Telling and Selling Stories the Video Game Way | Write Lara Write

Character + Conflict

If you follow me on Twitter, then you’ll get daily doses of writing and editing tips with an occasional sprinkling of bad jokes and fangirl gushing over Clark Gregg or Nathan Fillion (unless you follow me @LaraEdits, which is my new account for editing tips). You may have seen this tweet:

Drama, that magic stuff that keeps us reading, requires CHARACTER (protagonist, w/ goals) and CONFLICT (obstacles, stakes). #writingtips — Lara Willard (@larathelark) June 3, 2014

That is dramatic storytelling at it’s very simplest. You can remember it in terms of 2, 3, or 4, depending on whichever is easiest for you:

Character + Conflict
Character + Goal + Obstacles
Character + Goal + Obstacles + Stakes

Empathetic characters with goals

Characters have to want something, otherwise they just sit around eating Fritos in their boxer briefs in their parents’ basement. That isn’t a story. Continue reading →

Twitter Tuesday #3.2

3 June, 20142 Comments

Twitter Tuesday is a new feature on my blog. The first Tuesday of the month, I include all of the past month’s writing and editing tweets from the “field.” Read Twitter Tuesday 1 here.

Be sure to check out my new Query Workshops!

I was pretty active on Twitter in May, so I’m posting Twitter Tuesday #3 in two installments. Here are the tweets & retweets from May 16th–June 2nd.

May

Describe what’s happening rather than telling us that it’s happening. #ShowDontTell #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 17, 2014

If you want active, engaging prose, fix expletive sentences—those starting with “There was/are/is” or “It was/is" #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 17, 2014

#writingtip of the day: Highlight just your dialog & read it like a script. Does it make sense? Does it sound natural? Revise. #amediting

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 29, 2014

My avg #editing price/wd: $0.015 MS critique, $0.04 line edit. SPECIALS: $40 for 10 pg, $160 for 10K wds http://t.co/HaKOKRAmBg #amediting

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 29, 2014

First impressions are everything! Get a query critique before landing in the slush pile. For free or $35. Details: http://t.co/Q4HWNYd2yn

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) June 1, 2014

An MFA in #writing isn't for everyone. As a literary writing major, I appreciate this. I love guilty pleasure reads! http://t.co/n6Jhw1iH3j

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) June 2, 2014

A query shows you can write engaging prose. A synopsis shows you can write a plot. Query=voice. Synopsis=plot points. #writingtips #querytip

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) June 3, 2014

https://twitter.com/larathelark/status/473678300330856448[/embedhttps://twitter.com/larathelark/status/473683084819570688

Retweets

Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible.
DON ROFF #amwriting #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 16, 2014

I used to think if I wrote carefully enough, I’d never have to revise. Reality: writing is the warmup. Drafts become books during revisions.

— Kate McGinty / Caryn Caldwell (@CarynCaldwell) May 16, 2014

"Write through and past the awkward stages in which your words clunk and your characters embarrass you…”http://t.co/ZecW9qj4QC #writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 16, 2014

The final test of a work of #art is not whether it has beauty, but whether it has power.
JOHN HERSEY#literature #writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 19, 2014

This is probably the best thing I've read on questions to ask yourself about self pubbing versus not-self pubbing: http://t.co/nZ3GipE7LZ

— Janet Reid (@Janet_Reid) May 20, 2014

The only way to write about sex is not to write much. Let the reader bring his own sexuality into the text.
TONI MORRISON#writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 21, 2014

Tell a story! Don’t try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first.
ANNE McCAFFREY

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 23, 2014

Commit yourself to the process, NOT the project. Don’t be afraid to write badly, everyone does. FRANK CONROY#amwriting #writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 24, 2014

My word count preferences:
MG: 35 to 60K
YA: 60 to 85K
Contemporary Romance: 80 to 95K
Cozies: 60 to 75K
Nothing over 100K

— Melissa Jeglinski (@MJeglinski) May 27, 2014

https://twitter.com/cameronMstewart/status/471784196923731968

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”- Andy Rooney

— Better Novel Project (@BetterNovelProj) May 29, 2014

Getting a lot of "where do you find the time?” comments lately… http://t.co/S0bbmu9RS9 pic.twitter.com/63yFUFF5eE

— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) May 29, 2014

To Tell Your Story, Take a Page from Kurt Vonnegut: http://t.co/LKXKSWGt9w via @HarvardBiz pic.twitter.com/XACM7G4amL

— Better Novel Project (@BetterNovelProj) May 31, 2014

Talked to YA editors about spec fic & SF/F and how stories in another world have to illuminate us on what's wrong w/ our world #BEA14

— Carly Watters || Literary Agent (she/her) (@carlywatters) May 31, 2014

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
PABLO PICASSO#art #literature #writing pic.twitter.com/e6WXasr2yJ

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) June 1, 2014

No editor will read a manuscript that doesn't look professional.
MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY#amwriting #publishing #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) June 2, 2014

Twitter Tuesday #3.1

3 June, 2014Leave a comment

Twitter Tuesday is a new feature on my blog. The first Tuesday of the month, I include all of the past month’s writing and editing tweets from the “field.” Read Twitter Tuesday 1 here.

Be sure to check out my new Query Workshops!

I was pretty active on Twitter in May, so I’ll be posting Twitter Tuesday #3 in two installments. Here are the tweets & retweets from May 1st–15th

May

#WeNeedDiverseBooks because empathy can't be taught. It's learned by listening to stories of people that aren't us.

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 3, 2014

The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop: Infographic http://t.co/TIdBPXECu1

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 7, 2014

Don't say it was "delightful"; make us say "delightful" when we've read the description. —CS Lewishttp://t.co/zGNyspzaP4 #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 13, 2014

From @WritersDigest, The 5 C's to make your novel thrilling:http://t.co/EjlyVuucS1 #writingtips #amwriting

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 13, 2014

1/2 from ALONE W/ ALL THAT COULD HAPPEN by David Jauss:

"All good novelists have bad memories."—Graham Greene #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 13, 2014

2/2 "What you remember comes out as journalism. What you forget goes into the compost of the imagination."
—Robert Olen Butler#writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 13, 2014

"Syntax is like a landscape: if it's too uniform, our prose will look more like Nebraska than Switzerland." —Stephen Dobyns #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 13, 2014

Don't keep leaving your character alone to think. Fiction is drama. Drama is acting and reacting. Passivity kills fiction. #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 14, 2014

Too good to shorten to 140 characters. #writingtips from the late Carl Brandt— pic.twitter.com/Xw8QSFxC7N

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 14, 2014

Don't talk your story to death. Save your words for the paper.–A.B. Guthrie#Writingtips
Stop talking about your WIP—write it! #amwriting

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 14, 2014

"Unlike expository writing, good fiction sticks to characters, their actions, speech & thought. It stays on scene."–A.B.Guthrie #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 14, 2014

Retweets

Neil Gaiman on How Writers Learn and Why First Drafts Don’t Matter | http://t.co/iqsRKYgFcM #MorningCuppaCraft

— Loft Literary Center (@loftliterary) May 1, 2014

For your reading list: Five useful books for writers that aren’t directly about writing. http://t.co/vZjgqAQg6n

— Loft Literary Center (@loftliterary) May 4, 2014

Keep dialogue sharp with as much info in as short a breath as possible. Twitter's 140 character limit is a great training tool #writingtips

— Kevin Cullen (@ColorTheBooks) May 6, 2014

.@ColorTheBooks Totally! "Breath units" are important to consider when establishing voice, in dialogue & in narration. #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 6, 2014

"Sometimes you need to write a lot just to find out what it is you are really writing…"http://t.co/28kJ5CZyOc #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 7, 2014

If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story.
BARBARA GREENE#fiction #literature #writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 8, 2014

“When you catch an adjective, kill it…”http://t.co/4vHqTSMSGu #grammar #amwriting #writing #writingtips pic.twitter.com/9f13lsouMF

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 8, 2014

The thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a great slab of prose at the start.
P.G. WODEHOUSE#writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 10, 2014

"Before you query agents get a professional critique…”http://t.co/eJskuRLAff #amwriting #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 10, 2014

A good editor is someone who knows what your problem is.
ELMORE LEONARD#amwriting #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 11, 2014

You become a good writer just as you become a good carpenter: by planing down your sentences.
ANATOLE FRANCE#amwriting #writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) May 12, 2014

Writers: do remember that unlike most #litmags we actively read submissions during the summer http://t.co/qPse2C2FWQ

— The Missouri Review (@Missouri_Review) May 12, 2014

Authors before you query us, know if your debut novel is longer than 95,000 words, it will be a hard sell. #askagent http://t.co/0uR3NrbbKi

— KC&A Literary Agency (@K_C_Associates) March 3, 2014

The sweet spot for debut novels would be 80,000 words but a range from 70-95,000 is okay. @TheOnlyATN #pubtip #askagent

— KC&A Literary Agency (@K_C_Associates) March 4, 2014

Rejection letter from the 1920's. pic.twitter.com/GFUiz1a89Y

— Weird Tales (@weirdtales) March 9, 2014

#writers – learn more about being on submission with debut novelist Mary Elizabeth Summer: http://t.co/Z29UOR07UR

— Mindy McGinnis (@MindyMcGinnis) May 13, 2014

Want a website that has all agent/editor #mswl in one place? Add http://t.co/0nOropyoMf to your bookmarks. #querytip #pubtip

— Carly Watters || Literary Agent (she/her) (@carlywatters) May 11, 2014

“The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line.” —Billy Collins http://t.co/MdBbr4zGBv

— The Paris Review (@parisreview) May 15, 2014

ABDCE for writers via @ANNELAMOTT: action, background, development, climax, ending #cltspj #cltmedia #writingtips

— Hannah Levinson (@djhannimal) May 14, 2014

#writers don't forget about #writingcontests from #litmags @vallummag & The MacGuffin + New American Press & more: http://t.co/9Ps86Wr9V5

— NewPages.com (@newpages) May 15, 2014

Twitter Tuesday #2

6 May, 20146 May, 2014Leave a comment

Twitter Tuesday is a new feature on my blog. The first Tuesday of the month, I include all of the past month’s writing and editing tweets from the “field.” Read Twitter Tuesday 1 here.

If you’re reading this before May 15th, 2014, be sure to check out my Editing Giveaway! I’m giving away manuscript edits and critiques. It’s ridiculously easy to enter, and the more response the contests get, the more I’ll give away!

April

When writing, try cutting these: which / thus / that / is why / because. People don’t think in 5-sentence paragraphs. #writingtips #voice

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 6, 2014

You're #writing a novel, not an English paper. #Voice trumps grammar. #Writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 6, 2014

Let readers infer what's going on. Good writing is full of subtext & subtlety. Never lecture or insult their intelligence. #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 6, 2014

Describing characters: Only remark on the remarkable. Clothes DO NOT make the man. Eye color says nothing about personality. #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 7, 2014

(1/2) Every writer needs to figure out #theme. For over-writers, it's the wind that blows chaff from the wheat of the MS #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 18, 2014

(2/3) For under-writers, #theme is the protein that builds muscle onto skinny manuscripts. #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 18, 2014

(3/3) And for stuck or tired writers, #theme is a writing prompt. #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 18, 2014

A novel is an argument. Your primary concern in storytelling is convincing the reader of something. #writingtips #amwriting

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 20, 2014

(1/2) Narration needs to match the emotional tone of the protagonist. #amwriting #amediting #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 28, 2014

(2/2) When the MC is disturbed, don't sound like a Lit professor. Go Anglo-Saxon: http://t.co/GIYtjPe51I #amwriting #amediting #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 28, 2014

Dialogue tags are punctuation. Use them as periods, commas. Not exclamation points. A simple "he said"/"she said." #amwriting #writingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 29, 2014

Write plainly. Thesaurus-thumper sentences impress only the feeble-minded. #writingtips #editingtips #EditorsAreBrilliantFYI #amwriting

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) May 1, 2014

Retweets

No joke. MT “@AdviceToWriters: It takes writing a billion bad words before you get to the good ones.-RAY BRADBURY #amwriting #writingtips”

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 1, 2014

MT @AdviceToWriters I don’t want it to sound like I’m writing, I want it to be like I’m talking to you. JENNY WINGFIELD #writingtips #voice

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 6, 2014

Nouns and verbs are the guts of the language. Beware of covering up with adjectives and adverbs.
A.E. GUTHRIE, JR.#writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 7, 2014

Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
WILLIAM SAFIRE#amwriting #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 10, 2014

Cue the pentecostal "Hallelujah" RT @TimFederle You are not your first draft.

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 11, 2014

RIP, GGM. RT “@AdviceToWriters: All my life, I’ve been frightened at the moment I sit down to write.
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ”

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 18, 2014

"I believe the root cause of [writer’s block] is perfectionism…”http://t.co/r368Z2afgg #amwriting #writing #writingroad

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 19, 2014

Never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.
ROD SERLING#amwriting #writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 25, 2014

Don't assume every thought you have is fascinating to others. Your job is to give people a reason to keep reading.
DAVE BARRY#writing

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 26, 2014

It is not the object described that matters, but the light that falls on it.
BORIS PASTERNAK#writing #writingcraft

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 27, 2014

In general, what is written must be easy to read and easy to speak; which is the same.
ARISTOTLE#writing #writingtips

— Jon Winokur (@AdviceToWriters) April 27, 2014

That Aristotle quote I just retweeted? Tattoo it to your brains, writers. #notliterally #writingtips #editingtips

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 28, 2014

RT @AdviceToWriters Poetry is the liquid voice that can wear through stone. ADRIENNE RICH #poetry #writing

— Lara Willard (@larathelark) April 29, 2014

10 Things Emerging Writers Need To Learn http://t.co/T1kM8ckhaN via @missouri_review

— Marie Abate (@marieab21) April 30, 2014

Lara Willard

Editor and Story Consultant

Category: Writing

Telling and Selling Stories the Video Game Way

Contents

Character + Conflict

Empathetic characters with goals

Twitter Tuesday #3.2

May

Retweets

Twitter Tuesday #3.1

May

Retweets

Twitter Tuesday #2

April

Retweets