Category Archives: Writing

Writing Perspective – Day 16 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 16: Environments

Welcome to today’s writing tips. Today’s tips come from the recent UntitledTown event held in Green Bay April 25th to 28th. I attended ten sessions and have a wealth of notes and information handouts. One such is on World-Building.

If you’ve ever read anything in the science fiction or fantasy genre or watched such movies as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, you were immediately immersed in a world unlike and like our own. One thing I keep running into as I research one of my favorite genres is that your world must look real to the characters and it will be real to you the reader. Orcs were known to every character in Middle Earth. Hobbits were three foot plus tall but not four feet. And Harry Potter was a wizard. Everybody knew it but him, but only wizards knew cars could fly.

So, how do you create a world you can take for granted? It depends on how involved your story is. My interest in science fiction began when Star Trek came on the scene, but I didn’t know it was science fiction back then. I only knew it was a good show with aliens who had a different skin color, and some of them had green blood and pointed ears.

I began writing science fiction approximately ten years ago. I have a few starts, one finished, and one almost finished novel I’m hoping to finish soon.

When world building you need to consider six different areas: Environment, Inhabitants, History, Religion, Magic, and Culture. Let’s look at Environment and in the coming days, I’ll look at the other elements of world-building or this would be a very long post.

When considering the environment of your planet you need to know if you’re on a different planet in a different galaxy or are on earth. If you’re on a different planet are you dealing with only that planet or is there a whole galaxy of planets, what are their names? How big is the planet in relationship to the earth? Size matters. What about gravity or the lack thereof? Are there other inhabitants? Are they indigenous to the planet or transplanted there from earth or elsewhere in the universe?

When I started naming planets and people in my New Horizons series, I found a wonderful site called fantasynamegenerators.com. With it, I was able to give names to aliens, planets, and cities. I created a whole universe separate from Earth. I was able to let my imagination run freely, but not so freely there weren’t any rules and laws the inhabitants needed to abide by.

If you are creating another planet or universe, don’t forget to create a map of your planet and universe. It will give your reader a point of reference as he or she begins to read and immerse into the world of your imagination. The environment is the life of the planet. Creating life in science fiction and making it real to your reader is exhilarating. As a writer, don’t forget to research. You can’t forget the simple laws of physics that govern everything. Even in science fiction, you need to present the facts. Do you read or write science fiction or fantasy? Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Inhabitants

Writing Perspective – Day 15 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 15: Secondary Characters

Yesterday I wrote on character development. I’m going to continue with that thread as there is a lot more to write about than I focused on yesterday.

Another part of character development deals with the number of characters in your story. Too many and you overwhelm the reader, too few and your story could lack interest. Though I have heard of a two-person story.

Your secondary characters help your main character by supporting them in various ways. In Scarred, Jo-Ann has a moment of doubt and despair, despite her strong faith. Too much has gone against them, when Emalei reminds her that God is everywhere and encourages her. It’s not the only time she finds encouragement.

In order to have good character development in your secondary characters, you need to know them as well as you know your main characters. Don’t shortchange them. Balance your secondary characters with your main characters and you will have a strong story.

When it comes to the characters in your book, it isn’t good to give several characters names starting with the same letter. It can bring about much confusion when it comes to who’s speaking. You don’t want to confuse your reader. I hope these tips are helping you as a writer. Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Environments

Please…Take A Bow

By Dorothy Seehausen

I read an article this morning about how we writers trash talk our work, as if we can’t think of enough negative adjectives like dismal or crappy to evaluate our ideas.

The article was written by an English teacher with one rule for all his students: each time you hand me your work, tell me this is your very best.

It made me think of an ESL (English as a Second Language) class I taught a few years back to five enthusiastic and eager Japanese students, three young men and two women.

What I was most impressed with in the six weeks we had together was the manner in which they handed me their homework. With a slight bow, they would extend both upturned hands, the assignment proudly resting on top.

I found myself bowing slightly in return as they revently placed these pieces of themselves in my care. I learned the Japanese word for thank you…domo arigatou (doh-moh ah-ree-gah-toh). I became their hero, and they called me Dorothy instead of “teacher.”

They invited me to tea the day before they left. I received a lovely thank you card. “Dearest Dorothy…I will never forget you”… “It’s my pleasure that I learned with you” …”If I have a chance, I will visit St. You”…”Please don’t change and don’t forget me” … “I’ll miss you…”

The complexity of learning a second language is fraught with concepts that don’t translate literally. Trying to write them down is a nightmare.

My Japanese students knew this. They knew what they produced was not as important as honoring the manner in which it materialized.  

I’m happy to use their wisdom to hone an attitude of gratitude toward myself as a writer. It sure beats dismal or crappy.

Writing Perspective – Day 14 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 14: Character Development

One of the essential elements of writing your story is character development. You can’t just put any name on a page and expect it to fit in your story.

Think about all the characters you know from your favorite books or classics. Would A Christmas Carol be the same if Ebenezer Scrooge had a different name? Maybe, but doubtful. And what about Atticus Finch? Would To Kill a Mockingbird be the same with a different name?

Speak those names or many others and you immediately have an idea about the character, who he or she is and what kind of personality they have.

Names are important. You need to consider what kind of book you’re writing. Is it contemporary, western, mystery, science fiction, romance?

Once you have your character, you need to dress him or her. Who are they? What is their catchphrase? If I said, fiddle-dee-dee, do you know who said it? An idea of war, scoundrels, and cads might come to mind. Love, family, regrets, determination, might also come to mind. Put that fiddle-dee-dee alongside “As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again,” and you know exactly which character it belongs to.

What kind of person will fill the hero and heroine roles in your stories? To find out what kind of person he or she is, you need to communicate with them.

One method of communication is to have your character write you a letter about what they want to do or not do. Let them tell you what they fear the most and what they love the most and have your character be angry at you for stifling who they want to become. Get to know your character.

Once you know your character, you will know how he or she will act in any given situation. You know if she will flee the hospital when the doctor asks her help to amputate a soldier, and you will know if she has the guts to kill a man whose intent was to steal whatever he could.

Getting to know your character takes time. You won’t know everything about your character when you finish your first draft. You’ll have an idea about him or her. As you edit and revise your story, you give your characters the personality you started to develop in the rough draft.

It’s time to find out exactly who they are and if your audience will like them or hate them. You need to give them a purpose. Survival is a common purpose. Turning people from hating a person because of the color of their skin to fighting for them, is common. Fighting for what you believe in is also a common purpose.

How you develop your characters to bring about the outcome you want will show how well you develop the characters in your stories. Who are your favorite characters? Tell me why they’re your favorite.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Secondary Characters

Writing Perspective – Day 13 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 13: Parts of a Story

Welcome to day 13.

When I first began writing, I was clueless about what a book comprised. I’ve been writing since I was eight-years-old and my stories were plotless, and well, no good. So, what goes into a book, and how do you make it a novel someone will read?

Every book has three parts, beginning, middle, and end. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading books for children or adults, they must comprise those three areas or your book won’t make it in the world of publishing. The editor will put it in the slush pile and it won’t see the light of day.

The beginning of your novel introduces your characters and the setting. It also introduces the problem. The middle of your book is the problem and how you plan to solve the problem. The end is the solution to the problem, the happy ending.

Many books are simple one problem books. Your characters come upon a problem they need to solve. Consider Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry is left on the doorstep of the Dursley residence, his only relatives where he will remain until his eleventh birthday. It’s a calm, peaceful opening until the owls appear.

You have now moved from the opening to the middle. With the entrance of Hagrid, Harry is introduced to the world of wizardry and magic. Along the way, they stop at Gringot’s where Harry received his money, and Hagrid gets a package Harry must not mention to anyone. What happens with that package is the middle of the book, and solving it brings you to the end where Harry meets Lord Voldemort and vanquishes him until the next book.

In the middle of your book, you will find many twists and turns. When you think you have the problem solved, more trouble takes place until you’ve taken care of every possible problem and you can come to a feasible solution, the end of your novel.

The end of your novel is no more than a couple of chapters as you bring everything to a tidy close. In a mystery, all the clues are accounted for and explained. In a romance, they admit they love each other and live happily ever after.

No matter what genre you write in, or what age level, all stories will have an ending that will either leave you guessing about what will happen or bring to a happy ending with all the loose ends tied up. Open endings have a tendency to lead to a second book in a series.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Character Development

Writing Perspective – Day 12 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 12: Typos

Welcome to today’s topic—Typos. You might think typos are easy to spot, especially if the word is misspelled. However, what about words that aren’t misspelled and are still typos. Spellchecker won’t catch those words.

Homophones are words that sound alike but have different spellings and different meanings.

Common homophones are:

Its, It’s

They’re, their, there

You’re, your

Peek, peak

Right, write, rite

Sight, cite, site

Read, reed

Other homophones that aren’t quite as popular are:

Poor, pour, pore

Breech, breach

Aye, eye

I’m certain there are a lot more than the few I’ve shown. If you’re not certain about the word you’re using, look it up. Get it right. If you don’t know how to spell a word, look it up. The most commonly misspelled word is ‘you’re’ and ‘your.’ Most people will use your when they mean you’re. The best way to know which is right is to say you are, then you know you’re is correct. If you can’t say you are, then your is correct. The same with ‘it’s’. If you can say it is, then it’s, is it.

I hope I’ve helped you with your typos.

Now practice your spelling and write a post. I look forward to reading your offerings.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Parts of a Story

Writing Perspective – Day 11 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 11: Pantser

Welcome to today’s writing tips. Yesterday I talked about plotting your novel or work. Today, I will focus on pantser’s. A Pantser is a person who plants themselves in the chair and writes. Whether they write with paper and pen or computer, doesn’t matter, the important thing is to write.

Pantser’s need to write. They have an idea that must be written down as soon as possible. There’s no time to outline, summarize, or decide on characters. From personal experience as a Pantser, characters are there as soon as I need them. I don’t need to do heavy thinking about character names or locations. As soon as I put my fingers on the keyboard, their story comes about.

Pantser’s characters talk to writers, constantly, obsessively at times. It can be obnoxious, especially when the writer needs to sleep, but the character has no regard for a writer’s health or well-being. Sleep and food are taken between scenes, or when the character becomes quiet.

As a Pantser, I tend to work on multiple books at a time. It’s not uncommon for me to have five books I alternate between as the story develops between each. I’m certain other Pantser’s have their way of writing. No two writers or Pantser’s are alike.

I’m certain some would say I have a classic case of OCD. I would tell you I have a case of character intrusion which needs to be taken care of as soon as possible so I can have peace and quiet.

How long it takes to get the story written depends on the complexity of the story, but in most cases three to six months is common. That said, every story goes through quiet times. Writer’s tend to think of these times as writer’s block. Maybe it is, but it also gives me a chance to work on another book in progress.

When one story becomes quiet, another story becomes noisy. I need to take advantage of those times to advance the story. Eventually, I come to the end of a story. It feels like I’ve won a race, come to the end of the trail, or accomplished something monumental. It’s also a time when I feel like I don’t have anything to do and wonder what’s next. Why I wonder what’s next is beyond me when I have several other books waiting to find the final word in the story.

On the whiteboard behind me, I have a list of nine books in progress. Nine books I intend to work on this year. Of those nine, one is in the publishing process and will be published in the fall. Five being edited, two are ready to finish, and one begun this year and I need to write. I have plenty to keep me busy.

So, you see, a Pantser is always in writing mode. A Pantser needs to write. A Pantser is always thinking. With a Pantser, the story comes first. Everything else comes after I finish the story.

I’ve been writing to publish for 39 years. In that time, I’ve learned to do research during the writing, instead of after. That way I don’t need to worry about the facts when I finish the story.

Things to research while I write the story—time period if it’s a historical novel. Customs, culture, clothing are big areas of research. Location is another big one and for historical novels, I rely on old maps. Pantser’s must think about everything as they develop a story.

With the story finished, the time comes for revision and character development. Putting flesh and blood on the story to make it come alive to the reader.

Early in my writing career, someone read a little bit of Joanne, now called Scarred, and told me she couldn’t see the characters or the action. All she read was dialogue. I was grateful to her and brought life to my characters and the scenes in my story so that when the next time a person read my story, they told me my story read like a movie, they could see the characters and the action.

Writing is work. Bringing a story to life takes time and development. Writing is a joy and finishing a story brings fulfillment. Yes, it takes three to six months to write a story, but it can take years to develop the story and bring it to life so that when someone reads what I write and tells me they enjoyed it I feel a sense of accomplishment.

If you’re a writer, are you a Pantser? How long does it take you to write and develop your story? Do you work on several at once?

I haven’t done a recent count, but the last time I counted the number of stories in progress and finished, I had over fifty titled works. I have plenty to keep me busy for years to come.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Typos

Writing Perspective – Day 10 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 10: Plotting

Today, I will discuss plotting your novel, short story, article, or poem. What is the main theme of your work? Are you writing fiction or non-fiction? Is your work mainstream or sweet? Mainstream is what most people read, filled with every kind of vulgarity and or sexual content the author can dream up. Sweet being the opposite and often spiritually based. Even poetry needs a plot when you consider the many ballads written by those famous authors – Shakespeare for instance.

When plotting your novel, you need to know the basic elements—setting/location; historical, present, future; characters, your main characters, hero, and heroine plus your secondary characters. How many characters will you have? What is your genre? There are many genres to choose from—romance, historical romance, contemporary romance, historical, mystery, science fiction, western, chiller/horror and the list goes on interminably.

With the new series I’m working on, I started plotting my story in Excel to keep it organized. Which also brings up another plot point—will it be a single novel or a series?

Plotting takes place before you start work on your novel. If it’s a non-fiction work, you also need to outline and know how many chapters it will be. The chapters define the essence of the book. For instance, you can have several parts to your non-fiction book, and within each part several chapters to explain each section.

If you’re a pantser, as I mentioned on day one, plotting doesn’t always work well. You are either a plotter or pantser. Most authors or writers can’t be both. I don’t know any who are.

Once you have your plot, it’s time to start writing. If you’re a plotter, tell me how you plot your work. Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Pantser

Writing Perspective – Day 9 of 31

By Valerie Routhieaux

Day 9 – Resources

Welcome to day nine where I talk about resources. When working on your writing project, resources are key to getting the work done. It works hand and glove to research. In order to do the research, you need the resources to make it happen.

What are you writing about? What does it cover? There’s a resource for it. I have a bookcase full of resource books on many subjects. I have the third shelf of another bookcase, and the five-shelf bookcase has all the oversized resource books. If I don’t have a book to help me research my topic, I buy it, find it at the library, or I go online and search it out as much as I can. Having books at my fingertips is imperative to me. Sometimes it’s easier to use a book than it is to look online. Online you need to know the correct keywords to find everything you need to know on your subject.

My goal as a writer and author is to be as authentic as possible, and resource books make that happen. In my research, I’ve needed books on pirates. I have one on how pirates speak. That was invaluable with the Colonial America series. I have books on editing, grammar, writing scripts, fashions, the monarchs of the UK, a guide to courtrooms and law, horses, ships, architecture, colonial food, and everyday life in the colonies.

I know people will look up the information online as well, and it is also a valuable resource. Beware of the factual accuracy of the source. Any place you find your information is a resource. Without resources, you couldn’t research your novel or other works.

Do you have a library of resource information or do you rely on the Internet for all your resource and research information?

Tomorrow’s Perspective: Plotting

Tell Me a Story That Makes Me Tired the Next Morning

By Rhonda Strehlow

I read nearly every night before I go to sleep. It relaxes me, well, sometimes it does. Other times, it gets me riled up, excited, scared. Any time I find my emotions carrying me away, I write that author’s name down and track his/her other books. When an author stirs emotions in me, I become a fan.

Which leads me to the thesis of this blog:

Anais Nin said, “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as WE are.

Said differently, when we are writing we need to be aware of our biases, our strengths and our flaws. We cannot simply create characters that reflect us. That would be boring. We need to get into the heads of each of our characters and make them unique. We need to give them their own biases, strengths and flaws.

When we create characters, we need to make them multi-dimensional. If I’m reading a book and the protagonist is perfect, I quit reading. Why? I’m skeptical because I’ve never met a perfect person. Perfect people are boring and don’t deserve a book.

I want to root for my protagonist, but I also need to relate to him/her. I want to see her make mistakes and, I want understand why she makes them. Did she have indifferent parents? Was she bullied in school? Did she have to care for her siblings? Was she abandoned? Smothered?

What I’m saying is I want you to let me into her head. What motivates her? What scares her? Where do her quirks come from?

But, don’t dump it all on me at once. Tease me. Lead me on. Make me curious. Most of all, I want to care.

Make me want to read one more chapter at midnight because I won’t be able to sleep until I find out what happens next.