Tag Archives: writing craft books

Technique

Becoming a better writer: read a craft book

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Becoming a better writer

I. Love. Books. I assume most writers do! I especially love to read books on the craft of writing. Studying these books always helps to up my craft, even if the specifics aren’t geared toward me, and there are lots of amazing books out there on screenwriting, storytelling, the life of a writer, and more, as well as specific aspects to hone your craft.

Here are some of the great craft books that I’ve read (affiliate links):

Story Engineering by Larry Brooks Elements of Fiction Writing – Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron
Write Great Fiction – Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

You could also try or . . . just sayin’.

This year, I’m reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and rereading Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge on my Kindle, and hopefully finding those awesome writing books that were somewhere in my TBR before I moved . . . hm….

What do you think? What are your favorite writing craft or writing life books? What will you read this year?

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
News & Contests

New book, new guest post!

Sigh. I have many things I want to blog about, but right now, most of my writing time is taken up with preparing for the LDStorymakers conference next week, where I’m teaching about Structural Self-editing on Friday and Gesture Crutches on Saturday (twice!). We may not be back to our regularly scheduled bloggy goodness until after that’s over. And I’ve recovered.

For now, I do have some awesomeness to tide you over!

heart COVER 300Character Sympathy now has a foreword by RITA award–winning author, best-selling novelist, fiction writing teacher, editor extraordinaire Alicia Rasley! Her articles were among the first really good resources I found for learning more about character sympathy, so I’m thrilled to have her for the foreword!

Also for Character Sympathy: the print version of Character Sympathy is now available! Thanks to those Sneaky McSneakersons who’ve already found it and bought it! The print version does include the foreword. And it’s beautiful! Just check out the proof (side-by-side with Character Arcs):

fiction university faculty logoFinally, I have a guest post at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University about finding and working with a cover designer. Your cover is your book’s first impression, so make sure it’s a good one! Learn how to find a good cover designer and work with them to create an awesome cover for your book.

I’m privileged to be part of Fiction U’s faculty in the Indie Author Department!

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Works, Technique

Character Sympathy is here!

It’s my birthday—and my baby’s birthday! How awesome is that?! Almost as awesome as the present I got for you.

Are you struggling with an unlovable character? Do your beta readers hate your heroine? Are your critique partners confused about your character’s motivations? Don’t despair—a little more character sympathy could help you! Learn how to get your reader on your character’s side from the very beginning, to get your reader rooting for your character and riveted to the story.

IS YOUR CHARACTER WORTHY OF YOUR READER?

heart COVER 300
Often we think of sympathetic characters as those we love or envy or pity, but character sympathy runs deeper than simply liking or feeling sorry for a character. Sympathy in this sense is truly feeling what the character feels, worrying over the same things he worries about, and wanting him to succeed against all odds. If we can get our readers to fully sympathize and identify with our character, our readers will enjoy that journey with our character and then clamor for more.

CHARACTER SYMPATHY will help you:

  • Learn what events, actions and characteristics create true sympathy for a character.
  • Engineer your character’s motivations and goals to maximize their sympathy.
  • Avoid clichéd methods for creating reader identification.
  • Foster sympathy for heroes, antiheroes, villains and everyone in between.
  • Observe and analyze master storytellers’ techniques to create character sympathy.

Character sympathy isn’t automatic or easy, but it’s necessary for readable fiction. Applying these principles can strengthen any story and any character.

Hook your readers with a character they can really root for.

Praise for Character Sympathy

“Jordan has a knack for developing great characters. In this book she shows how to strike the proper balance to make characters believable and multidimensional. Very helpful for all authors, from newbies to published.”

—Nina Holbrook

“Jordan McCollum’s Character Sympathy offers a clear explanation of why showing trumps telling and why your hero/ines need to work for the reader’s sympathy.”

—Morgyn Star

“From Character Sympathy I learned how to make my characters tick from the beginning.”

—Syakira Sungkar

More about the book

Find the table of contents and more here! Plus, keep an eye out for upcoming character sympathy profiles looking at the techniques storytellers use to get us on the same page as their characters from the very start.

Get it now!

Character Sympathy is available direct from JordanMcCollum.com (in PDF, Kindle/.mobi & ePub formats) and from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo! Paperback will be available as soon as my final proof arrives for approval.

COVERAlso in the Writing Craft Series

Character Arcs: Founding, forming and finishing your character’s internal journey is available direct from JordanMcCollum.com and Amazon and in paperback—and now at Barnes & Noble! It’s also processing at Kobo now, too.

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Technique

Using humor to increase character sympathy

It’s a big week! We’re kicking off launch week with an excerpt from Character Sympathy: Creating characters your readers HAVE to root for!

When we use it correctly, humor can be a great tool for creating character sympathy.

A sense of humor helps to make a character more relatable. It can give the character an air of resilience, which is a strength worth rooting for. Whether the story events are positive or negative for the character, if he can take everything with a joke, he remains more grounded for the reader. Humor helps to temper the extremes of both strength and struggles, and make the character more human. And of course, when our character gets in the perfect one-liner or comeback, the readers (like us) get to indulge in a little wish-fulfillment for all the times words have failed them in a fight.

Humor can give the character an air of resilience, which is a strength worth rooting forSeveral types of humor work particularly well with this, including wit and sarcasm, especially used in a self-deprecating way. Being able to poke fun at herself makes a character more endearing. Making fun of another character in a mean-spirited way, bullying, and cruelty, however, are very likely to backfire on the character-sympathy level.

This tool for creating character sympathy is optional. It’s not suited to all characters or all stories. But if your character is struggling to engage your readers, perhaps a joke or two couldn’t hurt.

What do you think? What other reasons do you use humor in your writing?

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
News & Contests, Works

Character Sympathy is coming soon!

Character Sympathy is here!

Today, I’ve got two fun things to share. First, my indie author column is running today at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University (formerly The Other Side of the Story). Go learn more about finding your perfect editor and editing level!

Secondly, I’m revealing the cover of my next writing guide today! Character Sympathy is coming soon!

What does it mean to have a “sympathetic” character? Often we think of characters we love or envy or pity, but at its core, what our fiction really needs are characters the reader can root for and relate to.

When you have characters your readers can really care about, even if they don’t love the character, your readers will be fully engaged in your story and beg for more!

Learn what does and doesn’t create character sympathy and see how to use proven techniques for creating character sympathy to really hook your readers.

And here’s the cover!

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More about Character Sympathy

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Works, News & Contests

Announcing Character Arcs (the book!)

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It’s a big year for me! After speaking at the LDStorymakers Conference this spring, I wanted to get my thoughts on character arcs out there again. so coming soon, it’s . . .

character arcs
Character arcs the book!

I’ve already collected all the cool stuff I’ve shared through guest posts, the original blog series, and my presentation, and I’m clarifying, refining and expanding it!

It should be launching on Amazon Kindle as an ebook sometime next month. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

I’m planning more writing craft ebooks in the future, and I think I’ll probably bundle a couple ebooks for print editions as well.

What do you think? What writing series or topics would you like to see a book on?

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!