Category: Writing tips

Daddy, I want one of those.

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Everybody wishes they had one.

Many devote time to thinking about one.

It’s impossible to get one.

Unless you’re fictional!

What is it?

A soundtrack to life.

 

Yes, many of us have certain favorite songs that we wish would play during certain events or situations or circumstances, whether good, bad, ugly, or just neutral. Some have one song or a handful of songs that even sum up their entire existence. Music is an important element to everyone’s lives, and one doesn’t have to be a musician to enjoy or appreciate it. We can’t actually have one, and an iPod hanging from your ears does not count, but why not give one to your most prominent characters?

 

Listen more, write better:

While you’re sitting there, trying to think of decent words, listen to the kind of music that best fits the book or scene you’re writing.
Start with the genre of music that feels right with the genre of your story. I use classical for ye olde fantasy, and various modern rock groups for my sci-fi adventure. Think of what would most likely be playing in the background if your book were a movie. Narrow that down to the particular style/era, and find groups you like that play it. If your story is historical fiction, pick music from the decade in which it takes place. To go further into it, pick specific songs by those groups that may describe events or feelings pertaining to your writing. I have a playlist of about 50 songs with lyrics that actually sum up the entire plot of my book, and I did it on accident, or at least, subconsciously.

The music you choose could help shape your story, give you lots of ideas from cool phrases that stand out or lines you never paid much attention to before. The least it can do is help you get in the mood for what you’re about to write. Music is full of rhythm and flow and interesting transitions—exactly what a good book needs to be a great book.

This is what I do; it’s an essential part of my writing process that gives me excellent results. It could work for you.

However, if you are among the rare persons who need absolute silence while writing, then why did you read this post?

This means you

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Everybody, especially those new to this blog, I strongly recommend finding time here and there to go back and read all the non-InMon posts, to benefit from the advice and to get a better understanding of what our purpose is here. There are rules and there are suggestions. Advice does not have to be taken (but usually should be), and rules should never be broken until you know and fully understand them.  Without understanding the rules breaking them is just bad writing. Once you know the reason behind the rules, break them when appropriate, and never let suggestions write your stuff for you. If you take all advice completely literal, you will lose your style and your voice. Write what you write, but be smart about it, and make it the best possible.

Read the whole blog, it does a body (of work) good.

How to write with body language

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55% of human communication is nonverbal.

Which means more than half of what you say is nothing but expressions and gestures and eye contact.

Which means if you use nothing but “he said” and “she replied” to tag dialogue, your readers are missing half the message. Besides which, body language is also an effective way to show tone without “telling” tone. For instance:

“Hmmm,” she said unhappily/happily/thoughtfully. [All “telling”]

“Hmmm,” she frowned.

“Hmmm,” she smiled.

“Hmmm,” she tapped her lips with one finger.

We have the additional benefit of cutting the dialogue tag, “said,” which can get annoying in large doses.

Of course, use of body language isn’t limited to dialogue. You can say a lot without actually saying anything (useful if, like me, you are terrible at writing dialogue):

He hunched in his chair, elbows on knees, head in hands.

She bit the corner of her bottom lip, her gaze darting left and right.

He frowned, stroking his chin.

She leaned back and folded her arms, tapping her fingers against her skin.

He cocked one eyebrow, smirking.

There are countless other gestures to illustrate countless other emotions. Here are a few (in totally random order). Got any other good ones? Leave ‘em in the comments!

Grin

Smirk

Grimace

Furrow brow

Wrinkle forehead

Slap forehead

Twiddle thumbs

Twitch/tick

Bite nail

Suck thumb

Pick nose

Run hand through hair

Twirl hair

Skip

Amble

Stroll

Lumber

Swagger

Shuffle

Bob head

Flare nostrils

Wink

Nod

Shake head

Hug self/knees

Rub arms

Shudder

Shiver

Tremble

Scratch

Rub eye

Slouch

Tilt head to one side

Meet gaze

Look in the eye

Gaze slide to floor

Blink

Start

Shrug

Sigh

Sniff

Swallow

Wrinkle nose

Squint

Shift weight

Cross legs

Eyes glitter

Eyes glint

Clap

Snap fingers

Thread fingers

Fold hands

Nose in air

Look down nose

Look sideways

Peer

Glance

Stare

Glare

Purse lips

Push hair out of eyes

Go Ahead, pull your Finger

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Musicians do it, so should we.

Snap, crackle, pop. It is important to properly maintain your tools regularly. Whether one writes with a pen(cil) or a keyboard, we must all take care of our hands. Some people think popping knuckles is bad for you, some are just uncomfortable doing it.

Do it anyway.

Chiropractors pop necks, backs, elbows, ankles, and all other joints, and you pay them for it. Writing for hours can be a big strain on the hands and fingers. Once my fingers got stuck in the pencil-grip position for several minutes after. It could happen to you. 

Pop your knuckles

Stretch your fingers

Bend them behind the hand

Pull them gently out from your hand to extend them all the way from your wrist

Bend your wrists back

Bend your thumbs back

Extend your fingers in a wide stretch then bend them like claws, repeat that a lot.

Play with chinese medacine balls (they’re the little metal ones that jingle); this is for dexterity.

Put a rubber band around your fingers and thumb and move them in and out repeatedly to create and release tension in the band; this is for strength and stretching.

Massage your hands

Do the Mr. Miagi rub together for warming up.

Do these before/during/after long writing sessions and your hands and fingers with be happy and crampless.

Don’t let your hands get like this.

That is all.

5 ways my mom made me a writer

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Although my mom isn’t a writer, I owe a lot to her for making me one. She did this in five big ways:

She read to us

My mom reads like a fiend and she read to us all the time when we were little. Narnia, The Hobbit, The Just So Stories, A Wrinkle In Time, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and countless others. She taught us to love stories – I can still remember how excited I was when I got into first grade and found out I was going to learn to read for myself.

She took us to the library

Every two weeks in the summer, she’d drive us to the library – not the tiny one up the street, but the big one that was a little farther off. I’d make a b-line for the YA section and grab anything that looked interesting, and take home a whole stack of books I could only hope would last me two weeks.

She home-schooled us

Most kids spend six hours a day in class and still have homework in the evening. They’re so busy cramming their heads with facts, they don’t have time to experiment with hobbies and figure out what they really want to do. When you’re home-schooled, you have a certain amount of work to do per day or week, and once you’re done with it, you’re free. On a good day, I could get everything done bynoon.

 

She made us amuse ourselves

You’d think with all that free time, we’d get bored. Well, sometimes we did. But every time we complained to Mom about it, she would say “You could always clean out the garage” or something to that effect, which meant we quickly learned not to depend on her for entertainment. Instead, we learned to amuse ourselves – which naturally lead to reading, which itself naturally led to writing (for two out of three of us).

 

She never told us we couldn’t

Although we understood that we had to lead productive lives and make real money, neither she nor my dad ever told us we couldn’t become writers (or a singer, which was what I wanted to be for most of my childhood). However, we also didn’t ask them to spend vast amounts of money to feed our hobbies; we didn’t ask them to buy us fancy computers or send us to expensive writer’s camps. I guess the message behind that is, if your kid really wants to do it, he’ll find a way with or without a big stack of money.

Happy Mother’s Day!