Author: Rose Sparrowking

Recent Great Writing Links

~ Rose Sparrowking

Struggling with Writing Flashbacks? Try Using the P.A.S.T. Method

“Flashbacks can be tricky to write. On one hand, they can reveal a powerful emotional moment from the protagonist’s past or reveal important information about her, her circumstances, or other characters. But on the other hand, they can lack urgency, become confused with the present-day narrative, or seem more like backstory. So for your readers to believe the flashbacks matter just as much as what’s happening in the protagonist’s life right now, you’ll need to craft those scenes with intention, skill, and care.”

Too Much Information: Exposition and the Reading Brain

“It’s questions, not answers, that create narrative drive. You keep reading until you find answers, and ideally you don’t get the last answer till the very end of the story.”

4 Pacing Tricks to Keep Readers’ Attention

“Perhaps the single greatest pacing trick any writer can master is that of luring readers ever deeper into the story, via a breadcrumb trail of revelations. The careful dance between foreshadowing and revealing a plot turn is the secret power of master writers.”

Six Mistakes That Can Kill a Great Plot

“A story with high stakes, a compelling problem, and good urgency is still missing one thing: character agency. Your characters need at least some idea of what they’re going to do. They’re the protagonists, after all, so it’s their job to keep the plot moving. If they can’t perform that function, the story quickly stalls.”

Recent Great Writing Links

~ Rose Sparrowking

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Dirty Little Secrets, Part Three: Why the Agent Requested—and Then Rejected—the Full Manuscript

“…one thing did not lead to another, with clear consequences for the story moving forward, which meant there was no sense that the story was building up to something important.
“Causality is not a term generally bandied about in creative writing circles, but it really ought to be, because it’s a principle that goes right to the root of storytelling.”
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Three Ways Writers Tell, Not Show (And How You Can Fix Them)

“Show, don’t tell can make a writer want to scream, but once you realize what told prose looks like, it’s easy to rewrite it to show. And after you train yourself to spot it, you start avoid it naturally.”
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Editing for Authors: 7 Ways to Tighten the Story and Cut Costs

“Self-publishing is a whole new level and new devil. If we’re doing our job, the self-published novel should be at least as good as anything legacy published. This means we bear the burden (and cost) of making sure our manuscript is the best it can be.

“Superior editing makes the difference between releasing a novel versus unleashing one. Many emerging writers—once the novel is ‘finished’—make some major errors when it comes to ‘editing.’”

 

Quick Review: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

~ Rose Sparrowking

 

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Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

This has been on my to-be-read pile for a while now. A post-apocalyptic fantasy that isn’t set in some pseudo-medieval very white European facsimile. Our hero is Maggie, of the Diné (Navajo) and she’s a monster hunter/slayer. Since the great flood, gods and monsters and powers have returned to the world. The Trickster, Coyote, figures prominently in the story, reminding me of Patricia Briggs and her Mercy Thompson series. This Coyote came across more malicious than tricky but maybe that’s how he’s portrayed in Diné mythology. The conclusion was inevitable but not surprising. I knew she’d have to confront this person in the place. I was surprised in one aspect in the climax but the rest I had figured out. The plot flowed well, one event leading to another, and the writing was tight. I like that she was a bad-ass (and had reason to be) and that contrasted with Kai, who so focused on peace. Maybe the characters were a bit too black and white but frankly if their genders were reversed, no one would question it. The ending left things hanging and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Recent Great Writing Articles

~ Rose Sparrowking
black ball point pen with brown spiral notebook
Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels.com

I am sensing a theme in choosing these writing articles. My sub-conscious is telling me to focus on what my characters want!

“I’m here to tell you that nothing—I mean nothing—makes a novel harder to follow, much less care about, than not knowing what it is the characters want.”

https://litreactor.com/columns/dirty-little-secrets-part-two-why-your-beta-readers-never-finished-your-novel

“Can writing advice be distilled down to one game-changing essential nugget? I’d say yes: What does this character want? Well, that’s obvious, you think, as obvious as smiling at your kids. But just like that nugget of parenting wisdom, there’s more to it than that. Because what your character wants may conflict with the wants of a host of other characters, for starters. What your character wants may put them at odds with themselves. What your character wants may be not one thing but two things, and those two things may be at odds. And if you can stay focused on all those wants, you will end up with one hell of a story.”

https://writerunboxed.com/2019/02/20/parenting-advice-elevator-pitches-and-the-essential-heart-of-story/

“Four qualities are spot-on in this speech. These are common to all great Villain Speeches and they always work.”

https://stevenpressfield.com/2019/02/harvey-keitels-villain-speech-in-cop-land/

Book Rec:

I’m working on an outline for my novel, since I’m stuck and need the help. I’ve had this book for ages (again! I really need to read all the books I already own) and have found it great for getting my creative side working again. I have more of her books which I need to read next.

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K. M. Weiland.

“What a character wants is bound inextricably to the arc he will follow over the course of the book. The changes that transform him from who he was at the beginning of the book to who he is at the end will be the direct result of how he goes about getting what he wants, or perhaps how the course of the story changes what he wants.”

Links List

~ Rose Sparrowking
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Photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash

Writing links

How to Create Conflict by Discovering Your Character’s Objects of Desire. “But when you keep your characters loyal to their external wants and bound to their internal needs, making innovative choice after innovative choice to somehow achieve both objects of desire despite the odds and consequences, readers will love you for it.”

Do You Have a Story Concept, or Just a Cool Idea? Three elements for a story concept: “At least one character that is actively pursuing a goal,” “Urgent motivation for said goal,” and “Obvious and escalating conflict for the goal.”

Change How You Think links

3 Ways to Make Stress Your Friend. “Choose a different perspective.” “Shift how you interpret your body’s signals.” “Train with the Body Scan meditation.” This and the next link relate back to my post about shifting the way you think so you can change the way you live.

Change Your Language, Change Your Life. “Replace I have to with I get to.” “Instead of I’m going through something difficult, how about I’m growing through something difficult?” “Rather than should, must, or ought to, use prefer to, want to, or choose to.” “Try the shift from I can’t do this or I’m not good at this to This is challenging, and I’ll get it, or I’m still learning, and I’ll keep at it.”   

Writing, Reading and Gratitude

~ Rose Sparrowking
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sun over clouds by rose.sparrowking

Grateful for today:

The magnificent blue sky.

Recent Writing Bookmarks:

My Ongoing Feud with Billy Joel. Great advice for writing dialogue. Make dialogue a confrontation not a conversation. Give each character a distinct voice. Look for other ways to make how your character talks memorable. Don’t be a name dropper. Don’t go nuts with dialogue tags. Don’t go overboard with dialect.

The Villain Adapts, but Does Not Change. Keep the villains coming at the hero from everywhere. The villain adapts but does not change. The hero is the one who changes. If the villain changed, he’d be the hero.

The Key Components of a Compelling Character (According to Psychology). Make them want. Make them unique. Make them more.

The Inner Struggle: How to Show a Character’s Repressed Emotions. Over and under-reactions. Tics and tells. Flight, fight or freeze. Passive-aggressive reactions. Incongruencies.

Recent Reads

Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books) (Volume 1). This really made me re-think and re-structure my novel. Which was supposed to be a thriller romance but wasn’t working on the romance front.

Fear of Why

~ Rose Sparrowking

luka-vovk-1309002-unsplashPhoto by Luka Vovk on Unsplash

I don’t know if I’m ready to think about my why’s.

What the hell does that mean?

So, I’ve only recently started listening to podcasts. Yeah, yeah. I’m always running behind. I’ve enjoyed Fit Bottomed Girls blog for some time and now listen to their podcast. They recently interviewed Patricia Moreno (here and here) and it really got me to thinking about two things.

  1. Your thoughts drive your life.
  2. You need to dig deep and figure out your why.

These are the notes that I jotted down after listening to the first podcast, twice:

  • Your self-talk is your destiny
  • The things you say to yourself constantly becomes your destiny
  • How you feel as result of what focusing on, what saying to yourself and how you’re moving your body.

I’ve been pushing myself to lose weight and to work on my novel. At one point I though about writing ‘fat’ on the back of one hand and ‘lazy’ on the back of the other to remind myself what not to be. OMG!!! What kind of messages am I giving to myself!? Why the hell would I tell myself that I’m fat and lazy!? Why would I think that about myself and why would I want to reinforce those beliefs about myself?

But I don’t know if I’m ready to do the deep digging and find out why I’m so mean to myself. If someone called me fat and lazy, would I just accept that as truth? No, I’d be pissed off and hurt. So why do I allow myself to talk to me that way? I just don’t know if I’m ready for the emotional toll it will take to do this digging into why.

I catch myself operating on an emotional anesthesia track. If it gets too tough, too hard, too real, then I back off (do laundry), do something that requires little thought or mental work, tell myself there’s nothing I can do about it (whatever it is) in the moment and push it on the back burner.

My back burner must be close to an avalanche.

I’m going to have to dig. But I’m afraid of what I’ll find.

Since I’m not tackling that right now, I can tackle a bit of my self-talk. No putting ‘fat’ or ‘lazy’ on my hands but what would I write on my hands to give me the better message? Grateful. Love. Healthy. Strong. Worthy. Peace.

Since I’m not writing on my hands and am not ready for a tattoo, I’m thinking it might be bracelet making time.

Another thing Patricia spoke about was writing down something you’re grateful for each day and that it sounds ridiculous, but the consistency of it will slowly change your self-talk.

Today I’m grateful for Patricia Moreno and Fit Bottomed Girls for giving me such powerful things to think about.

Links List

~ Rose Sparrowking

Sperm Count Zero:

It’s “just a waiting game until one or another of the stupid things our stupid species is up to finally gets us. But as it turns out, no surprise: men first. Second instance of no surprise: We’re going to take the women down with us.”

“the human race is apparently on a trend line toward becoming unable to reproduce itself. Sperm counts went from 99 million sperm per milliliter of semen in 1973 to 47 million per milliliter in 2011, and the decline has been accelerating.”

Terrifying on how we’re destroying ourselves. This article gave me ideas for a novel.

Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age:

“no matter how old or out of shape you are, you can restore much of the strength you already lost. ”

“start a strength-training program using free weights, resistance bands or machines”

I’ll be phasing in a strength training program soon as I am now beginning an aerobic program while changing my eating habits. Don’t do everything at once!

Quick Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager

~ Rose Sparrowking

Final Girls by Riley Sager

I’ve been reading a lot of thrillers and murder mysteries, especially Harry Bosch and Lisbeth Salander, lately and picked this novel up a while ago when replenishing my unread book pile. I should’ve been warned away by the comparison to Gone Girl on the cover. I had no empathy for the characters in that book. So little that I read maybe a chapter before moving on to another book.

The same thing with Final Girls. I just don’t care what happens. I’m half way through and dropping it. Since the original murderer died, then the current murderer can only be one of two characters. There just aren’t that many characters in the story. … I skipped to the end and I was right. One of two characters.

I guess the book didn’t hook me. I did not race through to find out what happens next. I was never surprised or shocked. And one of the murdered character’s stupidity just irked me.

That’s a no for me. Donating to the library.