Tag Archives: Storytelling

Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives

November 9, 2022Writer Inspirationam Writing, Storytelling, Writer Motivation, Writers LifeAlice Orr

Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives. In our yellow house on Vashon Island the dining table was battered from years of grandkid use. The chairs had been rocked so many times Grandpa Jonathan had to bolt the legs to the frames. This was the precious place where we held hands at mealtime and practiced gratitude for our lives together. We called it Giving Thankfuls.

Our Storytelling Lives are Equally Blessed. The guests at our tables exist only in our heads but they rollick and roar and rock the chairs all the same. They give us hissy fits. But would you want to live without them for a day? We Give Thankfuls for our imaginary friends.

We Sit in Battered Bolted Chairs and Stare at the Wall. Real life plays out in front of us but we are otherwise engaged. Images peek from under the tableware. What ifs clatter louder than the cutlery. We savor the symphony of inspiration and Give Thankfuls for the scenes we see.

An Array of Plot Possibilities Fills our Formerly Empty Plates. We pick and choose. Mix and match. Consider and rethink. We alter the menu at will. Always in service of the purposes of the plot. Always hungry for what works best. We Give Thankfuls for the feast of creativity.

The Banquet Continues for Days Months Years. Our appetites are sometimes satisfied but often they are not. We may leap up from the table in exasperation. Nonetheless we eventually return and struggle again to get the ingredients exactly right. We Give Thankfuls for resilience.

At Last we Add these Luscious Words – The End. We pound the well-used table or collapse upon it. Though probably exhausted we are also filled with joy and chair-rocking energy. We laugh. We sob. However we express it we are Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives.

Being Storytellers has Put Us in the Amazing Company of Other Storytellers. We honor that company for its generosity, its wit, its endless ingenuity. We find role models and helpmates there. Friends too, professional and personal. We Give Thankfuls for our writers’ community.

Being Storytellers has Put Us in the Amazing Company of Readers. The upfront readers who help us grow our work. The priceless readers who review that work after it has come of age. The readers we pray will become our fans. Who could possibly not Give Thankfuls for readers?

Each Morning Begins a New Day to Rejoice in Storytelling. What gave us this glorious gift? In my case it was Grandma. She told her stories aloud. I write mine down. Her spirit abides in me and mine in her. I shall Give Thankfuls forever for her believing in me from my start.

Today My Own Grandkids are No Longer Kids. We are all back on the east coast now. Grandparents and parents. In-laws and outlaws. Jonathan and I are still a twosome fifty years and counting. We have never stopped holding hands and Giving Thankfuls and hope we never will.

Meanwhile my Storytelling Life Continues. So does yours. We are filled with memories. We are calm or stormy at turns. We have not gone gentle into any night – good are otherwise. We are the characters we have written and become. We are Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives.

Alice Orr says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s holiday novel, for which she Gives Thankfuls, is A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

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Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages

June 8, 2022Writing Career TipBook Sales, Storytelling, Writing TipAlice Orr

Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages. “What is wrong with this relationship?” A central human issue in real life. An equally central issue in writing fiction.

Relationships are the Bottom Line of the Fiction Market. Readers want answers to these life questions. How do you find a relationship? How do you sustain a relationship once it has begun? How do your regain a relationship that seems irretrievably lost? How do you correct the flaws that undermined the relationship in the first place?

These Mysteries Haunt the Heart of Every Relationship Story. Which is why interpersonal entanglements are prime reader interest territory, and not only for women’s fiction. Any story that involves adults interacting has the potential for a relationship entanglement. That conflict – particularly if it is a romantic struggle – increases your story’s sales potential by leaps and bounds in the publishing marketplace.

Your Goals are to be Published – to Attract Readers – to Become a Beloved Author. Dramatic conflict between your characters supercharges your potential to reach each of these goals. Relationship storytelling is a very savvy choice for any career-minded author. Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages.

Women’s Fiction and Book Sales Potential. Approximately eighty to eighty-five percent of U.S. readers. are women. The majority of this female audience reads women’s fiction in some form. Literary stories, mainstream commercial novels, category romance. An immense market where agents, editors and, most crucially, readers search for enthralling author voices.

You and Your Stories Can be Among those Voices. The key to sought-after-author status in women’s fiction is a heartfelt, convincing relationship that comes to fiery life on your pages. Such relationships are the backbone of this flourishing segment of the book market.

Your Story’s Primary Relationships Focus on Your Main Character. But it takes two to tangle. Your protagonist needs characters to relate with, romantically and otherwise. Reader engrossing plots, and subplots, can arise from any troubled relationship. A friendship. A parent and child. Your hero confronting her rival or her captor or her tormentor. Possible combinations of colliding characters are as varied as your imagination.

Still – the Most Popular Story Relationships are Between Lovers and Potential Lovers. Readers seek roadmaps for navigating this problematic area of human interaction. They are also drawn to the story tension inherent in a tale of two people attempting to love one another in the face of mounting obstacles and formidable odds.

Here Lies Storytelling Paydirt. Your two central characters collide. They struggle intensely, dramatically, powerfully. They make turbulence of their lives and excite your reader’s interest. They do so most credibly when their struggle reflects the turbulence and excitement of real human experience. Which could be based on your own experience.

Your Personal History is Fertile Research Ground for your Stories. Mine the conflicts and struggles that lie beneath that ground. Disguise them in whatever fictional form you choose, but keep the emotions real and true. Do this, and you will create stories that kindle into life, because Strong Relationships Blaze Your Story Pages.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir, many articles and several blogs so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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How to Write First Class Secondary Characters

May 25, 2022Writing TipsCreating Characters, Storytelling, WritingAlice Orr

How to Write First Class Secondary Characters. The Hero of Your Story Lives in a Larger World Beyond Herself. She lives in a fictional world you have created. A world populated by other people usually referred to as secondary characters. I suggest you also think of them as supporting characters because they support your main character and her story.

Your Hero Drives Your Story. But, no matter how substantial and fully realized she may be, if her supporting cast is weak, your story will be weakened too. Your story structure will be in danger of toppling — off your reader’s bedside table into oblivion. As Mike Nichols said of all characters. You must give your secondaries their own beating heart humanity.

Create a Full Cast of Individuals who Come to Life on the Page. Functionaries won’t do, characters who walk on stage, perform a task or two, then disappear forever. If someone makes an appearance for any reason, however mundane, they must appear again in some meaningful way. They add to the emotional truth of your story. They are not just furniture.

Some Supporters Appear Often and Prominently, Others Less So. But they all perform actions that drive the story forward or amplify your hero’s role. They may not be as fleshed out as your hero, but you, the author, still must know and imagine them to be flesh and blood individuals, complete with compelling and memorable details. Click here to learn about this detail.

Your Hero’s Support Character may be a Lover, Enemy, Friend, Whomever. He or she may lessen story tension by making us laugh now and then or enhance that tension by introducing an obstacle to your hero’s goal. Whatever the secondary character’s purpose, they must be carefully written to have an impact and engage your reader.

The Most Readily Effective Cast is Headed by a Trio. The hero, her mate or sidekick, and the villain. The hero leads the story; the other two support the story. They are the foundation upon which the story is built. They keep your story moving. You must explore two critical questions for each. What must they do in this story situation? Where do they belong – on which side of the story conflict?

These Questions Relate Especially to the Motivation of a Mate or Sidekick. How this character responds. Why they respond. These are the essentials of their story role. Dig deep to find the best motivation ideas for this character. Determine what their resulting actions will be, and you have discovered how they will enlighten your story situation.

The Arc of the Sidekick’s Development Illuminates the Path they will Take. Make detailed notes on how they do or do not resolve the two crucial questions mentioned above. Whatever their path, these must be strong secondary characters. Their actions create dramatic events. Their interactions with the hero add emotional depth to her character, and to the story.

You are the Creator of your Story World and of Every Character’s Purpose. These characters serve your hero’s goals or impede them. You, as Creator, determine the specifics. The scenes, the action, the dialogue. Choose each of these for each character by weighing its potential to intensify story conflict. Because powerful conflict and struggle are the most essential support every successful story requires, and they are absolutely never secondary.

This is How to Write First Class Secondary Characters.