Pen Dames Pointers! Tips to Jazz Up Your Writing 2023-11-7

A passion of Pen Dames is to help other writers by sharing tips and insights we have learned along the way. We hope you will find the pointers beneficial to your writing process.

Flossie Benton Rogers

Procrastination Tip

Are you working on a rough first draft but having trouble getting started on your daily writing routine this morning? Feel the need to check a few more dozen emails and social media sites? Isn’t there a load of laundry requiring attention? Does heading toward your writing space feel more like Daniel entering the lion’s den? Sometimes we want to write the words, but something inside us is reluctant to get in that chair. Something in us balks at doing the job. Some writers even experience physical sensations such as queasiness and upset stomach. Here is a mental trick that may help. Reframe your perception. Instead of focusing on you and how you are feeling, change the central focus to THE BOOK. The book is it. The book is the focus, and it is coming into being. See it in your mind—all finished, published, with a beautiful cover. You need only allow it. The book is the center. You are the conduit. All is well. Sit in the chair and with a spirit of play allow THE BOOK to come into being.

Loretta C. Rogers

Four Tips for Crafting a Suspenseful Scene

Part II

“I Couldn’t Put it Down.” Those five words are music to an author’s ears. It’s the ultimate compliment. It means the reader will probably be waiting for your next book! Here are four suggestions for crafting a suspenseful scene to keep the reader turning the papers:

1. If a villain is causing problems, make him a strong villain so he can make things progressively worse.

2. Give the hero/heroine conflicting goals. This way, while they are falling in love, their progress toward their own individual goals makes matters worse for the other and their relationship. Ultimately, they must choose between their goals and the one they love.

3. Let your hero/heroine inadvertently make things worse by their own actions. Maybe your hero reluctantly decides to take abuse from the villain because fighting back will make things worse for the heroine. Maybe the heroine hurts the hero’s cause by being so honest she unwittingly gives away an important secret to the villain.

4. Let outside forces unexpectedly turn the tide against your protagonists. If the hero is trying to save a child from a burning building, the wind changes direction, and the flames shift toward the child’s bedroom. If the heroine has been trying to prove her worth by making a killing on the stock market, the stock market crashes, and she loses everything.

To refresh your memory be sure to go back and read Part I of Creating Suspense. Also, you don’t want to miss the helpful writing pointers from our other Pen Dames authors.

Katherine Eddinger Smits

Genre

One of the first decisions a writer needs to make is the genre of their book. It’s important to know which genre or genres your book fits in because each genre has expectations that readers want fulfilled. Make them a promise by calling your book a romance, for example, and disappoint them by not giving them a Happily Ever After or Happy for Now ending, and they will throw your book at the wall—before they write a bad review.

Barbara Cairns

Dialogue

Dialogue is so important. It has many functions.

Sometimes, using the narrative technique of dialogue can introduce flashbacks, which allows the reader to understand a character’s past fears and experiences.

Sometimes, dialogue can prevent monologues by the narrator with descriptions, reflections and actions broken up instead of a long narration.

Sometimes, dialogue can provide information about the time and place of the story by the details used in vocabulary, expressions and idioms.

Sometimes, dialogue between characters can advance the plot, by showing, not telling and bringing readers inside the scenes.

And last, but certainly not least, dialogue can help readers know a character better through their voice, through their conflicts, silences and contradictions.

There are different reasons to add dialogue to your narration. You just have to find the right one for you.

Jennifer Taylor

Poetry Inspiration

Having a bit of writer's block? Need some inspiration? Walk away from your desk and read a poem. A poem is a distillation of prose; the use of imagery-metaphors, and similes, for example, enable the reader to look at the very heart of something. It might be a good idea to read a poem before you start. My suggestion would be the classics: Emily Dickinson, Byron, Shelley, and Blake are some of my favorites. Reading poetry regularly can make your prose more powerful. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Did these suggestions resonate with you? Let us know, and also let us know of any writing questions you have and topics you’d like us to cover in these Pointers.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy writing! Cheers from the Pen Dames.