Just like hanging out with a friend, or listening to an instructor drone on and on about the beauty of a mullet, the keys to controlling your novel’s pacing are language and conflict and scene sequence and stakes. We’re going to talk about those today. What’s pacing? It's how fast or slow the story goes for the reader. LANGUAGE IS A BIG WAY TO IMPACT PACE Let’s start with word choice. The words you choose can speed up the reader or slow them down. The way the words are grouped on the page? Same thing. Dialogue.Short paragraphs.Short sentences.Action. Those four things speed things up. And these things below? They slow that story down. Descriptive passages.Long paragraphs.Long sentences.Abstract language.A lot of talk about feelings.Flashbacks.Information dumps. Special Help: If all your sentences are the same length and are constantly parallel in construction, you lull the reader to sleep. No sleeping readers, okay? You fall asleep, you run the risk of getting a mullet. CONFLICT AND STAKES IS ANOTHER WAY TO IMPACT PACING In the scenes you choose, there needs to be some stakes and some conflict. Stakes happen when your reader cares about the character and is worried about what might happen to them if they don’t reach their goals. In every scene that stays in your book, there needs to be a stake and a goal. You can’t just have your character chilling with her bestie if there’s no point in that chillin. You need obstacles and tension and the reader needs to think, “Yikes! What happens if they fail?” It’s really one of the biggest things about pacing. Because not having conflict and stakes and tension? It makes the reader stop reading. Scene Sequence Also Impacts Pace And here it is. The big one. In your story, just like in your life, there will be action moments and turning points and then moments where you think about those big action moments. Dwight Swain called these moments in a book scenes (the action moments) and sequels (the reflective moments). Or as I like to call them, LOUD scenes and QUIET scenes. And you want these scenes to be balanced so that the reader doesn’t get bored or the opposite, scream “THIS IS TOO MUCH!!! AH! ANXIETY!” Randy Ingermanson of the Snowflake method gives three components to each: Active Loud Scene GoalConflictDisaster Quieter Sequel Scene ReactionDilemmaDecision Pretty cool, right? So, how do you put all this together? You want to look at the structure of your story and break it down. Make scenes and chapter cards or just a list.Look at where the story ramps up and slows down.Use those sentences and paragraphs and chapters and scene lengths to manipulate that pace.Think about if your characters are too introspective.Think about if your writing lacks any detail or does it have too much? Do you wax poetic about the mullet on your main character for 12 pages? Think about each of your scenes. Do they show character or plot development? Are there obstacles going on? Does your main character want something in the scene?Have people read it and ask if the story felt rushed or too slow and where?Remember we need slow paced scenes, too! Not just fast ones! WRITING TIP OF THE POD Control your pacing; control your story. DOG TIP FOR LIFE Humans are always go-go-go. Life is too fast paced. Slow your roll so you can enjoy your belly rubs, walks, and treats. LINKS MENTIONED https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2021/10/10/pasco-4th-grader-in-the-running-for-america-s-best-mullet?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_tampa&stream=top https://mulletchamp.com/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/kid-mullet-champion-named-meet-allan-baltz-2021s-winner/I47UA62EZJAINHKCMEW2PJEN3Y/ https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/head/article/44884/1/mullet-subculture-hair-history SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. Send your Be Brave Friday stories to us here! Just hit the contact form or message us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com loving the strange the podcast about embracing the weird

Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation

Man, That’s a Beautiful Mullet and How To Pace Your Novel

IT’S BE BRAVE FRIDAY WHERE SHAUN OR I (FROM DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE AND LOVING THE STRANGE AND JUST BEING AN AUTHOR IN MAINE) SHARE PEOPLE’S UNEDITED, UNFILTERED STORIES, SO WE CAN ALL CELEBRATE THE BIG AND LITTLE BRAVE THINGS WE DO ALL THE TIME. SOMETIMES WE DON’T EVEN REALIZE WE’RE BEING BRAVE. This Be Brave Friday story is from the wonderful and brave and cool and talented Lenka Vodicka who writes the Forest Fairy Craft books, which you should check out! Here’s Lenka’s story. I was a mellow baby that slept a lot. Then I was a clumsy child that fell a lot. Then I was diagnosed with a genetic disease called Charcot (pronounced shar-co) Marie Tooth (CMT) which has nothing to do with teeth. It’s named after the three doctors that discovered it. CMT is also called hereditary neuropathy. CMT is a glitch in the genetic code that causes nerve damage, muscle weakness, balance issues, and fatigue. It’s degenerative, meaning it worsens over time. There is no treatment, other than bracing and corrective surgery that may or may not work. And there is no cure. I have CMT for life. CMT symptoms can vary widely, even within a family. Some people have mild symptoms that are barely noticeable into their 80s, while others have multiple surgeries and use wheelchairs as children. My case was in the mild category for a long time. I couldn’t wear flip-flops, or scramble up rock climbing walls, but most people had no idea that I dealt with any disease at all. I could be normal. My challenges were usually invisible. Situations like mine, where challenges are not easily seen, may be called invisible disabilities.  Then, one day, that changed too. My feet hurt. Every day. Every hour of the day. Every minute of the hour. They ached like someone dropped a book on them. And they didn’t stop hurting. Fingers went numb. I never considered myself disabled before. The word was serious and full of baggage from sad movies. Facing the reality of my situation required a leap of bravery in itself. I wanted to run towards “normal” as fast as possible. Slowing down, facing my limits, and then asking, “How can I help myself? How can I make my life easier in this moment?” was big work. I changed jobs and got a disabled placard for my car. Then the real bravery began. Because having an invisible disability means that every single time I ask for accommodations, I have to call on my inner brave self. Because my bravery is the opposite of heroes that step up to a moment of decisive action. It’s the opposite of heroines volunteering for a mighty quest. It’s the opposite of saying, “I think I can, I think I can. I believe in myself.” My bravery is “No.” My bravery is approaching random staff person at a concert or event to ask if there is an alternative line or somewhere to sit that doesn’t involve steep stairs. Sometimes the information is online, but that doesn’t always translate to the location. And I’ve even had staff say, “I don’t know why the website says that.” And because my disability is invisible, not apparent on first glance, I never know how they will react. Some staff say they have no idea. They need to radio another person that’s not answering the walkie-talkie. Or I give a museum feedback that more benches would be great, to hear, “Well, we want people to keep moving.” Trust me, I’d love to keep moving. I’ve heard many times that, “if we accommodate you, then everyone would want that too.” Again, trust me, they don’t want CMT. I’ve had a few meltdowns when a staff member insists that everyone must follow the same rules. I’ve missed events and left venues because the walk or the line wasn’t worth the pain that I would manage for days afterwards. So why be brave? Why bother standing up to the hassle of disrupting the day for my friends, and the potentially embarrassing conversation, for nothing? Because, other times, bravery makes all the difference. Amusement parks became fun again. My niece said, “We need to come with auntie every time,” because we could stand to the side and enter though the exit instead of standing in winding lines for hours. I got to sit at concerts on a balcony where I could actually see the show instead of sitting in a sea of dancers. I’ve been able to drive to locations accessible only by trail unless you required disabled access. We avoid crowds and steep stairs. We park closer to the entrances or exits. Asking for support makes adventures attainable again.  Bravery can be saying, “not today, thank you.” Bravery can be found in little moments. In the decision to tell your friends that the hike is too steep. In researching accessibility options before booking a room or campsite. In holding your deep truth. And asking for what you need. Bravery is accepting your limits, then finding ways to help yourself thrive. Now, I am a unique mom that loves adventures. And I look forward to many, many more. BE A PART OF OUR MISSION! Hey! We're all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we're starting to collect stories about each other's bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren't brave enough to use your name. It's totally chill. Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we'll read it here and on our YouTube channel. LET'S HANG OUT! HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER? MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST? Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.  Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen! One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say? And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass. And Carrie has new books out! Yay! You can order now! It's an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here! The people who kill It's my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1. And that one is called  THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series.  I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it! The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW. Submit a form.

Invisible Disability Requires A Different Kind of Bravery for One Author

There are lots of fancy and complicated ways to figure out story structure. There’s Save the Cat, the Snowflake Method, the Five-Act, the Four-Act, the Six-Act. But sometimes all of those complicated methods bog some of our writer brains down. So today we’re going to give you a super quick guide to story structure for your novel. You ready? Step One: Name it. This does not have to be its forever name, just a way for you to find the computer file. It can be THE EVIL NOVEL THAT HAS NO NAME RIGHT NOW. That’s fine. Step Two: Find a hero. Name them. Put them in a jam or a bad place. Maybe they suck at making commitments? Maybe they need a promotion. Maybe they live under the stairs. Give them a problem. Step Three: Think about what has to occur in order for them to ovary up enough to try to deal with that problem. Step Four: Now decide what is going to change once that hero gets proactive and tries to deal with that problem or once they take action. Step Five: Are things different for our little hero now? How? Step Six Okay. Something else needs to happen so that the story takes a turn or a veer to the right or left. What makes it go in another direction? Step Seven Make things worse for our poor hero. How are they worse? Step Eight Okay. If this is a positive change arc where the hero ends up in a better place, what is it that inspires them to make a big effort and go for that win? Step Nine What is the big win (positive change arc) or the big loss (negative change arc) There you go, how to figure out your novel’s basic structure in nine easy steps? Do you feel heroic, writer? You should. Writing Tip of the Pod It’s okay to make it simple when it comes to story structure. It really is. Dog Tip for Life When your people turn your head and look at you and you realize you've been caught, it's time to stop because then they just think you're a creeper. Resources https://www.npr.org/2021/09/26/1040779728/pokemon-oreo-cookies-ebay-pikachu-mew SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. Send your Be Brave Friday stories to us here! Just hit the contact form or message us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com loving the strange the podcast about embracing the weird

Simple Story Structure, Pokemon Oreos and Do You Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching You?

No video today! Sorry! This week things got a bit hectic. Apologies. But we wanted to quickly talk about what it means to be brave and of course, ask you to send in your Be Brave stories. Because we are still on a mission to share these stories and sing your praises with the world. The Oxford Dictionary defines bravery as: Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage. And that's pretty interesting because there are three components going on there: You're ready. You're going to endure something. You're showing courage. The ability to endure is really about the ability to persevere, to face our fears and/or our circumstances and still be ready. Ready for what? Ready for whatever is heading towards us, the good, the terrifying, the empowering, all of it. A lot of us spend a lot of our lives worried about worst case scenarios, rejections, falling down, and all of that energy we spend worrying? We can spend it actively moving towards our own moral and/or creative evolution and our goals. Imagine: How cool would it be if you spent all the time you currently spend worrying about failing and instead use that time towards actively going after the things you want, the life you want to have, the person you want to be. That's what enduring is about. It's about overcoming. And sometimes it's about persisting. And almost all the time it's about dealing with the fear that's holding us back. So much of the time the fear that's holding us back? It comes from us. Being brave means living in the moment, speaking with compassion. Being brave means standing up for what you believe is right even when nobody else thinks the same thing. Sometimes being brave is something as simple as responding to a Facebook post, or being compassionate, or reacting with empathy instead of anger. Sometimes being brave is reaching out to someone else and saying, "This guy is a creep." Sometimes being brave is looking at yourself and know when you're holding yourself back. Being brave is truly defined by you and what you think it takes to persevere, to endure, to be ready and to shine. BE A PART OF OUR MISSION! Hey! We're all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we're starting to collect stories about each other's bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren't brave enough to use your name. It's totally chill. Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we'll read it here and on our YouTube channel. LET'S HANG OUT! HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER? MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST? Email us at carriejonesbooks@gmail.com HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.  Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Thanks so much for being one of the 263,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen! One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say? And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass. And Carrie has new books out! Yay! You can order now! It's an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here! The people who kill It's my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1. And that one is called  THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series.  I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it! The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW. Submit a form.

What Does It Mean to Be Brave

The amazing writer and human, Ellen Booraem, spent nineteen years as a small-town journalist before quitting her day job to write four award-winning fantasies for readers ten and older (The Unnameables, Small Persons with Wings, Texting the Underworld and River Magic. In this bonus podcast, we talked about Ellen’s writing tips to deal with writing blocks, the big leaps she took to start a fiction career at 52, and the incredibly cool WORD festival (the annual Blue Hill Maine literary arts festival) that’s coming up this October (which you should all check out). We also touch on how working at a newspaper made us visual writers and trained us for fiction.   Ellen volunteers as a writing coach for students in her local middle school and is a founding organizer for Word, the annual Blue Hill (Maine) literary arts festival. Having ventured from her early time as Alton Hall Blackington’s next door neighbor in coastal Massachusetts, she now lives in coastal Maine with her partner, painter Robert Shillady. Publisher’s Weekly called Ellen’s latest novel, “A dense emotional core, resonant voice, and themes of grief, shifting friendships, and family enliven Booraem’s contemporary fantasy, reminding readers that ‘hope is everywhere.’” To find out more about Ellen and her books, check out Ellen’s website: https://www.ellenbooraem.com/ To find out more about WORD (which is online this year), check out its website: https://www.wordfestival.org/ And Word's full schedule including workshops, art, and readings is here: https://www.wordfestival.org/word-2021-full-schedule

WORD! AWARD-WINNING ELLEN BOORAEM TALKS WRITING TIPS AND HOW SHAME KEEPS HER FROM GIVING IN TO PROCRASTINATION

A lot of writers will worry that their stories seem flat. There’s a reason that they are worrying about that and it’s one of the core elements of good writing. Ready? You want to vary your sentence structure. Take a bit of writing that you’ve done that feels flat—or maybe even one that doesn’t. Count the words in your sentences for two or three paragraphs. Are they all five words? Twelve? Twenty-seven? That robotic sameness in sentence length is one of the main reasons that writing can feel flat. It’s like those ancient Dick and Jane books. See Dick run. See Jane skip. See Dick wave. The other big bugger is when all of your sentences are simple and declarative. I walk to the forest. The trees are gracious, tall. I inhale the pine scent. There is actually a whole, entire world of different sentence styles that writers can use and when you use them? That’s when you make your writing shiny and sexy and all the good things. The names for these structures are pretty boring, honestly, but we’ll try to look beyond that, right? Simple – You have one main clause. Carrie is the best wife. Compound – You have more than one independent clause. You probably use a conjunction.             Carrie wants to get another dog, but Shaun keeps saying no. Complex – Oh, the sentence that probably has to pay for a therapist or is reading Foucault obviously in the park. This sentence has an independent clause and a subordinate clause. It’st the BDSM of sentences.             When hell freezes over, we will allegedly get another dog. Compound-Complex – It sounds like a place with a cult, right? But it’s just a sentence with at least two independent clauses and one subordinate clause. Carrie really needs a new dog to love, so Shaun said that they would get one when hell freezes over, so Carrie immediately got some dry ice and sent some down to Lucifer. Refresher moments: What’s a clause? A bunch of words chilling out together and one of those words in the group is a verb and another is a noun. Fancy people call the verb, the predicate, but we aren’t fancy here. What’s an independent clause? It is a bunch of words that has a subject and a predicate. It is grammatically complete all by itself and doesn’t need anyone. Not any other words to stand alone! Darn it. What’s a subordinate or dependent clause? A bunch of words that needs other words to be a sentence. This poor beautiful baby cannot stand alone and be complete, kind of like a  protagonist in a Hallmark romance. WRITING TIP OF THE POD Vary your sentence structures and don't be flat. DOG TIP FOR LIFE Variety is good. Don't eat the same Milkbones all the time. Mix it up. Be fluffy. Resources Mentioned in the podcast: https://nypost.com/2021/09/17/teen-gets-usb-cable-stuck-in-penis-in-attempt-to-measure-length/ https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weird/article251950768.html#storylink=mainstage_card SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. 

Big Foot Fights and Trailer Sauce and No Flat Writing

IT’S BE BRAVE FRIDAY WHERE SHAUN OR I (FROM DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE AND LOVING THE STRANGE AND JUST BEING AN AUTHOR IN MAINE) SHARE PEOPLE’S UNEDITED, UNFILTERED STORIES, SO WE CAN ALL CELEBRATE THE BIG AND LITTLE BRAVE THINGS WE DO ALL THE TIME. SOMETIMES WE DON’T EVEN REALIZE WE’RE BEING BRAVE. I've been reading your stuff on Patreon and Medium and loving it, as always. I keep having this crazy idea pop up in my head, so I'm finally going to go out on a limb--it's Be Brave Friday, right?--and ask you about it. You've likely already thought about doing this. Also, it's probably not realistic. Then again, maybe it would be amazing! So here goes:  what if you started your own publishing imprint? You've already got a great platform, a well-developed brand and access to a ton of talented writers, many of whom, like me, are struggling to launch their stories into the world. I'm so tired of reading excellent work by wonderful humans, but knowing it has little chance of reaching readers. Most authors barely have time to write, much less launch their own platforms, etc., even if they choose to self-publish. An imprint like yours could lend legitimacy to a whole swath of quirky life-affirming stories and help those stories reach the readers who need to hear them.  I know that you're already working 24/7 to create your own content and run your own business. And I imagine the benefits to you would be quite small, though ultimately something like this would likely give you some marginal financial returns and increase your visibility, too. That being said, I'm looking for a cause to devote myself to, so I'd be more than willing to write up a mission statement/business proposal and contribute my time, talents and even some limited financial resources on an ongoing basis. I'm guessing a whole lot of gifted writers, editors and designers would be willing to do the same. I know, I know: this is a giant, wild and probably foolish idea, but it wouldn't stop nagging me. I love and admire you. I want your stories and stories like yours to reach everyone. I want good humans to flourish. And now I feel scared and silly for saying all of this aloud. But I said it anyway, and that's a win, right?  Sending you all kinds of love, BE A PART OF OUR MISSION! Hey! We're all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we're starting to collect stories about each other's bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren't brave enough to use your name. It's totally chill. Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we'll read it here and on our YouTube channel. LET'S HANG OUT! HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER? MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST? JUST CLICK ON THIS LINK AND FIND OUT HOW WE CAN INTERACT MORE. HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.  Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Thanks so much for being one of the 261,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen! One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say? And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass. And Carrie has new books out! Yay! You can order now! It's an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here! The people who kill It's my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1. And that one is called  THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series.  I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it! The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW. Submit a form.

You Should Start Your Own Publishing Company – Be Brave Friday

Authors, let’s just admit it. We’re insecure. Writing is communication and we want to make sure that our readers are getting what we’re putting down (Translation: Understanding what we’re saying). So, what do we do? We over-explain. And that over-explaining slows down our pacing and makes our reader not want to read anymore. There are lots of bigger ways of overexplaining. And what is overexplaining? It’s when you just keep adding things on to make your reader get what you’re saying. Like this: Shaun punched the wall. He was so angry he could spit. His hands clenched into tight fists. “What kind of butthead are you?” he roared. So, all four of those sentences tell us the same thing. Shaun is angry. You can cut down that to one or two and the reader is still going to get it. Trust the reader’s brains. Trust yourself. Here’s a rewrite. Shaun punched the wall. “What kind of butthead are you?” But it’s not just in long passages that us writer people do this. We do it in short bits too. Here are some big ones.             She shrugged her shoulders. (She shrugged)             He nodded his head in agreement. (He nodded) or (He agreed)             They shook their head no. (They shook their head)             He looked at his watch to check the time. (He checked the time) Other things we do is             Tell something that we just showed. (Shaun punched the wall. He was so angry.)             Add in a dialogue tag that we don't need, (the she said/they asked) when we don’t need it.             Add in silly adverbs that we don’t need.             Add in a bunch of statements all saying the same thing. (See that original example). Acting like the reader is stupid. (Of course we know the person is nodding their head. We don’t think they are nodding their butt.)             Info dumps When you do this over-explaining thing you:  Slow down the paceRuin the subtext.Break my heart.Make the scenes dull. Over-explaining takes out the pizzazz.It takes away the immediacy and the forward motion of the plot and scene. WRITING TIP OF THE POD Be all one and done, people. Trust the reader to get it. Trust your skills to communicate well. DOG TIP FOR LIFE. If you want a treat, sit in front of the pantry and drool on the floor. LINKS WE TALK ABOUT IN THE PODCAST https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article254523322.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article254523322.html SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. 

He Built a Guitar Out of His Uncle’s Skeleton And Over-explaining Makes Bad Writing

It’s Be Brave Friday where Shaun or I (from Dogs are Smarter than People and Loving the Strange and just being an author in Maine) share people’s unedited, unfiltered stories, so we can all celebrate the big and little brave things we do all the time. Sometimes we don't even realize we're being brave. Here's Jordan's brave story and we are so grateful, Jordan, for you trusting us and sending it in. So much love to you. So I don't know how long this is going to take me to put this together. I've really thought a lot, back and forth, about whether or not to even reply with this, but I think I'm going to, just for a sense of talking to someone outside of my normal circle. I know this isn't probably what you were looking for when you mentioned a story, but this is something that's just been weighing on my mind for a little while now. Back in 2014, when I was still a freshman in college, I made the decision to start coming out to my family. My mom had been estranged for reasons that is a whole other story. She's not the same person she was when I was growing up, so it's hard to really gauge who she is as a person at any given day. When I wanted to open myself up a bit and come out to her, she responded in a way I assumed she would, being married to a southern church-going bible-thumper--she told me "I don't agree with that" and to not bring it around my sister (who was 10 at the time). I was very disappointed and went on with my life. I kept my mom at a distance because if she didn't want part of my life to be highlighted, I wasn't going to filter that. She just wasn't going to get any of it. I went through my college career. Struggled, thrived. Made friendships and experiences that have changed my life completely. I reluctantly invited her to my graduation, not even knowing for sure if she'd come--simply because that meant that she would actually have to make the trip. Cut to 2020, where it's the hell year for everyone. I've moved back to where I grew up to be closer to a few family members of mine. My mom begins communicating with me to inform me that her marriage has fallen apart due to infidelity and other personal things going on. My concern only lied with my sister. She's a young adult now but she still has no skills of being able to navigate the craziness that will surely come about with my mom. My mom never knew how to do anything for herself, and she always burned any bridges she made with people, so no one was ever at the ready to help her if she needed it. I knew that if I didn't step in, my sister was really going to have an even worse time than she was already. I took time off of work to get my aunt (her sister) to help me find a place where my mom could live. Having no income and no job experience in the last 18 years was going to be extremely tough, but time was of the essence. I managed to find a place and help her get moved in. Honestly, I wanted either two things to happen. I wanted her to just leave it at that, and not communicate with me any more, or I wanted her to change back to who I knew she was when she was someone I looked up to. I find it hard to find that kindness inside myself and have to go out of my way to constantly help her when she chooses to not help herself. I don't know if its actual "trauma" but there are so many hurtful things and happenings that she doesn't acknowledge or anything. In her mind, she may believe that it never did, but the things she said, she still said. My mom has never accepted any kind of responsibility for herself and that just takes a toll after a while. My mom has shoulder surgery next week and I'm dreading it more than anything because I know she's going to need help and the only one who can offer it or is even remotely even willing to, is going to be me. It's hard enough working in the public during an ongoing pandemic, in a southern state where the government could care less about the constituents dropping like flies. Now I have to find a balance of keeping my income at a steady rate while also babysitting my impossible mother. The past year and a half or so, I made a vow to myself to try and keep a positive outlook and not to lurk so much in negativity. This situation kind of makes me feel like I can't do this without kindness but it's so hard for me to feel like I can put kindness forward in this. I know this isn't your problem, and this may be heavier than what you expected in any kind of responses to this? I'm not even 100% sure that this message is a solid, coherent thought. At times in this scenario, I feel like I'm a bad person, but at the same time, I don't care if it does. Even growing up, I always felt like the kingpin of my family. Like, if I wasn't there to hold everyone together, it would all just fall apart and the damage couldn't be undone. To the point where, now, I would rather be isolated and alone than have to worry about it. I guess my question through all of this is how can you put forth kindness in a situation that just constantly drains you? I know it's not really a comprehensible question but a part of me just wanted to type these thoughts out because I feel like if I mentioned it to anyone close to me here, it would make me seem (for lack of a better word, this really isn't the right one) like a sociopath. I think you're a wonderful person, Carrie, and I'm very sorry if this was exhausting to read or just too impersonal in any way, but thank you for even just presenting me with the idea of being able to just send a thought out to another person, whom I weirdly I feel I can trust with that thought. I hope life is treating you properly, and I am wishing you all of the peace and joy that I can.  - All the love,   Jordan BE A PART OF OUR MISSION! Hey! We're all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we're starting to collect stories about each other's bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren't brave enough to use your name. It's totally chill. Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we'll read it here and on our YouTube channel. LET'S HANG OUT! HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER? MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST? JUST CLICK ON THIS LINK AND FIND OUT HOW WE CAN INTERACT MORE. HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.  Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Thanks so much for being one of the 261,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen! One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say? And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass. And Carrie has new books out! Yay! You can order now! It's an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here! The people who kill It's my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1. And that one is called  THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series.  I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it! The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW. Submit a form.

Helping Toxic People Even When They Didn’t Help You – Be Brave Friday

I was lucky enough to interview author and writer, Martin Vidal, and pick his brain. I hope you'll check out the video or podcast and give this man some props. I hope you'll listen to one of my favorite interviews yet with one of my new favorite people. Here are some highlights to entice you to listen. On Martin's website he says that he loves to write and figure things out, which really struck a chord with me because that's what I do, too. Martin's Ambition Handbook is all about self-examination and self-transformation. And it’s a bit more of a holistic look at how to find success rather than a listicle. Decision making, the choices we each take, that seems to really matter to Martin and he speaks a bit to that and so much little On our own podcast, we have a thing we do on Fridays called BE BRAVE FRIDAYS where we try to share other people’s bravery stories, stories where they stepped out of their comfort zone or the box they’d been put in. It can be little. It can be small. It can be huge. Martin talks about one of the events in his life that he looks back on and thinks, “Whoa. I was really brave there.” Spoiler: It's that quarter-life existential crisis. Martin's other book, THE FLOWER GARDEN, is releasing soon and I got a bit of a peek and it’s just this lovely sauntering through the moments of humanity. He touches on narcissism, grief, love, so many things that matter. And in the podcast he tells us about how he moved from THE AMBITION HANDBOOK to THE FLOWER GARDEN? We also talk about a great memory in his piece “Social Anxiety Made Me Who I Am” that I think a lot of us writers can relate to. I remember at 9 years old when I did my first creative writing assignment. The teacher told us to write a paragraph or two starting with “I found an egg in the yard…” We had 30 minutes, if I recall correctly. I wrote three pages and would’ve gladly continued writing more. Whereas my anxiety had muzzled me, the written word flowed out in a torrent. The teacher loved my writing so much she insisted on reading it aloud. Once again, I went to hide in the bathroom while she did. He wrote in that same piece: But there’s something malfunctioning inside of me. I’m not afraid of people, but my body is. It tightens up; I lose my ability to focus, to be still — to be me. I can’t think of anything but to get away. Maybe one of the big reasons I adore Martin is that he really embodies the Nelson Mandela quote "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." Where to find Martin: Why Your Writing Might Be Too Good to Be Popular https://martinvidal.co/social-anxiety Website: www.martinvidal.co Books: The Ambition Handbook Flower Garden On Medium: https://martinvidal.medium.com/ BE A PART OF OUR MISSION! Hey! We're all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we're starting to collect stories about each other's bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren't brave enough to use your name. It's totally chill. Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we'll read it here and on our YouTube channel. LET'S HANG OUT! HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER? MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST? JUST CLICK ON THIS LINK AND FIND OUT HOW WE CAN INTERACT MORE. HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.  Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Thanks so much for being one of the 261,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen! One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say? And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass. And Carrie has new books out! Yay! You can order now! It's an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here! The people who kill It's my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1. And that one is called  THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series.  I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it! The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW. Submit a form.

Full-time Writer and Thinker – Martin Vidal QuarterLife Crises Led to Full-time Writing Career

So, now that we’re into the helpful part of the podcast and no longer talking about women in love with the alligators that attacked them or dogs and cats breaking records together, we thought we’d take a quick look at a big grammar mistake. And that’s when INTO is one word or two. Is it . . . Dude, I am so into you. Or is it . . . Dude, I am so in to you. Here’s how it works. INTO all as one word is a preposition, which means it’s showing MOVEMENT of one thing to another thing. But IN TO (two words) has two grammatical bits going on right there. The IN is an adverb and the TO is the preposition. And they aren’t like snuggled up in bed like a cohabitating couple, they just tend to show up in the sentence next to each other. Here are some examples: INTO as one word: Baby, I made it into the office today, but only just barely because… cough… you know. Lordie, look what Santa put into your stocking. That alligator went into that woman's head, man, like took total control. INTO usually tells you WHERE something is happening. IN TO as two words Look, I am standing in to make a statement to our senator. Santa came in to say a hearty hello. The dog and cat rode in to break that record on that damn scooter. IN TO usually can be substituted with IN ORDER TO. Easy, right? Consider yourself grammatical. WRITING TIP OF THE POD Two words are different than one. DOG TIP FOR LIFE Sometimes taking chances pays off (like when you jump on a scooter with a cat) and sometimes it doesn't (like when you bite your handler's hand). Choose your risks wisely. And that goes for copyediting too. Unless you're super sure you know all the grammar, don't copyedit your own story. SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. LINKS WE MENTION IN THE RANDOM THOUGHTS PORTION OF THE PODCAST https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/09/16/canada-Guinness-World-Records-dog-cat-scooter-Lollipop-Sashimi-Melissa-Millett/5691631809102/ https://news.sky.com/story/woman-attacked-by-alligator-says-i-love-him-and-it-shouldnt-face-any-consequences-12385890

Alligator Romance with Darth Gator and the grammar behind the words in to vs into

Hey, Welcome to LOVING THE STRANGE, where we celebrate the weird and embrace the heck out of it. This week, in honor of Shaun Farrar, our own Florida man, we are talking about Florida men. In ancient times, so back in 2013, Florida man became a meme because there were just so many weird and bizarre news articles (mostly police beats) about Florida men doing weird and criminal and often dumb things. Both CNN and the Miami News Times claim that Florida men aren’t that naughty or bizarre compared to their equivalents in other states, but it’s just because the freedom of information laws in that state make it pretty easy to peruse police beat. The  Columbia Journalism Review says that Florida Man is "one of journalism's darkest and most lucrative cottage industries", because "stories tend to stand as exemplars of the mythical hyper-weirdness of the Sunshine State, but more often simply document the travails of the drug-addicted, mentally ill, and homeless." Here are the links we reference during our talk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Man https://www.vice.com/en/article/7bmp8a/weird-florida-news-america-florida-man https://nypost.com/article/crazy-florida-man-headlines-that-made-the-meme/ https://www.boredpanda.com/hilarious-florida-man-headings/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Oh, That Florida Man

It's Be Brave Friday where Shaun or I (from Dogs are Smarter than People and Loving the Strange and just being an author in Maine) share people's stories, but this week, I'm sharing ours. It's the first time I've talked publicly about this and it's kind of hard. Trigger Warning for parent issues (not us). We have an adorable kid who has autism and ODD and ADD. And here’s the thing. They are funny and creative and have big emotions about their world. That isn’t the easiest thing to handle for some people. And we get judged about them all the time. Their ADD manifests in wanting to do a project all night long when they’re really into it. Their ODD manifests in not dealing well when we tell them they need some sleep. Their psychiatrist has said on multiple occasions, “This is not the bridge worth dying on.” They’re right. But people don’t get that. And they judge. A lot. And whatever. I’m fine with that because though I’m self-deprecating to the point that I tend to drive other feminists crazy, I’m confident that I’m a parent who is full of love and appreciation for her kids. The judging doesn't matter because what matters is the human who is growing and learning and becoming. That’s not what this post is about though. This post is about our kid’s other mother. The one who gave up on them two years ago. The one who has to get texts from the kid in order to even think to visit with them. The one who is trained as a teacher but didn’t even send a text to their own child to ask them how their first day of school in a new school system went. And two weeks later, still hasn’t. This post is about anger, honestly, because I am so angry on behalf of our kid. And I not usually brave enough to talk about this or my anger. I’m a pretty conflict averse human except when it’s about things that hurt others. But this post is also about hope. We all have moments every single day to do the right thing. To reverse the path that we’re on and actually be responsible and good, to reach out with kindness and with love. That’s hard sometimes when you’ve sucked for two years. But it’s going to be a lot harder after you’ve sucked for twenty. So all of us need to reach up, reach out, be responsible. Inaction is often just as horrible as bad actions, but we can always climb our way out of the hole we’ve dug by making those good choices, those kind choices (even when they are so damn hard). We can all do this. Every single one of us. In order to make our families, our communities, our nation and our world better? We have to.   Here's the video where I don't stick entirely on script because I suck at that, honestly. BE A PART OF OUR MISSION! Hey! We're all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we're starting to collect stories about each other's bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren't brave enough to use your name. It's totally chill. Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we'll read it here and on our YouTube channel. LET'S HANG OUT! HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER? MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST? JUST CLICK ON THIS LINK AND FIND OUT HOW WE CAN INTERACT MORE. HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast and our new LOVING THE STRANGE podcast. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.  Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Thanks so much for being one of the 261,000 downloads if you’ve given us a listen! One of our newest LOVING THE STRANGE podcasts is about the strange and adorably weird things people say? And one of our newest DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE episode is about fear setting and how being swallowed by a whale is bad ass. And Carrie has new books out! Yay! You can order now! It's an adult mystery/thriller that takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine. Read an excerpt here! The people who kill It's my book! It came out June 1! Boo-yah! Another one comes out July 1. And that one is called  THOSE WHO SURVIVED, which is the first book in the the DUDE GOODFEATHER series.  I hope you’ll read it, like it, and buy it! The Dude Goodfeather Series - YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW. Submit a form.

It Isn’t Too Late to Be There For Your Kids Our Most Personal Be Brave Friday Ever

Carrie reads a lot of novels in progress and helps writers make those novels better and one of the big things that happen that keep a book from being super star status is an unsatisfying ending. Yes. Yes, that is about books, not sex, Shaun. But some of the same principles apply to both. You want your ending to be satisfying even if it's an unhappy ending. So, how do you make your ending satisfying? Ah, just like the copulation, it's all about fulfilling your promises to the reader in the lead-up to that ending, right? Your reader has been hanging out with you for 50,000 words at least (usually) and that means that you owe them what you've promised them--a complete story with a damn fine ending. Here are the things to know: The character at the end of the book should have changed enough to react to the events in a way that they wouldn't have reacted on page 10. Most books that are satisfying have a main character that changes. They evolve (positive change arc) or devolve (negative change arc). Their situation is different at the end of the book and you, the author, want to recognize that and show us readers -- WOW! Look at how Sparty the Dog is so much stronger now. He's dealing with that squirrel in a way he never would have on page 10. All the events that have happened prior to the climax and the ending have made Sparty the dog that's able to handle his arch nemesis like a boss. There needs to be emotional growth (or regression) in your main character at the end of this story. And this growth at the ending has to be shown in the gorgeous story in between the beginning and the ending. If we imagine the story as three acts, then the ending is where we see how Act One (the set-up, who the character used to be, their original want) and Act Two (where the character's world changes and they proactively go after their wants, messing up, succeeding, learning and evolving) makes the character who they are now. Do they get the girl? Save the world? Defeat the evil demon? Throw poop on their landlord? Do they come to terms with grief? The ending matters because of everything in the story that the hero has gone through to get there. They have to earn that ending and when they do? Oh, boy, is it satisfying. The Ending Doesn't Matter Much if You Don't Make It Matter You want to give your readers the answers to the questions that exist in your story. No loose ends. No mysteries that just end with a 'to be continued' because you've hit 70,000 words. It is all about satisfying the reader. If you promise the reader a sexy romance and there's no sex and the significant other slinks off on the last page to go wrestle guinea pigs in Ireland with someone else? You're breaking that promise to the reader and totally not satisfying. You are being a bad lover. I mean writer. Nobody wants that. WRITING TIP OF THE POD Think about what your reader wants. Aim to please your lover/reader. DOG TIP FOR LIFE Sparty says it's more satisfying to earn your treat rather than just be given the treat. The journey makes the ending more satisfying. LINKS MENTIONED https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/priest-demons-figured-text-messages-24898111 https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/12/28/23-of-the-strangest-things-that-happened-in-florida-in-2020/ SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. 

Throwing Poop on Your Landlord, Demon Texts, and Making Happy Endings

Let’s talk about subtext. And to talk about it, we’ve got to define that baby. So here goes. Masterclass defines subtext as: “In day-to-day life, there are often wide gaps between what people say and what they are thinking. These gaps can collectively be referred to as subtext—and they are valuable territory for fiction writers. Ernest Hemingway, who relied on subtext in his minimalistic approach to writing, even coined a term for it: the Iceberg Theory. He believed deeper meanings of character and plot should live below the surface of the text, just as the bulk of an iceberg floats beneath the surface of the water.” And Merriam-Webster says: A literary text often has more than one meaning: the literal meaning of the words on the page, and their hidden meaning, what exists "between the lines"—the subtext. Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, for example, is about the Salem witchcraft trials of the 17th century, but its subtext is the comparison of those trials with the "witch hunts" of the 1950s, when many people were unfairly accused of being communists. Even a social conversation between a man and a woman may have a subtext, but you may have to listen very closely to figure out what it is. Don't confuse subtext with subplot, a less important plot that moves along in parallel with the main plot. And there are different types as defined by literary.net Privilege Subtext Privilege subtext is subtext in which the audience has certain privileges over the characters in a narrative. In other words, the audience is aware of something the characters are not aware of. For example, imagine a character who has three missed calls from her mother. We as readers cringe as we know she is about to find out her sister has been in a car crash which we have seen but she is not yet aware of. Revelation Subtext Revelation subtext is subtext that reveals a certain truth over time throughout a story, leading up to a revelation. For example, imagine a boy who has been trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up. He considers firefighting, being a policeman, or even being an actor. Throughout his childhood, though, he enjoys drawing, painting, and sculpting for fun. The revelation subtext here is that his hobby has been his calling all along: he will become an artist. Subtext through Promise Subtext through Promise is subtext in which an audience expects certain promises to be kept by the author. In other words, the audience expects the story to run as stories usually do: the audience expects a plot that makes sense and is weaved together, characters who have revelations and change meaningfully, and symbols and motifs which make sense and suit the story. When an author fails to please the audience in this way, the story is considered poorly written or disappointing due to the subtext. Subtext through Questions Subtext through Questions is subtext created when readers and audiences have questions about a story, such as how a plot is developing or what a character will do. Naturally, such questions arise in a well-written story as a form of unwritten subtext. Wow. Right? And of course, we do this all the time in real life too. We argue with our spouses about the proper way to put dishes in the dishwasher, but what we’re really arguing about is how one of us called the other one a dork or something. In a lot of our lives, we have to infer the meaning of things underneath the words that people say or the actions that they do. Why do we want subtext in our stories? It’s a bit like showing versus telling. Subtext allows the reader to make connections and learn about the characters and their yearnings and motivations and wants without yelling, “HEY! MY NAME IS SHAUN AND WHAT I WANT IS THE SEX.” Cough. Subtext is actually very sexy. It’s the driving force behind some parts of your story, the blank space where readers get to have an a-ha moment! It’s the epiphany your reader gets to have rather than you saying, “DOH! READER, HE IS LONGING HERE!” It’s almost like a continuum. Show is better than tell. And subtext might be greater than showing. Subtext is invisible, but real, kind of like the air. You need it to survive. Why? Because it makes the reader participate in the scene rather than just read it. Their brains are turned on. How cool is that? They get to interpret things. You can build it into your story by: Understanding their characters and what they really want and are motivated by.Thinking about ways that characters can talk around what it is they want. If Shaun wants sex and says, “I want sex,” then there is no subtext. If he never mentions sex while trying to get it? Then you’ve got subtext.Show the characters’ wants and the subtext through emotion rather than explicit dialogue. If Shaun stares longingly at two people canoodling in a car? That shows his want in the subtext.Double meanings and evasions. When people are talking and there’s more one way to interpret something? That can be subtext. When they refuse to talk about something? Or when they turn away every time a certain someone comes in a room? That can be subtext. In order to have subtext you need to: Give your characters things they want. They might not even realize they want whatever it is they want, but you, the all-knowing writer, do. Thinking about that means that: Give your character something they don’t want other people to know right then (if they know themselves that they have a want). WRITING TIP OF THE POD Subtext is sexy DOG TIP FOR LIFE It's okay to be subtle sometimes. LINKS https://allthatsinteresting.com/abbie-bela SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. Here’s the link. 

Interplanetary Love, Massive Bathtub Ducks, and Sexy Subtext

Join an internationally bestselling children's book author and her down-home husband and their dogs as they try to live a happy, better life by being happier, better people . You can use those skills in writing and vice versa. But we’re not perfect, just like our podcast. We’re cool with that.

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Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Mot...

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