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Comment by Nikki Katz on January 3, 2012 at 7:27pm

Balancing action with reflection: http://paranormalpointofview.blogspot.com/2012/01/internal-dialogue...

Comment by Nikki Katz on December 14, 2011 at 9:56am

Do you follow the market or follow your heart? I try NOT to follow the market, unfortunately my heart tends to fall in love with a lot of things that are current!

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2011/12/follow-the-market-or-follow-...

Comment by Nikki Katz on December 6, 2011 at 6:51pm

ATTN Craft Masters Group!

VIP! ALL TIER 2 MEMBERS! Launching Dec 10! Short story writing contest to find a YALITCHAT.ORG tier 2 member who will fill a slot on the 2012 anthology of dark retellings of Mother Goose rhymes suitable for a YA audience. To enter the contest you must submit your story based on the Little Boy Blue Rhyme. It cannot be more than 2000 words and must be at least 1500 words. Full contest rules will be posted on 12/10. Giving all current members a heads-up.

Staff Comment by C. Lee McKenzie on November 30, 2011 at 1:15pm

Here's a simple "Tightening the Prose" article that's good to reference, especially during those rewrites.

This is by Allie Boniface.

Over the summer, I ran a mini-workshop right here at Savvy Authors that focused on Prose Tightening – trimming the deadwood from your work and paring down all the nonessentials so that your story shines through. Now seems like as good a time as any to revisit some of those key ideas, as well as talk about some others. If you're finishing up your NaNo project, congratulations! The days in this month are winding down, and soon you'll have a draft of a novel in front of you. Ready to think about polishing? (Even if you aren't yet at that stage, go ahead and bookmark this blog post. We'll be here when you're ready).

Consider some of these tips when you're working your way through a second (or third or fourth or, gulp, yes it happens…fifth) draft:

Whittle Down Forms of "To Be” 

Generally speaking, verbs like is/are/was/were and their variations are weak words. Of course you'll have them in your writing, but examine your use of them and see whether a stronger verb would make a sentence more interesting or appealing:

Weak: The giraffe is a beautiful animal, with a coat that is like the colors of the sun and legs that are longer than two men standing on each other's shoulders. 

Strong: The giraffe is a beautiful animal, with a coat like the colors of the sun and legs longer than two men standing on each other's shoulders. (Notice that the opening phrase of this sentence maintains use of "is” – it isn't necessary to eliminate all of them.)

Weak: Amelia was standing by the door of the ballroom, waiting for any eligible young man to notice her. 

Strong: Amelia stood by the door of the ballroom, waiting for the eligible young men to notice her. (A simple change in verb structure here eliminates was + and "ing” verb, to past tense, which doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence) Keep Reading...

Staff Comment by C. Lee McKenzie on November 7, 2011 at 7:29pm

Ha! Loved the "nose pushed up against said color." Great Nikki. And the suggestions are good. Reactions can be as powerful as the thrown punch.

 

One thing I like to do in action scenes is to make a lot of short  "punchy" (sorry about the pun) sentences. I  often even make these sentences graphs on their own. It moves the reader quickly down the page, imitating the fast paced movement you're trying to create.

 

Have fun. Fight scenes are great to write.

Comment by Nikki Katz on November 7, 2011 at 7:18pm

@Nicole - my best advice when writing a fight scene is to take time for the reactions and internal thoughts of your characters. Otherwise it's like stage directions. "X hit Y. Y fell to the ground moaning. X kicked him in the shin."

If you add the reactions, it gives it a lot more punch and really gets the reader into the character's head. Just make sure everything stays in character and isn't obsolete (like a character noting the blue color on the wall ... unless his nose is pushed up against said blue color!) 

Staff Comment by Nicōle Olea on November 7, 2011 at 7:09pm

I'm writing a fight scene and I was wondering if any of you have any pointers/advice. I've gone back and read fight scenes in books and things but it's just not flowing. KWIM?

Staff Comment by C. Lee McKenzie on November 7, 2011 at 1:26pm

Here are a few exercises for helping in world building. 

http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/content.php?1638-World-Building-Brai...

 

Comment by Nikki Katz on November 7, 2011 at 9:15am

Win swag!  Dive in and leave feedback in all of the groups between now and the end of the year to gain status on the leader boards.  Georgia will be watching the leader boards (those who've been most active here on #yalitchat) and will be giving away prizes (including books and movie gift cards).  Hope to see you chatting!

Comment by Nikki Katz on October 31, 2011 at 9:30am

Elana Johnson gives a quick lesson on verbs ... I know I'm always struggling to pick just the right one! http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/2011/10/verb-it-up.html

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