Put Some Meat On The Bones Of Your Story

Put some meat on the bones of your story

Here’s a response to a suggestion from duskborne wondering how to flesh out a story idea.

Figure out what’s important in your story

I can hear the questions now-“I know my story idea, why are you asking that kind of a question in a post about fleshing out a story?”

It’s simple. If you don’t know what’s important in your story, how are you going to know where to focus? Consider all the directions your story could go. (Let’s take a simple boy meets girl story, but feel free to adapt the question for your own particular story.)

Directions you could go with boy meets girl story (abridged)

Boy is hired to kill girl, but falls in love.(or the reverse)

Girl meets boy who tries to save her life.

Boy meets girl and falls in love with her brother

Girl meets boy and helps him discover his true calling as a pop star in a boy band.

Boy meets girl and takes her on an adventure in time and space.

(You get the idea hopefully)

Those are all directions you could go with just one simple idea so you can see why it’s important to know what you are trying to accomplish. You have a month, so there isn’t time to play around with ideas.

Here are some questions to help you get a grasp of what is important in your story

What goal are your main characters trying to accomplish in this story?

What are the obstacles?

What are some ideas you have that aren’t really important in this particular story?

Let do some weeding

Now that you have a clearer idea of what your story is about, it is time to get rid of the clutter. Sure there are some great ideas in that clutter, but now is the time to find them, put them on your list of great ideas, and save them for later.

You are going to need some side plots and maybe some “filler” but no matter what you put in your story, it should add to the whole of the story and move the plot forward. If it doesn’t, it should probably get out of your story.

Let’s add some stuff

Now that you have whittled your story down to the essence, it’s time to figure out what you need to add to your story. Here are some questions to help you with that process:

Who are your characters going to be by the end of the story?

What do your characters need to do/accomplish in order to be where they need to be by then?

What minor characters do you need in your story?

Where does your story need to end? (location)

How are your characters going to get there?

Hopefully that gives you some ideas on how to flesh out your story. November and National Novel Writing Month are quickly approaching so get ready. If you have more questions, let us know.

I've been trying to write a Deaf character but my dialogue is coming out kind of ... flat. Should I use "said" or "signed" when I'm attributing the dialogue to the Deaf character? How do you even describe someone's tone if they're not speaking? Do hands even have a tone? Help????

Hey anon! So, let’s go over some tips for writing Deaf and Hard of Hearing characters, shall we?

Said or Signed?

Either! “Said” is one of those words that readers don’t even notice, which is a good thing. You know when you’re reading and everything is “moaned Kate” “uttered Chance” “grumbled Lacie”? That’s annoying, and every writing blog will telly you to use those words sparingly. “Said” is just from the verb “to say,” which doesn’t specify whether you’re speaking or signing. Using “signed” can be really useful, especially when you have hearing characters along with the Deaf character. A hearing character may sign something when the Deaf person is in the room, but speak something when they leave, or the Deaf character may use spoken language primarily but sometimes sign. Don’t overuse “signed” though, because that can be just as distracting as “grumbled.” If your Deaf character is signing, you can just say “Alex said.”

ASL Tone

Yes, inflection and tone do exist in ASL! I love it so much it’s so awesome ok here we go.

Facial expressions are used for grammar in ASL for some signs, but are also used for tone. You can easily tell if someone’s angry by their facial expressions, and Deaf people are no exception.

Also, you’ll DEAFinitely (I’m so hilarious) be able to tell someone’s tone by their hand movements. I knew it was possible to yell in ASL, but I didn’t really know how until I was talking about an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with my ASL professor, and it went somewhat like this.

Me: Remember last class, when you told us about that Grey’s Anatomy episode with Deaf characters?

Shannon: Yeah, that was such a good episode! Did you watch it?

Me: I did, it was so good!

Shannon: IT WAS SO GOOD I WAS SO EXCITED APRIL PAYS SO MUCH ATTENTION TO WHAT THE DEAF COMMUNITY ACTUALLY WANTS AND JACKSON IS A JERK

Shannon really yelled, and there was no question about it. Her face absolutely lit up, eyes wide, beaming smile about to crack her face in half, and she actually leaned into her signing with her whole body. When she was praising April, she leaned forward. During the transition to her next point, she sort of returned to leaning back normally. When judging Jackson, she leaned forward again on the word “jerk.” Her signing was still very legible but it was forceful, flowing very smooth and fast. The stress was really put on “pays attention” because that was praise and it was very important, and she really snapped the sign “jerk” and gave it a negative, sharp tone. 

In short: yes, signers do very much have tones and inflections – they’re just not communicated via voice. Actually, sometimes they are; my Deaf camp counselor vocalized some signs when she got really excited (which was all the time). She didn’t speak, but she did vocalize a bit.

Writing ASL Grammar

Please please please do not write in ASL gloss!!!!!!!! ASL gloss, if you don’t know, is pretty much a written English form of ASL. If I was to sign “I went to the store yesterday,” the gloss version would be YESTERDAY STORE I GO. That is not something you’re going to want your readers to sift through, as it is neither English nor ASL anymore. It’s jarring to read. Don’t use the grammar of ASL while you’re writing in English. Also, because ASL has expressions that English does not, people may get confused (I highly doubt a non-signer would understand when a Deaf character gets in a sticky situation and the dialog reads “DO-DO-DO”).

Writing A Non-Signer/Beginning Signer

If you’ve got a character who is hearing/raised orally/LDA (Late Deafened Adult) or for whatever other reason is learning ASL later in life and is trying to use it, they’re probably going to get a little stuck. It happens! But how do you write that?

The answer is still not to gloss it. You can use other tips and tricks to make the reader understand that this character is grasping for the right word or expression, or just has completely blanked out! Just remember not to overuse ellipses.

Writing Deaf Characters Interacting

Really, if you’re writing any Deaf/HoH character, it’s important that you are knowledgeable about Deaf culture, mannerisms, etc. Deaf culture is very different from hearing culture. For instance, Deaf people share a lot more information than hearing people do. If a hearing person is late to a meeting, they’ll just say “Sorry I’m late, car trouble.” A Deaf person will say “Sorry I’m late, my car made this weird knocking feeling and then totally died on the highway! I had to call Triple A – what a hassle with VRS, right? – and it took an hour for them to come!”

Another example is my relationship with one of my Deaf professors. Most hearing student/professor relationships are very professional with not a lot of (if any) friend elements. Our relationship is very professional, but she emails me links to articles she thinks I might like, rec’d me a movie about a transgender porn star, and told the entire class the story of her first period. Information sharing is very important in Deaf culture, and conversations within that culture will look different than similar conversations between members of hearing culture.

Also, be sure you’re not having Deaf characters facing away from each other when they’re chatting, or in different rooms. With hearing characters, they can chat while doing the dishes or shout from upstairs to someone downstairs. Deaf characters can still do the dishes and sign at the same time, but it just has different dynamics. Like hearing people can talk with their mouth full, it’s possible to multitask with hand use. Just remember what your characters are up to when it’s time for dialog; if someone’s still in the bathroom with the door shut, now is not the time to ask him where he wants to go to dinner tonight. 

All in all, just remember that Deaf people have the same conversations hearing people do – we still talk about how shitty our jobs are and how hot it is outside. We just sign about it. And just like two hearing people are going to have difficulty having a spoken conversation from across a football field, two Deaf characters are going to have difficulty having a signed conversation if someone’s glasses are off or if someone’s juggling their coworkers’ coffees in one hand while fishing for their car keys in the other.

Writing: The Villain

In most stories, there is a tangible villain that works at every opportunity to stop your hero from reaching their goal. They are oftentimes the epitome of evil and hatred, depending on how extremely their villainy runs. In many ways, they are almost as important as the main character, so here are some tips on developing them well.

Villains should be handled with the same deep thought as heroes.

Just because they’re the villain doesn’t mean they aren’t a very major character, and complex characters are always more favorable than simple, boring characters. Develop their appearance and personality in detail. Formulate a backstory. Understand the motivations behind what they do, and let their actions reflect their internal desires.

Find ways to make your villain stand out from other villains.

Most villains are maniacal. They are almost all willing to do terrible things in order to get what they want. A lot of villains are related to their character in some way, and sometimes this relationship is revealed in a plot twist. These are all well and good, but trying to make these ideas seem fresh and interesting is difficult nowadays. Play with your ideas and tweak these tropes, or maybe even disregard them all together. Do what you can to make your villain not sound like another Voldemort or Darth Vader. (Reading your work and/or having others read your work is a good way to see if your villain (and other characters, too) are interesting and unique enough.)

Consider that your villain is (probably) still human.

Even if they aren’t human in the technical sense, they probably still have human emotions. Give your character depth by exploring their sense of morality and where they came from. Why do they think what they’re doing is acceptable. Do they think it’s acceptable? What happened that lead them up to this point of villainy?

Explore your villain’s relationship with the other characters.

Are they closely connected with your hero and the hero’s friends? Are they in no way related? What did the good characters do to get on the villain’s bad side? How deep does your villain’s anger or hatred for your hero run? Do they hate them at all, or are they doing what they’re doing for another reason? Are the things that your villain is doing a direct result of the hero’s actions, or was there another cause?

Decide what the end result of the villain’s actions will be.

You have one of two very basic routes this can take: your villain can either defeat or be defeated by the hero. The hero also has one of two routes (if they defeat the villain): they can defeat them by force and kill/imprison/etc. them, or they can “convert” them to the good side. How will this decision affect your villain? How will it affect the overall story? How will it affect the other characters? What will the long-term effects be?

Their motivations must be believable.

Too often the villain comes off as cheesy or unsatisfying because there doesn’t seem to be a good reason for them to be acting against the main character. Their actions and motivations should be just as definitive and interesting as any other character’s. Try to avoid falling into the trap of “sworn revenge” for no good reason–or, even worse, copping out by saying the villain is “just crazy”.

Sketches 🕊️ °˖➴

Not all consequences in storytelling must be negative

A consequence is simply something that happens because of an action or event.

So long as an action or event means something within the story, then there is no reason a consequence can’t be something good for your characters. As much as it can be tempting, we don't always need to torture them.

She’s glad that Rosa was there to help her😌