Why Story Titles Are Important for Writers and Readers

A colleague recently asked me to read the first draft of a captivating personal essay, but something was missing — the right title and the real story. A third of the way into the piece I found both. Interestingly, the discovery of the title brought the discovery of the real story.

A story's title reveals its heart

Titles are important because they're like rudders, guiding writer and reader along the story's path to its heart.

Here's how to find your title (and possibly your real story):

• As you reread your work, what word or phrase stands out, and why?
• Does it capture what is or should be the essence of the piece?
• If so, how?
• Does the story change with the new title?
• If so, in what way(s)?
• Is the title original without being flashy and detracting from the story instead of substantiating it?
• Does the title reveal the heart of the work without giving too much away?

Titles are important because they keep the writer and reader on track.

What story are you working on whose title you're unsure of?

Happy writing!

For more tips, visit my online workshop, Word for Words.

If Writer's Block Exists How You Do Break It

Break writer's block by writing

Writers who say they can't write often mean they're afraid to write. Reasons include not knowing where to start, what to say or how to say it. As to the issue of time, the real fear there is of loss. If I write, the writer reasons, what will I miss — a lovely day, an outing with friends, family?

Regardless of the fear, the only way to break writer's block is to write.

But there are ways to ease the fear, and ease into the task:

• Leave work undone: Ernest Hemingway stopped at a point where he knew what would happen. That way, when he returned, he'd have something to say.
• Edit your work: A great way to stoke the writing fires is to edit a section of your story, preferably one you're currently working on, although editing something else works, too.
• Make notes on the next scene: One of the hardest tasks is coming to the work cold, having little or no idea what the next scene should look like. To avoid this pitfall, make notes on the scene the day before, and give yourself time at the next sitting to let your imagination run with the ideas before diving in.

Tip: Always edit your work the night before. Food cooks better in a preheated oven. Your writing process will be better for it, too.

What does your writer's block look like?

Happy writing!

For more tips, visit Word for Words, or visit Adele's blog. Adele Annesi is an award-winning writer, editor and instructor who is working on a novel and series of short stories set in Italy. Visit her at Adele M. Annesi.

The Art of Feeling: The Role of Emotions in Scenes

Emotions in scenes reveal character

Why show emotions in scenes instead of telling how characters feel? Because readers like discovery — it respects their dignity and intellect. But how do emotions function, what should they reveal, and how can writers deal with their own discoveries?

The best approach to writing an emotional scene is to reveal character and advance plot, preferably both at once.

Here's an example:

Bill slammed the garage door. "I told you I didn't want you coming home until you found work."

"But, Dad." Dave slouched against the car. "I'm not cut out for anything."

In two lines, the characters show who they are, how they relate to each other and several major problems.

Caveat: Writers sometimes include information that's new to them, but shouldn't be. Describing Dave as tall in this scene wouldn't add anything, but saying he slouched hints at the same and reveals his mood, if not his personality.

Tip: Writers often make their own discoveries while writing scenes, and wonder whether what they've found is a legitimate character trait, or an anomaly. When you discover something new about a character, rather than stop the scene to ponder it, complete the scene to see how it plays out. Then give yourself time away before rereading the scene and considering how the discovery affects other characters and the plot. If you keep the scene, revise it for as many main characters as are in it. Consider setting a character.

What difficult scene are you working on?

Happy writing!

For more on writing, visit Adele's Online Workshop.

Find the Heart, and You'll Find the Tone

To emotionally invest in a story, readers need to trust the writer, and a writer who creates a serious story with a tongue-in-cheek tone is suspect. Irony and disingenuous narrators aside, it's best to match tone with story and theme.

Match tone with story and theme

While the tone of a piece can vary somewhat by scene, it's best to be consistent throughout. A work can be satirical, ironic, somber, exuberant, even triumphant. Each tone has a spectrum, but it varies by shade, not color. An uneven tone leaves readers questioning the characters, the real point of the story and, ultimately, the writer's motive.

How do you find the tone that best matches your piece? One way is to distill the story into a log line — a description of the work in 25 words or fewer.

Here's an example:
A woman with Alzheimer's fears she won't get the chance to tell her estranged daughter she still loves her.

What's the action word? Fear. It's the heart of the story, and sets the tone of the piece. The log line also sets the story's context, because it shows whose tale is being told. Yes, the work is partly about the daughter, but it's mostly about the mother's fear of unfinished business, and important business, at that.

To find your tone, it's important to know your story and your characters, but especially to know the heart of the piece. The "this is a story about" core of it. Keep that before you, and you'll keep an even tone — and an even keel.

For more on this important element of fiction, see "The 3 Most Important Elements of Fiction Writing," by Magdalena Ball.

A Compelling Case: Lessons From Law & Order

Law and Order has much to teach writers about dialogue, raising the stakes in a story and plot twists. Recently, four words grabbed my attention — the importance of a compelling case.

Compelling scenes draw readers

As the district attorney, the order side of the process, lamented the lack of evidence from the law side, I saw the parallel to writing. It's not necessary to convince readers of a concept or theme, merely to make a compelling case for the plausibility of the world and the people the writer created.

Al though the key word is "compelling," there's a world of difference between convincingly presenting a story and grabbing readers by the collar.

Consider these examples:

"If I've told you once," he said, waving his hands, "I've told you a thousand times — you must come with me. I'm telling you, it's life or death we're talking."

"I've asked before," he said, "I know, but I've got to ask again — come with me. Don't make me beg."

Notice that the word "you" is used four times in some form in the first example, not once in second. Which is more compelling?

Exercise: For inspiration, visit your local café, and write a scene that's over the top, dramatic. Put it aside for a week, and work on other stories, then return, do a save-as and pare the scene to its essentials. Which is more compelling?

Advanced Exercise: To take the edited scene to the next level, consolidate long phrases, replace ambiguous words with precise ones, and revise every cliché. This can be a first step to solid flash fiction. If you prefer the first example above, consider this:

"I've told you a thousand times — you must come. It's life and death we're talking."

Resources: For more on writing compelling scenes, visit WritingWorld.com and "Components of a Good Opening Scene."

Best of Both Worlds: Journalism Principles for Opening Paragraphs

Strong leads capture reader interest

You may recall, before our poetic interlude, that we were talking about using the journalistic style of crafting a good lead to craft a good opening to a short story or novel.

To get us back in the grove, a good nonfiction lead must include the five Ws and an H: who, what, where, when, why and how. And usually, when it comes to leads, shorter is better. This approach to writing a first paragraph — or creating or recreating an entire story — works for fiction, too.

Last time, we began with the lead, and used this object lesson:

Select a nonfiction story you've written — one you like and have written recently — and edit the lead to conform to the journalistic style. If you're looking for ideas for new stories, scan your local newspaper (print sometimes works better), select a story that grabs you and follow the same steps.

To that exercise, let's add this to address the "who" of the story:

Revise the lead paragraph(s) to the each main character by name, and the other primary characters by allusion. Introducing too many characters at once can muddy a piece, but hinting at what's to come whets the reader's appetite.

Tip: The advantage of this approach is that it offers the best of both worlds — the unbounded quality of fiction and the grounded quality of nonfiction.

For more on opening paragraphs, see this from Writer's Digest: "10 Ways to Start Your Story Better." 

Happy writing!