “blocking” is like blocking in a live play. It’s writing a step-by-step description of what happens in a scene to make it easier for me to write the rough draft. The concept is the same as the “beats” described in Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day , but I call it blocking because “beats” is sometimes used to refer to high-level outlining. Blocking is also mentioned (although she doesn’t call it “blocking”) in 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love ). In Write Better, Faster , the author explained her process in more detail. She calls them beats. She writes one paragraph about each scene in her outline. Then from the one paragraph, she asks a series of questions about each sentence in the paragraph, and in answering all those questions she elaborates on the...

Maybe I’m just weird, but I like to know how different writers do their writing. I like knowing how they spend each day. I like knowing their process when they write a book, from idea to outlining to drafting to editing. Every writer is different in subtle ways, and I’ve discovered that a writer can discover what works best for them by seeing what works for other people, and then experimenting and trying it for themselves. Sometimes a process works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least you’ve tried it to see. I spent a lot of time trying out methods to improve my productivity and enable me to write the best book I can. I thought it might be interesting to list what my book creation process is. Not all my methods will work for all writers, but I might do some things in a way you haven’t tried before, and it might be a process that ends up working for you. Stage 1) I usually start with the characters. I write the backstory and family first, and I jot notes in a file in Scrivener as ...

I was re-reading Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day , and I realized that while I’ve tried the other techniques in the book, I never actually did a writer’s diary. She gives good reasons why it’s important, but I just never got around to doing it when I was setting up my spreadsheet to track my writing statistics. I think it will be good to do this diary because it will be raw data for me—a record of exactly what I did each day for my writing. A review of each day will enable me to record any insights I might discover about my writing habits. With that collection of raw data in my diary, I’ll be able to see larger-scale trends in my writer’s process so that I can adjust and correct as needed, and hopefully improve my productivity. But I thought that my normal Story Sensei blog readers might be annoyed at daily entries with minute detail of my day, so I repurposed one other Blogger blog I had lying around and made it Camy’s Writing Diary ...

kapitan_kraken posted this quote on the writing subreddit: "Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will clo...

I’ve been struggling with writer’s block/lack of motivation in my writing for several months now, and I’ve been battling it the way I’ve always battled it before—I sit my butt down in a chair and force myself to write, powering through the blah feeling and writing absolute crap as if I’ve forgotten everything I’ve learned about writing prose. The problem with this is that if the writer’s block/lack of motivation lasts for a long time, that kind of “powering through it” can get really tiring. So I’ve also been reading writing books to try to glean some new trick or technique to use. I read 5000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox and I really liked his concept of timed writing sprints. I found that the time pressure really helped me to turn off the internal editor and just write. Rather than being stuck on a particular scene or page, I would force myself to just write whatever came to mind even if it was trite and bland, because I can always fix it later. If I really couldn’t think of s...

I just discovered a great resource for inspiration, reminders, and tips for writing. I’ve been in a bit of a plotting rut and so I do what I usually do, which is watch TV shows and movies. This time, I watched the audio commentary for one of my favorite movies, Captain America: Civil War . I didn’t realize that I’d get so many great ideas for plotting, characterization, dialogue beats, theme, mood, and setting by listening to the directors and the screenwriters comment as they viewed the movie. It not only gave me a springboard for my own plot and character ideas, but it reminded me of techniques I’d forgotten about, which helped me in my story structure and character development. It’s a shame that I’m only realizing this now, because it’s a resource I’ve always had, in the movies I’ve bought on iTunes, but never utilized. I’ll definitely be using this more in future. I hope this tip helps you guys, too—pick your favorite movie and listen to the audio commentary. You never know w...

It seems like this happens for every single book I write. I’m in the first quarter of the book, struggling to get the words down. It feels like slogging through New England clam chowder. Then I suddenly remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just write crap. Edit later. Somehow I always forget this. It has happened at some point in every single manuscript I’ve completed. I have to remind myself to just get the words down, no matter how awful they are. The first couple thousand words really ARE crap, but then after that, my right brain creative side takes over and suddenly I’m writing words that are actually rather good. Or at least, words I wouldn’t shudder to read aloud to my mother, the English teacher. :) So if you’re in the first quarter or third of your book--or no matter where you are in it--just remind yourself to get the words down, no matter how execrable they are. Just power through it, don’t cringe at the triteness of your phrases and the cliches popping up like we...

I recently had a question on Facebook about passive voice, and Heather let me answer the question on my blog. Thanks Heather! Mrs. Tang, can you recommend resources for overcoming passive voice. PV keeps sneaking it's way into my story! I didn't see a entry about PV on your Story Sensei blog. Any advice? Camy: When a writer mentions “passive voice,” there are actually two different things they could mean. (Or sometimes, they mean both!) 1) passive sentences, meaning sentences with passive verbs instead of active verbs Or 2) a passive writer’s voice, meaning the writing itself is rather stale rather than active and vibrant PASSIVE SENTENCES: Passive verbs like “was” and “were” are small and almost unnoticeable, but they tend to distance the reader from the story. By replacing passive verbs with strong action verbs, you can improve the prose dramatically. For passive sentences, I have a quick and dirty solution that I use all the time. First, I write the manusc...

I love the Edittorrent blog, and Alicia Rasley posted this one that I thought was a really good post for those of us who incorporate humor in our fiction: I was reading Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich, and I realized that one reason she's so popular with her readers is that she knows what's fun and spins it out to an enjoyable length. She doesn't just allude to it-- she exploits it. Click here to read the rest of the post

I'm at Seekerville talking about adding conflict in every line . Camy here! I wanted to talk about conflict today, because we all could use more conflict in our lives, right? Especially now that it’s December and Christmas is around the corner? (Breathe ... breathe ... I’m just kidding! I mean, I’m kidding about us needing more conflict in our lives, not about Christmas being around the corner. And if you’ve still got your head stuck in the sand of denial about Christmas—you have only nine days left, sugar. Get cracking.) Anyway, one of the best things I picked up from a Donald Maass seminar was his injunction to add tension to every sentence on the page. Chime in and add your own before and after writing!

Camy here: I'm especially pleased to post this excerpt because I'm in this book, too! I have a piece on finding and developing your writer's voice, that elusive "something" in your writing that makes the piece uniquely yours. I hope you guys enjoy this excerpt enough that you'll buy the book! All proceeds from this book go to charity. A Novel Idea Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (November 1, 2009) by Various Best-Selling Authors (contributions from best-selling authors including Jerry B. Jenkins, Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, Randy Alcorn, Terri Blackstock, Robin Jones Gunn, Angela Hunt and more) ABOUT THE BOOK: Best-selling Christian fiction writers have teamed together to contribute articles on the craft of writing. A Novel Idea contains tips on brainstorming ideas and crafting and marketing a novel. It explains what makes a Christian novel “Christian” and offers tips on how to approach tough topics. Contributors include Jerry B. Jenkins, Karen Kingsbur...