Breaking Writing Rules

I've come across several writing blogs that challenge writers to "break all the rules about writing that you can. It's the only way to be original. Rules are confining. Ignore them all."

Now pay attention, because this is important; you shouldn't write a story with the sole purpose of breaking as many "rules" as you can.
It won't make you stunningly original or creative. It will probably just make your book suck.

Granted, there are some rules that won't work for everyone. Novelists are told that the main character should grow and develop by the end of their book. For short story writers, this rule is usually unnecessary for such a short time span.

Rules are really just guidelines or suggestions; a roadmap to give you hints about where the heck you're going.

The most successful books follow the "rule" to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Breaking that rule will, more likely than not, result in a mess of a plot.

Read more...

Raising The Stakes

No matter how huge the conflict, if it doesn't directly affect the protagonist, why should the character care? Why should the reader care?
By raising the stakes, the protagonist's life becomes more entangled with its conflicts. Things spiral out of control because of the protagonist's attempts to stop the threat.
Examples:

Conflict: War threatens protagonist's homeland.
That's all good and fine, but how does it affect protagonist?
Complication: Protagonist's brother forced to serve in enemy's army.
Now it's more personal.

Conflict: Protag's mother is dying.
Complication: The only known cure is at the end of the world.

Conflict: Character is framed for theft.
Complication: If character can't prove his innocence, his family will be killed.

Conflict: Character's father dies.
Complication: The father left a debt that the character must pay.

Read more...

Writer Sense One-Year Anniversary

In honor of this blog's first year (the official anniversary day was actually last Sunday) I wanted to revisit some old posts. So here's my favorite this year;

Driving The Plot

The Anatomy of a Story

How to Write a Gripping Beginning

Showing Not Telling: Characterization

Readers Around the World (I'll be honest; This was probably my favorite post to do.)

How To Write a Love Story

How To Write Escape Scenes

How To Write Battle/Action Scenes

Creating Villains Part 1

Writing Scene Transitions

Creating Post-War Scenes: Part 2

Read more...

Creating Post-War Scenes: Part 2

Families
The obvious consequence of war; loss of life.
Even after a war, the ache of the dead is still there. Brothers and sons become soldiers, civilians are killed, and families are split in the general confusion of bombings, refugee camps, or by hostile governments.

Destruction
War is messy. Entire cities can be destroyed in the process of warfare. Records, art, and homes are deliberately damaged. During World War II, London was bombed, and some of France's great architecture and art demolished.

Soldiers
Soldiers can return home haunted and bitter.
After the Vietnam War, many veterans sought psychological help, but most were refused since citizens at that time were against war and hated the returning soldiers.

Agriculture
Without the soldiers in the workforce, that's that much less people farming and preparing food (This one really only applies back to when most everyone was a farmer.) Starvation and famine can follow long wars, what with half the population growing crops for the same amount of people.
During the American Revolution, hungry armies would often raid civilian homes for food and not bother paying for it.

Fashion
This one's not a very common effect of war, but I thought it somewhat interesting.
During World War I, women were asked to stop buying steel-framed corsets to provide more metal to the war effort. Consequently, corsets went out of style (thank heavens).

Roles

As most of us know from 7th grade Social Studies, the lack of men in the workforce during World War II provided women the opportunity to do more jobs, resulting in this marvelous bit of propaganda;

(Never seen that before...)

Children will also shoulder more responisblity when given the chance.

War changes not only boundries and countries, but lives.

Read more...

Creating Post-War Scenes: Part 1

Even after a war is over and done, the world isn't automatically perfect. There's still quite mess left to clean up. Every aspect of the countries involved (especially for the losers) is affected.

Economy
Wars aren't cheap. Each country has to pay for their armies. Uniforms, ammunition, and necessities have to be provided, usually at the expense of civilians.
The currency's value can also be decreased. Toward the end of the Roman empire, enemy looting and government spending of the state's gold made the value of Roman coins drop.

Boundaries
Land; you can't make more, what's there is there. Throughout the ages, countries’ borders have waxed and waned. Persia once stretched from India to Libya, all through the conquering of other nations.
So what land do the conquerors receive? How have the maps changed? What have the losers sacrificed?

Losers
Every war has a losing side, even if they do come to a agreement or sign a treaty.
They may be forced to give up land or money. Notably in ancient times, the victors could have them enslaved, such as the Babylonians, or revoke their rights, much as the Romans did to the Jews.

Read more...