Category: Writing Exercise

Writing Exercise: The Twist, Make It Real

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Photo by Martijn Baudoin on Unsplash

You have reached the center of your story, the mid-point of the second act, and need to add “the twist.” Somehow you need to change all the rules without changing the rules. If you have read a lot, you’ve been exposed to dozens of twists. Sometimes they work, sometimes they are pretentious, and sometimes they fail badly. What makes a good twist?

First and foremost, the twist cannot introduce anything new. It must follow rules and events previously established. To do otherwise is deux machinst (god in the machine), the writer forcing a change for the sake of change. The challenge is to have the event be cause and effect and still be a twist.

In life, twists are those moments where you imitate Homer of the Simpsons cartoon and go “duh”. Or say “that is so obvious, I wish I thought of that”. Recently I was admiring all the escaped balloons decorating a big box store ceiling. How do they get them down? Then I see two retail workers approach with another helium balloon covered with large clear tape in the little circles one does to attach a bow to a gift and the balloon tied to a very, very long string. They released the balloon to the ceiling until it touched another with the clear packing tape, and then pulled down both balloons. They continued until the ceiling was clear. Pure genius. Obvious, following established rules of gravity and adhesion, but a twist I never saw coming.

For the Ah-Ha video I’ve previously written about in blogs on June 2017 (Agency), November 2017 (POV), and May 2018 (Three-Acts), the heroine was pulled into the story. And when the panel police show up to hunt the intruder to the black and white world, the main characters run. The twist to escape is obvious when it happens, but you don’t see it until the hero does it because you are so absorbed in the chase. If one can be drawn into the comic world, one can rip out of it. The woman escapes, and the comic book character guards her exit.

Comedy is great for studying twists. This Bud LIght commercial starring Cedric the Entertainer captures a twist perfectly. Act one establishes the characters, hot chick and lucky guy, act two has the journey to get the beer and the joyous dance celebration, and act three has the resolution. The twist is delivered with the twist of the bottle. Again we get so absorbed in Cedric’s victory dance we forget he is holding the bottles until he sits back down on the couch. A second before the bottle opens, everything that went before plus the rules of carbonation runs through our head and we shout “no” just as the bottle sprays like a firehose into hot chick’s face.

Amhezer Bush, or their advertising department, is good at comedic twists. The ongoing football game between teams of horses with the spectator ranchers at the fence have established the world over the years. Combined with real-world vocabulary and situations translated from the football scene has made for many the perfect twist. From the streaker (all the animals are naked, but a recently sheared lamb is more naked than the rest) to the ranchers complaining about the zebras, in the body of both a referee and a real zebra, we have been surprised again and again by the twists that are no more than typical effect following cause of established rules.

One famous twist happens Aesop fable of the Snake and the Farmer. Used to happy endings, we expect the kindness of the farmer reviving the snake to be repaid. But in the end, the bitten and now poisoned farmer asks the snake why he returned kindness with cruelty: “you knew I was a snake”. So again, natural real-world cause-and-effect already established in the story creates the twist.

WRITING EXERCISE: For you present Work-In-Progress, review your twists. Do all follow rules you have already defined in the story?

READING EXERCISE: Think about a twist you did not like in a story you read. Why didn’t it work for you?

My Attempt: Flash: Magical Menace Mode Part Two – Special Meeting (2/1/2026) – The group of friends discover not everyone is seeing the same thing. Now they have to figure out who is seeing what.

Writing Exercise: B is for Blocked

Erin Penn 12 Comments

Photo by Susan Holt Simpson on Unsplash

Today is the second day of the A-to-Z challenge and the letter is “B”. For a writers, what we often face is the beloved Writer’s Block. Something has stopped the story dead.

In November, a person reached out with a question: “I’m writing a futuristic/sci-fi political drama which I was keeping fairly grounded to genre. But now that the main plot is picking up, I need something to happen to motivate my MC, kickstart her into action. So far, my favorite idea is her getting cursed. Which is very much not the tone for a futuristic/sci-fi political drama. I’m still early in working everything out, so not a big thing, but it feels a bit silly to be stuck (for weeks!) debating a curse mixing up the genre. Any help will be welcomed.”

I said it sounded like two things were happening:

  1. You want your MC to start taking action.
  2. You are going for a quick fix, which you know is wrong for what you want to write.

The result for the author was writer’s block. They were stuck because they were trying to drive the story where it didn’t want to go. I’m going to go out on a limb and say, after exhaustion, this is the most common type of writer’s block. Either consciously or unconsciously your story is telling you “don’t go there.”

In this case, the author was introducing an element which didn’t fit the story and they knew it. More often the writer’s blockade is unconscious; they have to have the character hit a story beat so they are making their character act against their nature and the seething-ocean of story creation refuses to throw up words to crash onto the screen.

If something is wrong, then maybe a different approach is needed. I gave three suggestions because each writer and each problem to be solve needs a different approach; writing is NEVER a one-size-fits-all solution.

The Problem: The MC is lacking agency or action, so how to get her motivated to interact with the plot?

Solution One

If motivation is wanted, goals can help. What does she value – short term (today or in the couple of days), medium term (wants to accomplish this month/year), and long-term goal? How are these compatible and how to do they clash – for example, don’t want to cook tonight so want to eat out but also want to save money for a house – the medium goal of getting a better job doesn’t apply at the moment. But that can kick in because while out at the restaurant, she sees a “now hiring” at the establishment next door to the restaurant.

Then, with the typical meanness of an author giving trouble to their characters, you CRASH all her motivations and make her reevaluate her life. Releasing she didn’t have enough money to even by a pizza slice because prices just went up, she walks into the job interview and gets abducted by aliens.

Meme I created after the SAGA 2023 writer’s conference

Less overt, while eating at the restaurant, she overhears something related to the city job situation which she then investigates.

Solution Two

The curse is a stick method to getting the character to interact with the story. They have no choice in the matter. If the stick method is throwing up a writer’s block, maybe try the carrot method. The goal solutions list in Solution One is one method to discover carrots and sticks particular to the character goals; sticks with goals can be they had been thinking about leaving work and something forces them to stay or leave. But other sticks can be of the more common variety: an accident or general life event. Other carrots could be an invitation to a party or seeing their favorite candy on sale. In general, the inciting incident which changes the status quo of the MCs life can be a carrot or a stick. Most authors go for sticks, because most people don’t change their comfortable status quo until something makes it uncomfortable. Using a carrot can be a change of pace to get the MC moving; the stick method can be saved for the dark-of-soul moment. If you have hit a complete block, brainstorm a dozen or so sticks and an equal number of carrots, both at least ten in number and some can be really crazy, and see if any work at getting the character motivated.

Solution Three

Maybe the character isn’t the right person for the story you want to tell. The third option is to interview the character. If the story is fighting you, sit down with your character(s) and have a chat, it can be on paper or in your head.

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Ask them why they don’t want to go along with the story. Ask them if they want to do it (the action required to get to the next part of the story), what DID they want to do. Would they be willing to return back to the plot after that sidequest? How does the sidequest fit in to the main story? Ask the MC if she doesn’t want to be part of the story you are trying to write, if she can recommend someone else. You might get an answer, well, duh, I hate to travel but my baby sister ran away three times while we were growing up. “Can’t it just be you?” “Nope, it is my sister and her best friend.” (Yes, they are imaginary, but we build them to feel real, and sometimes “someone” related to the MC build is the one the story is actually about.)

WRITING EXERCISE: Work with one of the solutions suggested to better understand a character from your present work-in-progress (WIP) or dig out one of your failed stories which had hit a writer’s block. Either do a goal spread for short, medium, and long term; do a carrot and stick brainstorm of at least ten carrots and ten sticks; or sit down and have a conversation with the characters about what they want to do and why.

Writing Exercise: When You Don’t Know Everything

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Photo by Nathon Oski on Unsplash

Recently, I had an author reach out to me frustrated with a story they were writing. They had a story idea about cake making (with magic – it is a popular them right now), but they are not a subject matter expert. They tried watching videos and read research materials but got buried in the jargon for the tools and the ingredients. They tried reaching out to subject matter experts but said “they ghosted me after a few exchanges for some reason.” They don’t want to write something if someone who know more about it will call foul.

I wrote back the following:

That sounds frustrating. Here are a few ways to work around the issue, most of which you have attempted, but let me go over them in order they should usually be attempted:

One) Research the topic. In this case, like everything with specialists, the industry has created a vocabulary which will add a realistic flavor to the story. This vocabulary is short-hand for things the work must do repeatedly. For examples, doctors say blood draw or drop an IV line, which are two very different tasks – but all the patient sees is a nurse sticking in a needle. But the short hand, including CCs and liquid and pressure all let the doctors explain something in a sentence that someone outside the industry would take entire pages with diagrams to define. But facing vocabulary short-hand, jargon, can make doing research rough. You don’t want to earn a degree on cake-making, you just want to write a story with it as part of the background, setting the story in a real world situation.

Two) Once you have done the preliminary research, you talk to experts. You need to know the basic, otherwise you are wasting your time and theirs – so do the research first. You can contact them via email or other method, but they aren’t getting paid money for helping so after the initial *wow factor** wears off (where they are getting “paid” in enjoyment of sharing their love), they are done. Best to only contact experts once you know what questions you need to ask – limited to two or three questions. Think about if someone asked you about how to write, how long would you be willing to give free advice. Would you prefer specific question or a general “how-to”. Me, I would send a general how-to question to the web location. (This was a gentle way of pointing out why they got “ghosted” after “a few” exchanges – it isn’t their job to teach you anything. One small set of clear questions and one follow-up, that is all you get. And remember even that much is a kindness.)

Three) Better yet, after beginning research (if it isn’t enough), Gain Actual Life Experience – take a trip, make the thing, attend a class, witness a creator. This can get expensive, both time and money-wise. It makes senses for novels, but not for short stories. I did drive to a location about 30 minutes away for a short story I was creating.

Four) Remember the story isn’t about the background setting, in this case cake-making. It is about the emotions and action, the characters and the plot, the cake-making is only a vehicle to carry it forward. If you are writing non-fiction, then you will need to know all the ends and outs of cakemaking, but you are writing genre fiction. You can dodge a lot of the expertise knowledge. Mercy Thompson (see Moon Called by Patricia Briggs) is a mechanic; she tells us the type of car, basic problems the car is known for, the fact she has grease (or doesn’t) on her hands, etc. Do we know what part was replaced? No. Many Urban Fantasy writers have their characters be gun experts; but mostly we readers see them load guns and place them on their person – the writer doesn’t need to know everything about guns. What do you need to know to make the cake-making feel believable? During research on youtube or tiktok or whatever social media you are using, what are the common themes – fine cake flour everywhere, temperature control in an oven, how finicky the cake icing is in high humidity. What do THEY think is important to share with an audience? Where does their reality touch people outside their industry? Those are the point to use. You don’t need to know how to make a cake. Most books I read with bakers as characters talk about getting up early, gathering ingredients, mixing, rolling out the dough, letting it rise, then baking it. Do I know that they are doing with the yeast mixture, or how long they have to mix to get the strong protein bonds so that the yeast creates fluffy air pockets but not so much that the air cannot push its way in for the air holes? No. The STORY doesn’t need that detail. I just need ENOUGH of the reality. They are rolling the dough while complaining about the landlord they are falling in love with; they are covered in flour because the salamander jumped out of the oven and they had to battle it back into the heating element to finish their day’s baking.

Always remember to focus on the story.

Final advise, just write out the story with what you know and put in the places where you think you need more cake details a note to circle back to later and what you are trying to accomplish with it. (Put cake detail here – use as metaphor of moist air making the icing too wet to grief making the emotions too raw.) (Put cake detail here – angry to calm as focus on work.) Get your zero draft written. Then come back for the first drafting pass and add in the cake detail notes; you may find that the details you thought you needed can be approached a different way. Or you may find you just need answers to three very specific questions from an expert. Or that now that you have the questions written out, you can shape a Google search to answer that question easily.

WRITING EXERCISE: When you know know everything. Write a 500-word story where you are NOT a subject matter expert. Use any or all the techniques above. Bonus points if you leverage the final one (write out the story and add notations of where expertise will be added later).

My Attempt: Jacks and Sleds (1/18/2026) is a steampunk story with an engine repair. Do I know ANYTHING about steam engines? I do not. But I do know how to Google search on a steam engine diagram and I saw “rod” prominently featured and a “crankshaft”. I knew I wanted my MC to fix the engine and I knew those thing break, so I used the jargon. Steampunk feel achieved.

“But what if someone understands how steam engines work and says it isn’t real.” – It is SANTA’S sleigh…being pulled by jackalopes. I think we are a little beyond what is real at this point. All it has to do is feel real enough.

 

Writing Exercise: Reintroduction

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Photo by dole777 on Unsplash

Just ran across a wonderful post about why reintroducing yourself on your various social media is IMPORTANT. It isn’t about starting over, but about defining where you are now. If you have been on any app, or just plugging along on your own blog for decades, every now and again you need to say “hi” to the people you interact with. Let them know about changes, tell them how what you do on this social media works NOW (not the original intent), let them know if your life has changed, touch base with the people who haven’t been there since the beginning and let the people who haven’t been around in a while know what is happening.

Look at “What a Reintroduction Really Is (an Why It Matters More Than You Think) by Jon Marie Pearson (direct link is: https://www.genealogyandthesocialsphere.com/post/what-a-reintroduction-really-is-and-why-it-matters-more-than-you-think ) normally what she writes about is genealogy, but this particular post is very relevant to content creators: artists, writers, actors, etc. If you are on the world-wide-web, touch base here and then touch base with the people who follow you.

WRITING EXERCISE: On each of the platforms where you are active (or semi-active or mean to be reactive again), do a reintroduction post.

READING EXERCISE: If you follow creators on various platforms, cull your list to those that are still creating what you want to follow. If they have gone off the path you want to follow, choose new people to follow.

My attempt:

Well, let’s start with the blog. I’ve been blogging since November 11, 2012. The original blog was on a wordpress site – we all start there, don’t we? I activated erinpenn.com (Erin Penn’s Second Base – because, get it, it is my second attempt at a blog and at the time I was mostly interested in romance) sometime in late 2016 or early 2017 and moved everything over that was still relevant. Wow, over 8 year on this site and over 13 years overall.

Originally a little flashes and a little ranting, the blog as grown to a three-times-a-week posting in three groups of topics:

  1. Original Storytelling – These are a mix of Visual flashes (inspired by a picture), Text flashes (inspired by something read or heard), expansion on previous flashes, and flat out something I am writing.
  2. Book Reviews and Interacting with Books (A) Book reviews twice a month, one a solo book and one a series, curated from the 120 or so books I read annually. (If you want them ALL, befriend me over on on GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4918831.Erin_Penn) or StoryGraph (https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/erin_penn). (B) Bookquotes inspired by books I read that I have created and put on my TikTok account (https://www.tiktok.com/@erinpennbooks).  (C) And the big thing particular to me, Editing Rants. I edit books, which is heavily interactive, and there are…problems…with books in the process of becoming published.
  3. Learning stuff and crawling around on the web: (A) Writing Exercises, (B) Other Cool Blogs, (C) Geeking Science, (D) Cool pictures I have found on the web.
  4. On fifth weeks of Tuesday-Thursday I talk about the blog or art or encourage people to vote.

My social media footprint also includes the previously mentioned GoodRead and StoryGraph, plus TikTok. Also YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@erinpenn7745) which right now is reprints of the TikTok, but might eventually hold other topics. It had started out with some editing rants and I would like to return to them. On Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ErinPenn1/meme-created-by-erin-penn-i-made-these/), I post memes I have created – these are both bookquotes and writing encouragement. My Facebook author page (https://www.facebook.com/ErinPennBooks/) is just posts letting people know when I drop stuff on the blog.

I’m thinking hard about adding a Substack, which will mostly be reposts from the blog. I tried Pateron but that didn’t work well for me. 

Anyway, welcome. Glad you are here!

Editing Rant: Time Order within a Sentence

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Have I written about this before? It is hard to tell as I have to write about it ALL THE TIME when editing, the most recent edit proving the rule.

DO NOT BACKUP.

Within a sentence, keep time moving forward.

What do I mean?

“He stops, when I call his name, breathing hard.” is out of time order. The sentence should be “When I call his name, he stops, breathing hard.”

Don’t do: “He jumped across the room after opening the door.”

Do do: “After opening the door, he jumped across the room.”

Do you make your reader start moving forward, creating the visual action in the movie theatre of their mind then go, “you know what, I forgot this one detail, let’s add it now.” This causes discordance within the reader and they get thrown out of the story for a microsecond to work things out before reentering the story. Do this too many times and the reader is going to put down the story because of temporal exhaustion without even knowing why the story seemed off to them.

When you are editing, and you feel something is off in a sentence or paragraph, especially in a high action or stakes scene, see if everything is neatly in a time line.

NOTE: This is different from confusion in a fight.

“I jumped on the the guy trying to backstab my babe, and we tumbled over the wall. After two gut punches from him, and me returning the favor into the brick wall, I turned to discover my little shrinking violet had taken out the two who were on her while I was busy.”

In this case, the character DISCOVERS the information out of order, but within the character’s UNDERSTANDING (and sharing with the reader as the POV), everything falls into a time order.

“I hit the floor. Immediately after discovering the hardness of the chilled marble, the rabbit punch from behind hit my pain centers.”

Again, the character DISCOVERS the information and processes it out of the order of occurrence, but the POV understanding of the issue is still in a clear time order for the read.

Sharing information out of order, but within the order of the character’s understanding is a great way to raise suspense and pass on the confused feeling to the reader in a fight situation. But it isn’t REVERSING already defined activity.

Not a “I got shot twice after I punched the leader” situation.

Another sentence construction writing tool is saving the most important part of the sentence to the end. This is still not done by breaking time order.

Stuff like:

“The girl who gave me my first kiss, Jennifer, stood in the sunbeam across the way and her being there stopped me midstep. “

Even though the information is in time order, the order isn’t important to the action or understanding of the sentence. In this case, the information being imparted should aim to have the best piece be the last piece.

“I stopped mid-step. Jennifer stood in the sunbeam across the way; she was the girl who gave me my first kiss.”

This reverse order of information and time is actually similar to the fight. This is the order the POV is processing, understanding, the information – the lizard brain says stop, the observant brain says the visual is Jennifer in the sun, the emotional memory pulls up “It’s HER!”

The story keeps moving forward. There isn’t anything the reader needs to stop and process for time order. In this case the information released at the end answers the question, the suspense which kept the reader reading.

I hope this helps explains (1) DO NOT BACKUP the time order of action Rule of Thumb, while also pointing out two places where writers THINK the Rule of Thumb is broken, but it isn’t because time is still moving forward within the point of view. The “POV camera” didn’t freeze and have to rerun the scene.

“I served the main course, set the table, and cleaned up afterwards.”

hurts to read as an editor. DO BETTER!!!

WRITING EXERCISE: Create two sentences with the time order action broken, then correct it. Share them below in the comments.