Tag Archives: story craft

BUTTON METHOD FOR WRITERS

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BUTTON METHOD FOR WRITERS
By Natalie Bright

The Button Method for Writers combines the psychology of a creative mind along with plain ole common sense, and is easy to implement. It’s guaranteed that you will experience an unbelievable increase in productivity and quality of work.

The Button Method is best explained like this:

1. Butt-On Chair
2. Write

The more you do, the better you become at the doing. Isn’t that true with almost every career? I heard the Butt-on tip early as a newbie writer, but honestly I haven’t always applied the method.

Two of my writerly friends have, and they are a source of great inspiration for me. Linda Broday and Jodi Thomas are both New York Times and USA Today Bestselling authors. They’re currently writing series; Linda for Sourcebooks and Jodi for HQN. By writing, I do mean they’re ALWAYS writing. They both have set times every day, and rarely waiver from that schedule. They both practice extreme self-discipline.

I asked Linda one time how she manages to keep pushing herself, and she told me that when she’s writing, it’s the time she feels the most calm and relaxed. For her, social media and crafting blogs creates more anxiety than disappearing into her fictional world.

Jodi fell several years back and injured her wrist. During that same time, I twisted my ankle. We met for lunch and exchanged details and sympathies. Jodi says,” I asked the doctor to set my cast in a different way, because if I prop my arm on pillows I can still type with the tips of my fingers.”

I had planned to head home for aspirin and to prop my foot on pillows. Jodi went home to write.

Butt-On is the key.

Writing Benediction: Focus on the pure joy of crafting stories with words.

What’s He Wearing?

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What’s He Wearing?

By Natalie Bright

Writing Excuses podcast touched upon a subject I had never given much thought to: fashion.

In an interview with Rebecca McKinney, they talk about how clothing descriptions can add depth to characters and detail to your story.

Here’s the link, if you want to take a listen: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/05/08/11-19-fashion-for-writers-with-rebecca-mckinney/

Character Profiles

This opens a whole new list of possibilities in my mind. Fashion could be used as a personality flaw. Maybe quirky colors in an attempt for attention or a certain look that becomes an obsession. How about the teenager that changes clothes every time she leaves the house, and how does that reflect her personality? Perhaps a meticulous appearance might be a sign of deeper psychotic issues.

Historical Accuracy

Fashion isn’t the only thing that has changed throughout time. As an author of historical fiction, the podcast reminded me to dig deeper. Think about the materials available at the time of your story. Laborers, European aristocrats, the plantation owners, eastern business men, and the cowboys out west would have dressed very differently.

Take jeans for example; they haven’t been around forever. Levi Strauss first appeared on the scene in 1870 when he took a twill made in France and died it indigo. At first his blue denim work pants were considered for the poorer working man. Miners working in the gold fields of California were some of the first to appreciate the sturdy denim.

Resources

Since the majority of my historical stories are set in the west, I have found these books to be invaluable resources:

HOW THE WEST WAS WORN, Chris Enss, Morris Book Publishing (2006).

“Clothes and Accessories”, Chapter Six, EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE WILD WEST from 1840-1900, Candy Moulton, Writer’s Digest Books (1999).

CHANGE. COUNT ON IT.

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CHANGE. COUNT ON IT.

By Natalie Bright

YOUR TUNES

Who remembers 8-track tapes? Soon after, the cassette player in my then boyfriend’s car was something else, and the fancy case with his cassette collection was impressive. From even further back, I have a cabinet full of mom and dad’s album collection. Their beloved, overly large, oak-veneer record player makes a great plant stand.

YOUR TELEVISION PROGRAMS

Some of you may recall surfing through only three major television channels, and the lucky houses with strong antenna signals could pick up PBS. And then cable brought channels devoted to history or animals. Cartoons were on 24 hours! It wasn’t any time before we could watch edgy content that would never be shown on CBS, NBC, or ABC. The satellite dish brought us hundreds of channels. I streamed the entire season of Longmire on Netflix one snowy, dull weekend not too long ago. Waiting for a major network to schedule the reruns is a thing of the past. Amazing!

YOUR BOOKS

Music and television have gone through a transformation in the past decade. Now it’s book publishing’s turn. As I follow blogs and podcasts this year trying to educate myself on the changing tide of book promotion in the new century, all indications are that 2015 was the turning point. How we publish and read books has been altered forever. There’s no going back.

I’ve been pondering these important points:

  • I just downloaded the first book in a series by a favorite author for FREE in iBooks. The iBooks App is a built-in app on some hand-held devices, or is available for free download for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  • India and China have seen the largest growth in the number of hand held devices, and now have more users than US, with 250 million English speaking people living in India.
  • It’s impossible to analyze the impact of eBook sales because many are being published without ISBNs.
  • Through a wide variety of book platforms such as iBooks, Kobo, Smashwords, Nook, Kindle, etc., paired with all that social media offers, readers will seek their favorite genres and discover authors. The publisher’s name has very little impact. People are going to read what they want to read.
  • The future is mobile.

For the work that writers do, I think there are several important questions to consider. Where will fans find your books in 2016? Will more people read stories on their hand-held devices? What if more people became readers because they have easier access to the kinds of stories they like?

What I’m trying to tell you is that during a one hour traffic delay because of the lumbering construction equipment blocking Highway 287, I read the heck out of an iBook on my iPhone.

Welcome to the 21st Century. I’m thinking it’s a great time to be a writer!

Keep on writing onward as always, WordsmithSix-ers!

nataliebright.com

Story in a Sentence

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Story in a Sentence

Natalie Bright

There’s no better way to discover the “heart” of your book then to summarize the plot into as few of words as possible.

One sentence can explain the main characters, the plot line, and the theme. Now that’s a challenge!

Stripe your story down to the bare bones. Hooks are attention getters to lure readers into your story. You want to generate interest with a promise of adventure. Ensnare the reader. Pull her away from reality.

If writing one sentence is too difficult, perhaps you have more than one story line. Maybe you have multiple plot lines, and need to decide upon the main story and theme.

*Toy Story is about the ‘secret life of toys’ when people are not around.

*Princess Anna, a hopeless optimist, sets off on an epic journey – teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff, his loyal reindeer Sven and a talking snowman named Olaf – to find her beautiful sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped their kingdom in eternal winter.

*After a painful divorce, the author sets out to devote one year to pleasure, prayer and love. (EAT, PRAY, LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert.)

Please share the story in a sentence of your current work in progress.

Sunday Writings

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For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.

AMY LOWELL

Sunday Writings

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The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.

                                                                   OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Sunday Writings

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The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

FRANK DANE

Sunday Writings

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All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality – the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.    

AUTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON

 

NEW YEAR WRITING GOALS

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NEW YEAR WRITING GOALS

“The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.”
― Richard Peck

 

It’s a New Year for writing goals dear WordsmithSix followers!

As I think about my writing goals for 2016, the above quote from the award winning playwright and children’s author Richard Peck really speaks to me. What it says to me is that writing is more than just a “mind” exercise. We grow and improve each day. Every story we finish and submit, or shove into a desk drawer, is a lesson in grammar, character development, and plot structure. The hardest part is to keep pushing ourselves forward.

The year 2015 was sluggish for me. I’ve got two middle grade novels and a picture book out there that’s not garnering much interest. We’ve put one novel “on the back-burner” as my agent suggested. To keep busy during “the wait”, I’ve been researching and writing nonfiction articles for magazines, submitted work to several anthologies, and posted tons of blogs for various sites. I really kept on task .

Is the purpose of my writing just to keep busy? This isn’t writers block. I’ve got loads of fiction ideas in various stages of completion. What I’m lacking, I’ve decided, is heart. The heart to stay with one writing project, make it the most phenomenal story I can, and see it to the end.

Quality, NOT Quantity.

As I stare at the 2016 goals sheet, I’ve decided to forget about striving for daily word counts and endless list of contests to enter. Instead, I’m considering what are some of my weak points that I can improve upon in the New Year? How can I write the best book of my abilities and then, make it even better?

Who knows if my work will ever be read in 2016, other than by my WordsmithSix critique group? So many things in this business are beyond our control. I want a new project that will remind me of how fulfilling and fun writing can be. Which unwritten book will I come to every morning with excitement? Which story spark can’t be ignored?

Once I have the answers to these questions, that’s the spark I’ll write on the goals sheet. That’s the one I shall pour my heart into.

 What about you? What’s your writing goals for 2016?

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
― William Wordsworth 

Wishing you a blessed and productive New Year!

 

Five Baisc Elements of PLOT

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Five Baisc Elements of PLOT

Natalie Bright

The plot is the thing that moves the story along. How you craft the plot can make a different between a best selling page turner to unforgetable and unsaleble. According to Donald Maass in his book, “Writing the Breakout Novel” one of the mistakes beginning novelists make is to write the sequentail activiities of a characters’ every day events. This makes for very dull reading. The goal of story craft is to hold a reader’s attention.

He lists the five basic plot elements:
# 1 – a sympathetic character
#2 – conflict
#3 – reinforcement. Conflict must twist, turn, deepen and grow.
#4 – climax
#5 – resolution

“Writing the Breakout Novel” is an excelent book on story craft. Be good to yourself and add it to your writing reference library.