The classic inspiration, a sunset. A beach in Massachusetts. Photo by Kate Ota 2019 This pandemic is getting people down. Sure, some are working hard on their #CampNaNoWriMo projects (and more power to you!) but others are struggling to write a single word. While many have more time at home than usual, some are trying to juggle working from home and teaching kids with writing, or are essential and working outside the home more than before. I’ve seen many on twitter claiming the muse isn’t appearing or they just can’t force themselves to a keyboard. I found myself in the latter group, but have done a few writing exercises that helped me get back into my #WIP. Here are my ideas to help you ease in to writing even when you’re not inspired.
1. Fill the gaps in your world-building For off-world adventures, have you thought about the animals, birds, and insects of your world? For our-world stories, have you fleshed out the side characters? Maybe there’s something you let drop off to the side earlier in the draft and you said, “I’ll figure that out later.” Now’s the time to think about your novel’s world and make sure it’s full. Even if most of what you create here never makes it to the page, you need to know how things run. This can get your mind focused on your project again, and thinking of filling holes may lead you to go in and fill them. 2. Write a commercial for a product in your WIP This was fun for me, since my current WIP’s plot is all about a business. But every writing project, even one without a business explicitly part of the plot, could have a commercial. Radio, print ads, or even the town crier apply, for historical settings. It gives you a sense of what people in your world value, or explain something the character has in their home. A particular weird flavor of toothpaste the MC loves, the bistro where a grisly murder took place, a hotel where the two lovers meet for their hook up. It’s a goofy thing that can get you thinking about your characters and their world. 3. Research a relevant topic Maybe it’s as complicated as how a toxin works, or how a space station would function. Maybe it’s as simple as watching your MC’s favorite movie. Whatever it is, there’s something you know you need to research a little more to ground the setting, round out a character, or carry a plot point. Once you do your research, you’ll write it down so as to not forget it, and maybe even figure out where to use it in your WIP. 4. Write a scene you don’t plan to use Maybe it’s a technical explanation of how the murder victim died. Or it’s a fight between the MC’s parents. Write anything taking place in your world, regardless of relevance to your MC or the main plot. Maybe it’ll spark something in you, maybe it won’t. But it’ll get you started writing, and that’s the hardest part. Sitting down and getting the juices flowing is essential to writing. Always challenge, but more so with the anxiety of our current world. Hopefully these ideas helped you get started again. Do you have any other tips for getting back to your writing? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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To expand on my last post, I wrote a fictional autopsy for a famously murdered character in the public domain, Mercutio of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I took a lot of creative liberties here because we don't get a ton of Mercutio description. I learned that writing a character's autopsy is a great way to get to know them, maybe try it as a character building exercise! The annotations on the side are meant to be helpful and clarify anything I felt wasn't common knowledge. The following autopsy is completely fictional and any commonalities with real people is pure coincidence. There you have it, folks! Was this example helpful? Want more examples? Want to make fun of my goofy body diagram? Let's discuss in the comments!
Photo is of my parents' Japanese Maple tree. It's red and kind of like blood vessels if you squint. Photo by Kate Ota 2019 From murder mysteries to space operas, an autopsy can appear in all sorts of genres. Either a scene or a paper copy of the report can help clarify the cause of death for the characters invested in the outcome. Most people have never read or performed an autopsy and because of their legal and highly personal information, it’s hard to find reliable examples online. I’ve read dozens of autopsy reports as part of my day job. Here’s what you need to know about what an autopsy report contains.
Types of Examiners Between different districts, the formatting of the autopsy report will vary, so don’t get stuck there. It’s the content that matters. Who performs an autopsy will also be different, there are Medical Examiners (ME) and there are coroners. You’ll need to research where your story is set (if it’s the real world) to learn who runs things. These offices may also have other employees who help the Chief ME or Lead Coroner, these employees may have titles such as Investigator. Autopsies may also be performed by pathologists at the hospital, but this is generally outside of the legal realm. This occurs when either the hospital wants to see what they did wrong, prove they didn’t do something wrong when someone dies in surgery, or if the family pays for an autopsy after the ME/coroner declines. (Side note: private autopsies requested by the family can be crazy expensive!) Types of Exams In my experience, an ME/coroner also has two different types of post-mortem examinations. A view is done usually when cause of death is fairly clear, like a hanging or car accident trauma. An autopsy is more in-depth in detail and includes internal and external exam information. Usually this is for cases that may become court cases, like a potential homicide. Content An autopsy report will always include: who performed/was present for the exam, the decedent’s name, age/DOB, physical description, overview, cause of death. This is all written in the clearest phrasing possible, and with scientific terms only (example: clavicle instead of collar bone.) The physical description includes hair and eye color, beard, mustache, circumcised (these last three are yes, no, or N/A), scars (surgical and non-surgical), tattoos, condition of skin/teeth/nails, weight, and if the person appears their age. The overview will include things like signs of trauma, signs of medical intervention, and any medical information the autopsy uncovered, even if it’s not the cause of death. These incidental findings can include mild heart disease, nodules or cysts on organs, lung disease like asthma, etc. Cause of death is very specific and technical, since this is a legal document. Be sure to research medical terminology to ensure the report states what your plot requires. If your autopsy report needs to say, essentially, “we don’t know why this person randomly died,” call it acute coronary insufficiency. This means the heart gave up all of a sudden. An autopsy (rather than a view) will also include detailed descriptions of each major organ (including their weights) and descriptions of any microscopic slides made for the investigation. Slides are only taken from areas relevant to the suspected cause of death. Often this is done to determine if a medical condition contributed to death, such as cardiomyopathy or a pulmonary embolism. Finally, in either homicides, suicides, or anything involving a motor vehicle, the odds are high the investigator will perform a toxicology screen. Generally, this will screen for alcohol, major illegal drugs, cannabinoids (legal or illegal), and forms of these drugs left after the body breaks them down. Other drugs or substances may be screened for if signs of their presence were at the scene of death, like an empty bottle of antidepressants or rat poison. Tox reports screen blood, urine, vitreous fluid (from the eye), and sometimes other fluids, like bile. They’re also stored for later screening if necessary. Common Medical Terms
Examples of Cause of Death Phrasing
I hope you found this autopsy overview helpful for your writing. Have any questions? Need help rephrasing your project’s cause of death to sound more scientific? Let’s discuss in the comments! Photo of feedback from three years in Tidewater Writers. Photo by Kate Ota 2020 I joined my local critique group, Tidewater Writers, in March 2017. Over the last three years, I got a lot of feedback. Seriously, look at that photo. That’s eight and a half inches of feedback. Eighteen pounds! Six of those inches (and fifteen of those pounds) are dedicated to one novel. One inch of that is all the feedback I got on chapter one alone. I firmly believe that I wouldn’t have finished my novel (currently #amquerying it!) without the constructive criticism, knowledge, advice, and overall help of my critique group. After all, when there’s a meeting every week, you feel the pressure to bring something new (or at least edited since last time) and that push got me to write the end.
Joining a critique group takes a lot of courage. Tidewater Writers is open to all, and the members who attend fluctuate, with a core group showing up most often. It was extremely welcoming, and I have zero regrets! Some people are nervous about joining critique groups, so I’m writing this post about all things critique group! Types of Groups There are two major types of critique groups: in-person and online. I’ve been part of both, but personally found the in-person critiques have been the most impactful on my writing. It’s easier to explain your opinion in person, rather than in writing, especially if you have more questions about what you’re reading than comments for it. In-person allows more back and forth, clarifications, even lighthearted jokes. Online allows more anonymity and security, and offers more partners to people in isolated locations or smaller towns. It also allows more flexibility, since you don’t have to be in X location at Y time to meet. Choose the type of group that fits your needs, but I recommend trying both and testing your comfort zones. You never know who you’ll connect with! How to Find One The easiest answer is the internet. But where? I found Tidewater Writers by googling writing groups in Norfolk. But there are more direct ways to do it. Meet Ups is a good place to do general searches for groups in any given location. This is great if you have no idea what the local critique group is called. If you know the name of a group, Facebook is an easy way to search since the odds are high they have a page. Other writing-related groups on Facebook are also great places to find online partners to trade with, especially if you join one that specific to your genre. Twitter has an active writing community under many hashtags, (WritingCommunity, amwriting, amquerying, amediting, the list could go on endlessly.) You can post asking about critique groups that already exist, or you can ask if anyone wants to form a new one. Some events exist specifically to match critique partners, so keep an eye out for those too! Let’s say you don’t want to look online. How else do you find people? Connect at writing conferences, ideally local ones, or at local writing events, like classes, book launches, and events at libraries. Wherever a writer may go, search there! Quick Dos and Don’ts Never been part of a critique group? Not to worry. Some quick tips for what to do: Do: If it’s an in-person group, bring multiple copies of your work, enough for everyone present to have their own copy, ideally. I recommend printing double sided, double spaced, twelve-point Times (or other easily read font.) Don’t: Bring only one copy to read aloud and expect line edits. If no one can see your commas, how can they catch a comma error? Reading aloud without giving copies would get you feedback mostly for flow, concept, pacing, or voice. But you can also get that feedback with copies in their hands! Do: Bring/post an unpublished work that is beyond the first draft. Don’t: Bring/post something that is already published (self or traditional) or something that is only a first draft. Already published work won’t benefit from feedback, but feedback is the point of sharing in this context. If you only want to share your published work but not hear criticism, schedule a reading at your local library or indie bookstore. A first draft is also a no-no because they’re riddled with easy to catch mistakes, like typos, autocorrections, homonym mix ups, etc. Your readers will get stuck on these tiny details and not be able to focus on bigger picture feedback that you could also benefit from. Do: Follow the rules of the group. Often there are restrictions on how much you can bring/post (word count or length in terms of time.) Some in-person groups also restrict how long anyone gives verbal feedback. Don’t: Assume you’re the exception to the rules. If you’d be unwilling to stay late to finish critiques, don’t expect others to. If you’re unwilling to read an extra thousand words, don’t expect others to. And if you are willing, don’t assume others are! Do: Give feedback about the writing on the page, any and all feedback you can give. Be constructive and offer why you think something doesn’t work. You don’t always need to offer solutions. Feel free to point out things you love as well! Don’t: Only offer feedback such as, “this was great!” or, “this was terrible.” Both are equally unhelpful. Don’t critique the writer, for example, “this makes you look like an amateur.” Don’t be mean. Do: Try out a few critique groups, if you can. Don’t: Feel obligated to return to a group if you felt unwelcome, unsafe, or that the feedback was unhelpful. The Most Frequent Feedback I Receive Over time, the group’s most frequent comments have made me more aware of what my weaknesses are. That way I can address them before going. At this point, I can read a draft and guess what each person is going to say about certain parts. I’m frequently told my early drafts go too fast, and I need to add more internal reactions and narration to slow the pacing so the reader can absorb everything. My other weaknesses are repeated sentence starts (especially the, I, and pronouns) and repeated words (especially just, back, so, and be verbs). The Most Frequent Feedback I Give I tend to also point out repeated sentence starts, since I’m sensitive to them after hunting for them in my own work. Usually, I also notice grammar issues like commas and verb agreement. Had, be verbs, to, and I are words I catch as overused. I tend to pick up on the wrong word being used, or perhaps not the best word being used, where the author could make a stronger choice for a clearer message. Most often, I make this comment about verbs. I’m about to move across the country and what I’ll miss most is my lovely critique group! We’ll keep in touch online, but I’ll miss the regular meetings holding me accountable for making progress. If you’re a writer in Bremerton, WA, leave a comment! I’d love to connect! And if this post helped you find a critique group, or the courage to try one, let me know in the comments. Photo of Wilbur (back) and Clouseau (front), my cats. Photo by Kate Ota 2019 Readers often love pets included in books, like Harry Potter’s Hedwig or Magnus Bane’s Chairman Meow. But when a pet isn’t written well, it can distract readers—or worse, distress them! Here are my top tips for writing pets into your stories.
1. Don’t forget you included a pet Famously, Hedwig isn’t in the seventh Harry Potter book beyond the first few chapters. In the final draft, it’s because Hedwig is killed during Harry’s escape from Privet Drive. But Rowling admitted that when drafting, she simply forgot to include Hedwig. Now it’s an anecdote, and a world famous writer like Rowling doesn’t really need to worry about that kind of mistake. But you, dear reader, are less likely to have a team of editors behind you at the moment. So, if you give your MC a pet, make sure it’s established early on and continues through the story. 2. Keep a pet’s schedule in mind If your main character gets kidnapped and doesn’t go home for several days, your readers will worry about the pet. Lots of people are dog and/or cat lovers, and thinking about a cat not fed or a dog not let out for days will depress the reader. So before inserting a pet into the story, make sure the fictional creature will not be neglected. Not familiar with pet schedules? Research the breed of cat/dog or the species of other small animal to understand their needs including feeding, toilet, grooming, sleeping/hibernating, and exercise needs. 3. Use the pet to show character The choice of pet says a lot about a person. Runners may choose an athletic dog. Introverts may adopt an elderly cat. Maybe someone in a dangerous land would have a large, protective dog, while someone in a tiny apartment may select a hamster. You should consider what this pet brings to the story and what it can demonstrate about your character’s life. This also applies to the pet’s name, which often stays with a reader more than breed. A goofy pun, a pop culture reference, a quirky word, or a serious human name—they all say different things about the character who chose the name. 4. Use the pet as a sounding board Some characters spend a lot of time alone. Maybe they’re shy, new to town, or maybe it’s a function of their job. But you want scenes that aren’t all internal narration, for the sake of the reader. One method is to have the character think aloud and speak to their pet. It makes more sense that just speaking aloud alone. And it can be revealing, as the pet not responding can draw more out of the character. 5. If it’s a service animal, do your research Some characters will have service animals, whether a traditional guide dog for the blind or a more specialized animal, like a dog that can sense seizures approaching. If you include one of these very awesome animals, be sure to research the rules. Does it need a special harness to let others know what it’s doing? What is it trained to do exactly? What are the rules of caring for a service animal? It’s going to vary by its training, so take the time to research it. Those are my top tips for writing a pet into your story. Do you have any more ideas? Did you find these helpful? Let’s discuss in the comments! Welcome to 2020! I'm back from a short cold-induced hiatus. This year I want to make sure I keep reading. Most of my 2019 reads were either new books by my favorite authors or books for the podcast. But I want to keep reading widely, especially since what I'm writing now is a slightly different flavor of sci-fi from the project that I #amquerying . So when my fellow podcaster and friend Amber put this reading challenge on her website, I decided to participate! Graphic straight from Judging More Than Just The Cover, too cute not to share! For January I'm reading Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House, the same book as Amber. (Hmmm could this be a hint about a future podcast pick?)
For February I'm reading The Perfect Assassin by K. A. Doore. Because what's less traditional than an assassin falling in love? (Kidding, I know this topic probably mostly has in mind not-straight romance, and this book also has that.) That's as far as I've gotten in choosing books. You should participate with us! It'll be like a book club except everyone chose a book they actually wanted to read. (Except maybe March and July? Haha!) A beautiful tree in Davis, CA. Many people study disease at UCD. Photo by Kate Ota 2015 Books and movies love disease. Whether it’s the crux of the story, like a zombie-fying outbreak, or it’s background to other elements, like in Marie Lu’s Legend. Sometimes we need to include a real disease in a historical novel, or a fake one in fantasy or sci-fi. For a real disease the method of how to write it is clear—do the research and maybe read some other books (novel or non-fiction) that include it. But to make one up is a whole other ball game. I took many courses in undergrad and grad school that discussed disease from all angles. No need for you to take an epidemiology course though, I’ve gathered my knowledge and have the top five tips for how to make up a disease right here!
Determine a Method of Transmission For most zombie stories, the method is a bite. But there are many ways to catch a disease. Here are the main methods: Person-to-person is when body fluids (wink wink) are exchanged to transmit fluid. Transmits slowly through a population, but tends to be pretty infectious. Examples: HIV, Hepatitis B, syphilis, and other STDs. Droplet transmission is exactly what you think it is. Jessica has a cold, sneezes in your face, you breathe in her mucus droplets, and now you have a cold. These tend to transmit quickly through a population, and can range from mild to deadly. Examples: common cold, flu, tuberculosis. Airborne or contaminated object transmission is similar to droplet transmission, except you don’t need to be close. These diseases can linger in the air or on a surface long after someone has left the room. These are also often quite contagious. Example: measles. Food/water borne diseases are exactly what they sound like. Often, they cause digestive symptoms and place like the FDA monitor for them. These are often killed in proper cooking or boiling processes, so they tend to have a class divide. Examples: E. coli, cholera, botulism Animal-to-person contact and zoonotic diseases tend to be rarer now that most people only interact with household pets instead of farm animals or game. Many diseases stay in animal populations and rarely make the jump to humans, like rabies. A more common disease to crossover is Toxoplasma gondii, which is transmitted by cat poop. Humans tend to be very bad at fighting these diseases because the germ evolved with a different host. Therefore, they can be very deadly to humans while natural host animals survive better. Another example: black plague (rats/prairie dogs). Some diseases begin as animal-to-person, then can be transmitted person-to-person, like Ebola. Insect bites (aka vector-borne diseases) transmit many problematic diseases. Mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks are the main offenders to humans. Often, the insects pick up the disease from another animal host. Ticks get Lyme disease from infected deer and mice, then introduce the Lyme to humans when they bite us later. Insects like warmer climates, so vector-borne diseases are more of a health hazard in the tropics than in arctic zones. Other examples: malaria, West Nile virus, Zika The environment also hosts many disease-causing agents. Parasites like ringworm, hookworm, Legionaries, flesh eating bacteria, the list goes on and on. Humans catch this by being exposed to dirty water, soil, etc. especially with open wounds. As you may have guessed, rates of these diseases also tend to have a class divide. Morbidity and Mortality Rates Once you have your method of transmission, you should determine the morbidity and mortality rates. Morbidity is the state of being sick. The morbidity rate is how often people are catching it, you can think of this as representing how contagious it is. Mortality is the state of being dead, so the mortality rate is how often it kills the person it infects. You can think of this as representing how deadly this is. Plague-level events have both high morbidity and high mortality. Something like rabies has low morbidity, because it rarely happens in humans, but once contacted it has high mortality. The common cold has high morbidity in the winter, but very low mortality, as few people will die from it. In your writing, you should determine how present you want this disease to be. If your fictional disease has high morbidity and mortality rates, it better be the main plot focus. Otherwise, it may be too distracting for your reader. Consider how it is transmitted in determining your rates, see the section above. Symptoms Symptoms of a disease are your body trying to fight it off. Fevers are from your body trying to boil that disease to death. Snot is from trying to get that disease out of your nose. Coughing is to get rid of the mucus that trickled into your lungs. On and on. You should think about what symptoms your fictional disease has and why. Tie the symptoms together, like high blood pressure causing headaches, a rash leading to sores, runny nose leading to sore throat. And have the symptoms escalate through the course of the disease. This is not only realistic, it adds drama to the story, and helps your characters keep track of how close a comrade may be to death. (We only have until she develops a fever to find a cure! After that, she’s a goner!) Scars Not all diseases leave no trace. Smallpox left people with large scars on their skin. Ebola can change a survivor’s eye color (and continues to live in the eye!) Scarlet fever can weaken the heart. Chicken pox can come back as shingles. Malaria never really leaves you. If anyone is able to survive your fictional disease, consider the after-effects that may remain. It may be a somber reminder of what they endured, but it could also have social consequences, like facial smallpox scars. Cure If the plot or a subplot revolves around developing a cure, then you’ll need to figure out a cure. Even if you have a scientist pop up and do a little hand waving, you’ll want to know more than just, “you need this injection! Ta-da!” There are several places in the cycle of disease transmission in which you can stop the disease. Let’s discuss those: The agent: Identify the disease agent; a virus, bacteria, parasite, fungus, and discover what will kill it outside the body. Bleach? A bacteriophage? Gotta identify the problem before any other solutions are found. Identifying the agent is usually early in the story. The exception is a fantasy with a historical world, pre-Victorian era or earlier, in which germ theory was not developed yet. In that case, this step and many others, may not apply. The reservoir: This ties back to how it’s transmitted. Once that’s known, the reservoir can be handled. If it’s on dirty surfaces or in the water supply, those can be cleaned. Animals can be treated, insects can be sprayed for. If it’s person-to-person only, we’ll get back to that. Take note that hospitals will often adhere to the assumption that everything is contaminated and can transmit the disease and will be cleaning through the process of treating patients. But if you’re writing a fantasy with a historical flavor to it, maybe hospitals don’t apply to you. Portals of exit and entry: How does the disease get out of one person (portal of exit) and into another (portal of entry?) Once that is found, your characters will know if things like face masks, gloves, hand washing, and different levels of personal protective equipment are helpful. For anything particularly infectious and deadly, hazmat suits might be used before this information is available and once this is known, the medical teams will step down their equipment. Susceptible hosts: The disease can only keep going as long as someone is susceptible to it. Part of disease treatment is prevention, often an immunization is developed to protect those who haven’t been infected. But it could also be as easy as hand washing and basic hygiene, like in common cold prevention. A cure: Maybe you want a real cure that can help those who already have the disease. This will be dependent on all the other factors you have developed. Maybe you’ll choose a vaccine for your virus, an antibiotic for your bacteria, a substance toxic to the parasite, or maybe your characters will treat the symptoms until it passes. It all depends on the rest of the world building you’ve done to this point. If the disease’s mortality rate is high, the cure will be preventing it—sorry to anyone who caught it. If the mortality rate is especially low, there may be no pressing need for a cure. Just remember that the cure needs to kill the disease agent without killing the host. Need more inspiration? Choose a morbidity rate and mortality rate to mimic and search for similar diseases. See how different organizations handled it, from Venice inventing the quarantine for ships with possible plague to how the WHO contains Ebola outbreaks. Found any of these tips helpful? Have any fresh ideas to add? Let’s discuss in the comments! Photo from my wedding by Matt Mason Photography 2018 We’ve all seen wedding movies. Some focus on the bride, like Bride Wars. Others, the best friend, like Bridesmaids or My Best Friend’s Wedding. Even other family members get to star, like Father of the Bride. In some the wedding ends as planned, with a married couple. In others, the bride or groom is whisked away, in love with someone else. But if you’re writing a wedding story and never planned a wedding, there are some key aspects you’ll miss. Especially if your research is to watch wedding movies, because it’s not like that in real life!
I planned a wedding in 2017/2018, and it went off with just a few tiny hitches. Here are my top tips for writing about weddings. 1. The Entire Bridal Party Doesn't Live Nearby. Whether it’s the bride’s cousin, the groom’s brother, or friends from college, the entire wedding party is unlikely to live in the same city—let alone state!—as the couple. And this can actually make writing the bridal party easier. For example, rather than a scene where you introduce five new women at once, you can break it up. Two local, one close enough for bigger planning moments, and two we only see at the shower, bachelorette party, and wedding only. Much more manageable in terms of cast for you to write, and for your reader to keep track of. And more realistic anyway! It’s a three-way-win. 2. Budget Consistency is the Key to Realism If your bride has to work overtime hours to afford the barn venue she wants, she’s certainly not going to have the eaves dripping in orchids. And if she can afford the trendy downtown loft, she’s not going to only be able to afford a few daisies. Your readers will pick up on this type of strange juxtaposition and it will be distracting. Wedding planning websites like The Knot and Zola have calculators where you enter a budget and it gives you a breakdown of what amount of money is typical to spend for every item. This can help you maintain a consistent budget throughout this fake wedding and give you insight into some of the planning problems you hadn’t considered for your characters to wrangle. 3. The Legal Matters Matter Something many wedding movies and books fail to address is the marriage license. It varies state to state, even county to county, so look up the laws for your characters’ venue. Yes, the venue location, not where they actually reside. For an international wedding, rules may vary. But often, you need to have that all tied up seven days before the ceremony for things to actually be legal. Including the name of your officiant, in some cases! So, before you decide to have your bride and groom lose their rabbi at the airport, make sure you’ve looked into if this would invalidate the license. Another place for wedding shenanigans is that many licenses require seeing the birth certificates or certified copies of the birth certificates to issue the license. Haven’t seen that played up in a story, but it’s ripe for comedy. Just saying. 4. Trends: To Include or Not To Include Pinterest is always ready to tell you what’s hot for weddings this year. And next year. And what’s so over. The information is usually conflicting. I’ve seen posts lauding donut walls as God’s gift to weddings. And other posts claiming those donut walls are crawling with germs and the trend can die now. So, do you include a trend in your wedding story? It could date it, but like any contemporary story, it’s bound to be dated by something anyway. What you actually need to consider is if your characters would participate in the latest trends. And if the groom and bride are on opposite sides, who would win? It’s not always the bride, and it’s not always the most assertive person, either. It’s whoever cares more about that particular thing. The groom won’t care about the bridesmaids’ dresses matching or just being in the same color story. But the bride might care less about the types of beer served at the open bar. As you write, you’ll have to figure out who would compromise—or not compromise—and when. Just be sure the wedding reflects the couple’s personalities, to make your wedding story unique! 5. Know the Clichés and Find a New Twist The bride’s car breaks down on the way to the venue and she’s late! But someone in a quirky vehicle picks her and the bridesmaids up and delivers them. Or maybe the groom is having trouble with his boutonniere but everyone thinks he has cold feet. What a mix up! No. If it can be fixed with a cell phone, it’s cliché not to fix it with a cell phone. A bridesmaid would order an Uber/Lyft/etc. The groom would text the bride. Honestly, there’s probably a wedding party group chat in which these updates are happening. Any communication snafu better have a really solid reason behind it. And dead cell phones all around—too convenient to ever happen. Apply this logic to the other wedding story clichés. The cake getting destroyed. The wedding dress is too tight. The bridesmaid and groomsman hooking up in a closet. Whatever you’ve seen in a movie or book before, do it in a new, modern way. Throw the cliché on its head. There will still be chaos, that’s a trope in a wedding story, not a cliché. (The difference being the trope is expected to be there for the genre, but it’s always done in a different way. A cliché is done the same way every time and is no longer exciting.) 6. Watch Out for Dated Traditions Haven’t planned a wedding in a decade or more? Only seen older movies but never planned on yourself? It’s important to know that a lot of things have changed about how you do things. Wedding websites are big, they have links to registries, venue info, and guests can even RSVP there. Physical invites usually still go out, but the wedding website has all the info guests need. And photos of the couple too. Many registries are set up online. Sure, stores still have those fun gun things where you go around and boop items to add them. But Amazon is also extremely popular for registries. The last wedding I attended that didn’t have an Amazon registry happened when I was twelve. Spoiler alert, that’s over a decade ago. There are lots of great bridesmaids dress websites. From renting to owning, matching to same-color-different-dress to coordinating-colors-and-fabrics-but-no-matching, most of it can be done online. Sure, David’s Bridal is still kind of around (they filed for Bankruptcy last I heard.) I’m sure there’s also an equivalent for groomsmen, although Men’s Warehouse is a solid in-store option. There will always be that traditional bride and groom who do things old-school, but most modern couples will not do everything exactly how it was done in 1999. 7. Fake-Plan a Wedding The obvious advice would be to pretend to plan a wedding using The Knot, Zola, or Pinterest. And that’s all well and good. You’ll get lots of great inspiration, see trends, and even get a sense of prices. Read reviews left by real brides on those planning websites to get a sense of what goes wrong. However, this can often be a rabbit hole and may be much more information than you need to write a convincing wedding. Don’t let planning prevent you from getting to the writing. 8. The Stress is Real Your character is going to stress about the planning process. Most of all the bride, but also the groom. No longer do guests expect every aspect of the wedding to be planned by the bride, so the groom will feel the pressure too. Time limits, finding relatives’ addresses (who has an address book anymore?), items arriving off the internet not matching their descriptions, bridesmaids getting their dresses on time, groomsmen remembering to get fitted, coordinating vendors, and the stress of just making any decision at all. This can spread to anyone helping or anyone in the bridal party who has responsibilities to prep for. There’s a lot of pressure to be Instagram/Pinterest perfect, and older relatives can often make comments too. Don’t forget to show the stress in how the characters act, not just tell the reader/viewer what’s gone wrong. Did this help with your wedding themed manuscript or screenplay? Any more advice? Let's talk about it in the comments! A plant in DC's Botanical Garden. Nature is full of inspiration! Photo by Kate Ota 2017 Some people wait for the muse to strike them. I say, go out and find the muse yourself. She might be lost because muses don’t know how to use Google Maps. But really, how do you go about finding inspiration? Seems rather personal, but I have a few major places I turn to first.
The Animal Kingdom Whether I’m trying to dream up a magical or super power or an unusual government system, I love turning to animals for inspiration. Did you know naked mole rats run their colonies like a beehive? The one queen rat gets to mate and most of the others are workers. Did you know female hyenas have genitalia that appears to be male? And they give birth through that. No wonder hyenas run their packs with the females totally dominant, then the babies, then the males. You can google strange animal facts and get a flood of fun ideas. New Science Papers If you look up the latest scientific breakthroughs, there are some strange experiments being done. And they often discuss what the scientists want to do next. Have you seen the video of rats taught to drive tiny cars? Adorable. Pick any category of science and you’ll be amazed with the exciting results being published. While most of this would easily apply to a scifi and even fantasy work, don’t shy away if that’s not your genre. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, archaeology news is for you. Romance? Try psychology, they always publish relationship stuff. Horror? Well, just imagine the science going wrong. (The rats in cars will come for us all!) Laws and Warnings If you see a warning on the side of fish food, for example, and it says not for human consumption, you immediately wonder who tried to eat it and why. There are all sorts of silly warnings that seem obvious on products throughout your home and each one could be a story. Not to mention the odd laws, some centuries old, at the city, county, state, and national level. You can Google strange laws and get lots of hits. Take it beyond the level of who caused this to be a rule, and think of the future—what will happen when the next person breaks this law? Or build a whole fantasy society around one very odd law, which has a significant purpose. Even defunct laws could be exciting to focus on, whether in historical fiction or if the law was brought back to life. Let your mind go wild. History I love watching Extra History on YouTube, and I’ve also gotten into Weird History and Drunk History. Some are deep character studies, some are events based. But they all reveal the more complex situations that have unfolded in the past, and could be used for plots in books. Plus that gives you an easy pitch: This story is if Cleopatra’s usurping sister was taking over a space ship instead of ancient Egypt. Ta da! There are so many cool events and historical figures you can use to inspire stories of any genre. Go forth and fall into a YouTube hole, you can always claim it was research. Did any of these methods help you? Have any other tips for finding your muse? Let’s discuss in the comments! |
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