All posts by Jordan Smith

A Synopsis Is Not an Information Dump

Story Tips, ,

Every now and then, I come across a synopsis that feels like an information dump. It seems to happen most often when the story in question is a fantasy or science fiction tale that involves a lot of world-building. Unfortunately, these types of synopses often leave me with a spinning head. The synopsis feeds me a lot of names, places, and so on with very little to relate to. It’s a deep world, which means for me to get it, you’re going to need to take the time to explain it like you would in the actual story. And therein lies the problem.

You see, you can’t take your carefully planned introductions to five nonhuman races, a few magic properties, and a land that is decidedly not earth and put them into the five or so paragraphs you get on the back of the book. Instead, you need to get us interested right now. If you try to tell us all about the world in that little space, you’re going to both confuse us and not have room left for the story. There’s a reason you have more space in your book to introduce all those world-building elements.

How do you fix the synopsis? Bring out your logline! Continue reading A Synopsis Is Not an Information Dump →

Show, Don’t… Kiss?

Story Tips,

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the old writing adage of “Show, don’t tell.” Maybe it’s used by screenwriters more than novelists, but we writers all know that it’s better if we can show what’s going on. Nobody wants to wade through piles of on-the-nose dialogue (my favorite term for blatant telling) to find the story beneath. We can evoke far more emotion with a well-crafted scene that shows what’s going on.

I’d like to apply this principle to another area of writing. To those of you writing anything that involves any kind of love story, I offer the following question: Can you do it without the kissing?

I say this as I’ve noticed that many writers base an entire character’s perception of a relationship on whether or not he or she has kissed so-and-so. (The Hunger Games, I’m looking directly at you.) It’s to the point where characters can’t make up their minds about whom they truly love until they’ve had a kiss first, and then they’re suddenly sure.

That’s pathetic and lazy. Continue reading Show, Don’t… Kiss? →

Successful Book & Reader Break-Ups: Writing a Good Ending

Story Tips,

This is a guest post by Michele M. Reynolds of the Writer + Wilderness Girl Under it All blog. She’s a self-published author with three books in print and another coming Summer 2013.

Breaking up (a reader from your book) is hard to do. Sometimes readers are able to limp through a book’s rough beginning. At times the bibliophile will still hang on through a weak middle. Even a bibliomaniac will not forgive a bad ending. The ending is what he/she was running toward the whole book. Don’t have your reader running toward the finish line with no tape, cheering fans, or ride home waiting for them. One of the biggest complaints from editors and readers is an unsatisfying or bad ending.

Steps toward a Good Ending:

3 Signs of a Good Sequel

Story Tips,

It never fails. There’s a great story out there, everybody likes it, and then comes the sequel. We all feel obligated to read/see the sequel because we liked the first one, and more often than not, we’re disappointed.

And yet, we writers are just as prone as anyone else to venture into sequel territory. It’s inevitable when we’ve gotten to know our characters and world so well. We want to go back there and see how everyone is doing. But how do we avoid the yawn-inducing sequels that we despise?

I have a few things to consider before starting the sequel. These should help us make sure it’s a good one.

Were you planning on it from the start?

If your story is one of a planned series, you’re very much all set. Your sequel isn’t the product of wishing to go back to a world you left. Rather, it’s a premeditated act of sequelness. Pick up where you left off in the previous installment and get to it. Seriously. You have people waiting for this one. Continue reading 3 Signs of a Good Sequel →

When Series Types Overlap

Story Tips,

In my book Finding the Core of Your Story, I talk about how to write a logline for a series. I note that there are a couple different kinds of series. One is “Continuing Adventures” and the other is “Serial.” The first is the idea of episodic installments, where you could pick up anywhere and understand what’s happening. The second is a series where each installment builds on the last, creating an overarching story.

Soon after my book was released, I received this question from Katie Daniels:

You say there are two kinds of series – serial series and continuing adventures. But what about series that are both? Actually, this being the 21st century and all, most continuing adventure shows also have an overall arc. Often times the first season will be all standalones, but the more sure a show gets about it’s viewership the more they’ll bring in longer storylines, and oftentimes they turn into a serial series. Should these simply be considered a Serial series? But what if they’re still standalones?

My answer turned out to be instructive, so I thought I’d share. Continue reading When Series Types Overlap →

Tweets are basically loglines. Think about it. If you can make your story’s logline fit into a tweet, not only are you really good, but you can also tweet your logline!

Even better if you have room for a link to the official page. Practice. Twitter’s a great way to get into the habit of saying only the essentials.

Help Me Write Another Book!

Announcements,

It’s time I gave you a glimpse into my plans for an upcoming book. As I worked on Finding the Core of Your Story, I consulted on loglines for many people’s stories. Those experiences started to make me think that you might want to see how some of those sessions went. After all, it’s great to read a set of logline rules, and examples are helpful, but what if you could read a start-to-finish logline critique session?

What if you could read a bunch of them in one book?

That’s precisely what I have in mind. I’m planning a book that will be a series of logline case studies, if you will. You’ll get to see where the real-life logline began, what steps were taken to improve it, and what it looked like when it was done.

But I need your help to get this started. I need stories to consult on!

Here’s the deal: You contact me with the form below and tell me about your story. If I pick your story, I’ll get in touch with you and we’ll talk. I’ll endeavor to take you from whatever you’ve got now to a decent logline and perhaps a pitch plan. It will be similar to the recent series of breakdowns I did, but better because you’ll actually be able to talk back to me about your story.

Practically any story will do. I don’t care what medium you’re working in. Novel, short story, stage, film, poetry, or anything else you can throw at me. Bring it! Status doesn’t matter, either. Brainstorming, first draft, completed, published, or anything in between. I want to include a wide range of stories in this book to maximize its usefulness.

What do you get out of this? A few things:

  • A logline consultation for free!
  • Your story’s appearance in the book and/or on the Fix My Story blog. (Not your story story. The case study and logline. You keep your story to publish as you see fit and make money for you. 🙂 )
  • A free e-book copy of the final book, plus a discount coupon for a printed copy.
  • Maybe other stuff if I think of something cool while writing the book.

(And no, even though those four points start with letters that spell “A YAM,” you’re not getting one of those.)

So what do you say? Want to be in one of my books? Use this handy little form. (Submissions now closed.)

Brief hiatus in March

I’m taking planning to take the month of March off from blogging while I’m shooting the upcoming second season of my Month of the Novel web series. If you want to keep up with what I’m doing on this very cool project, check out the official production blog, where my team and I are planning to post updates throughout the shoot.

I’ll be back in April, so don’t go anywhere!

Conflict and Consequences

Story Tips,

When I’m helping people write loglines, I often run into a little problem. Someone will hand me a logline for an epic story that just doesn’t quite feel compelling, usually for a very simple reason: they haven’t told us about the consequences.

Loglines and stories need conflict, as I’ve said in the past (and explained in my book), but sometimes it’s not enough to just include a situation with conflict. You need to make sure that we know what’s going to happen if the hero doesn’t succeed.

This is often more of a big epic story thing. When the story is huge and involves the fate of the city, the world, the galaxy, or the universe, it can often fall flat on its face without a little tiny bit more.

And yet for some reason, this is a sticking point for so many people. They figure they have a bad guy and he’s in the logline, so that ought to be plenty, right? Nope. And worse still, when pressed for more details, many writers panic and say, “I don’t really know what should go in there!”

Luckily, there’s a simple, powerful question you can ask yourself to figure out what consequences belong both in your story, and also help your logline: Continue reading Conflict and Consequences →