Just Ginger

Story Step 8 In Story Step 6, I suggested you don’t need to have the perfect title before you write your story. Working titles are fine. Stumbling across the perfect title during the process is always fun. On the other hand, choosing names for your characters is an important early step when writing a story. Assigning names helps you bond with your characters better than calling them Male #1 or Female #2. Names carry a lot of weight. This is as true in real life as it is in a story. Choosing the right name for your characters is important. I love names and have a spreadsheet of several hundred male and female names I’ve collected over the years. I’ve visited cemeteries to record names and life span dates from gravestones. I’ve found unusual names in obituary columns and news articles, and I’ve plucked names off the identity badges of sales clerks. I’m not shy about name gathering or asking the story behind an unusual name. After complimenting a person’s name, I of...

Story Steps Seven You’ve got an idea for a story, some characters with interesting backstories, a general idea of your theme, and a working title. Now what? Personally, I like to write a synopsis of my story. I see it as an opportunity to sketch out the major events of the story. It’s not written in stone, but it gives me an idea of where I’m going. It can also clue me into weak points or details I may need to further research. A synopsis offers any writer the opportunity to see if the essential story ingredients are there. Say what? Essential story ingredients, you ask? What could those be? Well, a story needs at least one protagonist –I mostly write romance so we have two: the hero and the heroine. The word protagonist originated in Greek drama and means the main character–or two characters in a romance. This is the story character you want the reader to like, to cheer on, and become the most emotionally invested in whether or not he or she succeeds. Then yo...

Story Step Six As some point in this writing process, you’re going to want to hang a title on your story. Don’t worry over what to call it this early. The purpose of giving a work in progress (WIP) a title is to differentiate it from any other story you’re writing. Finding the perfect title isn’t as important as writing the story. The role of a working title is to give substance to your project. Ideas for possible titles will hit you as you wrestle the story into submission. Rather than change the working title every other day, just keep a list of possible titles. Titles are not my strong point and I set myself up for headaches with my Tassanoxie series (all the stories are set in one town, but can be read in any order). It all started with the first book, Feather’s Last Dance . I was rather proud when I thought of it. Then, the second book ended up being titled Ellie’s Song . Hmmmm, by happy accident both books contained the heroine’s name. Two published titles cont...

Story Steps Five   As I was winding up my undergrad degree many, many years ago, for fun I took a Creative Writing class. Somewhere along the way I lost the handy dandy writing how-to book we used in the class, but one recommendation stuck with me: write a detailed biography for characters prior to writing the story. After the class, I subscribed to several writing magazines. They echoed the author’s opinion that a writer had to “get to know” story characters completely before you could write about them. Over the years, I read articles and attended workshops that abounded  with character lists. Hair color. Eye color. Date of birth. Educational background. Height. Weight. Favorite foods. Foods dislikes. I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I wasted a lot of time writing biographies full of trivial information for characters. Information I never used and soon forgot after writing it down. Gradually, my biographies changed. I started concentrating on...

Story Steps Four Sierra showed up at our small local airport, a starving, flea and tick infested Beagle. No microchip, no tags, she became an immediate addition to the family. She was an anomaly in the Beagle family because she seldom barked. From all accounts, barking is a perennial Beagle issue. She arrived with some additional baggage, she didn’t run to the door when we arrived home. This is a major dog duty and we resorted to bribing Sierra into acceptable dog-at-the-door behavior. We kept treats in the garage to reward her when we opened the door. My husband even came up with a “Sierra’s happy we’re home” dance. Backstory Naturally, I came up with a backstory to fit her behavior. If she’d been kenneled by her previous owner, she wouldn’t know how to greet anyone when they arrived home. How can you greet anyone when you’re locked in a kennel? Why would you bark at anything, if you’re locked away from the windows and doors? Just as I build a backstory for...

Story Steps Three As I was thinking about this next blog in my theme sequence, I realized I should probably define what theme is for the purposes of these blogs. First, let’s look at what it’s not. It’s not the premise, it’s not the plot, and it’s not a situation. The theme pervades the story, it is the foundation upon which the other components of a story rest. It’s what the reader takes away from the story at the end. Thus, it is often called “the take away” or “lesson learned.” It’s the message you’re trying to share with the reader. It’s your chance to express your opinions or core ideas on the meaning of life. If you look at it that way, you can see why theme is an important tool in your writing toolbox. Theme can often be boiled down to one word such as: revenge  redemption  truth  honesty  courage  fear  worthiness  forgiveness  acceptance  commitment  betrayal  rebellion  ...

Story Steps Two The next step I take in writing a story is to search my idea for a theme. Yeah,   I know. Shudder. Shudder. The dreaded theme that we all hated having to know for literature class. I don’t know about you, but my idea of the theme seldom matched the theme the teacher chose. She or he always won though because their theme would be on the test, not mine.  The whole experience made me skittish of themes.  In the early days of my writing career, there was no Internet, few writers’ groups, and few writers’ conferences.   Naturally, I jumped on the chance to attend a one day workshop featuring three writers in a nearby city. I’d written three novels but wasn’t having any luck finding a publisher.   One of the instructors (the only female) threw out the word “theme” during her presentation. I mentally shuddered. What, does she think we’re in English class? Although my first inclination was to tune her out, I was there to lea...