I’m not the type of writer who outlines endlessly. Nor do I write by the set of my pants. I like to have a general idea of where my characters are going but still leave room for surprises. Here are ten questions that shouldn’t take long and will give you a barebones idea of what you want your book to be. Think of it as a map early explorers made of a new territory. There’s vast areas of the unknown, all the peaks and valleys aren’t named, but you can still identify major places.

Take a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle. Label one side protagonist and the other antagonist, or hero and heroine. List the following questions and fill in brief answers. Turn off your internal editor, don’t worry about punctuation, and write down the first thing that comes to mind.

1. What is your character in the process of doing? (his ordinary world)
2. What is his greatest strength?
3. What is his weakness/his character flaw?
4. What event happens to upset his world? (his call to action)
5. What goal is created by this new complication?
6. Is his external goal tied to an internal goal?
7. List two or three obstacles that prevent him from obtaining his goal.  One of these should be an internal obstacle that is tied to his character flaw.
8. What lesson(s) will he learn that will lead to the growth necessary to obtain his goal?
9. How will the book end?
10. Try to distill the theme of the book into one word.  Love? Betrayal? Loyalty? Control?

This is by no means a detailed, page by page outline, but it is a beginning.  Writing quickly, with your internal editor turned off, frees the creative half of your brain and allows ideas to bubble up.

Once you answer these questions, expand on each until you’re comfortable with the progress you’ve made and you’re ready to start writing your story.

Remember, goals and obstacles can change as you discover new facets of your character’s personality and values.  Make this a fluid document and return to it frequently to help you with any plotting problems.

I’ll be back Wednesday with a tip on how to jump start your creativity.

Until then, be safe.

Cheryl

The comma is probably the most abused and misused punctuation mark.  Meant to make our written ideas clear to the reader, they get shoved into sentences where they don’t belong and forgotten when they are really needed.  “Can I buy a comma?”  No need.  They’re free, and really aren’t that hard to understand – especially when they’re explained by E.B. White.

“Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.”  — The Elements of Style

Okay, even White admits that this rule is a little tricky to follow.  If the interruption to a sentence is very slight, you can omit the comma.  However, if you omit one comma, you have to omit the other.  If you stick the word however in the middle of a sentence, you’d better have a comma on both sides of it or no comma at all.  If you say, My cousin Rachel gave us cookies,  you could put  a comma after cousin and after Rachel, but you cannot put one after cousin and then fail to put one after Rachel.  Make sense?  I hope so.

A title or name in a sentence of direct address (where you’re actually talking to the person named in the sentence) is parenthetic.  Gina, you have a mayonnaise covered crumb sticking to your chin.   Find the dog, Jane, and give him a bath.  You use only one comma if the name is at the beginning or at the end of the sentence.  If you use sir,  ma’am, idiot, or honey in place of a name, use a comma.

That’s all for today. 

Please remember that journalism and most other writing is protected as free speech - a right specified in our constitutional amendments but won and defended over the years by the many brave men and women in our military.   To all our veterans and active soldiers – a million thank yous!

All the best,

Mary

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