Category Archives: Writing

In my last blog, I promised to give you more information on storyboarding. Storyboarding has been used by artists, cartoonist, writers, and movie producers for a number of years. It is no more than getting your ideas from inside your head into a written form for organization.

Storyboarding can be accomplished using index cards, sticky notes, a computer program, or scraps of paper. Let’s say we are using index cards. Start with a large stack of cards. Write an idea you have regarding your book on one of the cards. Write another idea on another card. Set them aside. Keep jotting down ideas on the cards until you’ve transferred your thoughts into notes you can organize. Use a different card for each different idea.

At this point, there may not be a whole lot to the story. Start asking yourself questions. Who is the main character? What does he do for a living? How does he know other characters in the story? When you have a sizeable stack of index cards with notes on them, start arranging them in an order that makes sense. Which idea should come first in the novel? Which point or idea would be the climax of the story? You can arrange the cards on the floor, a table, or wherever it is convenient for you. If using sticky notes, it’s easy to put them on a wall. Computer programs let you cut and paste until you have the notes arranged like you want them. I like to use a computerized version of sticky notes. I can easily arrange them on my monitor.

When you think you have all the notes arranged in the order they should play out, read back through them. Where are there holes in the story? Where do you need something to bridge you from one idea to another? Write more notes on more cards. Put them where they go in the story. Keep working like this until you feel that you have the basis of your novel worked out. At this point I like to number my cards and put them in one big stack, securing them with a rubber band.

When I get ready to write out the story, I start with the first index card. The idea on the card becomes the basis for the first scene I write. Note: this may not end up as the first scene of the book in my final draft, but it’s a place where I can begin the story for now. I try to write an entire scene around the idea on the card. When I’ve finished, I take the next card from my stack and attempt to fashion a scene around the new idea. As I work, I try to transition and bridge the two ideas together. Sometimes I come up with a new idea as I am writing. I make notes on a new card and put it in the appropriate place in the stack. Since my cards have been numbered, I might number the new card with a letter following the number (i.e. 5a, 5b,5c.). I simply want to be able to keep the cards in the right order.

I continue writing the story using up all the cards and ideas I have. This becomes my first draft of the novel. It doesn’t have to be pretty and it certainly isn’t complete. The next drafts will work to fill in more holes and smooth out the scenes, but at least this draft will give me a good skeleton to work with.

When storyboarding a non-fiction book, I begin with working chapter titles or ideas. I write these on cards, then put ideas I have for each section on new cards with them. I sometimes use a different color index card for each chapter.  Again, I arrange and rearrange the ideas (cards) until I have them in a working order. This now becomes my outline for the book.

I like storyboarding my ideas because it give me a framework for where I want to go with the book. It also helps me capture the ideas I have for the book that are running through my head. Storyboarding works for fiction and non-fiction. If you are an author who likes organization within your creativity, storyboarding your ideas might be a good tool for you to try.

You don’t have to be a professional writer to put Tips for Writers into practice.

I attached the leash to Lady’s collar, but before I picked up the other end, Mother’s dog, Beau, snatched it up in his mouth. Quietly, and with the attitude of one who is older and wiser, he led Lady to the door. Mother pushed the screen open and Beau guided Lady down the steps of the old house. We watched in amusement as Beau walked Lady down the sidewalk to the end of the block, turn around, and prance home like a tour guide leading a visiting sightseer.

I recalled this scene the first time I heard someone use Walking the Dog as a writing term. I don’t remember where I was when I first heard this, but I do remember being totally confused. I read back over the passage being discussed and couldn’t find mention of a dog, much less anyone walking a four-legged mutt.

But as I listened, I realized the speaker wasn’t talking about a canine, but about details. Too much detail, including everything the character is doing, whether it relates to the story or not, is boring. It can bog down a story faster than a frisky greyhound and makes your writing sound amateurish. Walking the dog usually happens when the author tries to give a blow-by-blow account of the character’s day. Some things that happen to the character simply are not relevant to the story.

If you’ve been writing very long, you’ve probably read or been told that good writing incorporates details. While that is true, the details have to be pertinent to the story. Unimportant details make the reader ask, “who cares.” And if your reader doesn’t care, he’ll soon put your book down.

Tight writing means only including the details, the events, the happenings that are relevant to the problem or situation your character is facing. When adding information to a scene or chapter, ask yourself if the story would be unclear if you left that particular detail out. If the answer is no, chances are you don’t need those extra words.

If you, as the author, believe that a detail is important, be sure your reader eventually knows why it is important. Will the detail later provide a motive for the way your character acts or reacts? Will it set the foundation for an upcoming event? If the information you are trying to convey is just filling time for your character, you are probably walking the dog.

Words and Word Lists

There is an old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. But unless you are writing a picture book, that won’t work for most authors. We are people who are in love with words.  We love the way they sound, the way they roll off the tongue, they way they make the reader visualize a picture – the one in the writer’s mind. Choosing the right word can sometimes be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be.

When I sit down to my computer I rarely have a major writer’s block. Ideas run amuck in my brain. My blocks come in smaller packages.  Choosing the exact word I want can stop me like my mother yelling my full name. I can come to a place in my story where I want to say “Tom was nervous”. The editor side of my brain cautions that I am telling the reader instead of showing them. So I work at showing.

I  use the backspace key and start again. “Tom swallowed the lump in his throat.” Ok. Good. That shows the nervousness. Editor brain screams my full name and tells me that is trite and over done. Backspace again. I ask myself what else Tom can do with his throat. Bob his Adam’s apple, clear his throat, cough? Why does it have to be in his throat at all?

I’ve developed an aid I keep on my writing desk for times my backspace key is getting a workout. It’s my handy little ‘Word List’. I have list of words that are ‘sight’ words, ‘sound’ words, ‘hearing’ words, ‘he said / she said’ words. For this example I might pick up a list of ‘feeling’ words.
As an example, let me tell you ten words I spot on the list at a glance. I let my eyes swoop the page and choose words at random.   Bridled – Chilled – Dire – Frustrated – Imposing -Muddled – Private – Rigid – Shruken – Suffocated.  Then I try to use the words to show Tom’s nervousness.

Here are some examples I came up with:
Tom bridled his nerves.
A chill encased Tom’s heart..
He was in dire need of a glass of water.
Frustration gripped him.
An imposing lump rendered Tom speechless. (See, I got that lump in the throat in there!)
Tom couldn’t make sense of his muddled thoughts.
Tom’s legs went rigid.
He shrunk to the back of the crowd.
The doubt suffocated him.

Did you notice I only listed nine examples? That because I won’t always use every word I pick from the list. And I don’t actually write these down. I let my eyes rove the list, thinking of ways I could use a variety of words to show Tom’s nervousness.  I may come up with several.  What if I wrote:
Doubt suffocated Tom and an imposing lump rendered him speechless. He was in dire need of a cool drink, but his rigid legs wouldn’t let him shrink to the back of the crowd.

We are playing with the words here and they may not be what I would end up with, however, they show the reader a picture rather than telling them that “Tom was nervous.” The end product gives the reader a chance to visualize Tom. And I used far less than a thousand words. (Of course, the story isn’t finished yet… I only need 74,967 more words and I have a novel.)

The paragraph above could be the beginning of a novel.  We don’t know much about Tom yet, but he’s in a crowd of people and for some reason he wants out of there. What happened? What did he doubt?  The writer’s mind swirls with ideas. I’ll let you take it from there.
It doesn’t take long to come up with lists of words.  Of course, they’re all there in your handy dictionary, but having choice words on categorized lists makes finding the right one speedier. And you can find categorized lists very quickly on the internet. Here is a link to one of my favorites.
http://eqi.org/fw.htm  This list was designed to help with suicidal teenagers, but the list is helpful to anyone looking for a word that might validate feelings. From that link, I found another list of Common Negative Feelings. If you want more, try googling “descriptive words” “sound words” or whatever it is you need at the moment.  Print these lists and put them in a notebook.  Keep it on your writing desk.  If you are like me, the editor side of your brain will soon be shouting your full name, you’ll pause, but your brain won’t freeze. You’ll reach for a thousand words and paint a picture.

Note: If this article helps you, you have additional ideas on word lists or would like more information from Judy, you may contact her at judy@judyvandiver.com.