Katrin Schumann

Write Now!

Here's a collection of thoughts and tips, ideas and insights to help kick start your writing process.

A Few Useful Exercises to Jump Start Your Writing

Out of the box: write a monologue, a non-stop stream of consciousness, of a difficult character. Don't edit, just write.

Do a five or ten minute non-stop writing practice starting with a prompt such as: "I remember," or "I see," or "I hear." Write for the allotted time without stopping. Don't think about grammar, spelling, or purpose. If you get stuck, just re-write your prompt again. See where your mind takes you.

Take a scene you're having trouble with and write it as just dialogue between two characters.

Remember a scene from your childhood, a recent fight, a frightening or happy moment and write it down for yourself in as much detail as you can. Remember to describe using all five senses. What did it feel like to be there? BE SPECIFIC.

Look through your writer's notebook. Find a nugget and use it to center a scene on.

One book suggests giving yourself a page quota, such as three pages each session. If you write three pages a day, you could have a first draft in three months. Determine what your quota is and try to stick to it.

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From Ideas to Story: Questions to Ask Yourself

What is the Point of View of your piece? Do you want to keep it close and personal, or in developing the idea do you want the distance of a third person narrator (ie. "She/ he" instead of "I")

How do you start the scene/ chapter/ section? Is your first sentence interesting enough? Will it pull the reader in?

Is there any action/dialogue -- does there need to be? Are there multiple characters or just one?

Have you established the setting and the mood for the scene? Do you need more details or less? Can a reader imagine how the scene looked in their mind's eye?

Have you thought about all the senses: sight, sound, touch, smell and used them sparingly but appropriately to add to the moment?

How do you SHOW the emotion? What clues do you give as to the inner feelings that may be revealed? Are you telling too much instead of showing?

Have you heightened the drama enough? Where can you push the envelope?

Are you specific enough? Cadillac, not car... Pine, not tree.

Have you re-worked your piece enough: check for spelling, word repetition, sentence structure (change the rhythm for added punch), anecdotes vs. concrete detail, overall pace.

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Random Thoughts on Plot

Plot is based on causality
Without conflict there is no plot

WHY are the characters doing what they want to do?
To unfreeze a scene: WHAT IS MY MOST DIFFICULT CHARACTER'S TRUE MOTIVATION?
Character's fears and desires set events in motion

CLIMAX: Aristotle says it should ideally contain both reversal and recognition
Reversal is when events seemingly headed in one direction end up going in the opposite direction
Recognition is when the main character achieves an important self discovery
Sometimes recognition causes the reversal, sometimes the reversal causes the recognition

Playwright David Mamet says of plot: "Given a set of circumstances, what do you end up with? How is that inevitable? How is that surprising?"

San Francisco editor Tom Jenks says: "Revision of an instinctively written draft requires principles on which to decide not only what transformations should occur, but also how they may be achieved."

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Insights

First and foremost, WRITE. Don't waste too much time thinking or strategizing, just write as much as you can. Don't give up when your inner critic is whining in your ear telling you how boring and talentless you are. Believe in yourself.

Open yourself up to varied cultural experiences. Don't allow yourself to get stale. Look around you and notice details. Eavesdrop and listen to friend's stories. Take ideas and push them to the limit; don't be afraid to face your demons.

Write in your notebooks all the time. Preserve those nuggets, those ideas that hit you while you're in line at the Post Office, or brushing your cat's fur, or going running.

Even if you are writing from personal experience, do research. Call friends and acquaintances and grill them for details. Go to the library, look things up on-line. Make sure the details of your novel ring true. Do NOT be tempted to include all the facts, but use them to inform the development of plot, character and setting. Balance research with action and emotion.

Maintain Point-of-View strictly, do not wander from one character's head to another. If you choose to do this, do so consciously and for a specific purpose.

Use devices - such as flashbacks, eavesdropping, coincidence - sparingly, but don't be afraid to use them when needed.

NEVER use cliches. Be ruthless about culling them from your writing.

Remember that in any character, perfection is boring. Equally, a pure villain will not engage us as much as a villain with some small redeeming feature. Make your characters multi-faceted.

Don't skimp on the editing process. Submit mss that are perfectly presented, without grammatical errors, that have been thoroughly revised countless times.

Remember the idea of "nuggets," or telling detail. Use your powers of observation to pick out a key detail that has an impact.

Don't be afraid to use contacts to find an agent or get a professional read of your ms.

Be wary of sharing your material liberally with friends and family: they will be too intent on pleasing you, or will want to prove how intelligent they are by being harsh. Pick your readers carefully.

Read book reviews. Know what is being published and what is selling. Scour the papers for information on writing: author's signings, articles on the writing life. Read the New York Times Book Review (in the Sunday NYT) to figure out what critics like and what they hate. Reviews reveal a lot about how to structure a good novel, create memorable characters and engaging plots. Pay close attention to the elements that critics dislike and try to avoid making the same mistake. Go onto Amazon/B&N/online and search out books you admire, or the basic genre you are writing in, and read both the critics AND the average reader's comments.

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Brainstorming Names for Things

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Editing Tips

When editing your work you should look for specific problem areas:

Language:

Grammar and spelling are of utmost importance!
Are my verbs active rather than passive?
Are there words or phrases that I repeat too often?
Have I culled all the cliches?
Dialogue: have I read it out loud? Is it clear who is talking to whom? Do I have visual pointers (about the setting/characters) Do my characters sound different?
Are my metaphors strained? Do they make sense?
Have I varied my sentence structure enough in order to create a sense of rhythm? Do I start my sentences in different ways?
Have I gotten rid of weak adjectives and adverbs?
Are my tenses consistent?
Have I sprinkled background details (history/character descriptions/setting) throughout rather than in chunks

Storytelling:

Is the point of view (POV) the most effective? Do I stick carefully to one POV per scene?
Does my style fit the POV?
Do I make the mistake of telling instead of showing?
Does each scene/chapter have a purpose? Does it have a satisfying narrative arc? Do my chapters begin and end well?
Do I pace the tension with the quieter moments?
Are my key scenes as dramatic as they could be?
Are there areas of narrative summary that could be better written as scenes with dialogue or vice versa?
Do I foreshadow and prepare the reader cleverly for later events/climaxes/revelations?
Do I assume too much, or too little, of the reader?

Character development:

Have I differentiated my characters enough? Do I need a “character tag” to clearly etch a character in the reader's mind?
Is it clear, early on, what my protagonist wants?
Have a painted a good picture of my characters' physical traits?
Do I have enough secondary characters or too many?
Does my protagonist change and develop by the end of the story?

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Writing Ideas

Write one page scene set in either the 60's, 70's or 80's and without mentioning the date directly, put in enough period details that readers can figure out the era.

Create a dialogue between an old fashioned parent uncomfortable with sex, telling his/her 6-year old child the facts of life.

Dialogue between a hippie/ relaxed parent telling his/her 6-year old about the facts of life.

Take yourself to an unusual place: the emergency room of a hospital; the alleyway behind CVS; the parking lot in town; the back of the video store…. Observe for ten minutes, then speculate on the circumstances of those around you.

We carry our lives in our pockets and purses or kitchen drawers. Take a close look at the stuff you accumulate, and then describe a fictional character who might find interesting uses for each item.

Think of a person who guided and nurtured you at one point in your life. Now imagine that that person had a secret: what might it be?

Observe a stranger on the street or at work, then write a character description of that person, detailing not only their physical appearance, but what they do for a living, their characters and personalities and what they might do on an average day.

Leaf through an old magazine that you find in your home. Cut out a picture of a person that interests you. Write a short description of that person, giving them a bio. Create some dramatic event that happened to them in childhood and write about it.

Write about a recent conflict you've had with someone. Then write about that in the first person point of view from the other person's perspective.

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