Julia Unggai | January 9, 2008
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The first critic of your fiction

Year 2008 is here and to all writers out there, I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous new year!

Keep the writing going.

My last entry in my blog was about rewriting your first draft. I had to totally rewrite the last five chapters of my novel. And now I put the novel out of sight and will re-read it later.

Since the writing bug has bitten me, I wrote a short story while waiting for my novel to ‘ferment’. I completed the first draft and found it too long for a short story. My mind is still in the novel writing stage and I have difficulties in condensing it. But it is a short story – it needs trimming – real bad.

So if you have written short stories, you know the elements are similar to a novel – you just need to have one big and important plot. There is no space for a subplot to expand. The writing must be very tight and yet have enough flesh to make the story move forward.

Back to my writing – I was so excited to complete my very first short story – in the English language. I can’t contain my excitement as I broke the first rule in editing your fiction – I showed it to my husband.

Here is the conversation between me and DH (Dear Husband):

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Julia Unggai | December 11, 2007
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Writing is rewriting

Now you have completed your first draft of your manuscript – what’s next?

You should ignore it for several weeks – at least two to three weeks. When you take it out and look at it you should examine it and read it – as a reader with a fresh mind and perspective.

After completing your reading you should ask yourself these questions, “What lingers the most in your mind with what you’ve written?” Are you happy with the ending – or do you think something could be done to improve it? What is it? I find myself asking the same questions over and over when I revise my manuscript.

It is true. Writing is actually rewriting. Your first draft is not complete until it has been revised and rewritten.

There are a lot of “how to books” out there to assist you with the task of editing your manuscript. I find the following advice found in many of them to be helpful:
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Julia Unggai | December 3, 2007
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Writer’s Journey

I am baacckk!

I just completed my 65,000 word novel and it was just so exhausting to make it to the end! However, this is just the first draft and as we always know, writing is rewriting. I learned a lot about writing a novel through my journey these past two months or so. And mind you, writing up to 65,000 words is not for the faint of heart. It is a tough job. Now I admire the writers out there who manage to produce novels year after year with an interesting story and plot.

As far as getting to finish my manuscript, I learned that:

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Julia Unggai | November 14, 2007
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Writing the manuscript vs. blogging

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If you have started to write your manuscript I believe you write everyday? I do. I am trying to complete my manuscript as fast as I can. I have all the outlines done to get the plot moving scene-by-scene. Now with the little time I have consumed writing the manuscript, it seems I am not producing it fast enough. I find the characters are begging to be written.

The prolific writer will write everyday up to 2,000 words. If your novel is about 100,000 words, it will take you about 50 days to complete. I would love to be able to do that.

So, I have to make the decision that blogging is become secondary.

I will resume to blog daily when I complete the first draft of my manuscript. In the meantime, I will be organizing the articles I have written so far into a somewhat presentable format for the first timer who visits my blog.

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Julia Unggai | November 13, 2007
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Do you need to have a human being as a villain?

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The villain in your fiction is one of the important characters driving your plot forward. Their main purpose is to create chaos and make your protagonist’s life miserable. They will do anything they can to stop your hero from achieving their goals. I read many “how to” books about creating your villains. Here is the list of advice I stumble upon most often:
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Julia Unggai | November 12, 2007
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Don’t take your reader where he wants to go

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The above title is the advice I remember the most while I’m sitting here writing my Work In Progress (WIP) manuscript. The purpose is to not take your reader where he believes he will be taken, but to prolong the suspense and force your reader into a position where he will find it irresistible to know more about what happens next.

This emotional manipulation is one of the best ingredients in plotting your scene to the point where the reader has no choice but to finish reading it. And this reminds me of an interesting topic I learned in my psychological studies called reverse psychology. What does emotional manipulation in fiction have to do with reverse psychology you probably ask? Well, first, let us define reverse psychology. In Wikipedia,

Reverse Psychology is the term that describes the outcome where advocacy of one course of action persuades another person to do the opposite.

For example, reverse psychology occurs in an episode of Seinfeld, when a waitress admonishes Elaine not to touch the hot cup of coffee. Elaine, of course, promptly does.
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Julia Unggai | November 9, 2007
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What makes your characters memorable?

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In my previous post, I wrote about how to create believable characters. I emphasized the importance of giving personality to your characters. Many details can be found through the use of personality psychology. In my readings, creating personality for your characters makes them credible and believable, since this gives them depth and makes them multi-dimensional. However, to get your reader’s attention so he will persist in reading the story to the end, you will need to give them more than just a personality. You need to create your characters’ personalities in such a way that they are memorable.

How do I do this? I find myself asking this question when I start to bring my characters to life only to see that they are just too ordinary – like most real people who are barely noticeable when they pass by. Through my reading, one way I have found to make your characters memorable is to give them some unique personality quirk – something different to the extent of being almost eccentric.
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Julia Unggai | November 8, 2007
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Writer! Avoid Deus ex machina like the plague!

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When I took the Creative Writing IV course years ago for my Malay Literature Studies, our professor taught us the elements of the novel. He advised us to create realistic plots so that your characters can think and act as credible as people do in real life. Otherwise he advised, you will end up pigeonholing your characters and he/she will be unable to extricate themselves of the situation(s), problem(s) or dilemmas they are confronted and you will end up using deus ex machina to rescue them. He said “if I encounter this in your fiction, I will give you a big fat F!”

In hindsight, I think he probably just want to scare the heck out of us and when I started to write my first novel for the course, as a requirement, he surely did. I learned how difficult it is to craft a story with a believable plot without getting entangled with coincidences. I wanted the story to have a happy ending, but due to my lack of experience in how to twist and turn the plot like a pro, I ended-up creating the plot where the main protagonist walks out without a solution. Thank God, he didn’t give me an F!
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Category: Character, Fiction | Tags: , ,
Julia Unggai | November 7, 2007
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Being a writer and an editor of your fiction

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As a writer you have to write and edit your manuscript. This is very tricky because you are first the author and then must switch positions to become the editor of what you’ve written. Ouch! This is too much painful work!

But the reality is this: you have to experience the process of editing your own work if you decide to be a writer. No exceptions and no easy way out because no one writes flawlessly the first time. And don’t even let me mention the business side of writing yet where you will confront the editor at your publisher.

I remember one of my fellow writer friends who told me she will get sick for a week right after she finishes her manuscript. Then she has to drag herself to edit the draft next. When I saw her during a writer’s conference she really looked like she was just recovering from an unknown disease.

How you do the editing task is up to you. Some writers will edit right after completing the manuscript, while others prefer to edit while writing. Whichever technique is best for you it is the editing process itself that takes the most out of you as a writer.
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Julia Unggai | November 6, 2007
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Creating a story for your fiction

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When you go to see a movie what types of movies do you like to view? Do you like comedy, heavy drama, adventure or futuristic themes? By asking yourself this question you can determine what type of story you are interested to write – if you plan to put your writing skills to test.

Finding your interest in the type of story will help you to develop a framework for your fiction. When you are able to narrow down your interest, then you can go to the next step of listing down your characters. But first, let us explore three common types of stories just mentioned.
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