A Guide to Slashing Word Count

A while back, I posted a compilation of advice that I’d received from other writers before trying to cut down my 120,000 word YA fantasy manuscript. Six months later, it’s at 100,000 – a far more acceptable number. It was a brutal task, but a necessary one and I’m here to share the key strategies that helped me cut the big chunks:

• Cut Characters – Big cast? Remove subplot-only bois and mains who either don’t influence the plot or whose role could be carried out by another.
• Cut Scenes – If they don’t directly advance the plot, cut completely. If they serve some purpose, try merging scenes to reduce intro/outro/location content. One long scene is shorter than two short scenes.
• Reduce Locations – Within a chapter, visit as few locations as possible to avoid extra descriptions. This is also relevant across the book, as you won’t need to go into detail about a location more than once.
• Cut Pre Scene and Post Scene – This can either be by starting the scene later (getting straight to the point) and ending it earlier or condensing the pre and post scene content. As a rule of thumb, a pre-scene should be 500 max.
• Have Clear Motivations – If your characters’ motivations are too complex, explaining/showing them will take up too much space. Nuance can grow over time.
• Get to the Heart of Your Story – Carrying on from the last point, maybe try writing a pitch and synopsis so that you better understand what’s at the heart of your story, that way you can whittle down anything outside of that with the brutality needed for reducing word count.

Now, go forth and kill your darlings!

Then come back for part 2 where I’ll be talking about the line-level (micro) cuts that really do add up!

Tips for New Writers

After some time off to finish uni and recover, the writing tips are back! I had some requests for this post so whether you’re new to writing or looking to start, here are my top tips.

1. Start a Passion Project

If you’re hung up over your first story getting published, you’ll start to hate it. Your first project should be something you love enough to finish it for you. I honestly recommend fanfiction as it’s a great way to get early feedback and become used to critique, but an own story is just as good as long as you join a critique group.

2. Join a Writing Community

Whether that’s on Instagram, Tumblr, a real-life society, or somewhere else entirely, there are many reasons to join the writer’s community with a platform of your own. It’s the best way to find Critique Partners (CPs), Beta Readers, as well as a wealth of tips that will improve your writing.

3. Explore Planning Methods

You’ll need to use trial and error to decide what works best for you. Try fully outlining, diving straight in, Beat Sheets, Flash Cards, Ten Steps Ahead, or even just making lists of what you want to show. One will work for you, but it’s different for everyone.

4.Write

Write as often as you can. Nothing makes writing stronger than practice. It doesn’t have to be “good” or neat or pretty, but words should go on the page. Don’t let your insecurities keep you from filling that blank page.

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Looking to develop your villain further? Trying to build a villain for the first time?  Look no further for here is a simple guide to building a fearsome villain for your story. Disclaimer: I’m a fantasy writer, this will be fantasy based. 

Step 1: Choose a Motivation

While this can be anything, some common motivations are: Power, Legacy, Revenge, Respect, Protectionism, Hate, Love, Indifference, Drive for Utopia, and Infliction of Pain. Now you might be thinking I can understand why the last one is villainous, but some of the others seem okay! Remember, a villains motivations should be understandable, and their goals can be noble, but it is the means that make them “bad.”

Step 2: Decide if They Really are “Bad” 

Despite my previous statement, some villains are just trying to achieve noble goals by noble means. This is actually a really good way to get your audience thinking about your theme if it ties in well. The flipside of this is my personal favourite – make the heroes bad too. 

Step 3: Design Their Personality 

There are a few traits you’ll want to consider in particular and in the extremes. Make sure to chose the side that your hero will struggle with more. Villains should be handcrafted challengers, designed to ruin your hero. 

• Intelligence vs Stupidity - A villain who can scheme intricate plots is terrifying, but extreme stupidity leads to recklessness and unpredictability, good for control freak heroes. 
• Short Temper vs Controlled Emotions - Short tempered villains are a threat to anyone close to them, while those that can control their emotions can be highly manipulative. 
• Calculated vs Irrational - This again leans into the trade off between the unbeatable factor and the unpredictability factor. Both are equally fearsome.
• Charismatic vs Black Seep – Why do their followers believe in them? Is it because they can talk the hind legs off a donkey or was your villain an outcast come to take their revenge. 

Don’t underestimate the stupid, short tempered, irrational black sheep. They often have intelligent advisors pulling their strings while their stupidity causes chaos like no other. 

Step 4: Ask Yourself Why? 

Not just Why did my villain set out on this path? orWhy don’t they see the harm they’re causing? but also Why have I reached the end of a post specifically using ‘they’ pronouns and imagine a white man with black hair and dark eyes? Because many of you will have done just that, particularly for the intelligent, manipulative villain with more power than you could ever imagine. Ask yourself why intelligent, charismatic villains with goals outside of revenge and love need always be a man. Some villains are just heroes who don’t understood the cost of their actions. Ask yourself why they shouldn’t be diverse and stereotypical caricatures. 

This post is quite long enough. I reckon I’ll do a part 2 if you guys like it :) 

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We’ve all been there. Some people have it all the time. Some say it doesn’t exist. I class writer’s block as anything from lack of motivation to not being able to solve a plot problem. Whatever it is, here’s a list of activities to try and get those creative rivers running. 

1. Move. Pick up your laptop and go to a different room. They say a change is as good as a rest and this can be true with writing. Move to the kitchen. Write outside. Go to a coffee shop. Sit in the cupboard under the stairs and block out the world. Just change up the scenery. 
2. Swap Medium. If words just aren’t doing it for you make aesthetics, mood boards, draw maps or characters. Victoria Aveyard once said she designed book covers and let the plot stew in the back of her mind. 
3. Write Something Else. Working on other projects can give you inspiration for what you’re working on now. Find some prompts. Write irrelevant short stories or character studies. Write about your characters as kids or at defining points in their lives. 
4. Plot. Hands off the keyboard, open up one of those many unused notebooks I know you have and start scribbling vague, half formed ideas. Allow yourself to write things you might discard later. Allow yourself to try and work through an idea you like but don’t understand yet. Try and work out the next 10 steps. 10 things you want to cover. 10 scenes. 10 days. Whatever it is, just write it down. 
5. 20 Minutes Rule. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Sit your butt down in that chair and write for 20 minutes. I don’t care if it’s trash. I don’t care if you’re going to delete it all later. I don’t care if it’s nonsense. Do it. 20 minutes of writing nonsense is still more productive than 20 minutes staring at that wall. After 20 minutes if you still don’t want to write, leave it, but you just might find yourself inspired. 
6. Finally, Take Time Off. If none of this is working, it’s likely a sign of burn out. Take some time for yourself and just do nothing. “Write every single day,” yeah sure if you wont to be a machine who pumps out words instead of art. Sometimes you need to recharge before you move forward and that doesn’t just mean getting a good nights sleep. Look after yourself and be kind. This isn’t a race against the clock, you have your whole life to publish a book. 

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10 Factors of Healthy Relationships

If you’re familiar with my account, you’ll know I talk a lot about toxic relationships in literature, but what, on the flipside, constitutes a healthy relationship? 

1. Trust- If A says they’re going to hang out with friends, B should not be ‘checking up on them’ or demanding texts while they’re away. Jealousy isn’t cute. 
2. Honesty - But, of course, trust needs to be earned. This is with honesty. Lying to protect someone is still lying and that is not a good foundation for a loving relationship. 
3. Independence - In a healthy relationship, both parties have the freedom to do things on their own. Co-dependent situations, even ones built on love, are not healthy.
4. Respect- “I won’t let you do that” –> “I respect you and trust your judgement.”  Even if A doesn’t like B’s decision, they should have enough respect for one another to discuss the decision until both parties understand one another. 
5. Communication- If you want to discuss decisions you’re going to need good communication. Arguments don’t need to be screamed in a “passionate rage” for things to be said with emotion and heart. Yes people get emotional, but that is not the time to discuss important things. 
6. Equality - Power imbalances can lead to toxicity. If both parties have mutual respect and understanding for one another, this can be avoided, but the 200 year old immortal x the 18 year old girl is a little weird don’t you think? What’s next, 90 year old mortals and 15 year old boy? 
7. Empathy - When arguing, both A and B should be able to empathise with the other. If that means A shelving their agenda so that you can hear B out and then deal with their side later, that’s a healthy approach. 
8. Taking Accountability - Even people in healthy relationships do unhealthy things sometimes. What matters is they take responsibility for it and give meaningful apologies, not grad gifts when they already have a billion dollar trust find. 
9. Comfort- Both A and B should feel comfortable around each other. When they’re reunited after a long day or time apart, they will feel at ease by being around one another, not on edge and fearing an argument. 
10. Fun - Healthy relationships are fun! A&B will have so many in jokes that end in laughing fits. They have things that they love to do together, things that they both love to do. Not A forcing B to watch the notebook on repeat. 

So there you have it, 10 things that make a relationship healthy.

Links to my posts on toxic relationships are below: 

• Romance with Toxic Undertones
• Stop Romanticising Toxic Relationship Red Flags #1
• Stop Romanticising Toxic Relationship Red Flags #2

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Slashing Your Word Count

A guide for over-writers. 

So there I was, sitting in front of my 120,000 word YA Fantasy manuscript having a breakdown. Why? you ask. Well, because I want to be traditionally published and no one will buy a YA debut that long. 

Why not? This answer would a post on its own. Or a 24 minute video. Luckily Alexa Donne has already done that work and you can watch it here. 

Now I’m going to summarise all the advice I was given that had lead to me doing a brutally cut down draft in two sections, the big cuts, macro level, and the small cuts, micro level. 

Micro Level Cuts

1. Reduce each description by 1 or 2 words - @coffee_loving_artist
2. Reduce dialogue. Single spoken words can carry more emotional weight than elongated lines. 
3. Cut down on dialogue and action tags. If it’s clear who is speaking, don’t use anything! - @parisandherbooks
4. Cut repeated sentences. It’s not as dramatic as you think it is. 
5. Simplify convoluted sentences - @jade_d_brown
6. Cut words like very, quite, sort of, kind of, it was, there was, that, now, then, suddenly and any crutch words you have - @just.a_simple_writer
7. Change passive language - @laurenkayzles

Macro Level Cuts

1. Chop off the beginning and the end of long scenes. 
2. Cut info dumps
3. Never get lost in internal monologue. Keep it to a small para at most. 
4. Cut fluff scenes - @teen_writing_101 & @cakeyboy 
5. It doesn’t take 1000 words to make a small point – condense it!!
6. Cut unnecessary dialogue or chit chat 
7. Merge scenes that feel repetitive 
8. Cut the prologue 
9. Cut the epilogue 
10. (Remember that those can go back in after your book has been bought) 
11. If you’re desperate, delete a POV - @thewritingfirebird
12. Ask your Beta’s which subplots/characters could go - @howwhyandsowhat 

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If your fantasy world has historical connotations then having a grasp on historical fashion is really important. Talking about clothes can add layers of depth to your world, like the keftas in Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. In this post, I will mostly be focusing on historical fashion from Europe as this is what I know most about. 

Class Hierarchy

If you want to show class and wealth differences, fashion can be key to doing so. However, this isn’t in the same way as we would see in modern times unless your world has the capacity for fast fashion. Being rich didn’t mean you had a closet the size of a barn with lots of floofy fabrics like in Bridgerton, it meant having a few garments in the latest fashion that you wore frequently. The less wealthy you were the more out of fashion your gowns or coats would be, however, gowns would often be altered where possible to fit the new style. 

The poor would still wear imitations of high fashion, but in simpler ways with simpler fabrics. Second hand or homemade was the norm. Contrary to popular belief, being poor didn’t mean ceased to care about fashion and well get onto why later. 

Regional Fashion 

Just because something was the height of fashion in Moscow, doesn’t mean it was the heigh of fashioning Paris. On a smaller scale, fashions would take time to reach rural area’s and smaller cities, so fashion would differ from region to region within a country. If you want your world to feel vast, including differences in clothing preference from country to country and region to region could really help with this. Other characters can then identify more about a new character just by looking at them.

The Importance of Fashion 

Historically, fashion held a much greater significance than it does today. This is because of what fashion meant in society. Through most of history in Europe, there have been very strict social rules that everyone had to abide by. Dressing in line with the fashion was a way of showing that you were in line with these social rules. This meant being fashionable wasn’t about setting trends and breaking out of the norm, it was about keeping to the norm as much as possible. Breaking out from the confirmative fashion could risk your place in society, affecting your relationships, marriage prospects and ultimately your livelihood.

Of course there were people who took risks that paid off and subsequently moved fashion onward, but fashion moved at a much slower pace due to the amount of time and expense required to make completely new garments and so these were relatively small changes.

Hope this was helpful!

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Master List of 60 Character Flaws

1. Absent-Minded
2. Aimless
3. Arrogant
4. Bigoted
5. Blunt
6. Bold
7. Callous
8. Compulsive Liar
9. Cruel
10. Dependent
11. Disloyal
12. Easily Impressionable
13. Emotionally Detached
14. Envious
15. Fickle
16. Greedy
17. Gullible
18. Humourless
19. Ignorant
20. Immature
21. Impatient
22. Indecisive
23. Intolerant
24. Lazy
25. Manipulative
26. Meddlesome
27. Melodramatic
28. Nervous
29. Nosey
30. Obsessive
31. Overambitious
32. Overprotective
33. Pacifism
34. Paranoid
35. Perfectionist*
36. Pessimistic
37. Predictable
38. Prejudiced
39. Prideful
40. Rebellious
41. Reckless
42. Remorseless
43. Sceptic
44. Selfish*
45. Shallow
46. Short temperament
47. Smart-arse
48. Soft-hearted
49. Solemn
50. Spineless
51. Stubborn*
52. Stupid
53. Superstitious
54. Tactless
55. Temperamental
56. Troublemaker
57. Unambitious
58. Vain
59. Weak-willed
60. Withdrawn

* these are frequently overused so if you want them to apply to your character, make sure they have more than one flaw!

However the most important thing about a character flaw is that it MUST work against their goal and they MUST make mistakes because of it. 

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If you’ve been in the writing community for more than five minutes you’ll have heard someone mention beta readers. Beta reader is an umbrella term for people who read your book before publication but are not your agent, editor and publisher. However there are also subgroups of beta readers and it can all get very confusing, so here the low down. 

• Critique Partner (CP) - A CP is another writer at a similar skill level or stage in their writing career to yourself. This is a mutual arrangement where writing and constructive criticism are exchanged on a regular basis. Some writers give a CP each chapter right after its written, but some just send each other first drafts. 
• Alpha Reader - Once you’ve got your CP’s seal of approval, you might be in need of someone to hype you up and make you feel excited about your achievement. This is when you give your writing to a small number of close friends or family (5 max) to read and get feedback on. They probably won’t be too harsh, but that’s what you need at this stage. 
• First Readers - Sometimes used as a synonym for alpha readers, sometimes used to mean beta readers, and sometimes used to mean both. Watch out for this one. 
• Beta Readers - While also being an umbrella term, more specifically beta readers are a small group of people who read your manuscript and provide feedback that will allow you to polish it. Preferably, these are readers who do not have a personal connection to you. While writers are okay too, they might not give you the readers perspective you need. People often do a few rounds of beta reads to ensure they are never overwhelmed with feedback. 
• Advance Readers - You may have also heard the term Advance Reader Copy (ARC) thrown around. Advance readers receive a free e-book or paperback of the manuscript before publication, but after it has been sold to a publisher. Advance readers receive these in exchange for an honest review that publishers hope will be good marketing material. Some things can be changed from ARC’s to published books, but it’s usually very minor. 

And there it is, the five kinds of beta readers. I hope this makes things less confusing and if you’ve heard of any other kinds feel free to explain them below!

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Organic and Natural Characters

We all hate reading characters who feel forced and unnatural, but what can we do to write characters that don’t fall into the trap of acting in line with the plot rather than in an organic way?

The truth is, there is no one way to write natural characters. I did a lot of drama and acting growing up and I find that helps me get into the characters’ heads, but there are many other ways to improve the autonomy of our characters. It’s important to note that this does not just apply to main characters, but to all of your side characters, villains and antagonists as well.

1. Take a Personality Test as Your Character. Taking the 16 personalities test as each of your characters can help you understand how they would react in different situations as it gives a detailed report in how each personality type handles everything from work to romantic relationships. 
2. Give Them a Backstory. For every character, it’s helpful to know how and where they were brought up, what lead them to be part of this book and what their history is with the main character (if they have one). This helps create a character that makes their own decisions, not just ones that benefit the plot, and this makes them feel more real. 
3. Give Them Motivations and Goals. Every character should have their own motivations that are greater than ‘because it’s what their best friend, the main character, wants’. If their motivations and goals differ slightly from the MC’s, all the better and all the more realistic! 
4. Make them flawed. Yes, every single one of your characters needs to be flawed and you should know what their exact flaw is so that you can accurately portray it. This flaw should cause problems for the characters and the plot and it should have a big impact on the story. 
5. Choose their sense of humour. The most vivid characters I’ve read are those with a sense of humour, be that dirty, dark or witty banter, characters who make jokes (even bad ones) are great fun and jump right off the page. 

Hope this helped and feel free to add below! 

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A Guide to Writer Lingo - Drafts

When I was new to the writing community I was confused about what to expect from each draft. When is draft 1complete? Where’s the line between draft 2, 3, 4+? How much editing goes into each one? Does each draft serve a different purpose? Now I’ve been here for a while and on my 3rd draft, I’m ready to answer those questions. 

There are no set rules on drafting.

Everyone’s drafting process is different. Some people move onto draft 2 before even writing an ending to draft 1. Some people like to do a draft 0. Some people call their outline draft 1. What I’m writing below is what I’ve seen to be the most common meanings.

• Beat Sheet - This is written before the outline and follows the Save the Cat! plot structure. It breaks the story down into key plot points, spread out across three acts. 
• Outline -  This can be a written document, a spreadsheet, revision cards on a wall, or not exist at all (shout out to the pansters). This is where the main plot is laid out from start to end, including subplots, and divided into chapters. 
• 0th Draft - Also called a dirty draft, some authors use this name to take the pressure off while drafting. If you struggle to accept that your first draft won’t be as good as you want it to be, it might be worth doing a messy 0th draft that no one but you will ever read. 
• 1st Draft - By the end of the first draft, a book should have every chapter written at least once. The wording might not be perfect, subplots might need consolidating, plot twists might need foreshadowing and clarity might be required on a number of things. Most people share their 1st draft with a critique partner, a first reader or an alpha reader, but personally, I like to ensure contingency in my 2nd draft and then share that.
• 2nd, 3rd, 4th+ Draft - This is where the waters get muddy because every writer does these very differently. I create a new draft every time I do a round of edits from start to finish, chronologically through my book. I also start a new draft on each round of beta reader feedback, but really there are no real rules about drafts 2+ and you can divide them as you see fit.

Which draft do I submit to agents/publishers? 

Again, there are no hard-set rules on this. It is advised that you do not submit your first draft. You should have completed at least one round of edits and have had a few beta readers before submitting to agents as they want clean manuscripts without plot holes, contingency issues, and grammar mistakes. 

I hope this has helped and feel free to add to this below as drafts are hugely subjective!

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Writing In-Between Scenes

Have you ever struggled writing that really quick, yet important conversation between characters? That in-between scene that feels boring because it’s just two character’s talking? Well, there’s actually a really easy fix. 

Keep your characters busy!

Have the conversation over a game of cards or during training. Have them go for a run or talk over dinner. Have them go shopping for ballgowns or dissect dragon entrails for potions class. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing, as long as they’re doing something. This adds depth to your writing, furthers the plot on all fronts and helps avoid White Wall Syndrome. 

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Now be honest with me, how many beautiful notebooks do you own? How many of them are empty right now? Yes, I know, you’re waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them. The perfect story. The time you won’t cross anything out. The time you won’t change a thing. Well that time won’t come and you’re wasting them. *Bops you on the head with a pretty notebook* 

The purpose of a writers journal is not to create artwork worthy of a museum, but to help your ideas flow. Sometimes when writing things down, you can even bounce ideas off yourself! It’s amazing! So stop holding back and give it a go. 

Here are my top tips on journaling: 

• Don’t worry about keeping it neat (as long as you can read it, it’s good)
• Use different notebooks for different things (Plotting, Research, World-building, History, Magic, Religion)
• Use headings so topics are easy to find
• 3am inspo? Write it down! No don’t get your phone out, you want to go to sleep after this. You can develop it in the morning. 
• SketchIf you’re struggling to visualise something in you WIP, sketch it even if you can’t draw. Remember, this is just for you.
• Solving plot holes? Use an idea dump. This is where you just vomit every idea you have to solve it onto the page and then work your way through each option. 
• Write ideas for made up names/words down. Stick every variation you’ve considered on the page and then you can try merging them or you can simply see which one looks best. Bonus points because you can look back on how you cam up with it. 

For editing journals specifically try:

• Make lists of things you still want to ‘show’
• Make lists of things you want to add
• Write down problems you find when reading through, then you get to cross them off when you solve them. 

I hope this was helpful. Leave any additions below!!!

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Who’s the Hero of Your Story?

One mistake new writers make (myself included) is not identifying a central protagonist or even selecting the wrong POV character. This problem is particularly prevalent in multi-POV manuscripts. 

Why do I need to select one central hero?

The simple answer is that the readers need a grounding point; a character who they can read a blurb about and begin rooting for before they even read the first page. 

When you’re trying to juggle more than one hero, you can lose your audience as it’ll take them a lot longer to become invested. It can also be difficult to drive home a theme and this can leave readers feeling unsatisfied. 

But how do I work out which of my main characters is the true hero?

I’m so glad you asked. Try answering these three questions:

1. Who has the most character development, overcoming their flaws? 
2. Who has the most agency? 
3. Who stands to lose the most when the stakes rise? 

If you still have more than one character in mind, maybe think about how that will impact your reader’s experience. As always, writing advice is subjective, but lets take a look at a few multi-POV examples.

Examples of Multi POV, Single Hero: 

• Serpent and Dove - Lou le Blanc
• Six of Crows - Kaz Brekker
• Game of Thrones Book 1 - Ned Stark 
• Eleanor and Park - Park
• Legend - Day 

Though we love hearing from other POV’s, at the end of the day we are still backing the hero. It’s fun to understand other points of view, but if you don’t focus on one character’s wants and needs then you dampen the conflict.

Hope this has helped! 

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Sounds silly doesn’t it? ‘Of course I understand my book’, I hear you say, I would have said the same before. You might be right, but here is a very simple exercise/test to ensure that you do:

One line summaries. 

Previously, these words invoked a feeling of dread in my soul but they don’t need to! It all changed once I started to follow this easy structure:

While struggling with their everyday life, Character finds the catalyst; BUT when the stakes rise they must learn the theme before the consequences ruin their life. 

Let’s take The Hunger Games for example: 

With her family on the brink of starvation, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen must leave them and take her sister’s place in the Hunger Games, an annual event where 24 teenagers fight to the death until only one survives; But when she is hunted by a pack of elite, highly trained tributes, she must learn who she can trust and form an alliancebefore they kill her and her family are left to rot.

Well damn, that sounds dramatic and enticing, but it also lays out our characters life, wants and challenges all in a single (albeit rather long) sentence. 

After writing my one line summary, I began to understand my plot in a much clearer light. I understand my theme, my focus and it allows me to ground my plot as I edit my manuscript. I only wish I’d known to do it before!

Whatever stage your at—drafting, editing, querying—I highly recommend you give this a try. Feel free to drop a one sentence summary of your WIP below as getting feedback is always really helpful! I’m there much could be done to improve the one line summary I’ve given above, so feel free to improve on that too. 

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Good beta readers are a life saver and you cannot convince me otherwise

Does anyone else just sit on their first draft because they’re too scared of it being bad to edit it?

And then when you’re editing it and realise it’s not that bad, but you become too scared that beta readers will hate it to send it to them?

And then when they read it and like it you’re just kinda in shock? 

Cos that’s my whole mood rn

This is perhaps one of my favourite writing topics. Personally, I always try to leave each chapter on a small cliffhanger. Something that makes the reader want to read on when it’s 1am and they know they should put the book down. To do this effectively you have to know the difference between cliffhangers that raise the stakes and cliffhangers for shock factor. 

The Shock Factor Cliffhanger

We’ve all seen this before. The chapter/book is coming to end and in a last ditch attempt to keep you interested the writer adds a completely unrelated, highly shocking, plot disrupting event.

While the key to a keeping reader interested in a series is to leave them with questions, shock factor cliffhangers feel like a cheap trick that only leaves the reader unsatisfied.  

Does this mean you should avoid shock factor cliffhangers? NO! Just don’t rely on it being the only thing that keeps your reader tethered to your story. 

Take The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, because that was a shock factor cliffhanger and half, but there were other stories left unfinished, other characters we were worried about, other questions we had that demanded answers. Which brings me onto the next kind of cliffhanger. 

The Stake Raising Cliffhanger

A far more subtle form of cliffhanger (and the kind I try to leave at the end of almost every chapter) is one that raises the stakes of the story. It proves a point to each chapter, which helps you as the writer to decide which chapters are needed and which are not. 

This can be anything, small or large. They find a key piece of information, realisation dawns on the protagonist, one of their friends are in danger, they are in danger, they discover something that puts the whole plot at risk, but save the big ones for your catalyst, your midpoint and your all is lost plot points. 

The purpose of these cliffhangers if to leave your reader with unanswered questions, seeking answers they cannot wait till morning to discover, questions that will make them buy the next book! 

What’s the conclusion here? 

Cliffhangers are not about the shock factor, the drama factor, the danger factor. They are about one very simple thing. Questions.

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Quirks To Show Your Character’s ADHD

From a certified ADHD adult(ish) human. 

• Not being able to shrug a niggling feeling or through until it’s dealt with.
• Saying ‘one more minute’ when hyper-focused, then looking up to find two hours have passed.
• F i d d l i n g 
• (With literally anything available) 
• Sometimes having trouble falling or staying asleep because their damn brain won’t shut up. 
• Yet still being a semi-coherent person the next day, despite only being out for four hours. 
• Because  e n e r g y 
• Eventually learning ways to get to sleep, but getting annoyed when they fail.
• Struggling to wait their turn when speaking or in games.
• Losing track of their point mid-speech.
• Inability to control thoughts as they overlap and run away faster than they can be caught. 
• Having too many hobbies.
• Being more creative under stress.
• Speaking really really fast when excited or after caffeine.
• Struggling to remember instructions.
• Struggling to listen to instructions.
• Spotting patterns and details others often miss.
• Forgetting brilliant ideas just as quickly as they were thought up.
• And thus being really impulsive when we get ideas.
• Desperate attempts at organisation (giving everything a place).
• And yet still not remembering where they’ve put anything.
• I m p a t i e n c e 

Disclaimer: Not everyone with ADHD will experience all of these things, and there are many more things that people with ADHD experience. If you experience these things, it doesn’t necessarily mean your ADHD, but these things are widely present in those who have it. If you want to write a character with ADHD please do your research and only take this as a starting point.

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New Writer: Hey! I want to get into writing, any advice?

Me: Well, first you have a vague idea for a story, then you open up google docs, and THEN you stare at a wall of eight hours contemplating the meaning of existence. 

New Writer: But how–

Me: Shhhh. It’s all part of the process. 

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So you’ve probably heard this thrown around a lot in the writing community, and maybe you’re a Save The Cat! structure enthusiast already, but if not this is a brief introduction to the 3 act structure. Please note that I use ‘hero’ and ‘bad guys’ as terms for guys, gals and non-binary pals. 

Act 1

This is where we set the scene. The first 15-20% of your book should be an introduction to the character and their life as it is. These first few chapters should show your character’s attributes and flaws while settling up the book’s theme. This is also the home for any fundamental world building that you want to use later. Act 1 ends either at the catalyst or the moment the hero decides to act on the catalyst. This is the moment of ‘For our hero, life was perfectly normal—if a little rough—UNTIL!’

Act 2

Remember that life we just introduced? Well it’s about to get seriously upended. That’s act 2. This is where our character gets thrown into something new, something that’s going to change them even though they don’t know it yet. They might expect this to fix their life, but it’s not a real fix. It’s a bandage on the bullet hole caused by their flaws—the real thing they need to fix. This usually coincides with our hero meeting someone new, someone who will guide them through this change. This act is where the tensions begin to rise, the stakes are revealed, the bad guys (both physical and metaphorical) are getting closer, but don’t forget to throw in some light hearted scenes, some excitement and some comedic relief. This is about 50% of your novel and it all ends when your character flaws catch up to them and they make a mistake that leads to their worst fear coming true. This is where you break your character. 

Act 3

Do allow your character some time to mope and process whatever atrocities you’ve thrown at them. It’s the least you can do after ruining their lives. Once that’s over we can get right into act 3. Act three is the finale. The stakes have never been higher, the danger had never been more pressing, and after some serious soul searching, your character is ready for the final stand. This is where your character stops running from their flaws and learns to change. Whether they win or lose, they are not the person they were at the start. 

Act three ends with the end of the book. A final image of the world that will help the reader say goodbye to the characters they have grown to love or perhaps an evil cliffhanger that will ensure they read the next book. 

And there you have it! A short introduction to the three acts of Save The Cat!

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