Category: Magical Words

Magical Words: Therefore

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

What path does a book follow? Is it one step after another, haphazardly finding its way to an conclusion, or is it driven down the inevitable street until it reaches the only ending possible?

Carrie Ryan write about plotting using “therefore” and “but” rather than “and then” in her Magical Words post from August 22, 2012, “Therefore”. The post gives a method to plot more strongly.

If you line up every scene or plot beat in your book, and the only words that connect them are “and then,” you have a problem; instead, each scene needs to be connected with either “therefore” or “but.”

Put simply, your book should go something like: “A therefore B therefore C but D therefore E but F.”  Rather than “A and then B and then C and then D…”

It sounds easy, but the point is to make things flow because they connect. The difference between all the cars on a road going the same direction, and a train with interconnected carts. If you disconnect a train, things fall apart. On the road, a car could take an exit and you might never notice it is now missing from the story.

Boy meets girl. (and then) Girl flirts with boy. (and then) Boy and girl argue. (and then) Boy and girl make up.

We all have read this story. But how about…

Boy meet girl. But girl flirts with best friend. Therefore boy and best friend argue. But girl doesn’t want to come between them and leave. Therefore the males must talk things out. Meanwhile, girl runs into trouble outside and screams. Therefore both males run outside to rescue her.  …

Now every scene escalates. The energy moves.

Ms. Ryan does mention

“Yeah, but I could just as easily replace each ‘therefore’ and ‘but’ with “and then,’” and you’d be right.  But that’s not the issue — the problem comes when you can’t replace an “and then” with a “therefore” or “but.”

Be aware of the connections of your plots, whether at the outlining, first draft, or editing stage. Make sure that every scene and plot beat, when you move from one car to the next is a “therefore/but” and not “and then” – you want a train car, not an automobile.

Again the URL is: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/therefore/ (The post may not be there. It looks like they finally took the website down.)

Magical Words: Running and Writing

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by sporlab on Unsplash

Going the distance writing in hard. Only these past couple years have I managed anything close to a long form. Part of my problem is I think of writing like running sprints, getting it done and over with as quickly as possible. Writing long form is a marathon.

I do marathon work all the time in my gigs – I count down the days for taxes, I count the packages for the post office, I record the number of words in a book to edit.

Christina Henry did a guest blog for Magical Words on October 24, 2014 on “of Running and Writing”, explaining how running a marathon helped her finally finish a novel. Instead of concentrating on the destination, she started working on the journey.

My biggest take away is

When you actually run the race you never think, “One mile down, 25 to go.” Instead you think,  “One more mile. One more mile.” And slowly but surely you get to the finish line

My personal problem with long-form is I do think “one mile down, 25 to go.” I accomplish so much more when I “write today, write today, write today”.

Maybe the post will inspire you for longer creative works. Again the URL is: http://www.magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/christina-henry-of-running-and-writing/

Magical Words: Eight Ways to HOKWOP

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

It has been a while since I’ve talked about BIC – Butt in Chair, and HOC – Hands on Keyboard. One last part of this is WOP – Words on Page.

Lauren Harris, in a guest post on Magical Words on August 27, 2013, did a deep dive into “Eight Ways to HOCWOP”.

As she points out in the opening sentence, writing depends on one’s own discipline.

And after a day of work outside the house, and all the chores inside the house, finding the whip to get to a keyboard and CREATE, using up what little mental energy you have left, is a Herculean task. She came up with a list of very viable suggestions on how to type Words on Page. I’ve tried most of them over the years – some work for a time, others work in combo, and some just don’t work for me. But that is true of all writer advice, nothing is going to work for everyone.

The eight steps

  1. Clear your space
  2. Morning pages / Brain Dump / Journal
  3. Go Somewhere
  4. Write analog
  5. Find an accountability buddy
  6. Make a schedule
  7. Establish a trigger
  8. Set a timer.

She goes into detail about each of these, plus comments from experienced writers to the post can help a person figure out what is best to get BICHOKWOP.

Again the URL is: http://www.magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/eight-ways-to-hokwop/

Magical Words: Predictability

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Stephanie McCabe on Unsplash

Happy July 4th!

Oh, is that too predictable? Did you expect that?

Maybe happy Wording Approval Day? (The actual declaration happened on July 2nd, but it took a couple days to iron out the wording. And it wasn’t completely signed until some time in August.)

Oh, is that too unpredictable and therefore either (a) boring or (b) uncomfortable.

If I think saying Happy Holidays is tough, wait until I try to find the predictable balance in writing fiction. You want some predictability, a comfortable story for the read to slide into. And some unpredictability, making the story new and novel to keep the interest peaked. Like the fireworks tonight, they are expected and, yet, each explosion and spiral of the rockets is unexpected.

Diana Pharaoh Francis discusses this quandary in “Predictability” via her Magical Word post on May 5, 2016. I found how working on the topic impacted the manuscript she was creating at the time.

Again the URL is: http://www.magicalwords.net/diana-pharaoh-francis/predictability/

Magical Words: Working the Crowd

Erin Penn Leave a comment

DragonCon 2018 – from Nerd Nation Magazine

It’s convention time again. ConCarolinas, ConGregate, DragonCon, and so forth. Which means selling books, which mean working the crowd.

You know, it’s very amusing watching people used to the solitary occupation of writing and editing, nearly all by nature introverts, figure out how to work a crowd.

Gail Z. Martin gave some excellent advice related to “Working the Crowd – How to Survive and Thrive Staffing a Booth”. At one time she was a corporate marketer, so her simple list of advice is sound. The Magical Word post was published August 24, 2016.

Item 1 – Wear comfortable shoes. Concrete floors are not kind to knees and the back.

Item 2 – Stand as much as you can. It give you energy, you are more visible, you will attract more people, and it is easier to talk. I (Erin) have been told to stand at work as it conveys a welcome; you are paying special attention to the person. It also matches body language with both people standing.

Item 3 – Try not to eat in your booth. Don’t NOT eat – get food, but if you have to eat at the table, keep it hidden. Half-eaten food disturbs people. And most people don’t like interrupting people who are eating.

Item 4 – Make the booth attractive. Swag, create levels, use banners behind to create depth.

Item 5 – Smile. At everyone. Invite them closer.

Item 6 – Use the person’s name – at cons, they come with name tags. Ask questions to engage them – what do they like to read, are they enjoying the con, how is the weather.

Item 7 – Hand them the merchandise. Studies show people are much more likely to buy something when they have handled it.

are just some of the twenty suggestions. Again the URL is: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/working-the-crowd-how-to-survive-and-thrive-staffing-a-booth/