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iting example writing methodology writing philosophy writing technique writing tip leave a comment evaluating abuse of power based on the principles of good writing posted on april 18 2013 by bwfoster78 in this post i set forth my thoughts on what constitutes good writing an author should be his own worst critic and constantly examine his work for improvement to that end i m evaluating my novelette abuse of power based on those principles to see where i need to concentrate my efforts for future learning principle 1 do no harm clean concise prose is my strong point while there s always room for improvement trying to get better at writing technique will take a great deal of time and result in little benefit likewise i think i do a good job of making story choices that don t provide distractions for the reader the structure for abuse is straightforward and it flows well i give myself a solid 4 5 stars here principle 2 create relatable characters before getting my editor s comments i thought i did a pretty good job with characterization overall while i think auggie and alaina are pretty relatable in their overarching goals and struggles i m lacking in a couple of other areas variation of character voice one of tim s big complaints was the lack of differentiation between the voices of alaina a baker s daughter and auggie the son of the duke oops i did my best in the revision to use vocabulary to create more of a divide but i don t think this is one of my strong suits i ll continue to work on improving this aspect of my craft but truthfully i don t see it as a huge impact of more worry is the fact that tim felt my characters were too one dimensional i m struggling with this one since abuse is a novelette i tried hard to keep the plot concise and didn t see a lot of opportunities to expand on the characters in the revision i added a little bit of detail but i m not sure i adequately addressed his concerns i ll be interested to see if he feels this problem extends to power of the mages where i spent much more time developing characters because of the two fairly serious concerns i give myself only 2 stars here principle 3 present a series of significant events the structure and pace of abuse is spot on tim had no major complaints and i feel the story moves well he noted a few places where i could ramp up the tension a bit and i did so in my revision again there s always room for improvement but in general i know how to add tension and how to keep a story moving i give myself another solid 4 5 stars principle 4 filter the events through the emotional lens of your character this principle is the one that i discovered most recently in my writing career and the one i feel is the weakest element of my writing while tim was overall pleased with the emotional movement i m still not satisfied i know a lot of writers criticize stephenie meyer s twilight series but in midnight sun she does the best job i ve ever read of filtering every sentence brings the reader closer to edward s emotions i m not saying that i should try to emulate her style as i m not sure it would be appropriate for epic fantasy but i think i have a long way to go in truly learning and embracing the technique she implements i m making a further study of it a high priority on my to do list perhaps i ll pen a short story that explores her methods because tim thought i did well overall i give myself 3 5 stars principle 5 give the reader an emotional payoff i like the ending of abuse each time i read it i smile on the other hand it doesn t provide the emotional payoff that i really want part of that is the limitation of fitting the story into a novelette and part is my weakness at emotional filtering 3 stars overall abuse of power is a solid story at 3 5 stars but i have a lot of work to do in getting better at my overall craft i d be interested to know what you think of my evaluation the final version should be available for free download from the site sometime no later than early next week if you get a chance please read it and comment posted in writing tip tagged abuse of power how to write fiction improve fiction writing power of the mages self editing writing writing methodology writing technique writing tip leave a comment the principles of good writing posted on april 17 2013 by bwfoster78 the more self published books i read the more i want to make sure mine doesn t suck honestly if you expect people to pay money for a product you should make every effort to ensure that the novel is worthy to that end i am constantly analyzing the principles of good writing and evaluating my work versus those principles note that these principles are not necessarily universal what i may consider an important element of a story you may feel is insignificant there is no one perfect story that fits every person tastes vary widely the point is that each author should keep their goals firmly fixed if you don t know what you consider good how are you ever going to achieve it principle 1 do no harm the vast majority of readers who pick up your book don t want to see you fail they want to love your writing to be engaged and moved emotionally by your work the best things you can do are not let your writing get in the way of the story and not make stupid decisions two keys produce clean concise prose make story choices designed to engage the reader principle 2 create relatable characters the reader lives the story through the eyes of your characters the more the reader can relate to the character the more engaged they are two keys give the character an overarching goal to which anyone can relate such as the search for love acceptance etc make the character struggle to attain their goal principle 3 present a series of significant events a story in its simplest terms is a series of scenes the core of good writing is choosing which scenes to present two keys to make each one significant make each relate to and advance the story make each not boring by filling it with tension and emotion principle 4 filter the events through the emotional lens of your character events have no relevance to the reader and thus no impact to make your writing engaging you have to make the reader feel the importance of the event the best way to do that is to show the event through the eyes of the character and clue the reader in at each step regarding the character s feelings about what is happening principle 5 give the reader an emotional payoff if you ve followed the principles above your reader knows your character s goal and has experienced your character s struggle they re rooting for your character to succeed they want to experience that success give it to them tomorrow i evaluate my novelette abuse of power in light of these principles posted in writing tip tagged how to write fiction improve your writing most important principles for good writing writing writing methodology writing philosophy writing technique writing tip 1 comment be active part 2 posted on april 16 2013 by bwfoster78 in this post i discussed the what why and when of be active the post below concludes the series how step 1 take a scene and write just the verbs consider the following sally had a pony it made her happy one day she was riding and saw storm clouds on the horizon it started to rain she could have gone back to the stable instead she was so happy that she continued riding even while the rain began to make her wet that s not exactly the most compelling paragraph ever written granted there are many issues with it but a part of the problem is the lack of action conveyed by the verbs let s look at them had made was saw started could was step 2 replace weak verbs with strong ones all seven verbs above are weak none convey action or motion sally had a pony it made her happy instead of telling the reader in static terms that sally owns a pony and how that pony makes her feel let s show them sally stilled her tapping foot and glanced at the clock again only five more minutes she thought her ears repelled the teacher s voice as the seconds ticked she pressed her feet hard against the floor to keep her knees from swaying finally the bell rang and sally rushed from the building rainbow she thought here i come she smiled okay not the greatest piece of literature ever produced but we re headed in the right direction we re showing how eager sally is to get to her pony and how happy she is at the prospect note the verbs in this version stilled glanced thought repelled pressed rang rushed thought smiled with the exception of thought which is a necessary evil all these words convey motion one day she was riding and saw storm clouds on the horizon there are isolated instances where it is appropriate to use was plus a gerund most of the times that i see a beginner using the construct it is not a wise choice in this case was riding can be translated as existed in a state of riding it s much stronger to depict sally as riding by using rode than as existing by using was the second clause is likewise quite weak it s an example of what i call the bad version of filtering we re in sally s point of view so there is no reason to write that she saw if we simply show the reader what she sees they understand that it s coming through her eyes her legs churned as she ran to the stable and she threw her arms around the pony s neck before saddling him after a quick check of the horse s legs she galloped toward the river wind whipped through her hair too much wind she frowned storm clouds gathered on the horizon again look at the verbs used churned threw galloped whipped frowned gathered it started to rain she could have gone back to the stable instead she was so happy that she continued riding even while the rain began to make her wet any time you see started to or began to in your writing examine it most of the time it s hiding a better verb likewise consider was to be one of the worst worse you can possibly use if you can get rid of it without going through verbal gymnastics do so it s not always possible to avoid could but realize that it s weak large wet drops splashed on her head and shoulders and she slumped in dismay at the thought of cutting her ride short there s no lightning or thunder she thought she grinned i won t melt note how the combination of showing and conveying motion transformed a horrid uninteresting paragraph into something that is at least readable posted in writing tip tagged be active how to write fiction improve your writing writing writing philosophy writing technique writing tip 2 comments be active posted on april 13 2013 by bwfoster78 this two part series is another slightly better than rough draft version of a chapter from my upcoming book on writing as always i d love feedback be active what the fundamental concepts of be active are twofold 1 subjects perform the action in a sentence steve hit the tree the preceding sentence is written in active voice the subject steve performs an action hitting the tree contrast that with a sentence written in passive voice the tree was hit by steve 2 the author chooses strong verbs that convey motion steve was running toward the castle that sentence literally means steve existed in a state of running toward the castle instead of having your protagonist exist show him doing something steve ran toward the castle or even better steve sprinted toward the castle why using active voice and strong verbs creates more tension and more interest readers simply are more engaged by strong active writing conveys a direct authoritative style if your goal is story over style this technique helps is clearer active voice requires fewer words than passive voice and delivers the intended message in a more straightforward manner strong active verbs generate action and emotion more effectively than other parts of speech without the need for modifying words to paint a picture when be active should be your default technique use it unless you have a reason not to reasons not to use it you desire to focus on the object rather than the subject beth was attacked the story presumably is interested in beth not the attacker the use of passive voice focuses attention on her you seek to reduce tension since active voice and strong verbs create more tension the reverse using passive voice and focusing on existence rather than action serves to reduce the tension you seek to slow pace concise and direct writing leads to an increased pace using more words and focusing less on action helps to slow things down stay tuned next week for the conclusion of this post on how to implement this crucial technique posted in writing tip tagged be active how to write fiction improve your writing writing writing philosophy writing technique writing tip 2 comments how to use rules posted on april 11 2013 by bwfoster78 there is only one ironclad rule in writing you can do anything you want as long as it works however there are a ton of rules that serve to guide your writing journey in this post i listed why i think you re better off following them than not i also wrote that a strategy for implementing them is probably a good idea that strategy is today s topic step 1 just follow the darn rules show don t tell avoid adverbs be active find a bromide and use it you ll question the effectiveness you ll shout why and my way is better the truth is that learning to apply the rules will make your writing better and make it better fast it s amazing the difference just a little cleanup of technique will make for you seeing those instant results and getting much better feedback when you post provides a lot of motivation to continue your journey step 2 seek to understand the rules if you want to master the craft it s not enough to simply show instead of tell the fact is that there are times when your best bet is to tell you have to know when that is there s no help for it but to learn understand what showing accomplishes and what telling accomplishes understand what the goal for your writing is if you put all that understanding together you should be able to discern when to use which technique step 3 experiment first deliberately break the rules trying to achieve a certain effect second massage the writing until you think it works finally get feedback from your beta readers you re trying to develop your ear and your discernment if you get wide spread agreement fantastic move one to the next step if not go back and try again step 4 mastery once you can break a rule and achieve the result you wanted to the satisfaction of your beta readers and your editor you ve mastered the rule congratulations just a couple of points to remember 1 it s almost always a really bad thing if you re breaking a rule unintentionally rule breaking is something that should be done with malice aforethought 2 until you ve mastered the rule you are absolutely the worst person on the planet who can determine if what you have written works posted in writing tip tagged writing writing...