Plot Structure

Being a Better Writer: One-Note Stories

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Welcome back writers! It’s Monday once again, which of course means it’s time for another installment of Being a Better Writer. You know, as evidenced by that title up there.

Now, as you may also have gathered from that title, we’ve got an interesting topic to cover for today, one that’s been on my mind for quite some time. Even before it ended up on the Topic List, in fact. But before we can dive in, there are a few announcements to consider.

For starters, as many of you may know this week is one containing a popular holiday weekend in the US: Thanksgiving. Which means that next Monday will not be a new Being a Better Writer post (as I will be enjoying the holiday weekend), but a classic post. Which one I have not yet decided, but it’ll probably be related to whatever’s puzzling one of the writing hangouts online I hang out on.

Second, and fairly ordinary, be sure to check out last week’s news post for the latest on the site, Patreon, book work, etc etc. You can find that at this link.

Last, but not least, again I issue a pleading with those of you accessing this content through AI to use the site itself. Don’t let AI steal others’ hard work to resell to you. Support creators, because if you don’t, they’ll all disappear, and then where will we be? Read this post, and others like it, on the site. Do not give an AI your time, data, and money to read portions that have been regurgitated after being stolen.

All right, all the news and errata is out of the way. So it’s time to talk writing. And to start, this is once again one of those topics where we need to define what we’re talking about.

So hit that jump, and let’s talk about one-note stories.

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Being a Better Writer: Pacing Your Plot

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Welcome back, writers! Monday is here, and with it another installment of Being a Better Writer! As usual, there’s last week’s news post to check out, so if you’d like to do that (and I recommend it, obviously), that link is here. Unfortunately for you, if Monday is the only time you see these, then you missed out on an event this last weekend.

Also, before we dive into today’s topic, I want to remind everyone that this site—and my income—depend on support through Patreon or sales of my books in order to keep things going. AI bots scraping this site, stealing these posts and repackaging them for resale have really hurt my traffic and my income, so if you’ve got some money to spare and are looking for a good read, please consider picking up one of my books and giving it a read. And if you accessed this content through an AI, please stop doing so. These AI companies rely on making money by stealing my content and my work, which hurts me financially. Please check out the site: Maxonwriting.com. There are no ads, no pop-ups, none of that, and all this material you just gave an AI advertising clicks or even direct money for is FREE there. This AI bubble is eventually going to pop (when your entire business model is “steal and resell someone else’s work …”) but until then it’s hurting creators, and badly. Please, stop using the AI, and give your attention back to creators.

Appeal to humanity over. Let’s talk about writing. Today, as you might have gathered by the title, we’re talking about pacing.

Now, this won’t be the first time we’ve talked about pacing. Or the second, or the third. We’ve talked about pacing so much, in fact, that there’s even a tag for it.

And yet we keep coming back to it. This is a topic that endlessly circles in writing groups, classes, editing circles … pretty much anywhere writing is discussed, really. Pacing is a key part of any writing process.

Yet one reason it’s brought up so often is because for many, especially for new writers, pacing is a difficult concept. Time and time again I’ve seen new writers, younger writers, first-timers, and everything in-between (that’s actually a surprising range, and either you know or you don’t) query writing circles asking about pacing, confused about pacing, arguing about pacing …

What can I say? Pacing is the writing concept that’s launched a thousand ships. Unfortunately, none of them are in the same fleet, and they’re all crashing into one another as they try to arrive at a conclusion.

So today, we’re revisiting this subject. Today we’re going to talk about pacing: What it is, why it matters, and then with that groundwork laid, how to figure it out in your work. Which is … harder than it sounds, and we’ll go into why that is and why so many new writers have such struggle with figuring it out.

Hit that jump, and let’s talk writing.

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Being a Better Writer: Front To Back, or Back To Front?

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , ,

Welcome back, writers! It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for Being a Better Writer. But before we dive into today’s topic, I do have a somewhat unfortunate bit of news that needs to be discussed, and some of you aren’t going to like it. It’s about AI, and how it’s killing Being a Better Writer.

See, Being a Better Writer has run for over a decade now. It’s offered writing advice on hundreds of different topics, maybe even over a thousand. It’s been a fixture of the site for the longest time. And during that time, it’s been run with a specific set of rules: no ads, and teach writing for free.

Now, this has never been entirely altruistic, though it mostly is. But there was the advantage of it bringing in readers to read my books, where the money is. Writers and would-be writers find BaBW, they read it, see there are no ads, that it’s offered freely, and along the way they do visit my site, the one you’re only somewhat likely to be on right now (yeah, here’s the problem), see the latest news on Axtara or whatever book is most recently out, check the other stuff, etc.

At least, that’s what is supposed to happen. Unfortunately … it’s not anymore. Nowadays, more and more of my traffic—over half, actually—is from AI bots. AI bots that come to the site, take my content, and regurgitate it in front of a reader somewhere else. Sans … everything else.

Let me tell you a story. Years ago, I had someone contact me about an “exciting offer.” They wanted to “share” my Being a Better Writer posts with a writing app on mobile, and asked for my permission to repost Being a Better Writer there. Immediately suspicious, I took a look. It was a free app … but there was a paywall too, if memory served, and I think some sort of “reward” structure for posters as well. You know, the usual walled garden sort of stuff.

So, suspicious of their motives, I told this person that they had permission to post the openers of each of my posts, along with the link that would lead back to the site. Not a problem, right?

Oh, if they’d been genuine, maybe. Instead, they went ballistic. Accusing me of being “greedy” and trying to “horde” knowledge from people that needed it, etc. Every accusation and name you could think of. Because the truth of it was they didn’t want to send any traffic my way. They wanted to repost and profit from Being a Better Writer without owing me anything. The classic, modern American dream: make somebody else do the hard work, get 100% of the profit from it.

Well, that “dream” (which is a nightmare for all the people who actually do the work) has come home to roost in a big way with AI. And right now? It’s hurting this site.

See, No longer are the majority of “readers” ever seeing the site. They’re not seeing Axtara, or Colony, or even the majority of the posts. They’re getting copied and pasted chunks from them, delivered by an AI that is, if it’s advertising anything at all, is advertising the AI owner’s content. Or even charging a fee for seeing what’s on my site.

In other words, these AI companies are taking something I provide to the public and making it their “product,” and even in the process shilling their own advertisements or even charging people for the service of “repackaging” content that isn’t theirs.

Ultimately, I don’t know what to do about this. Site “view” numbers have shot up, between double and triple what they used to be. But they’re not from people. Clicks on other links to content inside our outside the site, which used to be common, are dying, as “viewers” aren’t even viewing what they see on my site. It’s an AI engine grabbing it and repackaging it for them.

Is this wrong? Well, yes. Material on this site is mine. I’ve even got the little box checked on my host settings that says “forbid AI from accessing this material.” That doesn’t stop them, I just get hits through VPNs instead of from countries that obey those regulations.

Again, I don’t know what to do about this. Unusual Things relies on the web traffic and the interlinking content chain of “people come, read Being a Better Writer, and some of them check out my books or other material.” But those numbers? Those numbers aren’t going up. In fact, they’re going down. AI is taking my content and packaging it to AI users to promote their stuff … not mine, and in the process killing the site.

Do I kill Being a Better Writer, something that has stood now for over a decade? Do I risk putting it behind a paywall? Something tells me that would only kill it faster: I’ve seen other folks report that at least they’re getting a $5 fee monthly from these AI engines, but that hardly makes up for the thousands of people who are then repurchasing that content from the AI, not the creator. Worse, it leads into the “Patreon Pitfall” where people are expected to pay for content without seeing it, thus driving a creator into a diminishing viewership base.

I … honestly don’t know what to do. Unfortunately, the country where I live has effectively stalled or given up on almost all efforts to police AI theft, so I have no recourse there. Even if I were to try legal recourse, it’d be one author who’s struggling to make rent versus multiple companies with a cash reserve bubble that’s estimated to be between nine and sixteen trillion dollars. I’d have no hope of winning that.

Point being, readers, that these last few months have so rapidly been stripping away at what makes Being a Better Writer work in the first place that I legitimately am not sure how it’s going to be able to continue. Right now, this very post, this moment of typing, is effectively me “working” for some big AI conglomerate. They’ll take the post and use it to sell their services, while I will get nothing. I’m working for free for a megacorp.

I don’t like it. At all.

There’s not a conclusion here. If anything, this is a cry for help: If you’re reading this through AI, please stop. It’s stealing. Please, go to the site. The AI probably won’t give it to you, but with a good old-fashioned search engine, you can find it. Bookmark it. Put in an RSS feed. Read these post from the site, please, and stop supporting companies that are taking my traffic and my livelihood.

All right, with all that said, let’s dive into today’s topic, from what may end up being the last Being a Better Writer topic list if things don’t see some kind of change.

Hit the jump.

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Being a Better Writer: Epilogues

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Welcome back, writers, to Being a Better Writer hitting the finale!

No no, we’re not ending. It was simply too enjoyable a play on words not to make considering the actual discussion topic of today. Hopefully I didn’t unduly alarm you too much. If you were alarmed, then I’d recommend letting your panic settle by checking out Friday’s news post, which discusses endings in another context, but the kind of ending that leads to a new beginning elsewhere.

Once you’ve done that, though, you can bounce back over here to read through our discussion on today’s topic. Which, I will forewarn, does come with a bit of a preamble. Two of them, in fact!

The first is a nod that this topic is a late addition to the current Topic List. In fact, it’s basically a last-minute addition added long after the list was complete. Why? Well, a writing forum I frequent was having a discussion about epilogues: What they were, what should go in them, and if anyone had any advice for them. Naturally, I checked the archives for Being a Better Writer to share a link, assuming that I had one, as I knew I’d written a post on prologues (more than one, actually). Naturally, there was one on epilogues … wasn’t there?

Oh sands. Yeah, as you probably guessed, I found to my surprise that I had never devoted a post to epilogues. And so, on to the list it went, with an immediate sense of priority.

Now, the second preamble? Well, one that’s a natural segue into the body of our post. See, I made this topic a priority because we’ve talked about ending on here before. A number of times, in fact. I’ve even referred to the ending of a story as it’s “keystone” for how vitally important it is. And epilogues? They’re a part of an ending. But they aren’t an ending. And the discussion I mentioned above? Well … that an epilogue was an ending was one of the points being debated.

And it isn’t, I want to make that clear. An epilogue is no more an ending than a prologue the beginning. They are pieces that can make up such, but on their own? They’re not either of those things.

But then … what is an epilogue? What’s its purpose? And should your story have one? Hit the jump, and let’s dive in.

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Being a Better Writer: Writing Short Stories

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Welcome again, writers! It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for your weekly dose of writing knowledge. This week’s topic? Well, it’s pretty straightforward, as you might have gathered from our title. It’s also a request topic, tackled at last as we work our way through the list.

Now, before you dive in, I would urge you to check out last Friday’s news post. Especially if you were thinking of picking up a paperback sometime soon. There’s a change coming on Wednesday, and you may want to be aware of it now. So go check that out.

But with that done, and your plans made, let’s talk about today’s topic: writing short stories.

This topic came by way of request with a caveat: A lot of the writing advice Being a Better Writer drops does tend to talk about novels, or larger stories. The commenter asked about short stories, and tips for writing those. Which … to be fair, I do tend to post calls for, and are something everyone who writes should have a little experience with. So hit the jump, and let’s talk about them!

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Being a Better Writer: Planning Character Growth

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Welcome back, writers! It’s Monday, and that means we’ve got another Being a Better Writer post with which to dive into the nuts and bolts of writing! And we’ve got a pretty interesting topic to tackle today to, one that both newbie and experienced writers alike can benefit from. Yeah, you read that right, today’s writing topic is something that even experienced writers can run afoul of … Though I will note that it’s sometimes not their choice.

Intriguing? All the more reason to forge ahead with the whole post, right? But before we get right into the meat of things, I do want to call attention to last week’s news post. It concerns a Beta Call (Which has gone out!) for an upcoming book as well as a price increase for the Axtara – Banking and Finance paperback. So if either of those two things catch your gaze for a moment, open that article with a click here and then you can come back to it later.

Okay, now that you’ve done that, what on Earth is this post going to talk about that experienced writers can stumble on, even worse not by their own choice? Well, I’ll give you a hint: The original title for today’s post, at least what was recorded on the Topic List, was “Letting Characters Grow Without Becoming Overpowered.”

Ah, I can hear the clicks of things falling into place beyond a few monitors. Yeah, you know what this is going to be about. The rest of you, follow along and hit that jump as we talk about the how and why of Planning Character Growth.

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Being a Better Writer: Prologues – When Is It Too Much?

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Welcome back, writers, to another Monday installment of Being a Better Writer, here to discuss all your writing curiosities and questions! We’ve got an interesting topic to discuss today, so I hope you’re ready to learn. Of course, as usual, I should note that there’s the usual news post delivered last Friday you should check out if you haven’t already. Especially if you’re interested in Axtara news.

Also, just a reminder that these posts are kept ad-free and open to all (including those gutless AI companies that keep stealing them to resell to their paying customers, the skags) by the support of Patreon Supporters! If you’d like to support Being a Better Writer while missing out on the awesome experience of reading one of my books, or if you prefer to double-support and have already bought and enjoyed a book, you can check out the Patreon page here.

With that said, and those links now your browser color of choice for “you clicked on this,” let’s dive into today’s topic. This is one that ended up on the list because I saw a solid back-and-forth debate about it taking place online in a writing forum.

And no, not just about the concept of prologues in general, which is something we’ve discussed before on this site a few times, both in a direct post but also when talking about introductions (though you’ll need to hunt a bit with that second link since it’s covering beginnings in general). No, this particular discussion had several individuals talking about why they avoided prologues, a key reason that came up (and was discussed) being they didn’t know how long a “prologue” should be.

Now, a few of you might be thinking “Well, I can answer that” and have brining an answer to the tip of your tongue. But I can almost promise you that at least one of the many answers out there, and probably more, will get it wrong. Because while the answer appears straightforward, there are some wrinkles here that complicate matters. Wrinkles that were why the conversation I peered in on took place in the first place.

Hit the jump. Let’s talk about it.

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Classic Being a Better Writer: Fleshing Out Ideas – From Idea to Story

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Hey folks! I’m still on break until the New Year, so until next Monday, enjoy a classic Being a Better Writer blast from the past! Merry Yuletide and a Happy New Year!

Don’t forget, our Patreon Supporters, Bugsydor, Mary, Kirishala, Jack of a Few Trades, Alamis, Seirsan, Miller, Lightwind, Piiec, Wisehart, Taylor, Ross, Frenetic Pony, Morgan Gines, Dmytro Shulga, Peet, Vegetable Sorbet, and Foe for support Unusual Things and help keep it advertisement free! No popups here! Join their ranks! Or buy a book!

Now, I don’t actually remember the circumstances by which this topic came to be on the list (could have been LTUE), but either way, the topic is a good one. Hang out in a writing-centric thread online or attend a writing workshop—sands, even look in the comments of a public page for an author or attend a panel—and eventually, probably fairly quickly, you’ll hear a question or  comment that’s a lot like the following:

I have this great idea/concept/story/character, but the moment I try to sit down and write them, I just run out of steam. I can’t get it/them written. How do I do this?

Now, the exact phrasing may vary, but trust me, you’ll here the sentiment, echoed from a number of beginning writers. And you won’t even have to wait long. It’s a question that comes up all the time.

And you know, to be fair, it’s not exactly a bad question. A poor one, maybe, but not a bad one. And it’s one that’s often reflected by the faces and situations of many more in whatever assorted audience is present than the one who asked. Crud, I’m certain that it’s a question that some of the authors who have been forced to scramble for an answer themselves once voiced, though perhaps internally.

But … it’s still a poor question. I certainly wouldn’t call it a good one. Not poor enough that it isn’t worth tackling in this post, but not the best question either.

Why? Well, let me answer that before I get into the deeper-roots behind the question. The question is a poor one because 90% of the time the individual asking it is asking for a silver bullet. A solution that doesn’t exist. I entirely suspect that if, when asked this question, whoever was asked responded with “Well, are you using X program?” or “Are you sitting in this kind of chair?” there would be a massive sale of said product in the audience that had asked.

Again, I shouldn’t batter these poor souls too badly. After all, they are beginners. But as beginners, when asking this question, the answer they get is hardly the answer they want (and sometimes, they’ll tell you). They’re inexperienced enough to think that all it takes is an idea, a pen or a keyboard, and a little bit of writing, and boom! Story! And the problem with that is that, as all writers know, there is no silver bullet. There’s no magic “thing” or element that anyone can just do to take a story from an idea to a finished product (or at least a halfway competent one). And in that regard, the question is poor.

Now, that said, it wouldn’t take much to “fix” it so that we can give it a real answer. If we rearrange it a little, tweak a few of the words a bit, we get something much more workable. Something like:

I have a good idea/story/concept/character, but the when I sit down to try and write it, I start having trouble. How do I take it from an idea to a finished work? What are the steps there?

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Being a Better Writer: Duologies and Act Structure

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Welcome back, writers! It’s another sunny day here—at least, I hope it is, since I write these in advance, but in Utah that’s a pretty good bet—and I hope the weather of your choice is on display wherever you’re residing at the moment.

As usual, we had a news post last Friday, so if you’re looking for the latest on Axtara – Armies and Accounting, other projects, or how Magic and Mischief is doing, go check that out. But because that’s all in its own post, we get to dive right in to today’s topic.

Which again is a bit of an odd one, at least on the surface. In fact, it made the list because I entered a discussion about it elsewhere on the web, made my case, and was responded to with “Hold on, what? Explain that in more detail!”

Generally. That’s not a direct quote. But it was close enough to it that I thought “Okay, this deserves a Being a Better Writer discussion.”

So hit that jump, and let’s talk about the humble—and rare—duology, and why we don’t see a lot of them.

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Being a Better Writer: Delivering Details in the Right Order

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Confession: I very nearly made “right” in the title “write.” It was quite tempting.

Welcome back, writers, to another installment of Being a Better Writer! Today we’re going to talk about a topic that’s vital to the telling of a good story, and which you can probably guess based on the title this text is sitting below. We’re going to dive right in, so if you’re looking for news about Axtara – Armies and Accounting, or when the Magic and Mischief paperback will be available, you can go check that out here. Going further will not get you news here. But it will get you writing advice. So let’s dive in!

Delivering readers detail is one of those key challenges to being a writer. We even have a word for it: Exposition. The word we use when a story informs us of something that it believes we the readers need to know.

Exposition comes in all forms. A character saying “Don’t open that door, it’s an airlock and that’s bad for anyone who has to do things like breathe” is exposition. They’re expositing what a door is and why it should not be tampered with. A narrative giving readers a bunch of information about the setting? That’s also exposition, just given directly to the reader.

Both of these ways we’ve mentioned so far can be done well or done poorly. A character saying something that the audience needs to know … but clearly only speaking for the benefit of the audience? Well, that’s not great. Whether it’s characters saying “As you know …” or just stating something because the writer was worried the audience won’t have figured it out, this form of information delivery can be done poorly. As can the other form, exposition becoming infodumping.

We’ve talked about each of these before, as well as many other aspects of presenting information. So much so that the link you just slipped past is to a tag rather than a specific post. But as we’ve talked about all those others … we’re letting those posts stand on their own, and today we’re going to talk about another aspect of presenting information that I’ve seen young and new writers alike struggle with: how to figure out the order.

Hit the jump!

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