Category: Magical Words

Magical Words: Death

Erin Penn

Photo by Ahmed Adly on Unsplash

Death comes for us all. And for literary secondary characters, sooner than most. But, because of fiction, it needs to make sense. 

Remember the difference between fiction and reality is fiction needs to make sense. Senseless death is unsatisfying in fiction, not just a tragedy. 

Sensible death needs certain things to happen: Intent, Purpose, and Follow-through.

John Hartness breaks down what makes a good death in the Magical Words 3/28/2013 posting, “Matters of Life and Death. Well, mostly death, really.”:

Be sure to read the comments too. People commented on how various literary character deaths worked and didn’t work, and not everyone agreed on what was an acceptable purpose and if follow-through was met.

It’s been nearly 10 years since this posting was made. Comment below on what literary deaths you remember and if you think they meet the requirements for a good fictional death with Intent, Purpose, and Follow-through.

Magical Words: Writing Rituals

Erin Penn

Photo by Valery Fedotov on Unsplash

Writing Rituals

Some people swear by performing a ritual before starting writing to get their mind separated from “everything that needs to be done while I at home” to “I’m working.” Separating Home-Work-Chores from Working-from-Home is necessary, as many people have found out over the last few pandemic years.

Rituals to compartmentalize the Home from the Work space in the head allows one to return from work to home. Otherwise, someone is either always at work (a horrible situation) or at home (with the related distractions and related stress). Writers have been facing this issue for years.

Some of my writing friends separate Work-and-Home physically instead of just mentally, by going to Starbucks or other location. Locally, a bar-coffee-shop welcomes writers during NaNoWritMo. Two mugs can get a long way into your word count.

Leaving my cozy cottage doesn’t work well for me. My brain considers that friend time or “other” work time. But having writing-work not being distinct from home makes me depressed over time. Fortunately about the time the depression has be crossing into unproductive, is about the time tax season kicks in.

I need to find a solution to separate the brain spaces better.

Finding the right ritual for me would help. 500 words per day worked for several months. Using a timer lasted about two alarms. Food hints – like a cup of herbal tea or just past lunch – those haven’t had any success for me. Smell is more related to a place separation for me; but incense in the house doesn’t work, as the scent the incense sticks around for days. Smell isn’t a good ritual divider for me, just a space identifier.

Coming back from other jobs and just sitting down and writing doesn’t give me the mind-set change I need to create. I need a break between the two efforts. But the break can’t take too long or be too distracting. For example, for many people, once the TV is on – it’s on for the night as one show passes into another and before you know it, you’ve binged for four hours. I can’t afford that if I want to produce saleable product.

I need an hour break after coming home. A mind-free time, then a ritual to get restarted.

Mindy Klasky gives a list of “Writing Rituals” which work for her in Magical Words 9/15/2011 posting. The comments include other writers goto choices:

Read it over for suggestions.

WRITING EXERCISE: Pick a ritual and try it for a week (or seven times, if you don’t write daily) to kick start your writing. Does it help get your head in the right space? Does it help you feel more relaxed and less stressed about your writing and the rest of your life?

I’m going to try and use the timer method again, but without the buzzer. I got a pretty hourglass which I will flip over. All I have to do is concentrate on writing while the sands are falling. Play a game of solitaire (and only one!) to turn off the mind from everything else in the house, open the door and curtains to let in even more light, and flip the hourglass. Wish me luck!

What ritual did you develop and how has it worked for you?

Magical Words: Toothbrush Math – adding and subtracting

Erin Penn

Photo by Benjamin Brunner on Unsplash

“On Writing: Little Things that Yield Big Results” by David B. Coe (Magicalwords.net, 2/25/2013):

Read the above post and then we can get into my comments. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

(Humming Scotland the Brave under breath)

All done? Good. 

This is a great reminder how the little things add up (or subtract).

Manuscript over wordcount too far. Unless you know a scene that just can be cut without impacting the story (and why is it still there in the first place?), deciding to cut 5-10 words per page gives you a cleaner manuscript. Under wordcount? Flesh out 5-10 words per page, making your White Box less so. If you just read through and cut/add as you go, you will end up with an uneven manuscript because you will stop when you reach your goal. Better to spread things throughout the manuscript.

The other part, of finding time to write, is just as important. Don’t concentrate on “well, let’s stop doing these things I enjoy and concentrate only on this”. That way leads to burnout. Just pick a wordcount or amount of time set aside for writing – it can be daily, every other day, weekly, whatever works for you and you can meet. The takeaway of this article is over time, all those words, those minutes WILL add up.

You can only write 250 words every other day – good for you. Short story in 2 months.

Can only create on weekends because that is the only time you got the brain capacity for it? Ten hours every weekend, four two-and-a-hour hour slots, adds up to 40 hours per month. That is equal a part-time job. Good for you! I hope you are having lots of fun.

Little things add up.

Novels only write themselves one word at a time.

Magical Words: Starting Point

Erin Penn

Photo by Ivan Diaz on Unsplash

One of the benefits of writing a series of flash stories, like I’ve started to do recently, is the ability to explore different starting points of the story. Where should the story begin? My initial flash? Ten months earlier for the characters or maybe the next day, after they survived my first idea.

I’ve previously talked about this related to my Marriage Session Flash:

9/16/2018 – Marriage Session 1
9/23/2018 – Marriage Session 9 (Short Version)
9/30/2018 – Marriage Session 9 (Long Version)

Finding the right starting point can be a challenge.

C.E. Murphy, a long-time author, discussed her trials with “Starting too early” in Magical Words (8/6/2009):

Magical Words: Of Men and M.I.C.E.

Erin Penn
4501583 © Werg | Dreamstime.com

In Orson Scott Card’s book, Characters and Viewpoints, he breaks down M.I.C.E. – Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event. These represent four different story structures.

In Milieu, the character gets removed from the normal; though the normal still exists. Going off to college is one example; most classic quests are Milieu. Idea is a puzzle, a mystery of some sort. Character is a character-driven story where something is the character’s life has become untenable and they must fix it; the turning point of the character’s life. Event is similar to Milieu except the characters remain in the normal place, but something has happened to the normal so it no longer exists.

Discovering the paranormal is real would be a Milieu, having a Zombie infestation would be an Event.

Alongside this is Want. Story structures define a type of story – like a car choice. Want is the gas in the car. What make the characters move forward. 

To read more about Want, Expectation, and M.I.C.E, look over these two Magical Words postings made by Edmund Schubert:

7/10/2010 – The Importance of Wanting in Fiction:

8/14/2010 – Great Expectations – No, Not Dickens: