There are two problems that many writers, myself included, make way too often:
(1) Being so excited about our stories that the plots become fast and boring, and (2) being too scared to have fun with descriptions.
Well now it’s time to end that by showing how to add fun to your writing!
During the last stream, the viewers voted that we go over “how to put fun in your writing.”
You can see our full discussion here,
or scroll down for the highlights.
– Bland plots bore readers on the macro-level, and bland writing bores readers on the micro-level.
– When you write a story, it’s important to have FUN with it.
– You do that by taking base plot ideas/writing expressions, and then FUN-ifying them by pinching the text.
Example 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
– Nothing BUT fun things, which is partly why it’s so popular!
Macro (Plot)
– BLAND: A boy finds out he’s a wizard from a letter in the mail, and goes to the school
– FUN-IFIED: A boy gets hundreds of mysterious letters from owls, eventually getting so many his abusive aunt and uncle have to run away, until the door of their hideout is knocked down by a giant hairy man, who then tells Harry he’s a wizard, and then they go together to buy all of Harry’s supplies such as a wand, owl, robes, and more, and then he goes on a magic train to the school
Micro (Text itself)
– BLAND: “His name was… Voldemort.”
– FUN-IFIED: “His name was…” Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. “Can you write it down?” Harry suggested. “Nah — can’t spell it. All right — Voldemort.”
WAYS TO FUN-IFY
– Make things more difficult for the main character (put some obstacles between finding out he’s a wizard and going to school)
– See the ripple effects of your world (magical schools require magical school supplies!)
– Make interactions between characters show off their personalities (Hagrid doesn’t just convey information to Harry, their conversation shows off his personality too)
Example 2: Gone Girl
– You can do fun things in realistic fiction too!
Macro (Plot)
– BLAND: A husband’s wife goes missing, he’s determined to find her
– FUN-IFIED: A husband’s wife goes missing and it’s so sudden he doesn’t know how to react, in fact his reactions are criticized by the media for not being genuine enough, then it comes to light that he’d cheated on her, suddenly the entire world is against him and thinks he killed her, so he goes on TV and does his best to show the “correct” emotions, and when he does that there’s another twist that I won’t give away here.
Micro (Text itself)
– BLAND: “I’d know her head anywhere. I wonder what’s inside it. What are you thinking, Amy?”
– FUN-IFIED: “I’d know her head anywhere. And what’s inside it. I think of that too: her mind. Her brain, all those coils like fast, frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy?
WAYS TO FUN-IFY
– Don’t do things we’ve seen a million times (taking the “determined husband” trope a step further)
– Do something the reader doesn’t expect (a good twist is always fun)
– Don’t be afraid to go a little crazy with your descriptions (“centipedes” and “skulls” are crazy, but they’re fun to read!)
Overall
– If a plot point is too easy, FUN-ify it! Pinch the plot points and add some wrinkles.
– If something is written merely to convey information, FUN-ify it! Pinch the text and squeeze it into something more fun and visceral.
Chat then voted that we FUN-ify this plot idea: A lawyer suddenly gets magic powers.
Here’s what we came up with for the macro (plot) level:
A lawyer has never won a case, so he gets desperate and goes a meditation retreat camping trip by himself. While in the middle of the wilderness, he happens upon a secret meeting of mages, who are fretting about doing their taxes, so he offers his expertise to help them. In return, they grant him magic powers, but they don’t know exactly what the powers will be, since it’s different for everyone. Turns out he has the power to cause mild indigestion in people. He also finds out that other lawyers/politicians that he’s been fighting against are mages, using their more powerful magic (mind reading, mind control, future sight) for their own gain.
And here’s what we came up with for the micro (text) level:
I followed the humming sound through the dark forest, my heart pounding against my chest harder than the judge slamming his gavel when I’d requested an emergency bathroom break during my own closing argument.
I’d never done anything like this before. Never even snuck out of my house. Never left my dorm after curfew. The one time I had a sip of alcohol before I was twenty-one I started throwing up right away, not from the drink, but just from the anxiety of being caught.
Finally I came to a clearing surrounded by tall bushes. With my shaking hands, I parted the leaves and peered through to the bright inside.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A dozen grown men stood around a blazing fire, each of them wearing an outfit more insane than the last. One of them was decked out in flowing blue coat with frilled shoulders like a navy admiral, another was completely hidden beneath a suit of metal armor that glistened in the firelight, another had a bathrobe covered in grandma-floral print, and one of them was even had nothing but a simple white loincloth and his flabby, freckly skin.
Somehow, I’d stumbled upon a gathering of rejected cereal box mascots.
For the macro level, you can see the wrinkles that we put in. Instead of just suddenly getting powers, he goes on a camping trip and gets them for a fun reason. Then we followed the ripple effect of those powers, and gave them to others in the same profession who use them for evil.
For the micro level, you can see the wrinkles we put in with out descriptions. The main character describing things in terms of “gavels,” “anxiety,” and “cereal box mascots” says a lot about who he is while still conveying the necessary information.
After that, chat voted that we write this prompt: Your character is fortunate to have been born into a powerful family after the downfall of the world. They have everything they would ever hope to have… except a clue as to what happens outside their very large, protective walls. Once they find out, they can’t help but need to change it.
Here’s what we came up with:
I’d finally chiseled through. Five years of painstaking work crumbled away and brought a beam of light with it. Every day I’d insisted to Nanny Ray that we play hide-and-go-seek in the garden, and he complied. He had to comply. It was the only way I could get him to take his eyes off me for long enough to chink away at the wall.
Five years. One-thousand eight-hundred and sixty five days, and just as many asinine games of hide and seek that I had to pretend I loved ever so much, giggling to hide the metal ice pick that I slipped back under my dress each time.
And now, as Nanny Ray’s voice counted down from one hundred (he was currently at forty six), I’d broken through. For the first time since I’d started, when I pulled the pick out of the brick wall, light came with it along with the usual dust and debris.
Nanny Ray’s counting voice suddenly got quieter. “Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…”
“You skipped all the thirties!” I yelled out at him. I needed those ten seconds desperately.
“Ah, apologies my lady!” Nanny Ray called back. “I’ll start over from forty. Thirty-nine, thirty-eight…”
I’d waited five years for this moment, but I couldn’t bear another second to wait to see what lay beyond. Quickly sliding the pick back into my hidden dress pocket, I crouched down in the prickly bushes, knees on the dirt, and peered with one sweaty eye through the tiny opening.
The hole I’d made was a long thin cone that ended in a pinprick of light at the end. It reminded me of how Papa showed me the best way to eat ice cream cones, so long ago, by biting off the tip at the bottom and sucking the sweet liquid through. I’d laughed and laughed back then, both of us dripping chocolate all over our faces.
Now it was time so see what lay at the end of this ice cream cone.
I squinted, trying to make out what I could through the pinprick. There was definitely something out there. A lot of somethings. I saw shadows. Movement. I pressed my face as hard as I could against the wall, like a pancake to a frying pan, the rough grain of the bricks like fire against my soft cheeks as everything came into slightly better focus. There were people. Definitely people. One of them walked right by. I got a good look at her face.
The girl… she looked exactly like me.
She walked out of my sight. My eye snapped to the only other person I could see. Another woman. A perfect copy of me in every way. The only difference was her tattered clothes and blank expression.
She too quickly passed by, but only a second later another me walked into view. And another. And another. For I moment I wondered if I was somehow looking into a mirror. But that was impossible. They were all moving, talking, wearing different clothes. All with my exact same face and body.
“What are you doing, Genevieve?”
I jumped at Nanny Ray’s breath on my shoulder.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you. We stream on Twitch every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6:30pm-10:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Scott Wilson is the author of the novel Metl: The ANGEL Weapon,
forthcoming March 2019.