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I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to stop reading in the middle of a chapter. Thus, I will often press on, even when I’m ready to quit. However, if the chapter is inordinately long, I may make an exception. Readers who often read in short sessions, perhaps while waiting for a bus or in the dentist’s office, are likely to appreciate short chapters. On the other hand, marathon readers may not mind those that go one for a substantial number of pages.

I think it’s a good general rule to maintain comfortable chapter lengths. If you find a chapter has multiple section breaks, maybe you should start a new chapter instead. Readers like myself prefer to stop at a chapter’s end. If it drags on and on, it can be frustrating.

This is not to say that ending a chapter with a cliffhanger is verboten. Quite the opposite, you want your reader to keep turning the pages. The trick is to find the sweet spot between them. If the chapters are relatively short, it’s more likely your reader will go ahead and plunge into the next one than if its length looms over their head like a major commitment.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Yesterday I mentioned how understanding what constitutes a point of view character can be difficult for a new writer to grasp. A story that has one primary protagonist often does well with the story being told through their eyes, whether it’s told in first person or third person.

Omniscient viewpoint gets into all the characters’s heads simultaneously. This can confuse the reader if not done skillfully. Before resorting to this, make sure it’s really necessary and the most effective before using it. If you need to get inside other characters’s heads to describe their motivation and/or show their contribution to the plot, this can be done with separate chapters and/or sections. That way the reader can keep it straight more easily.

One way to get a handle on describing what other characters are thinking or feeling is to pay attention to what you see on television, whether it’s a drama or a sit-com. Very few get into their actual thoughts through voice overs. However, unless the actors are entirely incompetent, their expressions and body language tell you exactly what’s going on in their head. The next time you watch your favorite show, think about how you would describe in words the various ways the actors portray the character’s emotions. This is what you want your reader to visualize, what they would see if your novel were a movie or TV show.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Another thing that can be a real challenge for new fiction writers is the concept of point of view. Even if you’ve read a thousand novels in your lifetime, until you start to write a story yourself there are certain things that don’t come naturally. One of them is point of view, which is the person who is telling the story, or through whose eyes it is being observed.

Consider point of view carefully. If you really want the reader to relate to your protagonist, the story should be told through their eyes, even if you’re using third person narrative and not first person. If you have a single viewpoint story, then your main character is the only person whose head you can get inside for their opinion or feelings. The opinion or feelings of anyone else can only be expressed through what the main character observes, i.e. their physical reaction.

 

Today’s Writing Tip

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For a story to stick with a reader, it has to have emotional impact. This can be one of the most difficult techniques to learn. In conversation, we will typically simply use an adverb but that usually won’t actually convey a sense of the emotion effectively.

Learn to render emotions as opposed to using a simple modifier. The best way to understand this technique is to think of the physical symptoms that accompany a given emotion. For example, compare the impact of “He fumed with anger” to “His eyes flashed daggers, fists tightening at his sides.” That will work whether or not its your viewpoint character. You’re simply noting what is observed.

If it’s your protagonist’s viewpoint, you can try something like: “His heart raced, fury surging through him like a fire storm.” This is more personal and wouldn’t be appropriate for a non-viewpoint character.

There are various books written on how to render emotion so that gives you some idea of what a challenge this can be. Yet it is a skill worth acquiring because when you make your reader feel something, they’re more likely to remember it and, by association, you as the author.

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One common mistake of inexperienced writers is to rely too much on prepositional phrases. This is not to say they should be avoided entirely, only that they should be scrutinized to decide if they’re needed or whether the sentence can be reworded to avoid them.

In many cases, they can be eliminated by making it possessive. For example, instead of saying “the trunk of the car” you could say “the car’s trunk.” Other times they’re redundant. For example “He strolled through the trees in the forest, enjoying the aroma of pine needles.” In this case, “in the forest” is most likely not needed if you’ve set up your scene already. Depending on the rest of the scene, “of pine needles” could be a candidate for deletion as well. Or, as noted earlier, make that “pine needles’s aroma”.

The main thing to remember is if anything is redundant, zap that sucker out of there!

Today’s Writing Tip

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As writers we all have our own style and part of that is our use of words. We all have our favorite, which we tend to overuse. One I have to watch out for in my writing is “massive.” I don’t know what I like that word so much, but it tends to be what comes to mind first.

Always check your manuscript for over-used words and phrases, not only your personal favorites but common phrases such as: so, just, in order to, therefore, however, or any of your personal favorites.

It’s also easy to fall in love with a newly discovered word, then use it so much it annoys your readers. Remember the “spice analogy” for big, $5 words: A pinch of cayenne may be just what your stew needs, but over-doing it is going to backfire and be more of a distraction than story “flavor enhancer.”

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I’ve mentioned this before with regard to your character’s occupation. This goes slightly beyond that to the entire story environment if all or even part of your story takes place in the military. Most of us know someone who has been in some branch of the military. Of course they all have their own personality and in some cases rank designation. For example, the lowest rank differs for all of them, though some, such as the Army and Air Force start to overlap as they go up the ranks. The Navy is different all around.

Make sure you use rank, terminology, and dialog correctly. Rank is easily checked online. Terminology is a bit more of a challenge and should be given a sanity check by someone who knows. Authenticity adds to the flavor and credibility of your story while missing the mark erodes your credibility as a writer.

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Creating characters that stand out can be a challenge. One way you can add color to your characters is by giving them a regional accent. This will automatically have an influence on their personality as readers will associate them with someone they already know from that locale. If they don’t, then they get to meet one through your character. How fun is that?

Capture their accent in writing by deliberately misspelling their dialog to reflect how it sounds phonetically. This is most easily done if you’re familiar with the accent. For example, I have lived in Texas for over thirty years, so I definitely know what someone from Texas sounds like, y’all!

If you really want to get into this, which also requires intimate knowledge of the region, you can add colloquialisms specific to the area. A few here in the Lone Star State include such things as “I was up all night like a tree full of owls” (insomnia) or “When he got home late, she was on him like white on rice” (chewed him out). These can often add some comic relief as well as further defining your character.

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Writers and would-be authors usually don’t have any trouble putting words down on paper. That does not mean that it can’t be improved, only that they have potential. No matter how much your Aunt Geraldine likes your stories or thinks you should be on the New York Times Best Seller list, chances are you have room for improvement.

Always strive to be the best writer you can be. Reading books by established authors published by well-known publishers usually (but not always) provides examples of outstanding writing and editing that you should emulate.

This is not to say that you can get there overnight. It takes years of study, practice, and coaching to perfect your style. Have confidence, but at the same time be humble enough to realize there is always, with few exceptions, room for improvement.

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I already mentioned this fairly recently, but it’s important enough to bear repeating. Understand there are several types of editors. Proofreaders look for typos. Copy editors look at punctuation and grammar. Line editors look at sentence structure and flow. Content editors look at plot & characterizations.

If you’re lucky enough to have a first-rate publisher, they are likely to provide all of these. If you’re an indie author, then it’s essential for you to understand these different roles. Just because you can come up with a clever story doesn’t mean it will be worth reading unless you can convey it effectively. The skills these types of editors represent can help make sure you do.

Of course it’s going to cost you. Thus, it will serve you well to educate yourself and become the best possible writer so as to minimize the help you require.

If you want more detail regarding the types of editors you can find it here.