SHOW SOME EMOTIONS, DAMN IT!

A good book is a one that allows you to connect with the characters. Most writers do this by getting their readers to feel what their characters are feeling in the moment. There are several ways to do this, including:

Body language

Inner thought

Physical reactions

Memories

Dialogue

Body language – This one is quite powerful. Body language allows you to show the reader how your character feels instead of telling them.  

He slammed his fist down on the table.  

Her shoulders stooped and her eyes fixed on the ground.

Inner thought – This one is a useful tool for getting across emotions quickly. 

How could they do this to him? He wanted to hit something.

She didn't dare look up at the king, for fear of losing her head.

Physical reactions – This helps to get the reader close to your characters. This is the physical reaction your character has to an emotion.

His blood heated, his muscles tense readying to fight.
Dread settled in the pit of her stomach and her mouth went dry.

Memories – If you've set up a scene earlier in the book that has a similar emotion, or something similar has happened to your character in the past, then you may be able to use it to convey the emotions in the scene you're writing.

He couldn't believe this was happening again. At least this time  he was prepared to fight.

The image of her friend's execution flashed in her head, she did not want to die like that. 

Dialogue – This is a quick way to show the reader how the characters are feeling. Be careful, however, not to be blatant. "I'm angry" or "I'm afraid" aren't very interesting, nor do they sound realistic.

"How could you do this to me?" he asked. "I should beat you black and blue." 
"Please, don't hurt me," she said. "I promise I'll behave."

Try combinations of the above, and don't rely too heavily on one method alone. The main thing is to avoid telling your reader the exact emotion your characters are feeling. Instead, show them in any way you can think of. You'll find people will connect with your characters more and want to keep reading.

What's In A Name?

Ever struggled to come up with a title for your novel? Try this brainstorming technique.

Write down all the words you can think of that describe your book. As an example, imagine a fantasy book about a war against demons. Some words might include: swords, war, demons, shields, fighting, tragedy, betrayal, blood, magic, warriors, honour, intolerance, love, hatred etc...

Make your words as strong and emotive as you can. It doesn't matter if they conflict (it's better that they do), as long as they represent your story.

The next step is to combine two or more of the words. Some combinations will be silly: Magic Intolerance, Hatred Demon Shield. But then some will make more sense: Blood Betrayal, The Demon Shield, The Swords of War...

Try as many combinations as you can think of until you find the one that fits your story best. Remember, you want your title to be strong, and to be representative of what your story is about. There's no point coming up with a title like, Demon Blood, if demon blood isn't important to the story.

Your title has to stand out enough so that people will want to pick your book up from the shelf instead of the one next to it.

THE DARKEST OF MINDS

Some time ago, I created a character who was extremely disturbed, extremely violent, extremely narcissistic and completely delusional. Sounds like a charmer, right? I gave my story to one of my readers and the feedback was that they didn't like my character, who I'll call Dark, and didn't want to read Dark's scenes.

I was disheartened by this. After all, isn't it a writer's job to make their characters connectable to the reader, whether the character is good or bad? Yes. Unfortunately, there was nothing about Dark that was redeeming, nothing nice, nothing that the everyday person could relate to. Dark was a wretched human being. It did, however, make me as the question: how does one go about making bad character likeable?

A good friend once said, they need to be interesting. Great advice. People want to be able to understand your characters and feel they know them. They want to have something that connects them to the antagonist, even if he/she is a beastly demon bent on destroying mankind. Give them a back story and a reason why they do what they do. It may that they were just born that way, like the human killing demon. To make our demon interesting, they may,  in contrast to their desire to kill humans, also find humans fascinating. Or they may enjoy reading books.

Another suggestion is find something normal about your antagonist. If they're experiences are too far removed from the reader's, the reader may not connect. Our demon likes to be well groomed and picks food from his teeth to keep them clean.

The stereotypical bad guy who only does bad things leaves your antagonist two dimensional. Remember, your antagonists have families and friends and people (or demons) they see every day.

It helps to go back through your character's childhood. Were they always bad? Did something happen in their life to make them bad? I believe both nature and nurture can play a role in why someone might do bad things, so you're evil characters don't always have to have come from an abusive home. Dark was from a very normal, happy family. He was simply a born psychopath.

Find the things that are dear to your antagonist's heart. What is it they care about? Besides killing, do they have any passions? Do they have any favourite things/possessions? Do they have morals? Do they have a sense of humour?

We often label bad people as monsters. My advice is to keep delving into what makes your evil character tick until you find that one thing that allows you see them (even the demons) as human.

WRITER'S BLOCK

So you think you might have writer's block. You can't start that story, or are stuck in the middle of one, or struggling to finish.

We've all heard the term writer's block, but what does that actually mean? For me, it's just a nice way of saying, "I've got no frickin' idea what I'm trying to say or where my story is going."

If you're having trouble starting a book and can't write, it usually means you having spent enough time getting to know your story, and/or your characters. You may need to do some more Preproduction. If you're stuck in the middle, then you've possibly come up against a situation where you don't know how your characters would react. Stuck at the end, obviously means you don't know how your story should end, which again comes back to not knowing how your characters will react.

The best way to get the creative juices flowing is to brainstorm. What I do when I'm stuck is open up a new word doc (you could use a notebook if you prefer to hand-write) title it Problems, and then ask myself lots of questions.

What is the consequence if my character does this....?
My characters need to be here, how can I get them there logically?
Why would my character save the world, when she wants to go to the pub?
What motivates my characters?
What are my characters' worst fears? How can I use that in the story?
Where do I want my characters to be emotionally/physically at the end of the book?

Tailor your questions to the problems your facing in your story. In fantasy, problems can also arise with magic and world building.

What are the rules that magic must adhere to?
Are these rules made by civilisation or physics/nature?
Is having magic a good thing, or a bad thing?
Does having magic make you powerful, or are you shunned?
What is the social structure of the world?
Where do my characters sit in this social structure?
Is the world modern, medieval, ancient, or futuristic?

I find it also helps to look into your characters' pasts. Write up a summary of their life's story.

How did/do they relate to their parents?

Do they have sibling?

Was their childhood a happy or horrible experience?

Most of this information won't end up in your novel, but it can help to understand how your characters will react in different situations. It also helps to know if your characters are proactive or reactive. A proactive character goes out and finds trouble, while a reactive character waits for trouble to come to them. See my blog on Is the World Inherently Lazy for ways to get reactive characters out of their chairs and up saving the world.

So, next time you get stuck go into brainstorming mode and you'll soon find yourself untangling the problem-knots that have been keeping you from progressing in your story.

STAYING MOTIVATED

I don't mean to rub it in when I say that keeping myself motivated to write is not usually a struggle. For me, writing is a bit like breathing; I need to do it to survive. That's not to say I don't have my moments when the words aren't flowing and everything I write is crap. For new writers, it can be difficult to know where to start. For those already writing, sometimes being unable to write is an indication that you need to take a break. However, if you're break has been long enough that it's almost a break-up, here are some tips I've picked up over the years that might be useful to get you writing again.  

Writing groups – find a group, or start one yourself with like minded people, where you can critique each other's work, talk about story ideas, grammar, characters, plot, and other general writing topics. Regular meetings and emails are a great way to keep you inspired, and sometimes it's easier to be accountable to someone else than just yourself.

Writing/critiquing partner – this is like a group, but on a smaller scale. You can spend more time discussing your individual story ideas in one on one situation than you can in a group. It can be invaluable to have at least one person who knows your work as well as you, to help you unravel knots in your story. And vice versa.

Social writing – try getting together with other writing friends and have timed writing sessions in between socialising. You can set writing tasks, or work on your own stories, and then afterwards spend time reading or discussing what you wrote. This is great a way to make yourself write, because everyone else is writing too.

Soak up the creativity of others – by this I mean read a book, watch a movie, listen to music, visit an art gallery. Do something to help get the creativity flowing. Be careful not to use this as a distraction to keep from writing. My suggestion is to tailor your activity around your story. For example, you're writing about dragons find books and images about dragons, go to the museum and study dinosaur bones (I've heard they were related), find music that makes you soar, and so on...

Change your environment – is your house or writing space uninspiring? Charge up your laptop and take it to a park, or the library, or a coffee shop, or anywhere that makes you feel creative (the pub!). If you don't have a laptop (or prefer working on a desktop), surround yourself with inspiring images, changing them regularly if you need to.

Change your style – if you're struggling to write a piece, maybe you're writing in the wrong style or genre. Or maybe you need a break from the style in which you've been writing. If you write in third person, change to first. If you write fantasy try horror or historical romance. Write only novels? Try short stories or poetry.  

Pen and paper – sometimes putting the computer away and going back to basics can help change your thought process.  For many of you reading this post, handwriting has been your friend longer than typing. You have to use different muscles in your hand, and I've read that it's good for your brain. Almost all of the books I've written have an accompanying exercise-book in which I brainstorm and draw maps (badly) and come up with character names. 

 

Write – my last tip may sound counter-intuitive. You're trying to find ways to help you write, right? I've found that starting can be like pushing a boulder up a hill. Momentum is very important when it comes to being creative. When you stop, you lose momentum and the boulder slips down the hill. The longer you leave it the harder it gets to stand back up and push that boulder. But the only way to get the boulder up that hill is to start pushing. It's going to be painful at first and you may think every word you write is crap, but the longer you write the more you increase your momentum and the easier it gets.  

Good luck, and please feel free to share any tips you may have for keeping yourself motivated.