Rewrite Your Novel as a Short Story

by Tim Kane

I’ll admit, I’m stealing this idea from io9. But, it’s a damn cool idea that I plan to try out. First, backtrack. Say you have a finished draft of a novel. In my case, it’s after the thrill ride of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

I have draft of the story, but it’s rough with more than a few typos. Rather than dive right into revisions, I plan to rewrite the whole thing as a short story. Yes. That does sound like a lot of work. So why toil away?

Story arc.

I know that just because I have a 50,000 words, doesn’t mean I have coherent story. If I can successfully condense this into, say, a 5000 word story, then I could get to the meat of the narrative.

The trick is to not look back at the original. Then, I’d be tempted to simply revise that. If I forget a scene or two, then those must not have been that pivotal. Maybe I’ll need to invent some new material. Excellent. Then I could add it the manuscript.

Best of all, I’ll discover if the whole concept actually works, of if I need to go to square one. So if you’re looking for a fresh perspective on your writing, think of going small.

Set the Scene

by Tim Kane

Whether you’re writing with abandon or carefully plotting each moment of your novel, setting is crucial to the unfolding action. Your characters can’t simply act out their drama in a white room. Here are some tips to upping the ante on setting.

Get Ridiculous
What’s the strangest place you could set the scene? Under a waterfall. Funeral home? Candy factory? Imagine you’re writing an episode of Scooby Doo, they always set their action in bizarre locales.

Tie the Setting into the Action
Where would make the most sense to have the next setting, but still be a surprise for the reader. Think of a setting you used earlier in the novel, one that might have been a throwaway at the time. Revisiting this scene will add more depth to it. Think of yourself as a TV director with only a limited budget for sets. You’ll to reuse a few, so make them work.

Match Scenes to Characters
Have a character that loves learning, set the scene at a school or classroom. An outdoorsy type, set the scene on a mountain trail or a surf spot. Or, you can flip it on your characters. Make them uncomfortable by setting the scene where they would not want to be. This, in itself, will create tension. Maybe your character hates kids. Then you put him in a Chucky Cheese or McDonalds play area.

Imbue the Scene with Symbolism
The setting can be a character too. It can foreshadow upcoming events. Even provide hints to future plot points. Get creative. When you think about upcoming scenes, what flashes to mind? Usually this will be a mood or a feeling. Create a scene that matches that mood and you’ll propel readers through the story.

Where ever you set the action, make it interesting.

Nail Your Pacing by Manipulating Time

by Tim Kane

I never understood pacing until I had to teach it to students. For me it was always something I recognized in its absence. When the pacing is bad on a novel, it puts you to sleep. But how to define it?

Time manipulation. Specifically collapsing time and blowing it up. For an amazing example, check out “How to Eat a Guava” by Esmeralda Santiago. This really shows how time can be expanded to fill pages, but only second transpire in real time.

The best way to explain pacing is to think of the events of a day taped along the length of a slinky.

1. Wake up
2. Breakfast
3. Drive to work
4. Answer emails
5. Argue with coworker
6. Lunch
7. Meeting
8. Drive home
9. Dinner
10. Sleep

These are all in sequential order, but it’s a snooze. The exciting moment, the argument, is mired so deep in triviality, that a reader would be comatose before reaching it.

Now, if you consider these events attached to a slinky, you can contract certain events. Instead of slogging through events 1 through 4, collapse them into a few sentences of narration. Or, better yet, employ a jump cut and simply skip over the boring bits.

Now we get to the interesting problem. Just like a slinky, if you contract one section, you expand another. This is the argument. But to make it truly work, it needs to be injected with emotion. Simply relating how the argument went down, in some dry fashion, makes the reader think he’s viewing a scientific report. The protagonist must feel something vital about this incident to warrant it’s attention.

Writers can manipulate time to serve their needs. Collapse the bits that are trivial and blow up, or expand, on the moments that matter. Your story is your slinky. Play with it.

Read Like a Reader, Write Like a Writer

by Tim Kane

I recently needed to read through my entire manuscript one last time, yet I needed to see the text as a reader, not a writing. It seems weird to say, but there is a difference. When I read someone else’s book, I don’t edit as I go. Even my own stories, once published, my mind tends to leave alone. However, when I view my writing in the word processor, I just can’t resist the urge to keep tweaking.

The trick is perspective. For one edit-read I printed out the whole thing, sat on the couch, and poured over it. Trouble is, I don’t have time for that approach. My solution, PDF. I emailed to my iPad, but you could do the same with a Nook or Kindle. The goal is to place the story in a format that I associate with reading (not writing). And it works.

It’s scary how the mind works. In order to make any changes to typos and such, I read the PDF, but still have the laptop handy. That way I can quickly make the change and get back to reading. Midway through this process I thought, “Man, this is a waste of time. I should just read from the computer.” Nope. The instant I started to read from the word processor, my perspective on the text changed. I could feel that switch in my brain flipping. It even happens when I turn my iPad sideways and make the text feel more like my laptop.

No, to get the reading feeling right, it must look and feel like a printed and published story.

Next time you need to view your work as a reader, consider these tricks.

Pesky Pronouns

by Tim Kane

Recently, I set to work editing down the pronouns in my manuscript. No short order. In the process of weeding them out, I sliced away 4000 words. Yet even then, I wasn’t done. Passing the book onto a freelance editor, he found ways to even further minimize the impact of repetitive he’s and she’s. What follows is a list of some situations that I found cropping up over and over.

Join Multiple Sentences
Starting every sentence with a pronoun or the character name is not only repetitive, it’s poor writing. Combine sentences to decrease the pronouns and keep the flow going.

• Instead of “He _____. He ______. He ____.” Try “He ______, ______, and ______.

Use Subordinating Conjunctions
Grammar is your friend. Honestly. Make a list of a few useful subordinating conjunctions and memorize how to use them.

• Instead of “_____ as he _____.” Try “______ while _____.”

Avoid Extra Description
There are times when the situation is so obvious, you can do away with the extra language. Look at these examples.

• “He nodded his head,” becomes, “He nodded.”
• “She shrugged her shoulders,” becomes, “She shrugged.”
• “He held it in his hand,” becomes, “He held it.”

Think about it, what else are you going to use to hold something, your foot? We’re not chimps. Likewise, you can only nod your head or have a smile on your face. Thinking only takes place in your head and tears only come from people’s eyes. Cut unnecessary description whenever possible.

Use Gerunds
Gerunds are those “ing” words that act like verbs or nouns. No need to go crazy memorizing the grammar on this one, just get a feel for what works.

• “Muscles tightening along her neck,” becomes, “Neck muscles tightening.”

Cut the Obvious
You know the situation in your story better than anyone. If you’re penning the next War and Peace with twenty some odd characters in each scene, there may not be much you can do about repeating names. However, most of use only have two or three people on stage at any given moment. The reader is smart. She can figure out what’s going on, so you don’t need to remind her of the obvious.

• “He passed the book over to her,” becomes, “He passed the book over.”
• “She took the money from him,” becomes, “She took the money.”

If it’s obvious who the action is affecting, then do away with the extra “to him” or “from her.”

Delete Most Dialogue Tags
These things are insidious. They breed faster than fleas. Again, this goes along with the obvious. If there are only two people in the scene, most readers will be able to tell who’s who. Especially if you’ve done your job as a writer and given each speaker a distinct voice.

Now, don’t try and think about all these while you’re writing. You’ll end up frustrated with a blank page. Save these tips for editing, after the fact.

Indulge Yourself to Boost Writer Morale

by Tim Kane

Writing is a tough business. Mostly because it’s one of the few where you toil away for one to twenty years without a paycheck. That makes pulling up a chair and typing night after night daunting. There are so many reasons to quit.

Willpower is in fact not infinite in you body. Check out this study involving college students and cookies. Turns out, people are more likely to maintain their willpower if they can indulge a little bit. Say, by taking some snacks and your favorite drink with you to the writing desk. Me, I go for for dark chocolate and coffee. The caffeine keeps me from dozing off, and the chocolate is a tiny treat. I nibble a bit when I get stuck.

Additionally, try to make the decisions you make just before writing low stress. If you need to veg a bit and watch a guilty pleasure on the television (for me it’s Chopped), then go ahead. Letting your brain off the hook preserves willpower. And trust me, you’ll need every ounce when you face that blank page.

One warning, don’t let indulgence be an excuse for non-productive snacking or procrastination. I’m not advising laying on your couch eating bon-bons. Some actual writing has to be involved here.

Literary Agents Are Gamblers

by Tim Kane

Let me state from the start, I am not now, nor will I become an agent. That’s a hard job all the way around. However, I know and have worked with a few over the years. On piece of advice that actually came from a Hollywood agent (who repped actors) always stuck with me: Agents are gamblers.

Think about it. When an agent signs on an author (or actor), the agent will spend hours developing the manuscript and then shopping it around. Every phone call, email, critique or marketing plan is unpaid. Let’s remind ourselves, agents have bills to pay. Unlike most writers, agenting is their only job and livelihood. When they take on a new client, they take on risk.

Just like a Las Vegas high roller sitting at the blackjack table for hours, literary agents pray for the big return. Yes, we know most agents were drawn to the field for love of books and the writing process, but love will only sustain you for so long. Eventually, when the electricity bill goes from white, to yellow, to pink, the bills need to be paid.

Agents need to be good at two things, selling writers and spotting talent. Its the second one that most writers don’t consider. They are basically a talent scout and you (the writer) are a minor league ball player strutting your stuff. If you get signed, it means you have partner in crime. However, for the agent, you are the gamble. The roll of the dice. The two card deal with fingers crossed for twenty-one.

Let’s hope lady luck is with us.