Do you remember that show? Did you ever watch it? It got to be addicting, sort of like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and all the rest.
I think the concept was genius though, and so true - a group really is only as strong as their weakest link. Sports teams, game-show contestants, politics, school competitions, whatever.
And the same is true in our writing.
Your book is only as strong as its weakest link.
You might be a rock-star when it comes to plotting high stakes, but you might falter with internal conflict. You might be a natural at writing beautiful descriptive scenes, but can't write dialogue to save your life. Maybe you're great at showing instead of telling, but you struggle with pacing.
See what I mean?
What do you need to brush up on in your craft? What topic of development or craft have you been avoiding because you just don't want to even deal with it? What can you do to enhance that element of your writing and make your writing stronger - make that link unbreakable?
Here's some suggestions:
1. Read books in your genre (see how the pubbed authors you really enjoy handle that craft element!)
2. Attend conferences, courses, mini-conferences, online conferences, or workshops offered on the subject
3. Read nonfiction craft books on writing (Susan May Warren and Rachel Hauck of My Book Therapy have two, Deep and Wide and From the Inside Out. There's also Stein on Writing and James Scott Bell's Plot & Structure, and Donald Maas Writing 21st Century Fiction, to name a FEW!)
4. Get critique partners to help you identify your weaknesses and brainstorm ideas of how to strengthen them.
5. Do exercises like writing prompts that focus on those weaknesses.
6. Read awesome helpful blogs like SCRIBBLE CHICKS to glean even more insight ;)
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I used to watch that show just to hear that lady say that line. Lol. I'm definitely the type of person who can write a great descriptive scene, but falls short moments later when it comes to dialogue.
ReplyDeleteAnother AMAZING writing book is "A Novel Idea." Basically, a bunch of Christian Authors (Robin Jones Gunn, Tamera Alexander, Karen Kingsbury, Jerry B. Jenkins... all the "greats." It covers everything from plotting to publicity. I'd probably for without it... or at least my characters would. :)
Oh yes! A bunch of ACFW'rs were in that one. Thanks for the reminder!!
ReplyDeleteRight now, I think my weakness is in characters. I need to work on deepening them. And staying motivated to write, ever since I started taking an art class I'm really tempted to draw when I should be writing.
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