Naked Editor, Tiffany Lawson Inman

Bet that got your attention.     Please join us today in welcoming this week’s Guest Chef, Tiffany Lawson Inman!

Stocking Stuff Your Way To Dramatic Writing

            I have been given the honor of guest blogging for Petit Fours and Hot Tamales this lovely December day (Thank you ladies!) and I am feeling compelled to write something that relates to the experience of Christmas.  And since I am Tiffany Lawson Inman, Naked Editor, I also have a tickling obligation to write about fiction.

I wasn’t sure this was possible until I started to ponder what it is about Christmas that excites me the most. It is hard to avoid these growing holiday thoughts because we’ve all already started journeying towards the big day!  Warm and fuzzies are forever sparking in my heart with each pomegranate martini raised in cheer and every newly twinkling tree in my neighborhood.  Curious, these are the same warm and fuzzies I seem to feel when I walk over thresholds of a bookstore, library…and, um, amazon.com. Through closer consideration, I think these warm and fuzzies are the feeling of anticipation stemming from the imagination part of my brain.

Conclusion: the experience of Christmas and reading fiction must be very similar.

Just as Christmas isn’t only about the opening of presents and eating a big meal, a novel shouldn’t only be about setting and plot, or characters and fancy imagery.  Although I know there are published books out there with one or two shining elements guiding their way into reader’s hands, I believe writers should aim for their novels to be more.

What if you decorated your Christmas tree with only tinsel and a star?  What if you forgot to eat your grandma’s special Christmas fudge? What if you left the stockings empty?

I’m sure your Christmas would turn out okay, but some of those warm and fuzzies might be missing from the whole experience.

I open a book with the hope of being dazzled on every page by many elements of fiction. Especially the books that keep me guessing until the end. Those are the ones that seem to live on beyond the first, second, tenth, twentieth print run. Right?

What are the sneakiest dazzlers that dazzle me during Christmas?

Stocking Stuffers.

Stocking Stuffers are sometimes over looked or out done by the large n’ larger gifts under the tree. But they are my favorite to buy for my family and are always fun to open. And I LOVE to watch new forms stretching and bulging against the yarn stocking during the pre-xmas weeks.  Thinking back on my gift opening history, stocking stuffers were always the gifts that got used and cherished.  Sometimes more so than whatever was in that boring box near the back of the tree.  And with stocking stuffers, oh, the variety!

One of the stocking stuffers of fiction, also often overlooked, is Drama.  It is found everywhere from the words you choose to something much bigger.  Drama can be the heat pumping fire that pops and hisses in the corner of the living room, enveloping your party guests with a cozy warmth that only a fire can give off.  Flickering flames constantly changing, creating intrigue and atmosphere.

What can you do to start writing dramatic fiction? Keep your readers wondering about the contents of packages under the tree and don’t make your wrapping so conspicuous.  Even if your story isn’t a mystery, writers should still be in a constant state of wonderment as to what is going to happen next.  Just as you don’t want a child to know it’s a remote control car until Christmas morning, you don’t want your readers to be told everything about the protagonist within the first chapter.  Readers want every page to be Christmas morning!

Here are a few twinkling Christmas-light-bulbs for you to think about while you are writing:

1. Don’t forget YOUR VOICE.
2. Show a character’s personality by writing how they tackle each life situation through their body language, dialogue, reactions AS THEY ARE HAPPENING.
3. Actively move your story in a FORWARD DIRECTION, even while writing internalizations or flashbacks.
4. Try very hard to read your writing as if you don’t know where the story is going.

Are YOU still turning pages?

1. Show emotion through EVERY aspect of writing craft
2. Discipline yourself to write ACTIVE DESCRIPTION
3. Show active dramatic moments WITHIN THE DIALOGUE

Please share with us ~ What are some of your favorite or most used Stocking Stuffers you have received over the years?  (Mine was a pocket mirror that lit up. Great for on-the-run-tweezing.)  Any priceless Stocking Stuffer writing advice you’ve been given that you keep going back to?

*** If you want to learn how to master these skills and more – Naked Editor Lecture Packets will be available at http://www.margielawson.com/  in January. Check out her online classes!  Comment today and you will be entered in a drawing to win a free http://bit.ly/TripleThreatBehindStagingA_Scene  Lecture Packet!

Tiffany Lawson Inman, Naked Editor, is a freelance editor and writing instructor. She works with everything from line by line to voice, emotion, body language, cause-effect, character, plot, relationships, dramatic action, choreography, cadence, and critique.  Naked Editor will bring your manuscript to life.

Wanna Read more? Catch some of her previous guest blogs here: http://bit.ly/WritingYourVoice  or http://bit.ly/EveryManuscriptAThriller or http://bit.ly/BewareOfFalseHOOK  

See what Tiffany is up to next: http://bit.ly/NakedEditorFictionWritingBlog