Why does it seem my chapters are so short? Question from the mail bag #1

This will be my first time posting in response to a question. If you have any yourself, about writing or even about me personally, post a comment or shoot me a message and I’ll get back with you and possibly make a post about the topic. Also have started a “Q and A” list on the “About Me” page.

Q:

When I write I always find that I get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ very quick. I'm not too good at adding detail so chapters end up being very short. That's one of the big issues I have. IDK maybe that doesn't make sense.

A:

Actually that does make sense to me. You probably are getting really focused on what you are wanting to HAPPEN in the story, and not so much on the TELLING of the story. Here is a great exercise that I think can help you out with this. First, go ahead and write out the story / chapter as you normally would. Now, start back over from the beginning and start reading the work slowly. Doing this normally helps you “picture” the world. Are you getting a good mental image of what is going on during the story? If so, double check with the words, and make sure you’re not mentally adding everything yourself. If your character walks into a bar and yanks some guy out of his chair, make sure ALL of that is actually written down. If you are montaging the events, it can be a problem. You have to make sure to give the character(s) enough 'screen time' to actually seem alive.

This brings up the debate of “how much is: too much, too little, enough” when it comes to details in a story. I have another entire blog post planned out for this, but I’ll give a cliff notes version here. “Enough” is when you can, within the confines of your own style, convey your story to another using only what you have written. If you have to keep verbally clarifying for your reader, then you need to add those details into the book. Unless it’s something that’s explained/ revealed a lot later, but then that’s a style choice and not a clarity issue.

That being said, there is no reason for you to write out every micro detail your character(s) is(are) doing. It can be to your benefit to let the reader "fill in the blanks." If you put in TOO many details, the reader may get bogged down and have an issue relating with the story. It's okay for a chapter to be "short." "Short" is a relative term and as long as it works for you and your story, there's no problem.

This most likely will be my only post for the week. I will be presenting at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus Ohio and am going to be INSANELY busy. Hopefully I can manage a post on Sunday when I get home but no promises.

--Kirk

What’s your favorite misspelled word?

Evening authors! So, what is your favorite misspelled word? No I don’t mean in the sense of funny things that come about like my tentacle/ testicle snafu. What this post will be focusing on is an editing tip that many of you may not even realize. We, all of us, have certain words that we have a bad habit of misspelling. Sometimes this gets to be a major issue if the misspelling is another word entirely. This could be an issue of “learning bad habits” where you were you memorized it that way and it just stuck or it may be an issue of getting words mixed up. Whatever the issue, I’ll give you some tips on how to fix or avoid the problems.

Grammar Nazi Pet Peeves.

This section has to do with word choice and is actually one of the most covered in traditional schools. Things like “their, they’re, there” and “whose vs who’s”. These are major grammar issues that get the Grammar Nazi’s rolling in with a red pen Panzer Division. A PENzer Division if you will. There is a long list of these types of problems, and for brevity sake I’ll not include a list here. (If you wish for a longer list let me know and, if I get enough interest, I’ll work something out.)

Homonyms: Peek/Peak, Stair/Stare

Homonyms, the word itself is funny, but the issues they cause during editing are nothing of the sort. For those bad with vocabulary, homonyms are words with different spellings and meanings, but are pronounced the same. They can crop up in your writing as you are visualizing the elements of the story and quickly writing it out before you lose the “mental picture.” The creative side of the brain (right) is separate from the side that controls words (Left), so this sort of problem can rear its ugly head every now and then. There’s nothing wrong at all with it happening. The trick is to RECOGNIZE that fact, and keep in mind you have to fix it during edit.

The “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

These annoying errors have to do with a word choice error caused by confusion of meaning. Homonyms have a presence in this category, but it’s more than that. An example from my own list(that’s also a homonym): clinch and clench. For this pair only one letter separates the meaning from the intended and wrong. One (clinch) means to confirm, the other (clench) means closing into a tight ball. A random pair of commonly misused words is elicit and illicit. Elicit means to bring about something. “A soft touch of his hand elicits a growing smile from his companion.” Illicit means illegal and can be remembered since they both start with “ill.”Example: “His illicit activities landed him in jail.” They are obviously two different words with completely separate meanings, right? However, if you confuse the words you may make the same mistake repeatedly throughout your transcript, and never be the wiser.

What now wise guy?

The important part: Fixes! If you couldn’t tell from my previous posts, I am a big fan of lists. Having side documents help me organize my thoughts and helps prevent me from forgetting important things. On top of that, it is impossible to know and remember everything, unless you are an immortal with a perfect memory that is. For these problems, lists are an important step. Unfortunately, you’re not likely to know it’s happening until a beta-reader gets a look at it. If any of your beta-readers point out even ONE instance of the above, or similar, issues make a note of it in a list. Then you need to search the entire document with the ever faithful “Find” feature. Find and replace is okay, but you have to be very careful as misclicks can make unfortunate changes.

Others may have the mindset of: “Why not just avoid causing those problems in the first place?” That is an awesome idea, thank you for sharing that thought with us, Captain Obvious, but unfortunately we are only mere mortals and SOMETIMES make mistakes. Of course once you make note of the problem, and repeatedly have to fix it, you’ll make mental changes and make the mistake less often. Eventually this self-editing will eliminate the problem but, in the meantime, lists can help you target your personal list of common errors and raise the quality of your writing.

--Kirk

Curse you Auto-Correct!

Writing is hard enough, so why make it any harder than is has to be? There are several things you can do to lighten your work load and smooth out the process. Below are a few of the things I’ve learned to do along the way. Not all of it will be applicable for all situations, but as usual I’d recommend looking it over and making your own decision on how much to emulate.

Auto-Correct, Auto-Fill, etc. TURN IT OFF.

This is rather straight forward. If you’re software has this feature, turn it off. Yes, these features have given the internet vast lists of hilarious misunderstandings caused by the wrong word being used, but that is an unnecessary annoyance when you are trying to write. On top of hurting your work flow, since you have to stop and FIX the error the software made, it may go by unnoticed until much later. A description involving some monster with tentacles attacking people can take a whole different direction if it’s spontaneously changed into testicles. Yes it has happened. To me. Go ahead and laugh, I did. Moving along…

Beyond changing the word to something quirky or humorous, it could cause major headaches later. One of the issues I have run into before is the word “Stares” being transformed magically into “Stairs.” It seems like an easy fix, but sometimes the problem with these homonyms is that sometimes the eye glances over them during editing. The meaning is there and grasped on some leave of the reader, but the error doesn’t always get caught. So save yourself some headaches, and just turn the thing off.

Spell check, Grammar check: TURN OFF

Same advice as above, but for different reasons. Firstly, if you are doing some sort of fantasy fiction, get ready to be drowned in a proverbial sea of red and green squiggly lines. Another problem is the software isn’t right all the time. There are a fair number of words and names that the programs simply don’t recognize. Remember that it’s just an aid and only provides SUGGESTIONS on things to fix. You are the writer, you are the editor, YOU know what you want; make it so.

The biggest issue with these options? Why do I have so much disdain for the squiggly lines during the writing process? Simply put: they slow you down. If you get into the groove of writing. If you have managed to root yourself in the world you are creating. If you have the winds of progress filling your sails, why would you want anything forcing you back into the real world? These seemingly innocuous little multi-colored squiggly lines are disturbing flags of potential errors. Most of us have a problem with ignoring them and moving on, I know I do. They are like that by design. BUT, they are an EDITING tool. They have their time and place, but not during writing. Each time you are uprooted from your work in order to fix a “possible” problem flagged by the squiggles, you risk losing whatever thought or plan you just had in your mind. The potential time lost is just not worth it. So, turn it off and wait for your editing phases to use this particular toolset.

--Kirk