Stephen Bly has a nice little blog with some realistic plot kickers for those of you who also write Westerns!

You may have noticed that the site is being revamped. Sometimes it’s good to shake things up and have a makeover.

Sometimes your story needs a makeover as well. How do you tell if you need to shake things up and make a change?

• You find the writing increasingly difficult
• Your writing just seems boring and humdrum
• You can’t think of any way to solve a problem the characters have gotten into
• You’re having trouble ending a scene or chapter
• You find yourself describing the weather
• You find yourself describing a character’s typical day
• You can’t imagine where to go next

If you find yourself in any of the above situations, try going back to the last place where things made sense. Ask yourself: what can I change here?

Go forward in a new direction from that last scene. You might have to try this several times before you find something that works, but you’ll end up with a better story.

What are some of your tips for changing dull writing?

 

 

It can be difficult to keep a good plot interesting. How do you find the right balance between action and description? How much tension is enough, and how much is too much? And there’s that point every writer reaches, where everything you put down seems boring and lifeless….

Here are some tips you can use to make things more exciting:

1. Brainstorm a list of the worst things that could happen to your character – then start making them happen!
2. Ask “what if?” questions – figure out what would logically happen in each scene – then find a way to make something else happen instead!
3. Go for emotion – let your character respond to situations with feeling!
4. Pile on the pressure – does your character have enough on his or her plate? Add something else to the mix!
5. Add a timetable – there’s nothing quite like a ticking clock to ramp up the tension!

What are some tips you’ve developed over the years to make your scenes more interesting?

When I decided to write a novel about Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid, I had to come up with a convincing plot. Here are some of the steps I took in planning for that novel.

 

1. The main idea. I knew that I wanted to show off their outlaw skills, and to use those same skills in solving the mystery. Since I’d already decided to show them robbing a train, I had to come up with a scenario where they’d need to use the same sort of set-up. I wanted their first case to be relatively easy for them, with the main focus being the formation of the Kye-Chance-Stone team. I had several possible plots in mind, from stealing back some sort of vital document to kidnapping a criminal to return him to justice. I settled on a rather tame case, with a runaway heiress, as a suitable first attempt.
2. Plotting. Once I had my basic idea, I did a rough outline to see what I wanted to happen over the course of the story, At this point, I didn’t put in many specifics, just tried to get the lads from their meeting with Stone to the conclusion of the case.
3. The first draft. My first draft is always more like free-writing. I just sit down and let the words flow. Some of it is going to be crap and have to be cut, but I get the basic ideas down before I worry about editing.
4. Edits. Once I had a complete manuscript, I had to worry about editing. Since this is my first novel, I thought it would be worth the money to use a professional editor, and I think that was the right decision. She pointed out several spots that just weren’t working out, and made a few really good suggestions on how to fix them.
5. The second draft. While I waited for the editor to read and comment, I worked on the first draft, looking for things like repeated phrases, “movie lines” (head nods and other such movements more common on a script than in a novel), and slow spots. I tried to ramp up the tension and conflict, especially between the main three characters.
6. The third draft. That’s the one I’m working on now. Following some of the editor’s suggestions, I’ve dropped the sub-plot I had in the first two drafts, which I admit was more boring than the main case. I’m adding several chapters from the point of view of their friend Emily Sharp. I’ve also thought of a few complications that I hadn’t imagined at first, things to further increase tension in the slower middle part of the book.

 

I’ll keep you posted on my progress as I work on what I hope will be the final draft of the novel. What are your experiences? How many edits do you usually run through before you really feel the book is ready?