Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 3, VOLUME 7 | Page 32

W HAT A RE THE C ONTOURS OF Y OUR S TORY ?
R OBERT W. W ALKER
There are steps a young writer can take to improve the contours of a story
overnight. There are skills that can be taught and understood in teachable
moments about writing. There are plugs in the wall that all authors, whether
selling or starting out, can plug into.
R OBERT W. W ALKER
A UTHOR
R OBERT W. W ALKER IS A
VERY PROLIFIC WRITER WHO
HAS CREATED MULTIPLE
SERIES AS WELL AS STAN -
ALONE BOOKS .
T HE SERIES INCLUDE :
T HE I NSTINCT S ERIES
T HE E DGE S ERIES
T HE B LOODSCREAMS S ERIES
T HE D ECOY S ERIES
C HICAGO ME S ERIES
I NSPECTOR A LISTAIR
R ANSOM M YSTERIES AND
MORE ...
V ISIT R OBERT ’ S W EBSITE
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF HIS
OVER 70 BOOKS
F ALL 2017
Here are a few contour helpers that count large.
Look into any grammar textbook and reintroduce yourself to the element of
Active vs. Passive Voice, which style element has a great impact on contours; the
use of active verbs provide visuals in the reader’s mind, whereas passive verbs
have no visual components. The writer must see clearly that most dramatic
writing, sentence by sentence, begins with a clear Noun/Name followed by a
clearly Active Verb. For example: His shattered arm dangling, Jack half-threw,
half-pushed the gun to Max. Or tossed, or lobbed but NOT ‘was about to or
perhaps maybe toss or throw’ it. Helping verbs are a weak substitute to the
ACTIVE form of the verb. So revisit the use of Active over Passive verbs and
maintain one, consistent verb tense (time) while at it.
Secondly, be more conscious of your use or overuse of pronouns and
prepositional phrases. Overuse of both lead to total confusion, and SIN #1 in
writing is to be unclear. Stephen King says, “If you can’t make that sentence sing,
then at least make it clear” while Mark Twain says, “When in doubt, strike it
out.”
Words like he/she and him/her are useful but an over-reliance on
them/pronouns can lead to major confusion as in: “Mary told her mother that
she was fat and ugly, and her father told her that he agreed that she was fat and
ugly.” There is NO WAY to know if Mary is speaking about herself or her mother
in that sentence, and her father’s remarks do not help at all. To set it to dialogue
can make it crystal clear. To use names could clarify it as well, nouns over
pronouns. Good advice on an SAT test, too. Always take the answer that gets
capitalized.
Thirdly, do not shy away from story SHAPES and FORMS that have worked
since the Heroic narrative older than the Bible, Gilgamesh. Do not decry a SHAPE
that works and say you will never use it. In fact, it is like a plug in the wall for all
of us dysfunctional people to use. There is no reason to RUN from the fact that
every story shape possible has been utilized before you were born, because that
is the reality of storytelling today as it was when the first story was put to
parchment or carved in stone since the shapes were already defined and
outlined. Use them as outlines.
P AGE 24
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE TRADE