Settings, Seasons and Sensibility Create a Lasting Sense of Place

Details make the setting

Falling leaves, the scent of wood smoke, the feel of snow in the air — yearning for a mug of apple cider yet? There's nothing like grounding prose in a season and sensory details to create a sense of place that draws readers in.

Even if you're not from New England, or the U.S., you might guess that the opening phrase typifies a region that celebrates autumn. If I were writing about an area where autumn is more austere, Scandinavia, for example, I'd describe the slant of the sun setting early on a windswept landscape. Can you tell I've been watching Wallander?

Writers imbued with a strong sense of place — a phenomenon frequently found in those uprooted early in life from a place they felt was home — often instinctually include sensory details. The key is to use spare, precise language. Note that the opening description, short as it is, includes at least three of the five senses. It's also key to use details that exemplify the area you're describing.

Seasons evoke memory, stoke the senses and create memorable settings. They decorate stories as you'd decorate your home, with originality and a unique identity.

What part of the world evokes your most vivid memories?

Happy writing!

For more tips, visit Word for Words, or visit Adele's blog.

The Shape of Your Fiction Propels Your Story

A story's shape propels it

If you were to draw your story, what would it look like? A diamond, a square, an oval, elliptical, a double or triple helix?

Every story has a shape. For example, does your piece start with a tightly written scene that includes only the main character, then balloon to include a cast of characters and meander to end in a tightly written tight shot of one character? This story's shape, comprised partly of the number of characters and partly of plot, is elliptical, like a football.

Writers aren't always conscious of shape while writing a first draft, but must become aware of it during revision. Intentional symmetry — not the same as a forced or contrived form — provides structure, is satisfying to the reader and establishes the writer as a deliberate and intentional craftsperson.

To discern the shape of your story, follow these steps:

• Use your opening scene as a starting point, and draw a line outward, or inward, as your story expands or contracts based on the number of characters and continue drawing the line to the end.
• Draw a mirror image of the line.
• Repeat these steps in a separate drawing to represent the main plot points or events.

What do you notice about the two lines? Where do the expanded or contracted scenes intersect with the major plot points?

Tips: Where your story broadens may be where it needs trimming. Where it narrows may be where it needs expanding. To determine whether to expand or trim, consider what's happening at those points. Are the events essential? Can they be pared back or cut entirely?

Remember that the shape of your story creates the movement that propels it.

What are you working on that could use reshaping?

Resources:

Wheels of Motion: Dialogue That Propels the Story Forward

The Shape of a Story: Writing Tips from Kurt Vonnegut

Happy writing!

Mining Family History for Fiction and Creative Nonfiction

Mine your history for stories

Everyone has family of one sort or another, and most people can mine their family history for stories. But developing a story for fiction is different than you may think.

Going through personal or family history for story ideas doesn't have to mean an arduous search of archives. To select a unique idea worth developing, ask yourself these questions:

• What person in my family (including me) do I find most interesting, and why?
• What turning point occurred in this person's life that forever changed it?
• What pivotal incident led to the event — the one without which the turning point wouldn't have happened?
• What was the main outcome of the event?
• What was the most important consequence of the event, especially for that individual?

To fictionalize this story and elevate it to a more literary level, ask yourself these questions:

• What if the person was of a different race, ethnic background and/or gender?
• What if the turning point occurred at an earlier or a later stage of the person's life?
• What if the pivotal incident occurred in a different setting, or was a different incident altogether?
• What if the main the main outcome of the event was the opposite or vastly different from what happened?

 Making these changes will change the story and its ending, enabling it to become uniquely yours. The key to this approach is having some affinity for and/or experience in how you answer the questions. For example, if you change the setting, do you have some knowledge of the new locale? Truth is, after all, still stranger than fiction.

Tip: To add spice to your story, consider this adage from John Updike. There's the story you're afraid to tell others and the story you're afraid to tell yourself. That's the one to write. What aspect of your story are you afraid to tell?

Happy writing!

Reveal Your Story With Symbolism and Motif

Symbols and motif deepen writing

If you've heard it once, you've heard it countless times: Show; don't tell. Fiction writers usually accomplish this through dialogue and scene, conveying what's in their characters by what they say and how they respond to situations. This approach works well for characters, but what about theme and storyline?

One way to reveal the story and theme of a piece is through symbolism and motif. First, a few definitions: 

• Theme: The writer's main concept, subject or topic (e.g., bad things happen to good people)
• Symbolism: An action, idea or object that means more than what's on the surface (e.g., a doorway can signify change, death or birth)
• Motif: A recurring element of symbolic significance (e.g., a door, doorway, foyer or entrance — all possibly pointing to change)

Let's say, for example, that yours is the story of a child who's ill and may die. What words in this mini-scene convey more than their literal meaning?

Colin stood in the doorway of his son's hospital room, watching the small, sleeping form lying so still in the bed. The lights on the monitor blinked intermittently. Should he call the nurse again? he wondered. He hated to do it, but this was his only son.

Which words stand out as freighted with potential? Look at those in bold to see if you agree:

Colin stood in the doorway of his son's hospital room, watching the small, sleeping form lying so still in the bed. The lights on the monitor blinked intermittently. Should he call the nurse again? he wondered. He hated to do it, but this was his only son.

Depending on whether the boy in this story will live, here are other words and concepts to tinker with: Collin's name, the son's name, the name of the hospital and the nurse's name. The more specific the wording, the more likely the son will live. Using specificity in this way, that's what the writer indirectly conveys to the reader.

The best time to address symbolism and motif is in the second draft. These generally aren't techniques to impose on a work as you're creating it, but gems already in the piece that you polish to reflect the story once you know where it's going.

What are you working on that could benefit from wise use of motif and symbolism?

Happy writing!

For more tips, visi Word for Words, or visit Adele's blog.

Take It on Faith, Belief and Unbelief in Writing

Belief matters in writing

In writing and matters of faith, it's easy to go to one extreme or the other: be heavy handed, or avoid the subject. Yet, what characters believe about the workings of their daily lives is a reality, so why not consciously address this spiritual aspect? It's a great way layer their personalities and deepen your writing.

One way to explore the spiritual dimension of your characters is get at the "why" of their decisions. Each day, people make choices that range from whether to stay married to a cheating spouse to which way to walk to the pharmacy. The man married to the cheating spouse may stay with her because he believes divorce is wrong, or because she's the breadwinner. The elderly woman who walks to the corner pharmacy a different way each day may believe it's bad luck to use the same route twice in a row.

Of course, other factors such as finances, age and culture enter into decisions, but so does what characters believe and why they believe it. So take the advice of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa: "To be an artist means never to avert your eyes." Don't be afraid to go there.

Tip: Consider a story you're writing where the main character must make a major decision or a minor that will change the course of his or her life and the story. Explore the underlying reasons for his or her choice.

For more on spirituality and writing, visit Adele's Blog, and "A Writer's Unexpected Emotional Journey."

Happy writing!

Finding the Right Words to Improve Your Writing

The right words improve wour writing



Becoming a better writer is like moving to a new city. Acclimating yourself to an unfamiliar neighborhood takes time, but once you know the streets and landmarks, you find your way with greater ease.

One of the hardest things for me when I began freelancing was finding the right words. I wrote long, cumbersome sentences not because I was esoteric, but because I didn't know better. It took two years to feel comfortable enough with newspaper writing to venture into a more creative approach, and to find one precise word to do the work of a phrase.

If you're a comparatively new writer, or if you want to take your work up a notch, read and write well and widely. in all genres and styles, to all manner of length restrictions and deadlines. That includes poetry, which is richest in imagery and precision. But above all, write, write, write.

Here are helpful resources:
The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual
The Careful Writer
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Elements of Style
Webster's New World College Dictionary
Words Into Type 

Happy writing!

Consider a Cross-Genre Critique Group

When people ask about critique groups for writers, I generally steer them away from those that don't address their genre. Yet, cross-genre sometimes works best.

MFA on Enders Island

I recently took a cross-genre workshop on spirituality in writing through Fairfield University's low-residency MFA program. I was privileged to work with award-winning poet Baron Wormser, acclaimed author Marita Golden, and writer Father Paul Fitzgerald. And that was the key to why the group worked — great faculty who didn't just manage the workshop, but also taught it. Each brought his or her genre expertise to the table, and kept us on track when we strayed.

Also a plus was the fabulous class of talented writers who gave astute, respectful and constructive observations instrumental in taking us from one writing level to the next.

Looking to broaden your field of vision? Consider a cross-genre workshop with these attributes:

• Seek a structured critique environment with experienced authors who respect each other's work.
• Look for a group with the level of talent and experience that will bring your work to the next level.
• Visit the group for a firsthand sense of the dynamic, and to see if the feedback is constructive.
• Look for a group that includes poets.

For questions about cross-genre critique groups, contact Word for Words.

Happy writing!

Finding the Flash in Short Fiction



Find the flash in your short fiction



As e-readers and devices get smaller and time gets shorter, here's how to edit short fiction to reveal the flash:

• Remove all unnecessary words.
• Replace ambiguous and long phrases with one precise word.
• Delete repetitious images and concepts.

Now that you've pared the verbiage:

• Use one image to replace descriptive narrative.
• Use one scene to represent the story.
• Pare dialogue to the essentials.
• Incorporate characters' thoughts in the dialogue.

Repeat the entire process. Now flash your audience.

Tip: This is also a great way to force yourself to edit your work to the essentials.

Resource: For more on flash, visit the Writers Digest article "What Is Flash Fiction."

Happy writing!

For more writing tips, visit the Word for Words Online Workshop, and Adele's blog.