by Susan Lovett | Jul 23, 2019 | Writing |
We experience the world through our senses, through what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell. It’s our senses that define our existence, which is why it is imperative to incorporate sensory writing into your work.
Senses take a flat world and transforms it into a fully realized one with depth, texture and vibrancy. All five senses should be integrated into your description somewhere. If your story takes place in the woods, you might talk about the dappled lighting, moist ground, and sounds of the birds and animals moving about. It might smell of wet Earth or decomposing leaves. If your story takes place in a bakery, I would hope there would be talk of scents and tastes—touches of vanilla and chocolate and the feel of warm cookies straight from the oven. The goal is to offer details about your world through the five senses, not just sight and sounds, which are the most easily accessed and obvious.
by Susan Lovett | Jul 9, 2019 | Fiction, Writing |
Setting is more than the broad location and time. It is everything contained within that space—the items and props that your characters handle and face.
by Susan Lovett | Jul 2, 2019 | Fiction, Writing |
Setting is an essential element in any story. It provides context and a space for your characters. When wielded properly, it can do more than simply list what your characters can see. It can support every other aspect of your writing.
The last blog covered the basics of setting. Now it’s time to explore ways to use setting to its best advantage.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 25, 2019 | Fiction, Writing |
Story requires place to make it come alive. Writing setting is much like the job of a set designer for the stage or screen. The trick is to discover ways to bring your setting to life. This may mean describing a building, a forest, a living room or some other place where your characters can move about their lives. This is setting. It includes everything from location to descriptions of the dishes on the kitchen table.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 11, 2019 | Writing |
Show versus Tell is an age old battle for writers. Deciding when to show your world to your readers and when to tell them facts is a balancing act. Good writing requires both styles. In the last blog, we covered when to tell. This blog focuses on showing—the powerhouse of writing.
Showing gives your reader a more immersive experience. It’s the difference between reading a newspaper article and a novel. One gives the facts with a sprinkling of details and description. The other invites the reader to experience the story along with the character. It’s engaging.
by Susan Lovett | Jun 4, 2019 | Writing |
Every writer has learned the first rule of writing: “Show don’t tell.” It is the preeminent bit of advice for writers of all levels and yet it remains one of the most misunderstood and confusing rules. Sure, it’s easy to understand why you shouldn’t tell your story from start to end like a person at the party who keeps saying, “…and then we…” with no end to the boredom. But it is not so easy to figure out what telling is versus showing. Sometimes they seem a lot alike. It all depends on how you write. The truth is good writing combines both showing and telling.
by Susan Lovett | Mar 19, 2019 | Writing |
Every writer has heard the advice to write what you know, and it is good advice to a point. It’s impossible to write about things you don’t understand. But the problem with this advice is that writers can learn. We can research and pick up the facts. We can break down a problem and find experts to explain the mechanics of how things work. Heck, we can even watch documentaries to see how things came about and how to videos to see it in action. What we cannot do is know how those situations feel without understanding the emotions associated with it. We can’t find the story behind things if we can’t empathize with it.
by Susan Lovett | Mar 12, 2019 | Mindset, Writing |
Writing is hard. Words don’t flow out easily and land on the page as genius. They need to be selected, ordered, rearranged, swapped, lined up and perfected. Most times they are not cooperative companions though. They are like the unruly child who doesn’t recognize the word “no” even when yelled and accompanied with hands held face out.
There is a reason so many talk about writing instead of doing it. The trick to making it as a writer is not quitting when it gets tough.
by Susan Lovett | Nov 20, 2018 | Writing |
Audience is everything. Readers define how to approach a story and what words to choose. Knowing our readers frames our work as writers. You wouldn’t start a project for children the same way you would for seniors. In my last blog, I wrote about knowing your audience. This blog follows up with some concrete tips to write with your reader in mind.
by Susan Lovett | Nov 13, 2018 | Writing |
Stories serve an invaluable purpose. We all tell stories, whether in printed form or by gathering around a table and sharing an anecdote. It’s how we’re going to survive the upcoming holidays with family because stories are how we communicate with each other, and how we remember and frame experiences. It’s the foundation for human interaction. If we didn’t have stories, how would we ever capture how awful a date was or how moving an unexpected kindness?
by Susan Lovett | Jun 5, 2018 | Writing |
I began my professional writing career with a major corporation. Soon after starting that job, I was thrilled when my boss praised me for writing clean. What my boss was trying to say was that she liked that I could write quickly and needed few edits (mostly for those darned dangling participial phrases I love). The problem with her praise was that it stunted my growth as a writer. I leaned into the idea of writing clean and gladly whipped up assignments with little to no edits and called it good. My boss was happy. I was happy. What more did I need to do?
The answer was: a lot.
by Susan Lovett | May 8, 2018 | Writing |
This is the final installation in my series on writing “rules.” If you missed the first two installments, you can read them here and here, respectively. These are the remaining “rules” of writing that all writers should know, with a couple of scriptwriting tips at the end for good measure.
