Why Writing Is Like Doing a Puzzle

I love doing jigsaw puzzles. And I don’t mean 300 pieces or 500 pieces. I gravitate toward 1000-piece monstrosities. When I’m not working on my puzzle, I just put the dining room table pad over it. That keeps it safe from the cat and we still have some place to eat. 

I started this beauty while the boys were at the lake. As I stirred the pieces around in the box looking for red that could be either the cardinal, the house finch, or berries, I mused that working a puzzle is a lot like writing. 

Plotters take their time and sort out the edge pieces. They put each corner in place and then build the frame before turning to the interior. That feels a lot like starting with the key moments in a story, then listing scenes before you start writing. 

This time around, I decided to be a pantser. That’s why I was stirring the pieces looking for red without first assembling the edges. 

If you write fiction, you create characters and plot. You piece together the setting. You raise the stakes. 

If you write nonfiction, you may start with an idea. Then you do research and pull together facts. Then you start to sort until a picture becomes clear. 

Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction or working on a puzzle, you work for a while. Then you get up and move around. You come back to it and add a few more pieces. Slowly the picture becomes clear. 

I had about 20 percent of my current puzzle assembled when disaster struck. Our new cat, Newton, is a 15-pound beast that loves to thunder through the house. He launched himself off the dining room table, taking off the mat, and sending the vast majority of assembled pieces to the floor. 

Well, poop. 

It felt a lot like when I get a massive rewrite letter from my editor. “Really, we like everything you’ve got. We just don’t like how it has come together.” 

I write primarily nonfiction, so when this happens, I’ve done the research. This means that I’ve got the pieces. I just need to knock them apart, with no help from Newton, and put them back together. 

Perhaps your editor has suggested a nonlinear timeline for your story. You've got the majority of your scenes but you need to split them apart and find a new narrative structure.  Or the suggestion might have been to use multiple points of view. Or introduce your characters in a different order. You’ve got everything you need. All you have to do is put things back together. 

Writing, like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, requires patience. Sometimes you find yourself reassembling a your work be it fiction, nonfiction, or a jigsaw. In spite of the slow progress there is nothing else that you’d rather be doing. 

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 35 books for young readers.  To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.

The next session of her new course, Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work will begin on February 6, 2023).  Coping with rejection is one of the topics she will cover in this course.

Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins February 6, 2023) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins February 6, 2023). 

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8 comments pantsing, plotting, revision letter, rewriting, Sue Bradford Edwards, writing

Do You Know What Your Story Is About? I Mean, REALLY About

Thinking up a story idea is simple. You’re staring off into space, or maybe a bizarre lovers' scene plays out in front of you, when wham-o! Now you have the spark, a gem of shining brilliance, and you know exactly what you want to write about. It’s a sultry romance! No, it’s more of a Gothic romance… or really, it could be a time-traveling horror story. 

Holy bunches of plots, Writer! What’s your story? Really? 

I’ve been test-writing the Save the Cat! beat cards recently and in the midst of my outline and the beats, I started re-thinking my story genre (according to the Save the Cat!’s ten genres). More specifically, I began to think that what I’d originally assumed my story to be about (“Dude with a Problem”) wasn’t really what my story was about at all. (You can see what I finally figured out in “Save the Cat! Saves the Writing Day!” over on my personal blog.) 

But why does that matter? After all, it’s my story, I can write what I want. That’s what writers do, right?

Well, sort of. That is, we can write what we want, but we also make a promise of the premise and that includes our story genre; we make a bargain with our readers from page one. And though we can throw in plot twists and turns, red herrings and unreliable narrators, and yes, write whatever we want, there are certain expectations our readers will have, and we’d better deliver. 

So it actually does matter very much, this knowing what your story is about. There are elements you’ll need in a plot, depending on the genre. Doesn’t mean you have to write them the same way and that’s where the fun comes in. 

Horror novels, for example, often begin with a strong sense of foreboding, settings on the moors, or in secluded, broken-down inns, characters oozing evil, promises of something dark and sinister to come.

However, horror can also begin with sunshine and suburbs, as Stephen King has demonstrated. But King is a master at inserting nuances of horror, a moment just a tick off, in the midst of a seemingly ordinary day so that the reader knows. The reader knows something bad is coming. 

Now let’s say a writer has fifty pages of happy little puppies frolicking in a field, unicorns blowing rainbow bubbles out of their…er, horns…and then on page 51, out of the blue, a monster squashes all the puppies and kicks the unicorns to Christmas. Well, then, you’ve got some upset readers. And not just because of puppy-squashing. You’ve duped your readers, suddenly switching genres, and that’s not good. 

It’s not always that obvious, mucking about with a story genre. But still, one can write an entire novel, thinking it’s one thing (like a “Dude with a Problem”) when halfway through it’s something else (like “Monster in the House”). And when one is muddling about in the middle of a plot that’s not working, it could very well be that one has lost the way of the story. 

Which is why it’s a very good thing to know what your story is about from the beginning. There are lots of opinions on how many genres/plots there are, from five to twenty, and you can find plenty of crafting-your-story books to investigate the elements of each plot/genre. Or you can take a look at the Save the Cat! genres (my favorite!) with the added benefit of included examples and beat sheets. 

But wherever you look, I hope you’ll open your mind to the possibility that what you thought your story was about may not be what it’s about at all, and then see where it leads. Take a deep dive and think, think, think, maybe even stare into space a bit. Because it’s a lot simpler to figure out plotting ideas and story genres before you actually write the whole blamed book.

~Cathy C. Hall

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5 comments Cathy C. Hall, plotting, Save the Cat!, story genres

Leaping Before I Look: Fast Action

Take care preparing your query. One incorrect punctuation can mean a rejection!

Twitter pitch parties are a great way to get your work in front of an agent. Take this class to prepare. If your pitch isn’t perfect, agents will pass it over. 

Warnings like these are legion. As a result, one writing friend takes a week or more with every query letter she writes. I refuse to tell her that I write mine in at most 90 minutes. 

Still I often use the need to plan, or write and rewrite, as a way to delay taking action. In an attempt to get beyond this I’ve been looking for ways to take “fast action.” For me, this means moving forward without every single detail mapped out. 

My first foray into fast action wasn’t writing but it was writing related. My office is a monumental disaster. It doesn’t help that 2020 turned it into OUR office which means that any cleaning up I do takes place around my 6’2” office mate. Two weekends ago when he was at the cabin (3 hours away), I had an epiphany about decluttering the office closet. This would require emptying said closet. Instead of measuring shelves and drawing plans, a requirement for any team effort, I pulled everything out. Two hours later, we have an amazingly well-organized office closet. It isn’t perfect but when someone needed a padded mailer yesterday, he could find it. Score one for leaping without looking. 

My second foray into fast action was last week’s PBPitch on Twitter. Somehow it had escaped my notice that this was coming up so I didn’t have time to run things past my critique group. But I read a blog post about an author who, for an earlier PBPitch, wrote her pitch in a parking lot and sent it out on the spot. This was how she landed her agent. I spent an hour writing and revising pitches for three books. I posted them on Thursday and got a request. Posting my pitches instead of talking myself out of it meant that a top agent has one of my manuscripts. I count that as a win. 

My third fast action foray involved my web site. Given that I’m querying, I need to update my site. But it wasn’t just the content that was a problem. My old design is dark and dated. I’ve been trying to talk myself into working on this all year, and I have to update my GoDaddy listing by November 10th. What if I expanded my blog into a site? I picked out a new theme and got started last week. I still need to add graphics and fix the menu, but leaping into the project got me moving. 

Fast action isn’t going to work for everything. But sometimes if I dive in with only a sketchy plan? I end up moving forward. 

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 25 books for young readers.  To find out more about her writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.

Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins December 7, 2020) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins December 7, 2020). 

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7 comments pantsy, planning, plotting, taking a chance

Let's Talk About Tropes and Using Them in Your Writing

I've been a published author since 2012 and have been a reader all my life. I have an amazing critique group who stays up-to-date with trends in books and reads a ton. And yet, when we were at the writing conference 20Books to 50K, we were introduced to the importance of tropes. At one point in the past month, I said, "Tropes! Where have you been all my life?" Heck--I was even an English major.

Maybe you read a lot about writing or have been to a workshop on tropes. But if you're like me and the other members of the Lit Ladies, then these are elements of your fiction that you have probably been including already, but you didn't realize how much readers expected them and how you can use them to help you sell more books.

What is a Trope?
A trope is a common storyline for a genre, such as romance or urban fantasy, that readers expect when they pick up a book in your genre. It does not mean it's a formula or a boring read! It's a story that is similar to others in the genre, like a contract with the reader. Readers expect certain things to happen in this book based on the trope. If you don't deliver, they will not be happy with you!

Here are a couple of examples:

When Harry Met Sally: In this popular movie, Harry and Sally are friends who eventually turn into lovers. That's a trope. It happens in a lot of romance books and movies--even in my first young adult romance, Caught Between Two Curses! When I wrote it and received a contract for it, I didn't even realize I was writing a romance. (Oh, I wish I could go back and talk to that Margo!) I certainly didn't realize that I had a popular trope in there--friends to lovers (although my two teen characters are simply boyfriend and girlfriend by the end). But my book and When Harry Met Sally are nothing alike except for that trope. Some readers and movie watchers only want to read books about friends becoming lovers--and so they will specifically search for all the different stories to find the ways that this trope comes to life.

There are over a hundred romance tropes--it's unbelievable! Here are a few more common ones that you're probably familiar with: enemies become lovers, first love, second chance at love, secret romance, and a love triangle. Knowing your trope can help you read other books with a similar trope (market research) and write marketing materials that catch the attention of readers who are searching for that type of book!

Harry Potter: In this fantasy book, Harry is the chosen one, which is a very popular trope in this genre. Harry is the only one who can defeat Voldemort. Frodo from Lord of the Rings is another protagonist who is the chosen one. Neither Harry nor Frodo have a choice to go on their journeys--they have to go on it. If they don't do it, the evil will not be defeated. But look at the difference between these two fantasies--they have the same trope, but they are extremely different.

Some other common fantasy tropes are the secret heir, the reluctant hero, the lucky novice, and the quest.

So how do you make your trope fresh?
This is a question that successful authors answer time and again--and the answer is really simple. You tell your story in the best possible way you can--with your voice, your research, your unique characters, your humor, and so on. If you know that the chosen one is a common trope, and some very famous authors have done it well, then how can you still use the chosen one in your fantasy but put your own spin on it?

Practice picking out tropes while you're reading--they won't only be in genre fiction. But look at the storylines of the books you enjoy and see if you can notice a common one that you have seen in several other movies or books. You can also do Internet searches like "young adult romance tropes" or "space opera tropes" and read some of the articles that pop up.

As always, write the story that is in your heart. However, if you want to sell it, then also figure out where it fits in the marketplace and part of this is also discovering the tropes you cover in the story.

Margo L. Dill is a children's and YA author who also teaches online courses for WOW! In January, she is offering two courses for novel writers. On January 3, "Writing a Novel With a Writing Coach" begins. Then her brand new class, "Writing Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: A Study and Workshop" starts on January 21. For more information, click the links or contact Margo at margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com .

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4 comments 20Books to 50K, fantasy, genre fiction, Margo L. Dill, marketing advice, novel writing, plotting, romance, tropes

Making the Predictable--Unpredictable: An Example with a Gilmore Girls Script

If you read a lot, write a lot, watch a lot of movies, you know stories. And stories can often become predictable. In a romance, eventually the hero gets the girl. In a western, eventually the good guy gets the bad. In a mystery, eventually the detective solves the crime. So how do you make the predictable unpredictable and satisfy your readers?

I recently saw an example on the television show, Gilmore Girls. (Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen the series yet, but it is rather old and currently on Netflix in its entirety.) In the series, Luke and Lorelai are engaged, and Luke discovers he is the father of a 12-year-old girl. For whatever crazy reason, he doesn't tell Lorelai. Once he makes this decision, all viewers know the predictable thing is going to happen: Lorelai will find out, and she's going to be mad. Luke tells one person--his quirky sister, so viewers assume she will be the one to spill the beans. But the writers of the show, who are known for outlandish characters and witty dialogue, don't do the predictable. They have Lorelai come into Luke's diner, when Luke is not there, but his daughter is. His daughter accidentally tells Lorelai that Luke is her father. (Star Wars fans: this time, Luke is the father.)

So what did I learn about storytelling and fiction writing from this story line?

1. The predictable will happen, but change it up a bit.  Of course, Lorelai had to find out about Luke's daughter at some point, but the way she found out was written perfectly and not the "red herring" (Luke's sister) the writers set up.

2. Make life as awful as possible for your characters before you give them resolution. Lorelai finding out from the spunky and cute 12-year-old girl was the worst possible thing that could have happened for Luke, Lorelai, and their relationship. Think about your favorite stories--what are those moments when you are reading and thinking: That is the most awful thing that could happen and it just did? You want to find that moment for the characters you are writing about before they find happiness or resolution in the end of your story.

3. Brainstorm what the predictable outcomes are and figure out how to go one step further.  In this example, the predictable outcome is Lorelai finding out from someone--most likely Luke's sister or a beloved Stars Hollow townsperson who overheard a conversation Luke had. But at some point one of the writers said: How about April (the daughter) innocently tells Lorelai herself? Perfect!

If you read genre novels or are writing one, why do you love these stories if you know what will happen eventually? In your own writing, how will you surprise and satisfy your readers?

Margo L. Dill is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher, living in St. Louis, MO. To take her novel writing course, which starts September 1, please see the details here. To find out more about her, please see her website: http://www.margoldill.com. 

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5 comments fiction writing, genre writing, Margo L. Dill, plotting, scripts

NaNoWriMo: Time to Get Started

November is National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. So why am I writing about this in October? Because I’ve tried it two or three times and always failed. Miserably.

There are several reasons for said failure:

For 10 years I was in charge of a writing conference that took place in November. Between pre-conference, conference and post-conference, I didn’t have time. Problem with this excuse: I haven’t been in charge for 8 years. Time to get over it and move on.

I used to host Thanksgiving. Sometimes. Every year my sister and I had to decide who would host which holiday. It was a BIG DEAL. We have since decided that she gets Thanksgiving and I get Christmas. Yep. That means that that excuse doesn’t work anymore either.

I write for kids. How is that a problem? The NaNoWriMo goal is to write 50,000 words. Because I wrote for kids, the vast majority of novels are shorter than 50,000 words. Either I let it bother me or I don’t. I’m a bit of a rule breaker (who me?) so I’m 98% certain that I can get past this.

So what’s the real problem? I don’t tend to plan when I write fiction. And that’s a problem with NaNoWriMo. You can’t blast through a draft if you don’t plan. Pantsers do not blast.

That’s why I’m writing about this now. If you want to succeed at NaNoWriMo, the time to think about it is now. You, like me, need to do some serious planning.  I found an article about creating a scrapbook for your novel. I’m going to give that a shot. Like everything else, I’ll be doing it my way. I’m not using a real scrap book. There is no fancy paper. No cute stickers. But I will have:

Character pages. What do they look like? What do they like? What fascinates them? How do they dress? I’m going to need pages for my main character, her kid brother, her older brother, the love interest, her stepfather and the love interest’s grandmother.

Setting. The setting is going to play a huge part in this story because it is science fiction. I have some feel for where the story opens and where the majority of the action takes place. I’ve found photos for one of the ruins. A need the others and the main settlement. I’m going to need to create maps.

Material culture. The world is an earth-like mining colony. The majority of mines have played out so think Appalachians combined with Missouri Ozarks. I need a better feel for the material culture so that I can bring the setting to life and I know how they do things.

Outline. Last but not least, I’ll re-outline the blasted thing.

It still won’t be long enough to be an official NaNoWriMo novel but a finished draft is a finished draft. And even a short novel will be a huge success for this nonfiction writer.

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.

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2 comments NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, pantsing, plotter or pantser, plotting, scrapbook

5 Secrets to Writing a Great Mystery

If you’re a regular Muffin reader, you’ve probably figured out that I never work on one project at a time. Never. I’m always roughing something out, taking something to final and contemplating something new. One of the manuscripts lurking in the back of my brain is a mystery. I’ve never written a mystery before so I was thrilled to find Susan Spann’s post on mystery writing. Here is a small part of what I learned.

1. Great mysteries start with great detectives. If you’re contemplating your first mystery, you may be noodling over the crime. That’s well and good because mysteries do focus on solving a crime but truly central to the story is a memorable detective. She doesn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes or Phryne Fisher but she has to be memorable and part of what makes her memorable is . . .

2. The damage that’s been done. Great detectives have something they are trying to overcome. For some it is alcoholism and a partner killed the day he was supposed to retire. For others it is a missing sibling, a less than stellar childhood, or physical injury. Whatever it is, give your detective something to struggle with as she seeks to solve the crime.

3. Do it in a big, grand way. Your readers will have read not only mysteries but the daily news. Cold as this may sound, you can’t serve up a death that’s ho-hum and ordinary. You need to give your dastardly deed a bit of panache. Come up with a murder and a victim that you can make intriguing and/or colorful. This is going to take a bit of . . .

4. Planning makes perfect. From the crime and victim to the murderer and the big reveal, carefully plotted mysteries don’t just happen. Your mystery is going to take careful planning. If you’re a pantser like me, you may have to overcome your natural tendencies but, in truth, it is the only way to pull together a solid mystery.

5. Rewriting makes perfect. Even you plotters and planners are going to have to rewrite because there will be things you’ve missed. Be sure to fix them in the rewrite, planting red herrings, leaving the murder weapon in plain sight and otherwise creating the carefully crafted work that will pull readers in.

If you’re thinking about writing a mystery, be sure to read Spann’s original post. Me? I have damage to uncover. As she stands, my sleuth is a little too perfect to darken the pages of a mystery.

--SueBE

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4 comments murder mystery, mystery writing, plotter or pantser, plotting, Susan Spann

Where's the Plot?

My illustration is intentionally messy. Many writers would
give the middle-end a steeper slope. Credit: Elizabeth Humphrey

Now that school is back in session, I’m getting geared up to play editor-mom. That is, reading drafts of stories and reports, trying to be supportive without, well, rewriting the some of the work. I love reading the beginning stories, but it continues to astound me that we read countless stories to children, but if you ask them to tell you what happened in a story, the storyline seems bland or flat. The stories don’t seem to go anywhere.

Often the flat story is how the children process the stories, as well--even if the story involves a boy, his dog, kidnappings, and international spies. If I ask my children what happened in TinTin (the movie or the comic books), I may get the response about the cute dog and nothing about the story’s plot.

The plot of a story may be compelling, but it is not necessarily what we notice all the plot points as we learn about storytelling. (After all, when was the first time you diagrammed a novel’s plotline?)

As we develop as writers and readers, we start learning about plotting our stories. It helps us to discern what writers we like—fast-moving books generally have tightly written plots with conflicts that crackle from the pages. But even so, plots can still be a confusing muddle.

How do you plot a story? How do you ensure the plot points are strong and build to the middle and bring the story to a good conclusion? Take your time.

Often the stories our children tell—and ones that we attempt to write—are missing the dramatic question and the conflicts that advance a plot. The question and conflicts help to tease out what the story is really about and helps to answer the question: “So what?”

Work those out as you work with your draft. It’s not a one-time happening, but something that is massaged along your novel or short story’s journey.

Sure, the cute dog is important, but he’s vitally important because he and his actions help move the plot along.

Do you sketch out your plot points in an arc in the beginning, middle or end of writing your story's first draft?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living in North Carolina. She enjoys using various colored pens to plot her novel’s storyline, but sometimes gets carried away and starts doodling instead.

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2 comments Conflict, crafting plot, Elizabeth King Humphrey, plot, plotting

The Importance of Rising Tension in Your Story

The other day, my son discovered Maury Povich, and it wasn’t just any topic. This was “whose the baby’s daddy.” I decided to watch with my tween son and use the show to drive home a few cautionary points. What I didn’t expect was a lesson in building tension.

First, they would bring out the young woman. She would tell her story and swear up, down and sideways that the guy they were about to meet was the father and she was going to prove it. THE PROTAGONIST had a GOAL.

Then Povich would interview the “father” who would swear that there was no way the child was his. He became the ANTAGONIST.

This alone would just be a case of he said, she said. But the producers made sure we got RISING TENSION. One guy said the baby didn’t look like him. Another pointed out that she had pulled this before; he had proved the first baby wasn’t his. The ANTAGONIST has a GOAL that goes against the protagonist’s goal.

At last, Povich held the envelope with the DNA test in his hand – the TURNING POINT. Invariably the man in question was not the baby’s father. Why invariably? To keep the TENSION high, and, believe me, with the tears, screaming and name calling, there was plenty of tension.

As writers, you need to manage the tension in your stories as if you were a producer on Maury Povich.

Start with your PROTAGONIST. What is her GOAL? If you are going to use it to create tension, it has to be a big deal. What is at risk if she fails? She doesn’t have to look foolish on national television, but the bigger it is the more tension you will create.

There also has to be someone or something in her way. If you use an ANTAGONIST, vs. nature or time, your antagonist doesn’t have to be evil. His goal just has to be at odds with the goal of your protagonist.

Before the end of the story, you need to INCREASE THE TENSION. The reader could learn something about the protagonist that puts her goal in question. Or another character could surprisingly side with the antagonist. In some way, the protagonist must meet a REVERSAL.

This is where so many of us fall down on the job. We like our characters and don’t want to be the cause of their suffering. We make things too easy. We make things boring while Povich and his producers keep throwing more and more trouble into the mix.

Do this and, like Povich, you will keep your audience on the edge of their seat, shouting, cheering and maybe even booing. The one thing they won’t be doing is putting aside your writing to watch something on TV.

–SueBE

Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.

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5 comments character goals, climax, plotting, raising the stakes, tension, turning point

How to Create a Different Kind of Antagonist

The best villain for your story may not be a moustache twirling bad boy. After all, moustache wax is a tad out of fashion. Take a look at this list and see what other options may fit your next work in progress.

The Protagonist
Yes, you read that right. Your protagonist can be her own worst enemy. Take a look at her faults. Or try something more difficult. Maybe you could create a situation where her strengths are her greatest handicap. Her issue could be as soap opera as amnesia. Will she remember what she has forgotten in time to save the day? Or maybe it is as ordinary as bad self esteem. She only has three days to apply for the fellowship if she can work up the nerve to do it.

The Best Friend
Your main character has a goal. What happens when her best friend wants the same thing and only one can prevail? Or maybe they don’t want the same thing but opposite things. Obviously, someone is going to have to learn to live with disappointment, but which one? And what is each person willing to do to assure that she is the winner? You can make this especially tense if your main character has a reason to let her best friend win.

Animal Agony
What if it is a creature who’s got your main character’s goat? A furiously digging armadillo has destroyed the landscaping job that will keep her fledgling company in business. An endangered species has put the development project she needs to jump start her career on hold. We’ve all dealt with them, the feathered, furred and finned that simply will not mind their manners.

Mother Nature
Bigger and broader than an animal pest is Nature as an opponent. A threatening storm, a towering mountain or stormy seas can all put your character’s hopes in peril. Not sure how this might work? You do remember a wee little boat called the Titanic, don’t you?

The next time you need to throw something between your character and her goal, think of something other than your stereotypic bad boy – unless of course, you’re writing a steamy romance!

–SueBE

Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.

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4 comments characterization, plotting, protagonist