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Gaelen Foley’s Writing Tips
1. Train yourself to write to deadlines. Use small, short-range
deadlines, such as completing the next chapter, as well as long-term
deadlines, such as finishing the book. If you only use long-term
deadlines, it’s so very easy to get off track.
2. Don’t talk about your book until it’s done. There
are many reasons for this. Resist the temptation. Zip it!
3. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Don’t worry
about selling your book if it isn’t even written yet.
4. Pick one kind of book to write, and master it.
5. Critique groups are nice and can lend support, but they can
harm as well as help. If the other members are not as serious as
you are, it’ll end up being a waste of time, which is in short
supply for most of us. There is also the danger of having your individual
writer’s voice distorted if the critique group becomes ‘writing
by committee.’ On the other hand, they can provide accountability
to make sure you meet your self-imposed writing deadlines, as well
as problem-solving help.
6. Never, ever “talk down” to your reader in your novel.
My college professors used to say that you should aim your writing
at someone who’s slightly smarter than you are. Always respect
the reader and aim high to please him/her.
7. Read the classics. Educate yourself. You don’t need an
MFA to become a novelist, but you owe it to yourself, if not your
audience, to have a familiarity with the basic canon of Western
literature, from Greek tragedy, Beowulf, and the Bible through Shakespeare,
Dante, and Milton to at least the WWII era. If you can’t take
college lit classes due to your present circumstances, I still think
it’s better to read these masterworks on your own than never
to pick them up—even if you have to have the dang Cliff Notes
beside you to help you understand what you’re reading. Ideally,
you would have a good professor explaining the nuances, but not
everybody can do that. Do the best you can. These are works of art
that will inspire you.
8. Don’t take your research from other people’s fiction.
It’s a lazy and unprofessional habit that some people get
into. Research comes from research books or from recognized experts
on the subject. (The grandmother of the Regency genre, Georgette
Heyer, began putting fake facts in her novels in order to expose
the many copycat writers who lifted research out of her novels rather
than doing their own. You never know who might be doing that today.)
If you take facts from online sources, cross-reference them with
other sources. Not everything online is reliable.
9. Format your manuscript properly when sending it to an agent
or editor, and resist at all costs the impulse to make a pretend
book cover for it or to bind it in any way. That looks so unprofessional.
It should be double spaced on plain white paper, in Times New Roman
12-14 pt. or Courier 10-12 pt. Give it a cover page, and put a large
rubber band around it. You can add an 8 ½ X 11 piece of cardboard
under the manuscript to protect in the mail, but that’s it.
Don’t do anything dorky to “make it stand out”
or you’ll be really embarrassed later. Your skillful writing
and beautiful story are all it should need to make it stand out.
10. Learn how to say no when people ask you for favors. Your writing
time should be sacrosanct. Some people in your life will take this
badly. They’ll think you’re selfish or worse, but too
bad.
11. Take all advice, including mine, with a grain of salt. Always
give it a ‘gut check’ before you mentally accept it.
12. Never chase the market. Don’t be a sellout. Write what
is authentic for YOU. The readers can smell a phony a mile away,
so chasing the market doesn’t work, anyway.
13. Don’t have tunnel vision. Writing is always *about* something,
about the world, so take an interest in lots of different topics.
This is a great way to keep your imagination lively and to spark
new story ideas.
14. Enjoy the journey! It’s not about getting published,
making money, or hitting bestseller lists. Writing a wonderful book
is its own reward.
15. Always remember that the main conflict in a romance is BETWEEN
the hero and heroine. Not hero versus self. Not the good guys versus
the bad guys. Bad Guys are subplots. Some form of conflict between
hero and heroine should exist in every chapter of your book until
it’s all resolved in the final chapter.
16. Internal contradiction is what makes a character ‘complex.’
Hamlet feels compelled by honor and duty to avenge his father’s
murder and take the power that is rightfully his, but he’s
not only young and untried, he’s also an intellectual with
a philosophic bent, and it is his nature to question everything,
even his own senses. What’s right? What’s wrong? Am
I fooling myself? What if avenging Dad only makes everything worse?
Do I have what it takes to follow through? If I act, will the kingdom
come to harm? It’ll all be my fault…. Complex characters
often have a conscious goal that is at odds with their deeper emotional
needs. A common example is Rick in Casablanca. Rick’s stated
goal is to be left alone, but the need that tortures him is for
meaningful involvement in life again.
17. Structure your novel into three acts, with a climactic turning
point at the end of each act. Each of the three successive, act-capping
climaxes should be bigger and more intense than the last.
18. Become familiar with the stages of the Hero Journey to apply
ancient mythic structure to your storytelling. (See THE WRITER’S
JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler. This is based on the work of cultural
anthropologist Joseph Campbell.) The stages of the Hero Journey
are: ACT I – The Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting
with the Mentor, Crossing the First Threshold. ACT II – Tests,
Allies, and Enemies, Approach to the Inmost Cave, Supreme Ordeal,
Reward. ACT II – Road Back, Resurrection, Return with the
Elixir.
19. Regarding love scenes, or what some people call “the
good parts.” (grin) They should advance the hero and heroine’s
emotional relationship, illuminate character, and explore the subtleties
of conflict. Characters learn about themselves and the beloved in
sex scenes; they confront their fears and test their courage to
open up emotionally, become vulnerable, trust the other person,
and give of themselves. The emotional/spiritual component, the process
of permanent pair-bonding, is what makes it a romance. It’s
not simply what body parts go where.
20. RECOMMENDED WRITING BOOKS
You’ve read my best pointers for advice; now let me sign off
by giving you a list of my favorite writing books. I suggest that
you study them and apply their lessons to your work in progress.
They’ve been very helpful to me. If I had to pick my All-Time
Favorite Top Three Writing Books, here they are, in order:
a. Ray, Robert J. THE WEEKEND NOVELIST. Dell Trade Paperback, 1994.
(This book sat on my shelf for years before I realized what a fab
little gem it is. Unfortunately, it’s out of print. Check
your library and used bookstores to find a copy.)
b. Swain, Dwight. TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER. University
of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 1965. (The grand-daddy of all writing
books, a classic. Some of his examples are dated, but all of his
concepts are spot-on. A must-have.)
c. Bickham, Jack M. WRITING THE SHORT STORY: A HANDS-ON PROGRAM.
Writer's Digest Books, 1994. (Bickham was a student of Swain's.
Superb, insightful, methodical. Step-by-step program of how to tackle
the huge task of writing a complete work of fiction. Note: though
it refers to short stories, 99% of the concepts apply perfectly
well to novels, too.)
Here are a few more in no particular order that are also top-notch,
and which I use all the time. Feel free to print this out and take
it with you to the bookstore or library.
d.Trottier, David. THE SCREENWRITER'S BIBLE: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO
WRITING, FORMATTING, AND SELLING YOUR SCRIPT. Third Edition. Silman-James
Press, Los Angeles, 1998. (Applies to novels as much as screenplays.
Especially good for a very simple breakdown that will help you gain
an understanding of structure, high concept, and methods for building
characters.)
e . Vogler, Christopher. THE WRITER'S JOURNEY: MYTHIC STRUCTURE
FOR WRITERS. 2nd Edition. Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City,
CA. 1998. (I would consider this an essential, too. Vogler condenses
the work of the cultural anthropologist, Joseph Campbell, applying
ancient mythic structure to modern storytelling in the heroic tradition,
as mentioned above.)
f . Zuckerman, Albert. WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL. Writer’s
Digest Books, 1994. (Advice from a big-time agent with a foreword
by Ken Follett. Especially good insights into the revision process.
This one’s a wee bit pompous at times.)
g . McKee, Robert. STORY: SUBSTANCE, STRUCTURE, STYLE, AND THE
PRINCIPLES OF SCREENWRITING. ReganBooks, 1997. (For the advanced
fiction-writing student. Applies to novels and all forms of storytelling
as much as screenplays. Also available on audiotape. Bold, eloquent,
and occasionally a bit of a windbag, McKee is quite brilliant, all
the same.)
h. Dibell, Ansen. PLOT. Writer’s Digest Books, 1988. (Covers
all the basics in an interesting and orderly way.)
GOOD LUCK!
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