Louise Cusack - Writing Tips

So you want to write a book?  Good for you.  Goethe had it nailed when he said:

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, BEGIN IT.
              Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. "

You'll never know if you're a writer until you try.  So let's begin.  Whether you decide to write short stories, a novel or simply a daily journal, I can guarantee that you will find satisfaction in getting your ideas down on paper and having a creative outlet.  You will also find occasional frustration, distraction and ecstatic bursts of joy,  but that's all part of the adventure that is writing.

My forte is writing novels, so my advice here pertains to that discipline, however parts of it could be useful for any form of writing.  The novel requires dedication and persistence, because it takes a long time to see your finished product - on average a year.  You need to pace yourself and not get frustrated.  You also need to have realistic expectations on how much you can write each day - and I do suggest that you write each day, even if you work full time and can only snatch a half an hour or an hour each week night.  Weekends you may be able to do more.  It's a matter of priorities really.  If you love writing and want to explore your potential, you need to decide whether you'd rather be writing or watching replays of Friends.

Before you start writing, it helps to think about your story and do some planning.  Many writers plan their books in great detail (this is the most creative phase for them), while at the other end of the spectrum, some start with a vague idea of their characters and let the story discover itself in the writing.  I fall into the middle - some planning and lots of 'what will they do next?'.  You need to find out (through trial and error) what will work best for you.

I suggest that before you start to write, you are at least able to encapsulate each of your main character's motivations into one sentence, like this:

This is a story about………………………………………….(character)
Who wants…………………………………………………………..(goal)
Because………………………………………………….…..(motivation)

But………………………………………………………………..(conflict)

This is helpful for keeping you on track with your characterisation as you write the novel.  For example, in Destiny of The Light, my "one sentence" for the main character Khatrene would sound like this:

This is a story about Khatrene, who wants to find her missing twin brother, because she's desperately lonely, but when she finds him he's going mad and he marries her off (so she's lonely again!).

If you've read Destiny you will know that Khatrene's primary goal changed once she found her twin Mihale.  He married her to Djahr and her goal then was to find love.  However, once Djahr's true nature was revealed, her goal was to escape and keep her child out of his clutches.

Character's goals change and adapt as the story progresses, as other characters (who have their own goals and motivations) come into conflict with them or aid them.  You can either work all this out beforehand, or simply discover it as you write.

Try breaking the process down into bits:

PREMISE: This is your first idea for the story.  It could be a character, a conversation, a setting or an idea for the plot.  A premise can come while listening to a song on the radio, reading the newspaper, a program on TV, a dream, a conversation or reading another book.  This is where you start.  I suggest you let this idea percolate in your mind for a couple of weeks at least before you write about it.  Get a notebook and jot down ideas that come to you about your premise.  This helps with:

CHARACTERISATION: Stories are about people (usually) so you need to know your character's history, likes, dislikes, appearance, phobias, emotional baggage etc.  Some authors like to write all this down before they start so they know exactly what their characters may or may not do (I've even seen character profile lists with shoe size!), while other authors - myself included - prefer to discover most character details through the action of the story.  You might like to do a "one sentence" for each character to help you see what their motivation is in the story, as that must always be in the back of your mind while you're writing about them.  What do they want?  How can this situation/scene help or hinder them?  Speaking of hindering, that leads us to:

CONFLICT:  Conflict ensures your characters don't drift.  What do they want in the story?  Back to that "one sentence".  What will stop them getting it?   Sources of conflict can be people (not necessarily the baddie, a lover can come into conflict with your character), animals (Jaws/ Dr Dolittle), lack of time (Ransom/ Armageddon), weather (Deep Impact/ Twister) etc.  And speaking of weather, that leads us to:

SETTING:  During a recent school visit, the kids I spoke to worked out this list of settings to match the stories they were writing:

Spooky:    deserted mineshaft, empty house (isolation)
Funny:    shed full of stuffed toads, school toilets
Weird:    on a planet with no stars in its sky, inside a TV program

I thought their ideas were great, because the setting can really enhance the story itself, and is almost like a character in its own right because it reacts.  Spooky old houses creak when you tip toe through them.  Waves crash and roar when the ocean is angry.  You can really pit your background against your characters, or let it help them along the way, depending on the mood you want to evoke.

Fantasy stories in particular have quite detailed backgrounds that require a lot of thinking through for: religions, races, economy, customs, dress, technology or lack of, languages, etc.  A helpful book I've found is "The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference" by Writer's Digest Books.

Once you have worked out the details above, you are ready to look at your:

PLOT:  This is a story-line to suit your characters and their conflicts and can be as detailed or as loose as you choose.  I suggest you do some what if thinking about the story before you start working out your plot.  Look at your "one sentence" for the characters, and the notes in your notebook.  Do you have an idea of how the story will end?  Can you see how your characters will interact with each other?  What will the main conflicts be?  Do you have ideas about scenes?  This is the time to set it down and make sense of it.  Even if you only have ideas for the first couple of scenes and the ending, you can make a start.  I usually have a natural pause about a quarter or a third of the way through writing the story and then again at the 3/4 mark to go over my plot, see how I've strayed from it and make adjustments.  As you write, you'll work out what's best for you too.

Once you have done all this, WRITE THE BOOK.  Try to let it flow out and don't be critical of what you've written while you're writing.  This is not the time to edit.  This is the time to create, to feel that wonderful flow of ideas escaping your mind and sweeping down into your fingers.  Don't be critical or you'll stifle the flow.  Think of it as someone else's story if that helps you to leave it alone at this point.  But it's very important to write to the end.  To finish the book.  So many people start off with great plans and get lost in a mire of editing and self-recriminations, thinking they're "not good enough" and so they stop and throw their work away.  Then they restart another and decide they're not happy with that either.

Please, please, please, give yourself a chance to finish the story.  Love the magic of what you are creating.  Love the characters and don't think about technique while you're getting the story down.  Just capture the passion, the reason you were drawn to these people and their lives, the lovely nuances of character, the loves, the hates, the laughs.  Get all that down first.  Then when you type "The End" I want you to go out and celebrate what you've achieved.  You've written a book and only a very small percentage of the population can say that, published or not.

After  you celebrate, it's time to start editing your book.  Firstly, print out your story, double spaced with at least 3cm around the margins.  The best thing to do then it put it away for a month so you come back to it with fresh eyes.  Write something else in the meantime or just read, go to the movies, climb mountains, whatever you do to relax.  Experiencing life is important for a writer too!

Then when you're ready to start editing grab a coffee (or six) and get comfortable.  No alcohol - you had that while you were celebrating, remember?  This is the time for sober reflection.  Have a red pen handy and plenty of time to read your manuscript through, making notes on it as you go.  Expect to find lots wrong.  I always do.  That's the way it works.  No-one I know writes perfect first draft.  That's why you don't show anyone your first draft, because it's not indicative of what you can do.  You need to polish, and that is done in steps:

The first step is the structural edit where you look at the big picture:

THEME -  Is there any "truth" that runs through the story, like love conquers all or power corrupts or family is more important than money?  If you find you've subconsciously written a theme in (and I firmly believe this produces a less patronising message for the reader than if you've selected a theme and written a story to suit that) then at the structural edit phase you can strengthen that theme by ensuring it has continuity throughout the plot.

SCENES -  The main events in your story should be real-time scenes, not narrative descriptions of what happened.  For dramatic emotional impact, scenes should also be told through the viewpoint (through the eyes) of whoever has the most to lose in the scene.  Also, look to see if any part of the story is missing - do you need more scenes?  Or can you cut out any that aren't working?

CHARACTERS - Do you have too many or not enough characters in your story?  Do you need to cut out or add any?  Are their actions consistent with their personalities?  remember your "one sentence" summary of the story?  Did you stick to that, or did you waffle off onto something different?  This is not necessarily a bad thing if the story is still strong.  Another important point - is the story interesting?

Once you have made notes over your manuscript and decided what changes to make, you go back to your computer and do those big moves.  Cut and paste, chop and change, get the shape right.

Then, when these preliminary changes are completed, you print out the manuscript a second time and (wait another month if you can or) sit down with your red pen again.  Read it through once as if you were doing another structural edit and see if you need further big changes.  If not.  It's time to do:

Line Editing:

This is the nitty gritty stuff that you don't  do in the early stages because what's the point of line editing a scene that you might need to toss out?  It's only when you have the shape of the manuscript right that you start with:

DIALOGUE - Read it aloud to see if it's stilted.  Does it sound like the character's 'voice'.  All characters speak differently.  Do you have them saying "I am going there," when it's much more likely that they'd say "I'm going there"?  Naturally if you're creating a different dialogue style for a fantasy world you may not want contractions.  But whatever you do, be consistent.

For dialogue attributions, please use said as your default setting.  'He said', 'she said' are invisible to readers, but if you have characters grating, snarling, laughing (try laughing while you talk), hissing, exclaiming, crying or barking words, your reader will soon become irritated.

EMOTIONS - resist the urge to explain emotions.  Try to show them instead.
For example:      Jane was angry.  "I've had enough."
Try instead:     Jane slammed her hand down on the counter.  "I've had enough."

In the same vein, try to avoid tacking an expression of emotion onto the end of the dialogue attribution.  Writing "I hate you!" she said angrily, is the sign of a beginner writer.  It patronises the reader.  They can see from the dialogue that the character is angry.  That has been shown. She said angrily rubs their noses in it by telling them as well. (I still sometimes write ‘she said angrily’ in draft, because it’s shorthand for what I mean, but if I don’t edit that out later I’m in trouble!)

SETTINGS - are the settings for your scenes interesting and well described?  Can the reader "see" where your characters are?  Use the five senses to help them: smell, touch, taste, hearing and sight but don't overdo it.  Two or three details should be enough.

WATCH YOUR ADVERBS - have you used two words (or more) where one would do?  Instead of 'ran quickly' you could write 'raced'.  Check all words that end in an LY to see if you need them.

PET WORDS:  mine are just, ever, seems, a little, a bit, gazed, suddenly.  If you think you have a pet word, do a global search on your computer to see how many times you've used it.  You might be surprised.  Also, words/phrases like seems, quite, a bit, somewhat, a little really dilute the strength of your writing.   If someone is angry, don't say they seem angry, say they are angry.  Better yet, let them throw something!

The best help books for editing I've read are "Self-editing for Fiction Writers" by Rennie Browne and Dave King, and the bible of grammar: "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White.

When you have your story as polished as you can make it, checking for spelling errors (inexcusable in this age of spell-checkers), grammar and sense, you may choose to ask a fellow writer, or friend who is an avid reader, to read it through for you.  This is invaluable because we all miss things and imagine we've made it perfectly clear on the page because we know the whole story when we're reading it.  Fresh eyes can point out holes.

Avoid close family for this task - they are obliged to say "It's lovely, dear," and you'll have no idea whether it is or not.  This is part of the understandable urge to 'show it off' to people, especially loved ones.   Please try to wait until it's published.  If they hate it for some reason (which might have nothing to do with its quality - perhaps it's not their preferred genre) they could destroy your confidence for life.

When you are completely happy with the manuscript, print it out (one side of the page only) on clean white A4 paper in a non-proportional font like Courier, 12 point, double spaced with 3cm margins all round and aligned to the left only.  At the top you have a header with the title of the book, your name and the page number. Like this:

You also make up a title page with the name of the book, the word count, your name and address and put your copyright at the bottom like this:

Louise Cusack © August 2001

Then you are ready to sell it to a publisher.  Agents can be invaluable at this stage, but if you can't interest an agent in representing you, most Australian publishers will look at an unagented manuscript if you are polite and query them first (you could ring and ask the publishing house receptionist who you should address it to within their organisation and whether to send the whole manuscript or just the first two chapters and the synopsis).

Other factors that can speed your progress from unpublished to published author are reading how-to books (a great selection is available through writer's centres), attending workshops and writers festivals, joining a critique group or writer's organisation like the Qld Writer's Centre (or Victorian Writer's Centre, NSW etc) or a genre specific organisation like Romance Writers of Australia or the VISION sf group in Queensland.

I've also recently created an Advanced Tips page which may be of help to those writers who are a little further along in their careers.

Whatever you decide to do, Good luck with it!

Disclaimer :  I've made all the mistakes I'm telling you not to make, and I'm sure I'll continue to make some because I'm not perfect.  Neither are you.  All we can do is learn and try to improve,  write and write and write, and most importantly, continue to read.

Beware of those who tell you their way of writing is the only way or the best way.  They have control issues.  The method of writing I describe above suits me.  It might not suit you, so please feel free to adapt it or ignore it.  But if even one piece of advice I've given you here helps you on your writing journey, I'll be thrilled.