So there are the four ways that you use tags. Try to use them artfully. Pay attention to the natural pauses in your story, the beats. Those will help you figure out where to place the tags.
As the Covid pandemic hit last year, I head a lot of doom-and-gloom from authors about how it would destroy the industry. Printers closed down, bookstores were put out of commission. Of course it is still a good time to write!
Given this, an author should feel free to mix things up. Use said and asked when you feel that they are appropriate, especially when sentences are spoken in neutral tones.
But there are lots of other ways to be original. You can be original in your language—in your word choice, the way that you describe things, and in your metaphors.
So learn to “put the hurt” on your characters. It will make your readers empathize with them more fully. But be careful when you show how your character reacts to that pain.
When I approach creating a world for a story, I ask myself, “How real do I want this world to be?”
When I go on writing retreats, I often track my progress. I’ve done this for the past ten years, and I can show you exactly how it grows.
This is commonly referred to as the writing zone. I spoke about the importance of getting rid of all external and internal distractions, and I suggested that you need to move into your writing zone slowly.
What intrigued me about TMS is that it was also being used elsewhere. Interestingly, the treatment has proven helpful for writers who suffer from classic “writers’ block.”
Getting into the zone often requires you to make repeated attempts to focus deeper and deeper upon your work. Indeed, now that I think about it, I can recall a couple of occasions when I found myself carried away in my work at a time when I already felt physically and emotionally exhausted.
As you do this you’ll find yourself thrust into an imaginary world where your character must react to stimuli and try to overcome obstacles. It only takes about 25 minutes of doing this for you to reach that Beta-state of consciousness.
Creating that world is a simple trick. We “create” the world by reporting on it, repeatedly using images, sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that excite the mind and make it feel real. Very often, to create that world requires us to repeat information in different ways. For example, if I want to create “rain” in my story, I must have my reader see it coming in the distance, smell the taste of moisture in the air, feel the wet drops as they begin to plop down, and so on.
We develop strong rooting interest and care more about characters who care deeply about something, who are committed to something. Perhaps they care about their families, or have a powerful love for their country. Maybe your character loves his horse, or is uncommonly honest or honorable.
In short, a story isn’t just one idea, it’s a conglomeration—basic concepts about characters, how and why they act, and how others react to them. If you analyze even a short story, one that is only ten pages long, you’ll find that the author makes dozens, maybe even hundreds of choices regarding milieu, character, conflict, theme, and treatment.
In our Apex writing group, Apex is an umbrella organization that provides services for a large number of writers, but we also encourage writers to do things in smaller groups. For example, some writers are having great success by meeting together for daily writing sprints, or weekly brainstorming sessions or critique groups. Remember, a writing group is a living, growing thing. It may change over time, and your rules need to evolve with it.
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