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2023 SavvyAuthors Workshop Lineup

03 Tuesday Jan 2023

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I am extremely honored and excited to work with SavvyAuthors for the third year running! This year, I have 6 exciting workshops that I’ll be hosting with them. There will be more informaiton and links to each as we get closer to their starting date.

January 9-January 15 “Teens Say the Damndest Things”

Capturing the voice of characters is difficult on its own, but it’s even harder when you’re writing for a different generation. Writing Young Adult works allows us to connect to our younger selves and relive the aches and pains of growing up. But what we said (and even did) as young adults isn’t always in tune with what actual young adults do today. After all, many people in older generations never would have dreamed of cursing, and now teens do it all the time. Writing in the voice of a YA character means taking the time to learn how they speak, and not just in choice of words. This workshop will explore the voice of teen and young adult characters, including dialect, vernacular, and all things rhetoric (like code switching).

Link to Register

March 6-March 12 “The Mystery of Setting”

It’s no unknown fact that setting can be its own character. Many books, movies, and other forms of entertainment have used the setting to create both emotion and movement in a plot. But creating the character of your setting isn’t always easy, and the genre you’re writing in can greatly affect how your setting plays out. When crafting a mystery, you can use the setting to mirror character actions and set the perfect tone for your carefully crafted case. This workshop will explore how setting is used in mystery stories and why it’s so effective.

Link to Register

May 29-June 4 “Meet-Cute Your Romance Trope”

Tropes and cliches are useful tools you can use to help craft your story. But you can also break them to create a fresh breath of air in an otherwise stale plot. The romance genre has one of the most extensive lists of tropes around, and a collective of readers ready to defend them with everything they’ve got. In this workshop, we’ll explore the main romance tropes around and how you can use them in your story. We’ll also examine ways you can steer away from tropes and cliches without upsetting fans too much.

July 31-August 6 “Know as You Go”

Being a panster isn’t always easy. But if planning everything ahead of time isn’t your thing, then you’ll need to put methods in place to help you stay organized while you write. While you don’t need to plan your plot and characters out before you get started, you do need to keep track of characters, information, and plot points as you go. Even if you are a planner, having a good, working organization system you can edit as you go can help speed the writing process along. This workshop will help you create an effective record-keeping method that works for you.

September 18-October 8 “Comprehensive Worldbuilding – The Whole World View”

Throughout this 3-week workshop, writers will learn the ins and outs of worldbuilding and how to properly integrate information into their story.

Week one will focus on macro-worldbuilding: how the world is shaped, what political powers are in play, and how religion and technology appear in the world.

Week two will focus on micro-worldbuilding: how culture develops within different parts of the world, what sorts of economic policies are around, and how certain historical events have impacted the modern world.

Week three will focus on how to use this world building knowledge to better serve your plot, characters, and overall writing.

By the end of this workshop, writers should have a well-developed world to create in, or at least have the tools and knowledge to build one in the future.

November 27-December 3 “Bury the Lead: Effective Ways to Hide Clues Without Hiding Them”

Learn how to create a fictional case that readers won’t be able to solve!

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Receiving Constructive Criticism

30 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Musings

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Can you handle a little constructive criticism? How about a lot? How about so much that all you do is sit in a room and say nothing while everyone else talks about your work? If so, then congratulations, you have successfully mastered the skill of receiving constructive criticism (and would, or have, survived a college-level workshop). If not, then don’t worry. Just like giving constructive criticism is a skill that takes time and practice to learn, so too is receiving it. 

If receiving any kind of criticism is hard for you, know you are not alone. We’re all human, and we all want to be good at what we do. The great thing about art is that you’re good at it simply by doing it. The essence of art is in the creation. If you created something, you did good art. Now, of course, art as we understand it also has “rules”. I.E. If you’re writing in Iambic Pentameter, then all your lines should be in Iambic Pentameter. How you react to someone pointing out that a line isn’t in Iambic Pentameter is what’s important, as well how you turn that point out into a positive change in your work.

Hopefully the kind of feedback you get on your work follows the guidelines I set up for giving constructive criticism in my last post. If not, these points can still be helpful, and I hope you’ll use them to find some positive outcomes from negative feedback.

Opinion VS Trend VS Fact: Gather all the fact

When it comes to receiving constructive criticism, the key ingredient is receiving a lot of it. It may sound scary, and that’s fair. It’s a lot easier to imagine being told what doesn’t work about your art from one person you trust than from a bunch of people (trusted or not). But at the end of the day, art is subjective. Even if you’re writing poetry in a specific rhythm, the one line where you don’t follow the rhythm could be a statement, and it could land well with some and not so well with others. The more feedback you receive, the easier a time you’ll have sorting out the difference between opinions, trends, and facts. And thus, the easier a time you’ll have improving your work to something more spectacular. 

So, what is the difference between an opinion, a trend, and a fact? 

Let’s start with the easy one: fact. A fact is something that relates to those “rules” art has. The one line in your Iambic Pentameter poem that doesn’t fit the rhythm. The horizon that falls above the proper ‘rules of third’ line in a photo. The one brushstroke that goes in the opposite direction of the others in a painting. Breaking these “rules” is a technique in and of itself. But if it’s not something you intended to do, and if it doesn’t add to the work overall, then it’s a fact that needs to be changed. Otherwise, it’s a fact that proves a point.

Now, opinion and trend are sort of the same thing. They’re both subjective. You write a story with a character that hates grapes but loves grape juice. You paint a monochromatic painting with just one object off in a different color. You create an abstract sculpture that curves in weird and unusual ways. You did all of these for a specific reason, none of them breaking any “rules” (or at least breaking them to make a point). You ask that one person you trust what they think about it. They don’t like it. Do you change everything you made because one person doesn’t like it? How do you know if that’s just their opinion or if the oddity is really detracting from the rest of the work?

You gather a lot of data, that’s how.

You should have as many people critique your work as you can get if you’re truly interested in improving it. (Art does not, by nature, need to be improved. If you’re happy with it, you’re happy with it. Only seek critique if you desire it). The more people you get feedback from, the more data you’ll have to sort through, and the more obvious the answers to your questions become. 

If only a few people point something out, then they just share that opinion. If more than half of the responders point something out, it’s a trend, and you’ll want to look back at it and consider if it’s worth altering.

It’s important to know the difference between trend and opinion. Everyone who views your work will have a different opinion. And I guarantee you that at least one person somewhere (but most likely more) will not like something about it. But that’s their opinion. And if you changed every little thing, to match every person’s opinion, you’d never be finished, and you’d be going back and forth between options for all of eternity. 

It’s not you, it’s your work.

Receiving critique can be especially hard if you also battle with rejection sensitivity. Even if you don’t, it’s still difficult to hear what seems off in something you did. I’m a subscriber to the notion that people want to be good at what they do. So, when something crops up that challenges your work, it’s easy to take it personally.

Not taking something personally is easier said than done, I know. 

But if you think about constructive criticism in the right frame of mind, then it’s easier than you’d think. 

Hopefully whoever is giving you feedback is well versed in the skill of it. Getting feedback from a quality source is the first step, as the overall set-up for constructive criticism is based around solid ideas that relate to your work, not your person. If not, these tips will still help keep you centered as you prepare to go into the lion’s den.

  • Remember you want to get better. 

Chances are, you’ve gone seeking constructive criticism for your work. Theoretically, this means you are seeking feedback that will help improve the quality of what you did/made. If your reasoning for asking for constructive criticism was not that (such as simply wanting to share something you made or fishing for compliments) then I suggest you first rephrase your request. 

If you are genuinely looking to improve, just keep that in the back of your mind as you read (or hear) what everyone has to say. They are there to help you. They are there to help your work. They are there to make things better. 

  • Take a hot minute

Never respond to critique right away. Just don’t do it. The brain’s natural first response to a critique is going to be bad, no matter how good you are at receiving it. You will most likely want to argue against some things, or go off on something else. This is okay. This is normal. But this is not what should be used to handle revisions. Because then nothing will change. 

Before you respond to feedback or start working on changing things, take a step away, do some deep breathing, distract yourself with something else for a little while. When you do come back to it, your head will be in a better space. You will be removed from your brain’s initial response mode and will be able to see what really does need arguing, and what was rightfully said that your brain just didn’t want to admit at the start. And being in a calmer state of mind will also help keep your conversations with your critiquers civil, thus preserving that relationship.

  • Separate the art from the artist

Yes, that means you from your work. Another thing that’s easier said than done. It seems impossible to create a work of art and not put a bit of your heart and soul into it. That’s the point of art. But it’s important to recognize that that little piece of your heart and soul is not you. It’s a tiny, microscopic part of you that broke off and grew into its own being. If it grew a little funky or lopsided, that doesn’t mean the piece of you was wrong, that’s just how it grew. 

Another way to look at it is that your art is a reflection of you, but the critique is in the building of the mirror. If the image is distorted, that’s because the glass is off. You aren’t distorted. A critique on your work is about the craft. Not the idea. Not the passion. Not the creativity. But the process. Art is a skill that is always growing. And you can only learn what’s best, by learning what isn’t.

You are never done growing, but you will slow down.

The last piece of wisdom I leave you with is simple. Art is a skill that is always growing, and you will never be done growing. You can make art for 100 years, and read every craft book, and study every classic, and still have something to learn. What’s important to keep in mind, especially for newer artists, is that the learning curve does level off, it just doesn’t stop. 

You will learn a lot when you start off. Your constructive criticism could be pages long of all the things that need work. It will be daunting. But you will reach a point where you’ve learned more and practiced more and have become skilled. 

And for the veteran artists out there, reality check: There will always be something you don’t know. There will always be a way something could have been done better. Your art will never be perfect. Someone will always have a critique. And with enough practice, you’ll take it like a pro.

Giving Constructive Criticism

19 Sunday Sep 2021

Posted by in Writing Musings

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I have seen a lot of criticism in my days. And not all of it is constructive. Criticism is simply the expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes. But the expression of that criticism, and the goal in expressing it, varies. Criticism given without the intent or delivery to help, is not constructive. There’s a notion going around that if someone responds negatively to criticism they just ‘can’t handle a little constructive criticism’. If you criticize something someone does and they take it ‘badly’, consider that maybe you’re not being as constructive as you think. 

But that’s alright. Giving constructive criticism is a skill. And like any skill it’s something that needs to be taught, practiced, and grown. In an attempt to help bridge the gap between the criticizers and criticizees (yes I know that’s not a real word), I would like to run you through the basics of how to turn criticism into constructive feedback. 

Rule One: Only Offer When Asked

This, obviously, does not apply to things such as a job. If you are a boss, and your employee does something incorrect, you need to step in and fix it, regardless of if they want to know about it. (They probably do, you’d be surprised, as most people like to do their best work). For art, however, not everyone putting something out into the world is asking for critique.

Sometimes, as often happens, you just make something kinda cool or fun and just want to show it off. Like when a kid draws a stick-figure version of their family. They aren’t asking for their parents to sit them down and go over proper proportions and color theory. No, they want their parents to say “Hey, you made something, and that on it’s own is pretty neat,” and then stick that drawing right up there on the fridge. Art is a skill that needs time and practice to grow. You may now know someone’s skill level. They may just be at the point where they want you to say “Hey, you made a thing, and that’s cool!”

The act of sitting down and making anything is, by nature, pretty dang awesome. So unless someone has shown you something and specifically asked for honest, critique-like feedback, just be in awe by the very fact that they sat down and devoted the time to making something that didn’t exist before. This person has made themself vulnerable by sharing their art with you. And that alone is quite the accomplishment. 

Rule Two: Start With the Good

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is ever without an inherent goodness. Art, work, relationships, everything has a positive outlook to it. I’m reminded of an episode of Friends, where Joey’s character was in a pretty lack-luster T.V. show. After watching the pilot, the rest of the characters sit around trying to dool out what small compliments they can muster: It had good lighting, the costumes were good, oh, the marvels of modern technology. Although small and seemingly non-relative to the overall ‘goodness’ of the show, there’s still a goodness to be found. 

If you can’t find something to compliment someone on for a task or piece of art, then you may not be looking hard enough. A worker comes to you and says they messed up placing an order? “Thank you for coming to me first instead of trying to fix it on your own or letting it go unnoticed. I appreciate your honesty and willingness to admit your mistakes”. A child’s stick-figure drawing of their family? “I can tell you really care about your family because you spent the time to specifically pick out their favorite color for each of them and that shows a real awareness of what they like”. A friend calls you ten minutes before you were supposed to meet to cancel your outing? “Thank you for calling me instead of just sending a text or not even contacting me at all. I know you’re busy and I appreciate you letting me know”.

There’s a good spin to everything, and finding it and explaining it helps the critique go well. A spoonful of sugar and all that…

Why before and not after?

You may be wondering why you wouldn’t want to start with the bad and end on a good note. Get the bad news out of the way and then you can go off listening to the good. I don’t know what it is about the human brain but good news and bad news don’t hold the same lasting effects.

For whatever evolutionary advantage it brought about, the mind tends to linger on the bad more than the good. And, worse yet, being in a state of bad-lingering makes it harder to see anything good. 

If you spend ten minutes telling someone everything that didn’t work in their piece and then end with ‘hey but your use of rhyming was cool’. They probably didn’t even hear that last part. They’re too busy obsessing over everything else. 

However, if you start with ‘first of all, I love how you used rhyming in this’, and then went into what needed some work, the person is going to remember how you liked their rhyming. They may even use that to help work on the rest of the issues. And, they’ll have been so happy that you liked their rhyming, they might not take as big a hit from the rest of what you said. 

So, please, start with the good.

Rule Three: Change Your Language

No, I don’t mean start speaking Russian or Cantonese, (unless you already speak Russian or Cantonese, in which case don’t start speaking French or Italian). I mean re-frame your state of mind, and the state of mind in the person you are critiquing, by changing certain words you use. You’ll notice I have yet to use the word “wrong” in this posting. I used incorrect. Inaccurate. Lack-luster. But never wrong. Never bad. 

Because good and bad are subjective. And critique needs to have an objective tone to it. An objective style helps battle RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria). By removing your subjective indications, you tell the artist/worker/etc. that this isn’t personal. Granted, it’s hard to talk about certain things, especially art, without some kind of subjective opinion. But the overall tone should be factual-based.

Re-shaping how you say certain things plays a good note in the human mind. You can think ‘it’s bad, horrible, awful’ all you want. But don’t say that. Think first, and ask yourself how hearing what you would say would make you feel.

Here’s a handy list of some common critique languages and their less-intense counterparts:

This is bad  –  This doesn’t have the same weight and effect as the rest of the piece

This is wrong  –  This part could use a little work

You’re bad  –  You’re still learning

I don’t like this – I find this bit a little jarring

This is too *insert adjective here* – This area is a little heavy handed, maybe some subtlety would serve it better

This is stupid – This doesn’t stand up to your usual quality of work

Here’s how you should do it – May I show you a different way that might work better?

The argument for sugar coating:

You catch more flies with honey.

But in all honesty, Mary Poppins was right. A spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down. You can ‘tough-love’ it out all you want, but not everyone reacts well to that. In fact, I’m not sure how many do react well to tough-love, but I’m betting it’s a little lower than you’d think. I’ve come to notice that a lot of people who claim that tough-love toughens a person up, are actually really bad at receiving criticism themselves (be it constructive or not). Now, I’m no psychologist, but I’m betting it’s some kind of cycle. Everyone was hard on me so I’ll be hard on everyone…

Now, I use the term ‘sugar coating’ here because I can guess some people (who made it past the first section without quitting outright) might look at this list and say something about special snowflakes. But it’s hardly a secret that being in the right frame of mind makes learning something a lot easier. It’s why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Being well-fed, well-rested, and generally well taken care of eases your day. 

And the same is true for receiving constructive criticism. If you tell me something is bad, I will feel bad, and I will not be in the right state of mind to learn what is good. But if you tell me something is good and just needs a little work to be better, I’m all ears. I’m eager. I want to learn, and I want to be better. 

And that’s the ticket.

People want to be better. Everyone wants to do their best, and the closer they are (or, importantly, think they are) the harder they will work to reach that better goal. But if they think they’re already bad or wrong, their motivation lessens. They see a longer stretch of road before them and sometimes they just don’t have the strength or energy to deal with all that. 

So shorten that road and help them along.

Rule Four: For the Love of All That is Holy, Please Be Specific and Give Examples

Imagine this: You are tasked with building a lego house. You are given a pile of bricks and set about your business. You build a truly awesome house. It took you hours. You are really proud of that house. 

Then the person you told you to build that house comes along, says, “No, that’s not right, fix it,” and then walks away.

Fix what? How?

If you are going to criticize someone, you should be ready and willing to offer advice on how to be better.

Let me repeat that, just in case you skimmed over it.

If you are going to criticize someone, you should be ready and willing to offer advice on how to be better.

Critique, by nature, implies that the critic knows what they are talking about, one way or another. Maybe they spent years in school learning how to be a manager. Maybe they’ve published seven best selling novels. Maybe they’ve just watched a lot of movies and interacted with other viewers to see what was ‘good’ and ‘bad’. For whatever reason, a critic has some factor of authority on the matter at hand. Therefore, if you feel you are in the position to offer constructive criticism, then you should know why the things you’re pointing out don’t work and ideas on how to fix them up.

The flip side to this is if you are not actually in a position to be properly critiquing something, but the person who made that thing or did that job is asking for your feedback. In this case it’s even more important that you offer some kind of advice with your comments. Harder, of course, because you may not know the answers. But you should at least be able to vocalize why something doesn’t feel right or fit. For example: you may not have the poetic knowledge to understand that every other line of a poem is written in iambic pentameter but one line isn’t. But you do know something is off about it. The rhythm doesn’t flow. You can pinpoint. And all good constructive criticism pinpoints. 

This act of specifics and advice goes back to the concept of humans wanting to do better. You really wanted to build a good lego house. You really wanted to impress that person and knock their socks off with how cool it was! But they didn’t think it was cool. And you have no idea why. You’re lost, and each time you try to fix the house they keep saying ‘it’s wrong’. How many times do you try before you give up?

Now imagine that person comes back after that first house building. They say, “This is a cool house, but I need that lego house to have a pointed roof, not a flat one.” How many tries would it have taken you to figure that out? But now, you know. You can build that roof they wanted and finish the task with a job well done. 

Apply that policy to any piece of art or job that needs to be done. No one can read your mind. No one can read the mind of art. (And if we could, I guarantee you it would be scary in there). Everyone needs a little direction or, at the very least, a little indication. If an employee fills out a form wrong, show them how to fill it out right. If someone shows you a painting that feels off-balance, point out where in the composition things are askew. If your roommate keeps putting the dishes away in the wrong spot, show them where the right spot is (or get together and decide as a team where things should go). 

Pinpoint, explain, advise. 

Giving good constructive criticism is hard, and it takes a great deal of time and effort if you’re going to do it correctly. But doing it correctly is the number one way to make sure it is well received and, in the end, helps the person you’re critiquing. And if your goal in criticizing someone isn’t to help them improve, then I suggest you don’t criticize them at all.

It can take a while before you naturally start to get the flow of giving constructive criticism, but keep at it and soon you’ll find that it comes easily. 

Remember this, most of all:
Constructive criticism should be more constructive than criticism. If your feedback doesn’t pave a proper path for improvement, then it’s not constructive enough. Re-frame your language and point out specifics with advice on moving forward.

New Article and Workshop!

23 Sunday Aug 2020

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Check out my article ‘Endings: Bitter, Sweet, and Everything Inbetween’ on SavvyAuthors!
https://savvyauthors.com/endings-bitter-sweet-and-everything-in-between-by-anna-denisch/

And there’s only a few spots left in my workshop ‘From Premise to Plot’
https://savvyauthors.com/community/classes/from-premise-to-plot-with-anna-denisch.1473/

Hope to see you all there!

Living in the Subjective World, or: How to Deal with Rejection

11 Wednesday Mar 2020

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Today I participated in Pitmad on Twitter. By the time I publish this post, it’ll be long over, but it really got me thinking about something. One of the struggles with being a writer and going the traditional publishing route is that the whole business is subjective. 

Now, let me preface this by getting a little depressive. 

A long time ago, nearly two years, I had my first manuscript finished. It was cleaned, edited, it had passed and gave me my M.F.A. I took it to a conference I was going to with my friend. We only went to this conference specifically because they were holding agent and editor meetings, where you had five minutes to pitch and talk about your book to up to 3 agents or editors. 

I struck out with the first two cause my book didn’t feature a lot of romance (and of the agents and editors in attendance, about 90% were romance people). But the third one got interesting. The third one hit me with that ‘go ahead and send the full manuscript over, this sounds really interesting’. 


And for those of you not in the business or who are just starting out, that’s a pretty big deal. Rarely does a meeting like this end with a full manuscript request. I remember rushing out of the room and immediately going to my laptop and sending it off. 

After the eons of waiting it takes for anything to happen in this industry, I got the reply. You can probably tell it wasn’t going to be a good one. But it was worse than that. It was a fill-in-the-blank, enter-name-here kind of rejection. I figured, hey, if they wanted the whole manuscript, they might have had something to say about it. 

But no.

Was I going to let that stop me? 

Okay, maybe briefly, but I got back up again.

(Insert long interlude featuring a not-to-be-named agent who ghosted me)

For the last four or so months, I’ve been sending this book and two others out to anyone who would even remotely be interested in their genres/concepts. I’m going to make a chart of the responses so far. It’s fun, trust me.

That’s a total of 27 queries. Well, there were 28, actually. But this one response was so unique it couldn’t possibly fit into any other category. (As it turns out, it is possible to start a story too close to the start).

For a little clarification, Response limbo are queries that I haven’t heard back from that either didn’t have a ‘if you don’t hear from us by’ date, or just haven’t reached it yet. 

I highly encourage everyone to keep a record of the response times and reasons for rejections. On the one hand, it gives you something to do while you’re waiting/working on the next manuscript. It also provides amazing insight. 

For example, I have gotten six responses that were along the lines of: I didn’t connect/like this story as I had hopped. Which got me down to thinking that I’ve maybe got a good idea for something here but my writing is just terrible.

(That’s a fun rabbit hole to go down, I don’t suggest it).

But this chart here shows that that kind of response isn’t even a full quarter of the responses! (22.22% for those wondering). 

Now I’m not going to go on a rant about how I don’t think it should be all that hard to send a simple rejection back. (I’ll save that for later). But I do want to get back on track, finally, and look at those 10, Not Fit for List responses.

THE PUBLISHING WORLD IS SUBJECTIVE. AND THAT’S REALLY TERRIBLE.

Okay, got that out of my system. 

What do I mean by the publishing world is subjective? Well, it should come as no surprise to fellow veterans of the pitch wars that agents and editors both feel the need to fall in love with a book. Which is totally valid. 

They need to love the book so they can get the urgency to promote and sell it. You want them to love your book. You need them to love your book so they’ll do all they can to get it out into the hands of other people who will love your book. (And pay you for it, of course).

So yeah, it makes sense that an agent is going to look at your query, think, “okay this is kind of interesting I see where they’re going with this, but, eh, not my cup of tea.”

This doesn’t mean they don’t think your book can sell. This doesn’t mean they don’t see an audience for it. It just means that they aren’t the audience for it. Which is why:

IT’S REALLY TERRIBLE.

Alright, I lied. I had more yelling in me.

The thing is, there’s this connection in your brain that starts to happen as you get rejections over and over again. You think your writing isn’t good. You think your idea is crap. You think there’s no one out there in the world who will ever read your book because agents and editors are supposed to know the market and if no one is taking your book than clearly there’s no market. 

Listen, our brains aren’t stupid. They may be dumb but they’re usually logical. And with all the stuff you hear from everywhere about agents and what not, it’s easy to see how they got to this conclusion. (I wrote it down in the paragraph above in case you missed it).

So that leaves us with a precarious problem. What do you do when you keep getting rejected and you want to scream and/or give up?

Here’s what!

Get a grip, first of all. Start keeping that log of the amount of time a response took and why it was rejected. Go through old emails and query tracker responses to check. Make a chart or graph. Study it. Learn from it. Discover your common response. (And make note of the fun, unique ones).

You’ll probably see that a certain response or type of response isn’t as big a deal as you thought. 

Secondly, remember this phrase. Don’t worry, I won’t shout it this time.

The publishing world is subjective and that’s really terrible.

Say it to yourself. Make it a mantra if that’s your jam. Write it on a post-it and stick it on your monitor. 

Third: Do some math. Pick a popular book. The book you hold in your hands at night weeping over because you’ll ‘never be that great’ and you wished you had written it instead. I’m going to use Harry Potter because, well, it’s Harry Potter.

Some quick, possibly factual google searches later…

The last major milestone that the series, as a whole, hit was 500 million copies in 2018. Keep in mind, that’s over a 20 year span, covering 7 books, and includes the rise of fame via a movie deal.

Let’s math it up. Not every book sold the same amount, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s say they did. That rounds down to 71 million copies sold per book. 

Sounds like a lot huh. That’s a lot of people who have read that book, huh?

But really, lets look at the bigger picture. There’s 7. whatever billion people living in the world. But you’re right, you’re right. Not all of them read, and not all of them can afford books. So let’s say, for this example, that we’re only going to look at people in the developed world and we’re going to pretend they’re all adults capable of reading. 

If you believe everything I read on the internet, there’s about 1.16 billion people who fit that bill.

More math. Isn’t it fun.

Divide the 1.16 billion people who live in this section of our world by the copies of books sold. Yes, I know some books were probably shared among people and we can’t account for library reads, but who said math had to be precise?

It’s 16. 

So, theoretically, the audience for Harry Potter is 1 out of every 16 people. And that’s for a cultural phenomena with a movie deal and 20 years backing it. 

I’ve sent out 28 queries. If I was querying Harry Potter as it’s known now, I’d still have only, theoretically, gotten 1 response. (And that’s 28 spread out among three books, keep in mind.) 

Do you see what I’m getting at here?

For every person that does own a singular Harry Potter book, there’s 15 that don’t. 

So do the math. Find out your favorite books percentage. See how big their audience actually is. Realize that yours is going to be smaller, especially at the start. 

(This can also be accomplished by trying to find out how many times your favorite book was rejected. Harry Potter’s was 12, which is only four off our statistical estimate. It also means my most queried book is only one away from the magic number).

The last, and final step.

Now that you’re tired from all the math, do some research. On self-published authors.

And I don’t mean get discouraged and go look up how to do it yourself. I mean go find them and read their blogs or tweets. Heck, you can even try to reach out to them for an interview. Find out why they self-published. Discover what kinds of rejections they got. Realize that they’re selling copies like hotcakes because, and here’s the kicker: there’s a market for everyone and everything. 

Yes, even your book with it’s X number of rejections. Yes, even my book with its interesting concept but terrible execution. (I may still be stuck in the rabbit hole. Toss down a rope, would ya?)

The point of this constant rambling is: don’t lose hope. Keep up the good fight. You just gotta find the one agent that is part of your audience, and then you’ll get to watch it spread. (Or be your own audience and self-publish and inflict your greatness upon the world. Either way works).

From Premise to Plot: What to do When ‘Stuff Happens’

22 Saturday Feb 2020

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Here’s the problem. You came up with a really great premise for a story. You have a kick-ass opening that sets up an amazing world and fantastic characters. You might even know exactly how it’s going to end. You get right to work. But then you hit that section of your planning that just says ‘stuff happens’. You can’t figure out what stuff happens. Your story never gets finished. 

It’s a common issue. The middle of a book is often the hardest part. You want to keep readers interested and attentive, or else they’re going to leave your book unread. There’s a lot of pressure there. But figuring out how to fill in the holes isn’t all that daunting of a task. And it can work for both plot-centric and character-centric stories. Here are two sample premises to walk us through the process.

Scenario A: The hero of a kingdom returns from war. In a celebratory parade, they publicly assassinate the king. A scullery maid overhears that the hero killed the king to stop him from betraying their neighboring kingdom and attacking them unprompted. The hero is put to death, and it’s up to the maid to stop the new king from finishing the job the old king started.

Scenario B: A 30 year old office worker is in a happy relationship, and feels like a proposal is coming up. She goes to a party, only to find that her boyfriend is making out with someone else. They break up, and she has to navigate the remains of her life.

Needs and wants

The first step in creating your middle is recognizing what your character needs and wants. 

Often your character only has one need. This is the main plot you’re working with. It’s what you hope will be accomplished by the end of the book. This is something you can easily pull from your premise. 

Your character can have as many wants as you want. But it might be easier to just pick one or two big wants that you can work with for the process. Your wants can also be born from your premise, but if you’re having trouble coming up with something, fill out a character sheet to get to know your main character (MC) a little bit more to find out what they want.

Sometimes your character is going to want what they need. In this instance, find a secondary want to use for this process. Sometimes, your character may not even know what it is they need or will want the opposite of it.

A- What the character needs: To stop the king
    What the character wants: To stop the king/To be recognized as the new hero
B- What the character needs: To learn to be happy single
    What the character wants: To get revenge on her ex

Blockades

The majority of your main plot is going to come from blockades to what your characters want and need. 

Need based blockades are going to deal with the main plot. It’s going to be anything that can possibly happen to prevent your character from getting what they want. It can be a physical blockade (such as being placed in jail) or an emotional one (such as learning new information that changes how a character feels about something/one). Most often, these blockades will be overcome.

Want based blockades are going to be personal, and often will tie into the main plot as well. They can be physical or emotional, just as the need blockades can be. Depending on what your character wants (and how it relates to what they need) a want based blockade can end positively or negatively.

Try to list as many blockades as you can. You don’t have to use all of them, and don’t worry about going too into detail for each one yet. Just think of anything that could prevent your character from getting what they need or want. 

Here are a few sample ones from our scenarios.

A- Needs: Imprisoned, finds out that someone who did her wrong lives in the other kingdom, King gets suspicious and puts a watch on her
These blockades all prevent the MC from saving the kingdom. Being imprisoned and being put under watch are physical, where as finding the past abuser is emotional.


Wants: accidentally does something that makes people hate her, purposefully does something that makes people hate her
Both of these are emotional blockades, casting the MC in a negative light, taking her further from her heroic goals.


B- Needs: Mom asks when she’s getting married, Friend sets her up on a blind date (that goes well), she catches the bouquet at a wedding
These blockades crack away at the MC’s confidence that she can be alone. They are all emotional, in that they change something about the way she views her relationship status.


Wants: Sees the ex and his new date really happy together, tries to pull a prank that backfires, finds old pictures/letters from her ex
Seeing the ex with his new date and finding old letters are emotional blockades that lower her desire to revenge. The prank backfiring is a physical blockade that prevents her from accomplishing her goal.

Turn into scenes

Now that you know what’s going to stop your MC, it’s time to turn these blockades into scenes. There are three things to think of when making a scene.

1. How does this scene unfold?

A – Finds out that someone who did her wrong lives in the other kingdom: MC agrees to join an ambassador trip to the other kingdom for a week to see if she can learn more information about the situation. While she’s serving dinner, she sees someone that harmed her. She runs and hides in the kitchen.

B – Friend sets her up on a blind date: MC’s friend learns that she has broken up with her boyfriend. She suggests the MC goes out with her cousin, who she’s been trying to get her together with for years. The MC agrees to go, only to get her friend to shut up, but ends up having a really good time.


2. How does the scene move the plot forward or develop character? (It must do one, ideally both)


A – Alters Character Development: This scene will change the development of the character. By seeing the old abuser of her past, the MC has to overcome her own past and prejudices to save the rest of the kingdom.


B – Moves Plot Forward: This scene provides a large burst of pushback against the character’s needs. She needs to be happy alone, but she’s just had a really good date, and is rethinking getting back into the dating world.


3. Is this a positive (helping plot or development) or negative (harming plot or development) scene?


A – This scene is currently a positive, providing a growth moment for the character. But it can be a negative if the MC sees the guy and decides not to forgive and forget. This would create another blockade for the main plot, and could possibly create a mini-plot. 


B – This scene is currently a negative, pushing against what the character needs and taking them further from that goal. It can, however, be a positive if you decide that the date goes awful instead, and reaffirms her desire to stay single. 

A good plot will have a nice mix of positive and negative scenes, without going back and forth regularly. A sweet ending book will have more positive scenes, while a bitter ending book will have more negative scenes.
If you feel like your book has too many of one kind, look over them and see if you can find a way to twist it around to be the opposite.

Try to make scenes out of all your blockades. If you find yourself really struggling with one (i.e. you can’t think about it moves plot or develops character) it’s a good idea to put that one to the side, and keep it as a just-in-case backup.

Mini plots

Mini plots are different than side plots. In a marathon, mini plots are the legs of the race, where side plots are other runners keeping up with your main plot. To find where your story has a mini plot, look back over your blockades, and see which ones need follow-up scenes, or which ones could be drawn out to cover a few scenes instead. 

A mini plot should be treated just like the main plot. The only difference is that your character is only going to have a want or a need, not both. To create them, think of what your character wants or needs, and then discover the blockades that stop them. 

Instead of turning those blockades into scenes, create resources that will help the plots resolution. (note that the resolution does not have to be good for your character/can work against what they want or need).

A – The character gets imprisoned. Now the character has to get out. This is a need-based plot.
Need: Break out of prison
Blockades: Heavy duty/new locks, overlapping guard changes
Resources: Other prisoners, friends in the serving class
Resolution: MC gets the other prisoners to cause a distraction, while her friend slips in and steals the guard keys in the chaos


B – MC tries to pull a prank that backfires. This is a want-based plot.
Want: Fill her ex’s car with fish
Blockades: Woke up late and most of the fish at the market were sold. Box is too heavy to carry by herself and friend won’t help
Resources: Primal desire to get revenge, Determination to see her plan through (even though she knows it’s terrible)
Resolution: The MC is trying to lift the box up to spill it into the sunroof of the car. Instead it tips backwards and spills all over her. Also, her apartment smells like fish from storing them there all day.

Mini plots work best as one chapter, or possibly two. Any longer than that and your mini plot has turned into a side plot that has hijacked the whole story.

Scene order

Now that you have all of your main scenes written out, it’s time to organize them. 

Look over your scenes. Group them up. Do you have a lot of scenes that deal with animals? That’s one group. Have a bunch of issues dealing with bad days at the salon? There’s another. You’ll find that some scenes can fit in multiple piles, and others might be by themselves. Don’t throw these scenes out, you might discover that they make the perfect connecting scene.

Once you have your scenes grouped up, see what order you could put them in. Sometimes two scenes will be one after the other perfectly, and others might have some time pass between. At this stage, let that space exist. This is not the point A to B to C outline. This is just linking things together in a logical order. 

A – Let’s see how the character from scenario A got imprisoned. We already have two scenes that involve her doing a bad thing. So, early on she accidentally does something that catches negative attention. This causes the King to put her under watch. Later, she does something on purpose that catches negative attention. This leads to her being jailed. 

B – In scenario B, we have a lot of marriage related scenes. Let’s put them together. The MC gets a call from her mom right after she broke up with her ex. Unknowing of this, the mom asks if he proposed. Later, The MC’s friend sets her up on a blind date, and after it goes well, she says she can already hear wedding bells. Finally, at the wedding, the MC catches the bouquet. Her date from before is there, and they make eye contact. Her mom (who she brought as her last-minute +1) makes a comment about it. 

Side plots

Side plots are going to be long-running issues that aren’t about your MC or the main plot. They’ll often involve other recurring characters. 

Side plots are necessary. They break up the main story and give your reader a bit of breathing space. They also often relate to the main plot in some way, doing behind-the-scenes work to slightly alter your MC’s perception of the world. 

Each side plot should only have a handful of scenes in the book. Too many scenes will make it seem like a second full plot, and can cause your reader to lose interest in what’s really going on. Ideally, you have two side plots per novel. You can get away with one or three, but two is the sweet spot.

Take a look back over your scenes. Is there a running theme that could be a good side plot? Or perhaps there’s a character that keeps popping up? Maybe there’s a big event at the end that could need some planning. All of these are things to look out for while trying to find some side plots.

A – The MC has to have some friends for her to get out of jail in the end. Let’s say one of her friends was a maid that married a nobleman. They still find time to talk sometimes, but her friend is having trouble adjusting to her new life. People don’t want to see a maid as a noblewoman.
This causes tension with what the character wants. All this time the MC has hoped that she’ll be able to become the new great hero, but now she’s thinking people won’t want to see her like that.


B – We established that there’s a wedding, and a pushy friend. So let’s say the pushy friend is the one getting married (and why her cousin who the MC dated once is there). And let’s say that she and the MC are best friends. The MC is the bridesmaid, and has to deal with her friend’s wedding plans, listening about how great and wonderful marriage is going to be.
This causes a tension with what the character needs, pulling away at the MC’s idea that she can be happy alone. 

Write down as many side plots as you can find. Then pick and choose based on which ones you think pair well with the character’s wants and needs.

Ending

Every book has an ending. But not every ending is the same. If you don’t already know how to wrap up your book, use what your characters want and need to figure it out. There are four basic endings you can give your MC, based on whether or not they got their wants and needs.

Sweet Ending – Gets what they want and what they need. 

The character in scenario A manages to save the kingdom and goes down in history as the greatest hero of all time. 

The character in scenario B gets revenge on her ex, and leaves the situation happy to never have to be with someone ever again. It’s not worth the drama.

Positive Bittersweet Ending- Gets what they need, but not what they want. 

The character in scenario A saves the kingdom, but someone else takes all the credit for it/it’s not publicly known that it happened at all. 

The character in scenario B learns to be happy alone, but she lets go of her revenge mission on her ex.

Negative Bittersweet Ending: Gets what they want, but not what they need. 

The character in scenario A ends up becoming a hero, but by turning sour and helping the king destroy the kingdom. 

The character in scenario B gets her revenge on her ex, but by doing so becomes an insecure and jealous person who can’t keep a relationship and is terrified of being alone.

Bitter Ending – Gets neither what they want nor what they need (and often the opposites happen). 

The character in scenario A fails to save the kingdom, and in doing so ends up becoming a villain on the run forever. 

The character in scenario B doesn’t manage to get revenge on her ex. However, not being able to do so makes her obsessed with him, until she becomes a crazy wreck that simply can’t live without him. 

(If you keep hearing that rumor floating around that people are tired of happy endings, they’re really saying they’re tired of Sweet Endings. The fad these days is creating a positive bittersweet ending, one where the character accomplishes their goal, but gave something up along the way.)

With all your scenes written out, you should now be able to put them in an outline order. Fill in the spaces with your stand-alone and side-plot scenes as needed. Adn go back to your blockades if you’re running short.

If you don’t like working with outlines, put all of your blockades in a hat. When you reach the stuff happens section, pull one out and see how you can turn it into a scene and then write that. Do this block by block until you’ve finished your draft (then go back and reorder as needed).

Telling a Story Vs. Writing One. Or: How Rhetoric Saved my Writing

11 Tuesday Feb 2020

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A few years ago I decided I might like to try my hand at writing a screenplay. I adore movies, and I thought that writing one would be a good addition to my many projects. The problem was: I didn’t know how to write a screenplay. I wasn’t sure how to transfer my novel writing style to a screenplay style. How much action did I put in? Should I describe the setting or the characters? Did I need to place any indications of how words are said? What did I write down and what did I leave up to the director or designers?

I sought out answers in the form of a three-day screenplay writing workshop being offered at my school. I showed up early, excited and ready to get a head start on learning this new form of writing.

We spent the entire first class dissecting the hero’s journey. 

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve dissected the hero’s journey before, in both writing and literature classes. I didn’t need to know how to plot a story. I didn’t need to know how to tell a story. I already had that part down. I need to know how to write a script. 

Needless to say, the next two classes weren’t much help either. (I did learn that there were different types of script depending on what stage the movie is in that has variations on how much detail is in there. But this was briefly mentioned and what those differences were or how to utilize them was not covered). I felt discouraged. Even more so when I picked up a screenwriting guide book a few years later for a different class, only to find much of the same thing.

Here’s how to tell a story.

Thanks. Got it.

Clearly I wasn’t going to find the knowledge I sought. I decided to do what all great people do when faced with the looming fear of not being able to figure out a problem: I quit. (Okay all great people don’t do that {at least not often} but let me dream). 

And I stayed quit for about two years. I stayed quit when my dad bought me another screenwriting craft book that might be useful since it was written by William Golding. It’s still sitting untouched on my bookshelf. I’ve been hurt too many times before. 

But then, the internet came to me, speaking words of wisdom. I received a piece of practical advice on writing. Granted, I already knew this trick of the trade, but there was a glimmer of hope in the future. A book. A craft book. On rhetoric. That had taught this other person what I figured out by futzing about. 

I bought it. 

If this was a tragedy, it would have been full of terrible advice or things I already knew and would have thrown me into despair at never finding anything useful. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

I did get angry, but more on that later.

This book was a dang eye-opener. It was simple, and told in a relatable and easy to understand way. I think Mark Forsyth was born to teach. (I also think he’s my spirit animal. Or I’m his. We’re connected somehow). Every other line made me laugh. He referenced things I never thought I’d see referenced in a craft book. He actually explained why things work and how to make them work for you.

I very nearly wept with joy.

(Didn’t help with the screenwriting issue but I’ll solve that one day I guess).

After I finished, I told all of my writer friend’s to get it. I gushed about it on Facebook. I even talked about it to people that didn’t write. 

Then I got angry.

Why the heck did most of this not come up in my classes? I even took a rhetoric/composition class in my freshman year as part of the mandatory general education classes. Where was this information? Sure we talked about egos, logos, and pathos, and all that. But who was out here telling me that making a deliberate grammatical/spelling mistake was called enallage and is actually a real thing that will draw attention to an important sentence? Probably not the teacher whose job was to teach us grammatically correct writing forms.

But my writing classes? The upwords of five workshops I took? The six or so literature classes I endured? I read “Heart of Darkness” twice (don’t ask) and no one thought to mention that hey, that line at the end with the missing word is one part ESL kid speaking off but also a purposeful tactic to make that line and moment hit harder?

(Well, maybe they think to mention it but didn’t/couldn’t for whatever reason).

And how many times did I suffer the snooty comment of “Well, [inanimate object] can’t actually be [human emotion].”? How often did I try, and inevitably fail, to argue that it’s a form of personification before giving up and changing the line? Why did I not know that applying an adjective to the wrong noun is a transferred epithet and makes the world around the characters come alive? Oh, how many times I could have left that discussion powerful and certain of my actions rather than weary of writing another word in the future.

Writing, to me, is a bit like a math problem. Stick with me on this.

You have a problem: write the story.
You have a solution: story has been written.

In math this is the equivalent of saying something like 2x=6. X=3. 

But if you turned that in to your teacher you’d get the C grade with the comment ‘show your work’. Anyone can stumble upon the right answer in a math test. Anyone can stumble upon a polyptoton in writing. 

Except in math you did learn how to divide each side by 2 to find what X is. If you’re like me, you didn’t learn that in writing, at least, not in a way where it was specifically explained to you in detail. Someone asks you why X=3 and you’re standing there going, “Well, uh, cause it does,” which is not a very convincing argument and leaves you stuck with that C. 

Rhetoric devices are so commonly used, we kind of tend to just pick up on them, is the thing. So maybe that’s why people don’t think to point them out or discuss them. It’s a lot like the english rule of adjective order. We all know there’s a proper order, because it sounds wrong when out of order, but not many people could tell you it off the top of their heads. 


But being able to explain your choices in writing is necessary for many reasons. It lets you win arguments against people who think they know better. It lets you explain yourself and teach others these tricks. Most importantly, if you figure out/know how you did it once on accident, you can do it again, purposefully, in the future. 

All of this to say:

If you want to learn to tell a story, pick up a writing craft book or take a class.
If you want to learn to write a story, study rhetoric.