tuckertales - Tumblr blog

[tuckertales]

We've all experienced writer's block and it is literally the worst. So I made a funny sticker about it. Also available on shirts, mouse pads, notebooks, and more on my RedBubble and Society6 shop

[tuckertales]

[tuckertales]

Every bit of progress is a success

Keep working, you’re doing great

[tuckertales]

I think, when criticizing writing, there’s often quite a bit of confusion between unrealistic and breaking immersion. Too often I see people using the first term when what they actually mean is the second one.

See, when we engage with fiction, we suspend our disbelief about certain things. The author tells us that magic exists, so we’re willing to suspend our disbelief about the existence of magic. The more the author works to build an immersive world, the easier it is for us to suspend our disbelief and accept what’s going on. What’s ‘real’ or ‘isn’t real’ in our world isn’t important, but what’s ‘real’ in this fictional world does.

Good writing doesn’t need to be realistic but it does need to be immersive. We need to be able to stay in that suspension of disbelief, because once that’s broken, everything else can come crashing down with it.

So when people talk about one character or another’s choice being unrealistic what they often mean is that it broke their immersion. We are willing to accept the new rules of any given reality, so long as they are established for us. When new concepts come out of nowhere that weren’t introduced to us previously, that can make the world feel unreal. This can come in the form of rapid changes in the setting, tone, characterization, etc. It breaks our ability to suspend our disbelief, and brings back all of our critical thinking we purposefully set aside to enjoy the story. 

Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes that’s what the author was trying to do, to get us to question everything that we thought we knew. But when it’s unintentional, poorly set up, repetitive, etc, then it just becomes a frustrating experience for the reader and makes the story unenjoyable.

I think the best way to understand this difference is to think of the classic ACME Toonville worlds. Cartoons have different rules to them, characters may survive things like anvils dropped on them with no more than annoyance, they can be run over by trains or change form completely in a matter of seconds. Those are all clearly established rules of the universe, and we can suspend our disbelief to accept them.

But now imagine if in one episode, without warning, an anvil was dropped on the wile coyote, and he died. Blood splattered everywhere, a mangled body left behind. And that was it. He was gone. 

All the sudden, your immersion would be totally broken. Every past instance of anvil dropping and every future instance now becomes horrifying and hard to watch.

That’s what breaking immersion feels like when done poorly. That’s why consistence in writing is important, combined with of purposeful, deliberate changes. And that’s what I think people often mean when they say something feels ‘unrealistic’. They mean that it feels unreal within the universe created by the story as they’ve understood it, and as a result makes it hard to enjoy the story itself.

[tuckertales]

Not related, but important

not be like “ugh the Youths” but i think kids nowadays have gotten Too Comfortable on the internet.

like i see these tweets on twitter like “hey im 14 and i just got kicked out pls rt so i can find somewhere to stay im in x state/city” and like HOLY SHIT i cannot emphasize enough how incredibly dangerous this is. you’re broadcasting to EVERYONE that you are young, vulnerable, and desperate AND information on how to find you!!!! like i know you meant for that to be just for your friends on twitter but that’s a public tweet!!! ANYONE could see it!!! like I saw it and i have no idea who you are you are not in my circle and yet!!! so like WHO ELSE has seen it!!!

[tuckertales]

Love this

It’s so true and I hate how much true, deep friendship is lacking in literature. The focus is almost always on the romance. And if there is a friend, they are usually mostly comedic relief. I love stories that capture the deep connection you can have with another person that you never intend to be romantic. (My fav example: Throne of Glass series)

Dialogue Prompt

“You can have friends you love so much their loss absolutely guts you. The idea that only romantic love and loss can destroy you is completely false.”

[tuckertales]

🤡/Captain Zephyr Voronin/hero i have a little bit about them on my pinned post including a pic. 😁

- Do they consider themselves selfish?

- Do they think crying is a sign of weakness or a sign of strength?

- What's a skill they wish they possessed?

- A trait they dislike about themselves?

- How do they view general society?

- How comfortable are they around strangers?

- Do they believe in right and wrong? Fair and unfair?

[tuckertales]

Writing Tips from an Editor (Who Also Writes)

People throw around the phrase “Show, don’t tell” all the time. But what does it mean? Really?

When I’m editing a client’s work, I always explain what I mean when I say “Show, don’t tell,” so I know we’re on the same page (pun intended). 

FYI: This advice is really 2nd or 3rd draft advice. Don’t tie yourself in knots trying to get this perfect on the first go. First drafts are for telling yourself the story. Revisions are for craft. 

Ruthlessly hunt down filter words (saw, heard, wondered, felt, seemed, etc.). Most filter words push the reader out of narrative immersion, especially if you’re writing in 1st person or a close 3rd person. “She [or I] heard the wind in the trees” is less compelling than “The wind rustled through the trees” or “The wind set the bare branches to clacking.” Obviously, the point of view character is the one doing the hearing; telling the reader who’s doing the hearing is redundant and creates an unnecessary distance between the character’s experience and the reader’s experience of that experience. Was/were is another thing to watch out for; sometimes, nothing but was will do, but in many instances—“There was a wind in the trees” “There were dogs barking”—“was” tells, whereas other phrasing might evoke—“The wind whispered/howled/screamed through the trees” “Dogs snarled/yipped/barked in the courtyard/outside my door/at my heels.” 

Assume your readers are smart. What does this mean? Don’t tell the reader what your characters are thinking or feeling: “Bob was sad.” How do we know? What does Bob’s sadness look like, sound like? What actions, expressions, words indicate Bob’s sadness? Does Bob’s sadness look different than Jane’s would?

It also means that you need not repeat information unless you have something new to add to it—even if it’s been several chapters since you first mentioned it. I think a lot of readers fall into this trap because writing often takes a long time. But what takes a writer days or weeks or months to write might take a reader fifteen minutes to read. So, if the writer keeps telling the reader about so-and-so’s flaming red hair or such-and-such’s distrust or Bob’s blue eyes or Jane’s job as a neurosurgeon, the reader gets annoyed. 

The last thing you want is your reader rolling their eyes and muttering, “OMG, I KNOW” at the story you’ve worked so hard to write. It certainly means you don’t need to have characters tell each other (and through them, the reader) what the story is about or what a plot point means.

Along these same lines, let the reader use their imagination. “Bob stood, turned around, walked across the room, reached up, and took the book from the shelf.” Holy stage directions, Batman! A far less wordy “Bob fetched the book from the shelf” implies all those irrelevant other details. However, if Bob has, say, been bedbound for ten years but stands up, turns around, and walks across the room to fetch the book, that’s a big deal. Those details are suddenly really important.

Write the action. Write the scene with the important information in it. Let the reader be present for the excitement, the drama, the passion, the grief. If you’re finding yourself writing a lot of after-the-fact recap or “he thought about the time he had seen Z” or “and then they had done X and so-and-so had said Y,” you’re not in the action. You’re not in the importance. Exceptions abound, of course; that’s true of all writing advice. But overuse of recapping is dull. Instead of the reader being present and experiencing the story, it’s like they’re stuck listening to someone’s imperfect retelling. Imagine getting only “Last week on…” and “Next week on…” but never getting to watch an episode. I’m editing a book right now with some egregious use of this. The author has a bad habit of setting up a scene in the narrative present—“The queen met the warrior in the garden.”—but then backtracking into a kind of flashback almost immediately. “Last night, when her lady-in-waiting had first suggested meeting the warrior, she had said, ‘Blah blah blah.’ The queen hadn’t considered meeting the warrior before, but as she dressed for bed, she decided they would meet in the garden the next day. Now, standing in the garden, she couldn’t remember why it had seemed like a good idea.”

That’s a really simplified and exaggerated example, but do you see what I’m getting at? If the queen’s conversation with the lady-in-waiting and the resulting indecision are important enough to be in the narrative, if they influence the narrative, let the reader be present for them instead of breaking the forward momentum of the story to “tell” what happened when the reader wasn’t there. Unless it’s narratively important for something to happen off-page (usually because of an unreliable narrator or to build suspense or to avoid giving away a mystery), show your readers the action. Let them experience it along with the characters. Invite them into the story instead of keeping them at a distance.

Finally, please, please don’t rely on suddenly or and then to do the heavy lifting of surprise or moving the story forward; English has so many excellent verbs. Generally speaking, writers could stand to use a larger variety of them. 

(But said is not dead, okay? SAID IS VERY, VERY ALIVE.)

[tuckertales]

[tuckertales]

Good example: the sixth sense

Bad example: now you see me

The good plot twists aren’t the ones that are wild left turns out of nowhere, they’re the ones that make all the other little things that didn’t quite add up before suddenly click

[tuckertales]

I love this from a character standpoint. I feel like people (including me) rely so heavily on the tension of ‘will these two characters get together’ that once they’re together, we don’t know what to do. How do we keep the tension? And I feel like too many people rely on petty and ultra dramatic things happening between their characters which typically ends up feeling out of character or somewhat pointless.

I love this post because it is something that can be applied to a character relationship that is more subtle but a totally real problem. They both love each other, but their love languages differ. They have to find a meeting point where they can both feel that love from each other.

It gives me hope that I can find more ways to write realistic issues in relationships (specifically healthy relationships). I should emphasize that point. It’s pretty simple to find relationship issues that are unhealthy and between two characters that shouldn’t be together. But people fight and disagree and have problems in healthy relationships as well. And I think I struggle between that balance of happy and healthy but with realistic issues.

[tuckertales]

Sometimes writing is crafting intricate foreshadowing and themes that delight your readers and sometimes it is realizing you forgot an entire character existed.

[tuckertales]

THE FIRST DRAFT:

THE SECOND DRAFT:

THE THIRD + DRAFT:

THE FINAL DRAFT:

Never be discouraged by your first draft!

If you work it long enough, it will bend and mold into your hands until it transforms into whatever you wish— don’t give up!

Also: Never compare your first draft to someone else’s final draft!

There’s a ton of revisions, rewriting, and editing that goes on that readers never get to see. Nobody’s first draft comes out looking like their final draft!

[tuckertales]

None of your old writing was a waste of time

You had to write what you did, when you did, so you could write what you’re writing now.

We only get better with experience.

So don’t worry if what you’re working on now doesn’t quite feel up to par. Think of it as paving the way for bigger and better things to come.

[tuckertales]

Get Your Reader to Care

“Cathexis: the investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea”

When I ask people why they stop reading a book, the number one answer is “I just didn’t care”. 

Ouch. 

So how do we get readers to care about our stories? It may seem like an abstract and immeasurable answer dependent on luck and individual preference but luckily, it’s not. Yes, there will always be cases of of people who just are not interested in your story due to personal opinions, regardless of how nuanced, skilled, or polished your piece is. This is just something we have to accept as creators and press forward. 

There are two main ingredients that make readers care: investment in the characters, and stakes. 

So first, how do we create investment in our characters? We give them a want. Something that they reach out in desperation to have or accomplish. This is the foundation of your external goal and introduced at the end of the first act. It doesn’t have to be “to save the world from an alien invasion” but it does need to be a solid (as opposed to abstract), attainable goal. 

For example, “to find love” isn’t a solid goal (it’s abstract) but is one I often see. The antidote to this is to break it down to smaller and smaller specifics. Your character wants to go to the certain kingdom to defeat the dragon to find the person she loves. Providing physical, concrete objectives for your character to pursue creates the initial investment for the reader to engage with. 

Secondly, stakes. Stakes are what make us hope for the best and fear for the worst, they are what make us wildly keep turning pages wondering what will happen next. They go hand in hand with The Want. The best way to identify stakes is to ask yourself what happens if your character doesn’t accomplish their goal. If the answer is “nothing much” then you don’t have high stakes. 

The simple solution to creating stakes is to make sure that your character has something big to lose (physically or emotionally) if they fail and something incredible to gain if they succeed. 

[tuckertales]

me, with a vague plot idea, 1 (one) character name, and an outline that consists of mostly question marks:

[tuckertales]

I’ve been editing my book recently and it is just as difficult as I imagined and, in some ways, more difficult 😅

Writing new scenes and missing scenes has been fun.

Figuring out a new outline/fixing problems has been hard but fun

What I’m really struggling with is editing scenes that already work or only need to be changed a little. My brain is so scared to let go of the ‘good’ I’ve already made. I worked so hard on it! But that doesn’t mean it’s the best it can be. So getting the motivation to fix these scenes has been rough. I have to get enough umph in myself to basically move forward thinking ‘I can write something better than this’ aaaand I don’t often feel that way 😅

In other news, here is the stray kitty that has adopted me. I have dubbed him Jerry: