Whether you’re writing fiction or creative non-fiction (memoir or essays) your story will benefit from the use of struggle as part of the dramatic tension.

There are three basic types of struggle:

1.  Man against self.

2.  Man against others.

3.  Man against nature.

What creates tension is man’s struggle against any or all of these elements.  A writer uses some of all three, but maybe not all three at the same time, except toward the end when your protagonist (or narrator in memoir) has to fight against all the evils in order to win.

The struggle in the early chapters ought to be more about the protagonist/narrator struggling against others. The struggle against others works best during the chapters where you’re introducing the other characters and identifying them as either friend or foe.

While the protagonist struggles with others, add in the protagonist’s/narrator’s struggle against self. For example, the protagonist/narrator might be trying to fall in love again after a serious breakup.  He questions every opportunity, worrying that he’ll fail again. His constant struggle with himself leads to bad decisions, worry, even disgust, that heightens the dramatic tension of your story.

Another example might be a protagonist, such as a detective, worrying if she still has it as a professional. Her worries cause her to make bad decisions, put herself in harm’s way, and lead her to self-doubt.

Worrying and self-doubt are especially useful when writing memoir to portray the type of dramatic tension that is characteristic in a real life struggle.

Throughout the beginning and middle chapters, the protagonist/narrator should be struggling primarily against self and others.

Then, include natural forces to add danger, to threaten the protagonist, or to aid the antagonist.  Imagine what specific elements of nature will do to heighten the dramatic tension of your story.

Show the protag actually struggling with nature.  Use the weather, for example, as a ticking clock.  Write so the protag reacts to the forces of nature by worrying, fretting, taking chances, doing dumb things to beat the weather or other natural elements.

To create a stunning page turner, use variations of struggle to ratchet up the stakes in either your fiction or memoir stories. Blend the elements of struggle against self, others, and nature and you’ll have a winning resolve at the end of your short story, fiction or memoir, or full-length book.

Sometimes taking a break can make you more productive than ever.  Sometimes you don’t even recognize that you need a break but then you get these little life nudges that say, “Hey, stop! You’re pushing too fast!”

Do you ever get the feeling that “pushing” causes more resistance than if you were to gently pull your ideas forward?

Before I was a writing instructor and coach, early in my career days, I worked in an engineering environment where new ideas floated around all day long. Of course, just as in writing or any creative endeavor, ideas are easy; it’s what you do with the ideas that matter.

I noticed that engineers who took time out to get feedback from others gathered more ideas that created even more momentum for their projects. So when these guys (all men but 1 woman at the time) took a break, they weren’t slackers. They were feeding the forward momentum of their projects in a way that forcing or “pushing” would have never worked.

You might need a break if:

• you question if what you’re doing is working.
• you’re feeling depleted of fresh ideas.
• every day seems a struggle to get yourself writing again.
• you’re stuck with no idea for what’s next.
• you’ve stopped doing anything but feel guilty for doing nothing.

The antidote: Take a break to feed your forward momentum:

Day 1 – Have a “nothing day” where you leave your writing project completely alone.

Day 2 – Make a list of questions you have or things that bother you about your current project or writing process. It’s okay if this list is long and hairy and disorganized. Think of it as a brain dump of your frustrations.

Day 3 – Make another list of ALL potential solutions. Censor NOTHING. Everything counts!

Day 4 – Seek opinions of others. Share your concerns with a trusted writing friend, colleague, or professional, such as a writing coach. Brainstorm ideas together for possible next steps.

Day 5 – Sort through winning ideas and map out a calendarized next step plan for your writing.

Day 6 – Take another “nothing day” and truly make it an open day free of project anxiety.

Day 7 – Return to your writing project ready, relaxed and renewed by the fresh ideas that will pull you through to success!

{Please pass this writing tip along to others.}

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STOP Procrastinating Tip #2:
Eat A Frog Every Morning!

Also known as The Worst First Technique, this tip works best to get the things you dread out of the way first thing in the morning.  I used to use this technique when I cold called prospects in my former business as a time management and organization consultant.  Here’s how it works:

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1. Before you go to bed, write down the most dreaded task you face.
2. Tomorrow, right away, as soon as possible, do that dreaded task.  Go ahead!  Get it over with.  Just do it!

Application for Writers:  What are you putting off?  What’s the #1 thing that has your writing stalled?

Use The Worst 1st Technique to overcome procrastination.  Perhaps you need to make a call too.  Maybe you need to find a subject matter expert to interview.  Or perhaps you’ve been putting off editing a certain chapter.  Maybe it’s an article you need to finish.  Get it off your desk, be done with it so you can move on to something else.  The Worst 1st Technique helps writers overcome writers block too.

What is it that you’ve been putting off?

As unpalatable as it may seem, this technique really works. Why? Because when you do the worst first and get it out of the way, you not only clear your brain of clutter that snaggles your creativity, you also boost  your self-confidence that says “Yes, I can do this!”

Now isn’t that worth eating a frog first thing in the morning? Go ahead. Try it!

{Please pass this writing tip along to others.}

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STOP Procrastinating Tip #1:
The Salami and Nibble Theory

Have you ever had a project that you kept putting off because it just seemed overwhelming?  Were you put off because you didn’t know where to begin?  Did you start with one thing, but that lead to something else?  If so, you’re not alone.

Sometimes when you procrastinate, it’s because the project is just like a salami: huge, and long, and slimy. You know how it is when you buy a whole salami, how it has that white chalky stuff all over it?  Who would want to eat THAT!?!? Of course, no one would when it looks so huge, so long, and so slimy with that white chalky stuff all over it.

So what do you do? You take it, and you slice it, and you eat it one bite at a time.  When you chunk it down into smaller bite-sized pieces, the salami is so much more palatable, isn’t it?

Application for Writers: What are you putting off? What’s project is so huge and overwhelming, it has your writing stalled?

Take a look at what you’ve been putting off doing or writing.  Chances are you’re procrastinating because you can only see the hugeness of the project and not the many steps that will lead you to accomplishing your goal.  Use this technique to chunk the project down.

1. Take out a sheet of paper.
2. Make a list of tasks.
3. Make each tasks things you can accomplish in under 30 minutes.  The smaller the better. Go for tasks that are 5 to 10 minute to-do’s.  These tasks might look like this:
   • Dump draft first thoughts for Chapter 1 – go, no holds barred, no self-editing
   • Start a Table of Contents
   • Add 3 topic/titles to the Table of Contents tojumpstart this project
   • Make a manilla folder for each topic or chapter (or a binder with sections works well too since this is all part of the ‘chunking it down theory’)
   • Create a back history document for main character

   You get the idea of it, right?

4. Think of this chunked down list as your project menu. It is the container of your many chunks or slices.
5. If the tasks need a certain order, then go ahead and number them in order. But don’t worry too much about that. Trust that you have a set of steps that will get you closer to your goal.
6. Now, schedule at least 1 hour (2 hours is better if you’re a serious writer) every day to eat up that scrumptious project in those tinier bite-sized pieces.

One to two hours too much to ask?  Well, then just do one thing at a time: eat as many pieces as your schedule (aka stomach) will hold to overcome procrastination.

Enjoy the journey!

{Please pass this writing tip along to others.}

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Why Do Writer’s Procrastinate?
Or why does ANYONE  procrastinate, for that matter?

During the 1990′s I taught time management and organization workshops to overstressed, uber-hurried professionals in the Silicon Valley.  No matter what role they played in the corporate life, every one of them admitted to multiple things they put off and didn’t do.  They procrastinated everything from following up with clients, filing reports, sending emails, cleaning off their desks, even asking the boss for a raise.

Writers are no different.  We procrastinate for a number of reasons:

• Fear – of failure, success,  inadequacy, being good enough, being found out, being real
• Overload – common when there’s always, always more to do than time for
• Overwhelm – the task seems so HUGE, it’s daunting
• No deadline – working without a clear target
• Lack of a clear purpose – moving forward without enough information or instruction

Are any of these reasons familiar to you?  What are you putting off?  What reasons do you give to justify the delays?

During the next several days, I’ll be posting tips and techniques for overcoming procrastination. These techniques work; they really DO. I know because I use them myself and recommend them to my coaching clients and memoir writing students all the time.  Their successes prove that overcoming procrastination is possible.

Please leave a comment.  Tell me if you procrastinate and why.

Then, click on Blog for more How To Overcome Procrastination tips.

What is a Short Story?

Short stories are a glorious art form.

Now that I have that out of the way, let’s start talking about them behind their back.  I’ve been asked on occasion what defines a short story, and what do all short stories have in common.  The answer to that second question may seem flippant, but it is heartfelt.  The only thing they all have in common is a beginning, middle and end.

To enhance that answer, short stories are so varied, you can approach them from so many angles, that is, quite literally, the only thing they have in common.  To go even more deeply, even the beginning, middle and end can look different in different stories.  Some of my favorite stories are experimental, nontraditional or “non-linear.”  The beginning can happen in the middle.  The ending can be so vague as to seem non-existent, or can swing back to the beginning.  Richard A. Lupoff’s 12:01 PM has several beginnings, including the end.  This is one of the things I love about short stories, about story telling in general, actually, that they can be so varied and unexpected.

What defines short stories also requires a flippant sounding answer: It is a story that is shorter than a novel or a novella.  How short is up to many different standards.  Some say anything less than 9,000 words.  Some say anything less than 20,000.  Some, less than 7,000.  Some even call a story shorter than 1,000 a “short short” but I think that’s making a distinction that is entirely too fine for any practical purpose besides academia, which isn’t usually very practical at all.

Ernest Hemmingway famously won a bet by creating a short story with only six words:  “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”  I shiver every time I read that one, and it always makes me think.

Most, but not all short stories have a limited number of characters.  Shirley Jackson’s wonderfully dark The Lottery, however, definitely a short story, has well over ten characters, most of them fairly well developed.  It does, of course, only have one location.  Most, but not all, short stories have a limited number of locations.  Kipling’s classic Man Who Would Be King has several, unless you consider all of India one location.  Some have defined short stories as those that have only one or a few conflicts in them, or a single plot.  Delany’s award-winning Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones has more complications and plot turns than some novels, although some call it a novelette, which, I suppose, is somewhere between a short story and a novella.

So what, exactly, is a short story?  That is up to the individual writer, reader, editor or publication to decide in their own, quirky, individual way.  I could be coy and say it doesn’t matter, just read them and get on with your day, but I’m much too polite to give such a response.

I like to think of them as more of a narrative sketch or study than a full painting or sculpture, more a bagatelle or caprice than a symphony or opera, more an annoying list of similes than a full-blown crazy-making analysis.  This is, of course, also insufficient.  The sketches of Dürer or Michelangelo are much more detailed and complete than the sculptures of Picasso or the paintings of Mondrian, so even my annoying similes don’t quite hit the mark.

Even so, thinking of short stories as more like sketches of events than novels (or even novellas) is as useful a distinction as any.  The characters and locations will be more sketches of people and place than would be necessary in a novel.  Communicating a central point or idea is more important than delving into specifics.

Now that we have cleared up the mystery, or, perhaps, laid more mud on it, I say go read one, then get on with your day.  Read two, they’re short.

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Geoff Hoff is a best-selling author and also writes how-to writing guides.

With his writing partner, he will be giving an on-line course, “You Can Write a Short Story” that starts Thursday, January 14th.  http://www.TipsOnWriting.net/class

Apply the code WRITELIFE at checkout for $20 off the price of registration.

Learn more about the craft of writing from Geoff and his writing partner, Steve Mancini, at their Tips on Writing blog http://www.TipsOnWriting.net/blog

The days are getting shorter as summer wanes.  Have you noticed it?

I like the new angles the sunlight displays as it moves back northward.

Each day is a new day as I open the blind in my office. The sun casts its presence across my desk in significantly different patterns, making every day magical and different.

It’s quite inspiring when you notice these subtle changes in nature.

Even in Florida, where the midday temperatures still hover near 90 degrees Fahrenheit, there’s a sense of fall in the air.  Beyond the changes in light, what was once lush and green is now fading, as though spent from summer’s rush to vitality.

If you’re feeling stale, pay attention to what nurtures you.  Every day is different even when it seems like same old, same old.

Collect a list of these seasonal changes in your journal of the daily changes that are purely nature’s changes.  Expand the lists into mini-vignettes.  Later, these recordings may serve you in a story or setting detail.

Now you go… what will you write today?  How is the fall season special to you?

Patti Stafford’s article A Writer’s Expressions: Word Play and Language Usage offers a reminder and simplification of figurative language terms:

- simile

- metaphor

- personification

Using figurative language is like writing poetry.  It’s not always something that flows out easily, but takes time to imagine the images.  Use it and you’ll add another layer to your writing that will delight your readers.

Here’s another writing tool I use all the time.  I borrowed this idea from my days as a time management consultant when I used the DBNF file for prospects who weren’t quite ready to buy.

The DBNF file is the perfect solution for those times when you need to kill your lil darlings (you know… those wonderful passages of prose that just don’t quite fit into the current piece of writing).

You know this is good material but it just doesn’t quite fit here.  Yet, you hate to throw out what it took you at least an hour to create.

Solution: create a DBNF file on your computer.

DBNF Stands for Dead But Not Forgotten.

DBNF is your good writing to use elsewhere.  Another time, another day, another blog post, in another story or vignette.

Cut and paste the ‘not working’ content from the current document.  Create a new Word (or text) document.  Save it with an appropriate file name.  Store all your DBNFs in a DBNF folder.  On the computer, or printed out in a manila folder.

BONUS TIP:

Stuck for something to write?  Revisit your DBNF for a story starter or inspiration for a new piece of writing.

The best advice you’ll ever get comes from Kurt Vonnegut:  “Have the guts to cut.”

Don’t be afraid to kill your lil darlings.  I know it took you a long time to write that passage of prose.  I know you think what you wrote belongs.  And maybe it does.  But maybe somewhere else.

A good writer writes clean and spare.  Every word must do new work.  There should be no clutter in your sentences, no extraneous details, nothing that is not essential to the topic at hand.

Clean, spare writing does not mean you avoid description.  But it does mean cutting:

• repetition
• extra adverbs when one strong verb will do
• adjectives when a precise noun will “show” better

To keep your reader’s attention, avoid wordiness.  Strip your sentences to their cleanest form.

Learn to write tight to write right!

I love discovering tools that make my life as a writer easier.  I tend to write on the fly and  have way more ideas than I can possibly capture on the page.

I’m not sure where I heard this one, but it’s a writing tool I use every day.

USE TK – Think of It As “To Come”

When you have a section you can’t write now, type TK into your draft. Later, use the Find command in your word processor program to search for TK.

Why TK?

TK is a letter combination not found often ( if ever?) in the English language.  So essentially, you’ve created a parking place for what’s “to come.”  (Okay, I admit, it’s fuzzy logic, but think TK phonetically = to come.)

This tool comes in very handy for those times when you don’t have the data you need.  Or you need to look up a quote to insert.  Or when the timing or inspiration is just not right to fill in the details.

Of course, before posting or submitting your prose to its final destination for publication, be sure to go through your entire document using the Find command to delete all the TKs.

Several years ago I attended a weekend spiritual retreat organized by the Omega Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  Some of the notable headliners included Wayne Dyer, Joan Borysenko, James Van Praagh, Loretta Laroche, and  Dr. Brian Weiss.  I enjoyed the presentations by these wonderful teachers, but I’d come for one thing:  to sit at the feet of author Anne Lamott and lap up everything she had to say.

Anyone who has read her bestselling writing how-to book  Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life knows she has a wonderful way with metaphor, and a grand sense of humor.

She tickled her audience that day with her wry wit while teaching us about her recommended 3 stages for writing drafts:

1.  Start with a “down draft.”  Just get it all down.  Write, write, write.  Don’t worry where things might fit in.  Just get it all down before the muse runs away.  Think of the “down draft” as your parking place for ideas, experiences, and memories.

2.  Next, continue with “up drafts.”  Raise your  “down draft” from bare essentials to workable material.  That might mean adding new material, taking things out, moving elements around, shaping the piece of writing toward its publishable form.  Think of the “up drafts” as prettying things up.  This stage of drafting is truly where “writing” takes place and will mean you spend the bulk of your writing time at this stage.  Be okay with “up drafting” 5, 10, 20, even 40 times until you’ve refined your prose.

3.  Finally, attack your prose for the “dental draft”  as you polish and final hone.  During this stage, go deep inside your draft, review every word, every sentence, every paragraph for polishing.

If you’re not 100% certain of your doctoring (or dental) skills, now might be the time to have an experienced editor take a final look.  You’ll want your prose to be bright, shiny and smiling.