Random Writing Tips and Tidbits: Guest Post by Alexandra

Hello, one and all! My darlingest Amy asked me to guest post today, and I’m soooooo over-the-moon thrilled and honored!

Today I thought I’d share a few writing tips. I know peoples around here enjoy writing, and being that I’m in the thick of writing a story myself at the moment, I would take this opportunity to share a few “tidbits I have learned through this” with you all. Not to mention that writing takes all my brain power so I can’t think beyond “writing” at this point. Thus why I am not posting about any other subject. :)

1.       Don’t be afraid to follow plot bunnies…as long as you’re not in the middle of a project.
This is crucial. My latest WIP was a lovely plot bunny that popped up when I was in the planning process of another novel. As long as you’re not smack-dab in the middle of writing something else, go with your idea while the idea’s hot and fresh in your mind. The only exception is when your novel-in-progress is at a dead point, to which I say, drop it and follow the plot bunny. I had one instance before where my inspiration for a story was stone-dry. I went off on another project, got that done, and came back to project A ready to write again – and got that book finished in three months.

2.       Don’t be afraid to cast!
I’ve written about character casting before on my writing blog, and honestly, I’d say even if you don’t usually…give it a try. It’s amazing how it can help. And when you cast – do some research. If possible (depending on if the person you’ve cast is in anything you’d actually watch :-P), look up films or clips or whatever. Don’t be afraid to steal ideas – one, it’s fun to have inside-trivia with yourself about your characters, and two, as the great quote says, “Good writers imitate. Great writers steal.” I recently got an idea for a scene that turned out adorable from watching a film the actress I cast as my heroine was in.
In that vein…

3.       Don’t be afraid of casting people You Really Like.
In other words, if you keep thinking up story ideas for that actor or hero who you think Is Awesome, then go for it. Let me say from experience, if you think the Hero is awesome, then it’ll show in your writing. I’ve cast several people from what I like to call my Awesomest Actors Evah circle (a group of actors who are complete geniuses in their field…and also very handsome and give me warm fuzzies which has nothing to do with it), and the heroes in my stories…always end up pretty awesome as a result. That goes for heroine and minor characters and plots and everything – if you’re crazy about it, your enthusiasm will show up in your writing. It’s not silly (and if you think Certain People [brothers usually fall into this category :-P] will make fun of the fact that you’ve cast A Certain Someone as your hero, just don’t tell them. :-D) Quite easy.

4.       Don’t be afraid to steal ideas.
Did you know that Shakespeare stole the idea of Romeo and Juliet? As any good Leaguette knows, superheroes with their alter-egos came from our own Sir Percy. Don’t be afraid to take an idea and put your own twist on it. No one’s going to arrest you for it, and besides, there’s one helpful thought – until you publish the book and people all over the world read it, no one will know what you do. It is kind of a freeing thought, no?

5.       Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone.
Like anything else in life, you’ve got to stretch yourself and do things you find difficult if you’re going to get better at writing. Don’t keep from doing something just because you haven’t done it before or think you can’t do. Write that nice mushy proposal scene. Try your hand at a mystery. Kill off that character. Add that odd plot twist. Give that character a melodramatic speech.

6.       Don’t be afraid of romance.
In my humble opinion, a story ain’t a story without a romantic angle somewhere in the story, whether it’s the main plot or two minor characters. A lot of girls are squeamish about writing romance in a story, mainly for the understandable argument that being as most of them are single, they haven’t experienced romance for themselves and don’t want to be inaccurate. Understandable, but not true. Jane Austen was never married and wrote some of the most famous romantic couples ever. What if she had thought “I can’t do it, I’ve never been married?” There’d be no Austen vs. Orczy argument. And then life would be so much duller for me. :-P Don’t be afraid of it…especially proposals. I love writing a good proposal scene. I love writing those back-and-forth flirtatious sparring. I love the excitement I get when the hero and heroine get that mental jarring moment where they suddenly realize “ooh…there’s feelings there, wow…”. Tense Moments (the staring-at-each-other-for-ten-seconds-and-we-all-hold-our-breath-before-the-moment-is-broken-by-someone-or-something) are my very very favorite and I highly recommend anyone have tense moments in their stories (they also work great to replace kissing scenes if you don’t want them in there but want that romantic tension). If you treat writing romance like it’s no big deal, it isn’t. Enjoy it. It’s really fun.     

7.       Don’t be afraid to have the characters show their emotions.
Heroes crying are epic. Now, that shouldn’t be confused with a sopping crybaby. But the hero who at some point breaks down is awesome. Let your characters yell at each other. Cry if they need to (the heroine crying always is nice because it gives the hero a chance to comfort her, thereby inducing Warm Fuzzy Feelings on both the heroine and reader’s part).  Don’t be afraid of melodrama.

8.       Don’t be afraid of holding out tension.
This is very important. Keep throwing roadblocks in the way. Don’t give in to the temptation to resolve everything right away. I’m terrible at this, so I’m very thankful for my writing partner, who always insists that I stick with our agreement and wait until page X to have the hero and heroine resolve their issues like we’d planned instead of succumbing to the desire to have them go ahead and do it ten chapters before. Don’t be afraid to throw some hard punches at your characters. If there’s one thing your character would never do, make them get into a situation where they’d have to do it. Get your character close to their goal and then pull it outagain from under their feet. I’ve recently gotten obsessed with the show Doctor Who, and one of the biggest things I’ve gotten from watching it writing-wise is that the viewer (or reader in our case) will continue if they’re emotionally invested, if you keep taking away what the character wants. They continue because they want to see the character happy and finally get what they desire or are working for. Would The Scarlet Pimpernel be quite so awesome if Percy and Marguerite resolved their issues there in the hallway in the scene after the garden party in the 1982 film? Would you really care quite as much if Charlie got the golden ticket the first chocolate bar he got, or if Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth got over their prejudices in the first ball scene? Keep dragging out the tension. It’s worth it.

9.       Don’t be afraid of writer’s block.
It happens to everyone, in every book at sometime (that’s where I love co-writing…I just pass the buck to my friend until further inspiration. :-D). Everyone has different ways of dealing with it…I always write other scenes I’ve got in my head. Or write something silly. Or throw a weird plot twist in. And unless you’re on a deadline, sometimes you’ve just gotta give it a while. Like artists who leave their paintings for a while to get a fresh “eye” for it and come back days later to work on it again, sometimes we just need a rest, a time to recharge. I took a two week break from a story once and thought up a character who completely brought a new angle to the story during that break. It is ok.

10.   Don’t be afraid to write scenes out-of-order.
I always do this. ALWAYS. The proposal for my present book…which is the last scene…is already written. So are several tense moments that don’t come until a ways down the road from where I’m technically at now. If you get an inspiration for a scene, treat it like a plot bunny…write it down while the idea’s hot. You may end up losing the inspiration for it if you wait.

And lastly…

11.   Have fun.
It’s not a job, and unless you actually get into the publishing business, it most likely never will be. Look at it for what it is – a chance to create your own world. It’s crazy, and it’s awesome. I love creating character and situations, spending months with them, and then when it’s ended, feeling as if these characters are real. Don’t stress over the little stuff. Don’t worry if your style is perfect or if you’ve used too many adjectives. That’s what editing is for. Just have funwriting.

And now I’m off. My characters are calling… :)            

Alexandra is twenty-three years old and passionate about everything in life. She is a Christian, a homeschool graduate (Class of 06!), daughter, sister to ten siblings, and piano teacher. While the sun rises and sets on The Scarlet Pimpernel, her biggest obsession in life, her other non-TSP obsessions include reading voraciously (classics are her specialty), singing, musical theatre, Doctor Who, playing the piano, anything and everything British, talking, accents (Scottish in particular), costume reproduction, and costume dramas in general. 

She blogs about costume dramas, musicals, costume reproduction, classic literature and everything historical related at Of Trims and Frills and Furbelows, her writing projects at The Breathings of My Heart and about everything else in her life (yes, she does have one) at The Value of One, where, despite her best efforts, a bit of The Scarlet Pimpernel always manages to wiggle itself in. She also has the enormous honor and pleasure of contributing to The Day Dream, the most awesome (in her humble opinion) TSP fansite on the web!