If Brian needs a cigarette, use the moment fully:. Brian paused and lit a cigarette. I should add that you can pick apart any masterwork on that basis: One of the biggest is that love—or sex, at least—makes people irrational.
Ask, “What Would I Recommend If This Happened To Someone Else?”
We throw over the picture-perfect millionaire for the rough-around-the-edges dirt biker with debt; we lie to our faithful wife on the phone while bonking the secretary in a motel. Which goes to show that if you incorporate a strong enough motivating factor—even an irrational one—you can easily establish a plausible reason for erratic actions on the part of your characters. And those characters are far more interesting to read about than those who always behave rationally.
Similarly, any number of terrific plot turns can result when you give a character an obsession—random or not—or an idiosyncrasy that can act as a thread through the story. For instance, someone who is obsessed can become single-mindedly so, leading to horrible errors in judgment. Control freaks turn vainglorious and become prone to fatal decisions:. It follows that an obsessed character must either find grace or be forced to it , or reject growth and stick with their crippled, familiar life to the end. In fact, a little capriciousness here can be beneficial.
Which one are you sort of avoiding dealing with? What if he categorically will not show up anywhere on time? Automatically, this character becomes more interesting, and automatically we feel a little detonation of uh-oh: This sort of characterization does two things: It makes a character stronger as a dramatic device, and it makes him more memorable. Or they might not even notice—but they will get a feeling that for some hard-to-pinpoint reason, this character just seems genuine. A few years ago I was teaching a workshop and trying to get across the concept of writing freely with no thought of whether you like the result.
A participant spoke up: I practically reeled from the force of the genius of that question. Thank you, anonymous writer and unknown art instructor! Everyone in the room immediately made the translation: Not-pretty has two meanings here: Most people shy away from darkness, but as an author you must be willing to dwell there, see it truly, explore it before you represent it. I kind of hate to say this, but I advise going back to your childhood years—the primal times before we really knew right from wrong, and before we were strong enough to defend ourselves from evil.
Feel the fear that coursed through your body when you saw the neighborhood bully coming. Feel the shameless intoxication of wrecking something out of spite. As for freeing up your writing, do the same thing.
Happy Thoughts: Here Are the Things Proven To Make You Happier
When you were a kid, you did everything with almost complete abandon. Call up that spirit as you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. When I worked for a large bookseller, we ran surveys that showed our core customers to be well educated and fairly affluent. This was not surprising: Educated people tend to like books, and their income tends to enable them to buy books. You cannot do it. And dumbing down your work can be doubly disastrous, because if you do, agents and editors will not be able to relate to it. First, free your vocabulary while also keeping it in check. Edwina stopped revving the accelerator.
The car rocked back into the sand. She looked up at the thick spruce boughs that hung into the road. Agents and editors will recognize an honest, unstilted voice, and they will respond to it. As will your future readers. Agents and editors have a sixth sense when it comes to kitchen-sink novels. I once read a novel manuscript at the insistence of a friend who knew the author. In it, a man on foot stops to talk to a man on horseback who is wearing a live snake around his waist like a belt.
The incident was colorful but had no bearing on the story, and I suspected that the only reason it was there was that the author had once met up with a man on horseback who wore a snake around his waist like a belt. A casual inquiry proved me right. Alternatively, adapt your story to the cool thing.
The author with the snake-belt guy might have brought that character into the story more, either by making him a one-shot oracle who gives or withholds a crucial piece of information, or by making a real character out of him, with a name and a crime or a heartache.
The snake could then have served multiple purposes: Did you grin or chuckle at that last line about the snake-belt guy lacking a girlfriend? What agents and editors love above all is wit. Note that wit is not exactly humor: Wit is more of a brain thing. All of these can serve as subtle tactics for adding wit to your fiction. For instance, you might decide to give a character a blind spot. Imagine that snake-belt guy shows up for a first date and the woman slowly picks up her purse and leaves the coffee shop without so much as a word.
Happy Thoughts: Here Are the Things Proven To Make You Happier | Time
The underlying wit is that until that moment, it had never even dawned on him to consider leaving the snake at home. Look for opportunities to incorporate small, believable incongruities. A character who is sharp about some things but not others can be funny. Lots of books make readers laugh and lots make readers cry, but when readers laugh and cry while reading the same book, they remember it.
What makes people cry? What I mean is: In this case, cheap is usually the crappy twin of quick. Take your time and let emotion build from a single seed. How to make him vulnerable? Maybe our bouncer has never given up his boyhood dream of being a fighter pilot. Maybe, as a year-old, he decides to go for this dream.
- Praetorian STARShip: The Untold Story of the Combat Talon Special Forces Operations - Infiltration, Exfiltration, Surface to Air Recovery System, Fulton ... Iranian Rescue, Vietnam, Desert Storm;
- Get Happy at Work;
- 7 Simple Ways to Make a Good Story Great!
He tells no friend back home, no one he loves what his ultimate goal is. You know what to do from here: Let his dream come closer; let him overcome setbacks. Then, let some big shot take a disliking to him. Agents and editors are tuned to seek flaws and weaknesses in an author, but their hearts melt in the face of author strength, competence and bravery. Jotting those down is pretty much all it takes to get a boost in well-being over time.
Keeping track of the bad things will make you miserable. A convenient memory is a powerful thing. Do not train your brain to see the negative , teach it to see the positive. Wanna make yourself and someone else extremely happy?
Ancient Philosophers Reveal 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happier
Try a gratitude visit. Write someone a letter thanking them and telling them how much what they have done for you means. Visit them and read it in person. Exercising signature strengths is why starving artists are happier with their jobs. Think about the best possible version of yourself and move toward that.
Spend as much time as possible with people you like. The happiest people are social with strong relationships. Not spending more time with people we love is something we regret the most. Values for your other relationships are here. Being compassionate makes us happier causal, not correlative. Share the best events of your day with loved ones and ask them to do the same. And compliment them — we love compliments more than money or sex.
A little bit of extraversion here would do you good. Happiness is more contagious than unhappiness so with amount of exposure to others well-being scales. After about 75K a year, money has minimal effects on happiness. It will not increase your moment to moment mood. The Amish are as satisfied as billionaires and slumdwellers can be surprisingly happy. The happiest of all income groups is people making k a year.
Money is good but wanting money can be bad.
Giving makes us happier than receiving. In fact, it can create a feedback loop of happiness in your life.
Volunteering makes us happier and can therefore be the most selfless way to be selfish. Helping others reach their goals brings joy. Doing nice things for others today can literally make you happier for the rest of the week.
- Big Dolphin - Wild Side Series No. 15.
- How to Write a Story: The 10 Best Secrets.
- The Message of Fatima?
- Ten Secrets To Write Better Stories;
- Little Dudes Easy Bake Oven Recipes: 64 Fun and Easy Recipes for Boys?
- How to Write a GOOD Story?
- Character Worksheets!
- Stoicism Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy - Barking Up The Wrong Tree!
- 1. Go beyond the five senses..
- The First Cut: A Novel (Nan Vining Mysteries Book 1).
Take time to really enjoy the good things. What are the best ways to savor?
Savoring is one of the secrets of the happiest people. Focusing on the limited time you have in this life is a good way to remind you to savor what is important. Set ambitious goals and strive. Thinking about what happens to you in terms of your self-esteem will crush you — look at life as growing and learning.