Many people believe creativity is a trait you're born with. It's a gift. You either have it or you don't.

This is simply not true.

Each of us is creative. It's our natural state of being. As children, we don't hesitate to use our imaginations in every aspect of life. We welcome creativity and embrace it as an integral part of who we are.

Unfortunately, too many of us stifle that sense of wonder and suppress our imaginations as we grow into adulthood. Caught up in the daily grind, we forget what it was like to be creative.

Even writers suffer from this problem on occasion. We get into a slump and begin to suspect we're not as creative as we once thought.

Today, I'm going to give you three simple steps for boosting your creativity. Follow these steps and you'll soon discover how easy it is to embrace your creative nature.

Step 1

Give yourself permission to be creative. Turn off the inner voice that says "I'm not a creative person."

This sounds like a simple thing to do, but it's the most challenging step. With creativity, mindset is everything. How you talk to yourself about being creative is nine tenths of the game. Your inner dialogue matters. From now on, make an effort to only allow thoughts that affirm your status as a creative individual.

Recognize creativity in everyday activities. Realize your creative nature is present at all times, not just when you're writing.

Step 2

Respect your muse. When you get an idea, don't immediately dismiss it or tell yourself "This idea stinks. Nobody is going to want to read this." If you tell yourself over and over again that your ideas stink, your muse will decide you don't appreciate its input. It will go into hibernation and the new ideas will stop coming.

Does this mean you have to pursue every story idea that pops into your head? No. It means you accept each idea as something worth considering.

Jot down every idea in your notebook or journal, or create an idea file on your computer and add a few notes about any new ideas that come to mind. I have a Word document named "Story Ideas" on my computer. Whenever I get a new idea, I open the file and add the details. I don't worry about whether the idea seems crazy or not. I can worry about that later when I'm deciding which ideas would make great stories. I also carry a pocket-sized notebook with me at all times for making notes about new story ideas, characters, scenes, or dialogue.

Step 3

Explore new situations. Eat something you've never eaten before. Visit new places. Listen to music from artists you're never heard of.

Get outside your comfort zone. Do things you wouldn't normally do. Go for a walk in the rain. Try an activity that intimidates you.

Feed your mind. Every new experience will nourish your creative soul.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

The past two weeks have been eye-opening. My mother was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. It was a harsh wake-up call and forced me to think about an important detail I sometimes fail to keep in mind:

We're not immortal. We don't live forever. Our dreams have an expiration date.

Read that again. Your dreams have an expiration date.

If you want to be a writer, go after that dream now. Don't wait. Don't put it off until later. There might not be a later. Yes, it's a morbid thought, but it's the truth that comes with being human. We're mortal beings with a finite amount of time to spend on this earth.

How do you want to spend that time?

You can spend it procrastinating, thinking about the day you'll finish your novel, dreaming about your name appearing on the bestseller lists. Or you could spend that time writing. If you spend all your days dreaming and not doing, you'll grow old and look back on your life with regret over the things you never did.

Dreaming is essential, especially for writers, but taking action is just as vital. It's the only way you'll ever turn those dreams into reality.

Here's a little technique to help you along. It takes only a minute or two but it's a great way to jolt yourself into action.

Step 1 – Sit back, close your eyes, and imagine what your life will be like five years from now if you've spent those five years taking action to achieve your dreams. In this scene, you've taken concrete steps toward your goal. You've succeeded at writing and publishing your novel or selling your screenplay. Spend a moment picturing this in vivid detail.

Step 2 – Now, imagine what your life will be like five years from now if you haven't taken those steps, if you haven't taken action toward your goal. Picture it in the same vivid detail. This version of your future stinks, doesn't it? I'm betting it's not nearly as exciting or fulfilling as the future you imagined in Step 1.

That's it. That's all there is to it. You've seen future #1 and future #2. Which future do you want for yourself and what are you going to do to make that future a reality?

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

It takes being in the right mood to write a powerful scene, and music is the one thing that always puts me in that mood. Not just any music, but music that has already made it onto the big screen.

What better way to put yourself in the perfect mood to imagine vivid and intense scenes than to immerse yourself in a full orchestral film score that sweeps you off your feet?

A great score can add layers of tension, drama, and emotion to a film. Those same tension-inducing effects can impact your writing experience. For me, a few minutes of listening to the right film score is all it takes to trigger my mind to dream up scenes packed with visual imagery.

Whenever you're in doubt about how music can influence the feel of a scene, try muting the sound on your television and watching a few scenes minus the music. The difference can't be missed.

Here's a suggestion for those times when you just can't seem to get into the writing groove: Visit your local music store, Amazon.com, or the iTunes Store and pick up the CD or MP3 version of your favorite film score. Try to choose a film with the same mood or tone as the scenes you intend to write.

Sit back, close your eyes, and let the music wash over you for a while. Don't try to write anything yet. Just listen and imagine. Let your creativity go to work while the rest of you relaxes.

Allow your mind to wander and eventually you'll discover scenes forming there. Let those scenes unfold slowly and gradually as the music plays. Notice the impact the music has on how the scenes play out. The tone, the pacing, even the dialogue or action can be influenced, but more importantly, the visual imagery will be enhanced. From there, it's up to you to put that imagery into words.

If you use this method often enough, you'll discover you have favorite composers just as you have favorite rock bands. Each composer has his or her own sound, and you'll inevitably be drawn to some more than others. One of my favorites is Hans Zimmer, who composed the scores for Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, and too many other films to list here. I've owned the Gladiator soundtrack since it was first released and I still haven't tired of listening to it. I play Trevor Morris' score from season 1 of The Tudors almost as often. There are plenty of other composers worth checking out: James Horner, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, and John Williams, to name a few.

Another favorite of mine is Justin Durban, a young composer who has created music for several independent films as well as movie trailers and video games. His music has the same rich, evocative quality as Zimmer's, and I predict he'll someday reach the same level of fame and popularity. You can download free MP3 versions of some of Justin's music on his web site.

How about you? What kind of music gets you in the mood to write?

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

I don't usually share material I created for a work-in-progress, but I think some writers might find this example useful. It's part of an in-depth character study I wrote while working through Holly Lisle's downloadable "Create a Character" course (which you can get through her web site for under $10). Along with dozens of techniques for creating realistic and compelling characters, the course includes a ton of questions to help you explore below the surface of each character. The questions aren't always easy. Many of them force you to really dig deep for answers.

Some people think this type of character study is overkill. I don't agree. Working through these questions and seriously contemplating the answers has helped me get to know my characters much more deeply.

When you know your characters so well, you never have doubts about how they would act or react in a situation. Everything they do and say flows from the core of who they are, consciously and subconsciously. If you write a scene in which your character does something that isn't true to who he is, you'll instinctively know something is wrong with the scene.

In the character study you'll find here, I included only a tiny subset of the questions covered in the course. You'll probably notice most of the questions focus on one specific area of the character's psyche, but you can see how with just a handful of questions you can gain plenty of insight into your characters. I chose this particular segment because it's a good demonstration of how each facet of your character's personality and background will directly affect his interactions with other characters.

If you find this process of character development valuable, I recommend grabbing a copy of the full course, especially since it's so inexpensive. It's full of practical techniques and it's more useful than an entire shelf full of how-to books about creating characters.

I referred to the character by his initials in this example because at the time this was written I hadn't fully committed to the name I was considering giving him. (Finding the perfect name for your character is half the fun.)

Here's the only backstory you'll need in order to understand my notes:
When he was 16, TK accidentally killed his father, and he's been living with the guilt ever since. Thinking the only thing he's good for is killing people, he takes on a job as a contract killer. He's been doing that job for about a decade before the story opens. (I love to write dark, conflicted characters. This one has been a blast to write.)

These notes are rough, not edited and polished, because most of the time I'm the only person who ever sees this stuff. It's a bit long, so if you'd rather read it in printed format, here's a link to the PDF version.

** TK character study **

What are TK’s compelling needs?

To overcome his guilt for his father’s death.

To be able to trust someone; to find someone he can trust completely (particularly a woman, since the lack of trust is primarily due to his mother’s betrayal).
 
Does he pursue his compelling needs?

On a deeper level, he recognizes he can’t go through his entire life without ever trusting anyone or ever connecting with anyone, but on the surface he’s jaded, he thinks trusting people (especially women) is just setting yourself up for betrayal later. Other than Liz, his sister, the closest he has come to trusting anyone is Hank (whom he unconsciously sees as a father figure) and Father Murphy (whom he unconsciously treats as his conscience), but even with the two of them he still withholds a huge part of himself.

He doesn’t fully recognize his need to overcome his guilt, so he pursues that need in a backward way. Instead of trying to overcome it, he accepts being a killer as his fate. He figures he should take on the task of killing others so someone else doesn’t have to take on that task, especially since he’s already guilty of one death.

Does he flee his compelling needs?

He flees his need to trust someone. He instead isolates himself, builds psychological walls around himself, shuts down his emotions whenever they try to surface.

He flees his need to overcome his guilt. Instead, he wears the guilt like a mantle (i.e., I’m already guilty of that much so I might as well take on more guilt to spare others from having to do it; it’s my fate, etc.)

Is he more motivated to avoid pain or to achieve pleasure?

He’s more motivated to avoid pain. He avoids forming relationships because he fears the pain of being betrayed. He’s been so successful at walling off his emotions that he’s not even sure he can let go enough to achieve real joy anyway. On a subconscious level, he realizes overcoming his guilt will require facing it, accepting the incident for the accident it really was, accepting himself as being human and as being worthy. Since he doesn’t know how to do that, he accepts the guilt instead of trying to overcome it. He lives with it always in the back of his mind. It underlies the core of who he is, and he’s afraid that without it he won’t know who he really is; i.e., when the guilt is gone, what’s left? Who will remain? What will take its place?

Who knows about this need?

Liz knows about it. She recognizes what caused it and she sees how it manifests in him. But she doesn’t push him. He believes she's the only person who accepts him for who he really is. She's the only person he has ever fully trusted. But, he isolates himself from her because he's afraid he'll taint her somehow just by being around her, and because he's worried he'll inadvertently put her in danger due to the nature of his work.

His mother doesn’t understand what the guilt has done to him over the years, nor does she understand why he feels betrayed by her. She still blames him for his father’s death and treats TK as if it was he who abandoned her instead of her who threw him out and abandoned him.

Father Murphy and Hank both are aware of the circumstances of TK’s father’s death and what it has done to TK, but they approach it from different directions. Father Murphy treats it as something TK needs to forgive himself for instead of carrying around the guilt for the rest of his life, and Hank sees it as something TK can channel productively into his work.

How did he acquire his job?

Hank recruited TK while TK was living in the church after his mother threw him out. Hank and Father Murphy are old friends.

With whom does he work?

Hank is TK’s handler, but TK works alone. He doesn’t like to work with others (partly because he’s worried he’ll get them hurt or killed, and partly because he doesn’t trust other people enough to rely on them). When he finds himself having to work with Alexandra, it’s unsettling for him because he’s not used to relying on anyone else.

How does his work benefit him?

It gives him a way to feel less guilt about his father’s death because he can convince himself killing people is his fate, his purpose in life. Many of his jobs require killing truly despicable people, and in a way he feels like by killing them himself he’s sparing someone else the task of killing them and therefore sparing someone else the burden of that guilt.

His job also allows him to remain anonymous. It allows him to work on his own. It allows him to continue living without having to form connections to anyone, without having to build long-term relationships with anyone.

What did he learn in order to do his job?

He had to learn how to fight (something he’d already had a head-start on due to having to live on the street for a while as a teenager after his mother threw him out). The year he spent on the street made him into even more of a loner, but it also made him streetwise.

He had to learn how to use weapons, though he usually prefers to work without them. It’s too difficult to get weapons through security in most places nowadays, so he feels it’s better to know how to take someone out without having to rely on a weapon.

He had to refine his people-reading/body language skills and psychology/manipulation skills, which he originally picked up as a kid by watching his father. He has become extremely skilled at reading people.

How does his work extract a price from him?

As long as he continues to kill people and continues to treat murder as a job, he’ll never really be able to fully forgive himself for causing his father’s death. Part of him hopes someday he fails and someone kills him instead, because he thinks that’s what it will really take for justice to be done. And if someone kills him, he’ll finally experience relief from the guilt.

What are his private interests/hobbies?

He enjoys swimming, especially underwater and especially at night with the lights out, because it gives him a chance to feel like he’s floating in a void, with no sense of space or time, no pressures, no responsibilities, no guilt, just dark nothingness stretching in every direction.

His other hobby is photography. The camera is another layer of protection for him, a wall he can put up between himself and other people. It also gives him an excuse to travel. He enjoys going overseas to take photos in dangerous locations, places where he has to push himself harder and harder.

What does he believe his future holds for him?

Probably more of the same. He takes things day-by-day, one day at a time. He’s not sure how much more of a future he has, because nearly all his jobs are dangerous and could result in his death. Right now, he’s focused on his work because he feels like he’s making a difference.

He’d like to think someday he’ll be capable of opening up to someone, trusting someone enough to have a real relationship, etc., though he usually considers that possibility in more of a dreamy “well that would be nice but it’ll never happen” sort of way. He’s afraid he’ll connect with someone and then be betrayed and end up hurt and alone. He doesn’t realize by avoiding relationships and avoiding forming any true connections with anyone, he’s going to end up alone anyway. He has essentially created a self-fulfilling prophecy without realizing it.

What is the best thing happening to him currently?

He’s been assigned to protect Alex and to uncover information about what happened with the murders and the research study. It’s good for him (even though he doesn’t realize it) because it’s forcing him to work closely with someone else, to connect with someone else. In working with her, he’s also able to see her situation (having a father around but not being able to enjoy it because her father has Alzheimer’s) and realizes losing his father was not the end of the world and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

What is the worst thing happening to him currently?

Liz is missing and he has to hunt down the people who took her before it's too late.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

While meeting with a friend for dinner a few weeks ago, I realized something important: I'm not a great listener. I don't like small-talk, so I have a difficult time staying focused when the conversation shifts into that territory. I try but it doesn't come naturally to me and if I don't make a concerted effort my mind wanders to other things.

Why is this important? Because being a good listener can make you a better writer.

If you don't listen to how people talk and pay attention to what they say, you'll have no foundation to help you write great dialogue or to develop characters with depth.

Listening and dialogue

Good dialogue has a rhythm to it. It flows seamlessly from one line to the next. Your scenes won't stand out if you don't have the ability to recognize that rhythm and incorporate it into your dialogue.

Movie dialogue is a refined and polished version of everyday conversation. It's a distilled version of real-life speech. Before you can capture that essence and use it in your dialogue, you need to have a feel for how real people talk.

You also need to be alert for subtext, for the underlying significance and the difference between what people say versus what they really mean. You won't pick up on those cues if you're not actively listening.

Listening and character development

The more you listen, the more you'll learn about people, about how they think and feel. You can use what you learn to create multi-layered characters.

If you don't pay attention to real people, you're more likely to create one-dimensional characters. Real people have more than one defining characteristic. Spend more time listening and you'll start to peel back those layers and get to what's below the surface.

How to become a better listener

Here are four simple ways to improve your listening skills. I've been trying these techniques myself lately and they're already proving helpful.

1. Practice "focused listening"

Devote your full attention to what the other person is saying. Don't spend that time thinking about what you're going to say next, mentally compiling your to-do list, or daydreaming about your upcoming vacation.

Try not to get distracted. If you're conversing with someone in person, ignore your mobile phone and keep your mind on the conversation. Pay attention to the person you're with. If you're chatting via telephone, sit in a place where your attention won't be easily diverted to something else.

2. Listen more than you talk

Practice the 3-to-1 rule. Spend three times as much time listening as you spend talking.

Writers are storytellers. Talking is a form of storytelling, and sometimes it's difficult to resist that impulse. Do your best to set aside the urge to talk.

3. Ask questions

In order to ask relevant questions, you need to pay attention to what the other person is saying. If you're not listening, you won't know what to ask. So, by making an effort to ask more questions in every conversation, you'll automatically increase the amount of attention you give to the other person.

Ask open-ended questions, not questions that can be answered with a yes-or-no response.

4. Take your time

We're so conditioned to fear the potential for awkward silences that we often rush to fill any silence with words. Instead, slow down. Listen to the other person. When she's done speaking, take a moment to gather your thoughts before you begin to talk.

By consciously allowing this time for thinking before speaking, you'll cut down on the amount of time you spend contemplating what you're going to say next when you should be listening instead.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

In my quest to become a better writer, I've taken classes, read dozens of how-to books, kept a journal, and joined local and online writing groups. After all this time, I've learned there is one habit that will improve your writing more than any other:

Write every day.

It seems so simple, yet any writer knows it's rarely as easy as it sounds. You come up with excuses -- you don't have enough spare time, the laundry needs to be done, you need to organize the files on your hard drive, you're tired after a long day at work -- and you tell yourself you'll write something tomorrow. And when tomorrow rolls around, you come up with new excuses to justify why you aren't writing.

Believe me, I've been there. I've also discovered the biggest drawback to that mindset: The longer you go without writing, the harder it is to get back to it.

If you don't write regularly, the words dry up. The blank page becomes even more intimidating than it already was. The longer you put off writing, the more your talent and skills will atrophy.

The self-loathing also kicks in and you start hating yourself for not writing. You sink further into a pit of despair and doubt. You're frustrated and maybe even depressed, so you don't feel like writing, which means another day goes by and the frustration and self-loathing grows stronger. This cycle continues, feeding on itself and intensifying, until eventually one of two things happens. You give up altogether and set aside your dream of being a writer, or you sit your ass down and write something.

Here are a few things you can do to ditch the despair and develop a daily writing habit you'll actually stick to:

Stop waiting to feel motivated to write

I used to think I lacked motivation, until I realized motivation isn't some mystical force the universe bestows on those who are worthy. Don't wait around for motivation. It isn't going to arrive on its own. In fact, stop thinking of motivation as a necessary condition for writing.

Instead, think of writing as something you're required to do every day, like eating, sleeping, or brushing your teeth. You don't need to be motivated to do those things. You just accept them as part of your day.

Stop waiting for inspiration

William Faulkner once said, "I write only when I'm inspired. Fortunately I'm inspired at 9 o’clock every morning." It's tough to find a better way to convey that point.

Write something every day, whether you feel creative or not. If you're staring at a blank page and nothing comes to mind, write about how you're staring at a blank page and nothing is coming to mind. Write a description of the room you're sitting in. Write about your plans for the day. Just write something. After you've been writing for a few minutes, the resistance will break down and the words will start to flow.

Find ways to remind yourself to write

Keep the idea of writing always in the forefront of your mind. Stick post-it notes in prominent places -- the bathroom mirror, your computer monitor, the refrigerator door, and anywhere else you're guaranteed to see them. Change your reminders every few weeks. If you don't, they'll become part of the scenery and you'll stop noticing them.

Place a note in your wallet where you'll see it every time you reach for money or your credit card.

Use a site like HassleMe to send yourself automated reminders via email to write something every day.

Work on your self-discipline, but be gentle

Start with something small. Write for five minutes every day, or write one paragraph each day, or write 100 words per day. Create a goal that's easy to meet. Every time you meet your goal, you'll feel like you've accomplished something worthwhile. This will keep you coming back for more.

Build up to one hour per day, or one page per day, or 500 words per day, but do it gradually. Don't push yourself too quickly to set higher goals. Wait until you've met or exceeded your current goal for at least a few weeks or more before you set a new goal.

Don't hate yourself if you don't meet your goals. Forgive yourself and start fresh the next day. Research indicates self-blame is counterproductive and you’ll procrastinate less if you forgive yourself. Remember what I said earlier about self-loathing? It's a vicious cycle, and if you're not careful it can spiral out of control. You can end the cycle by putting the past behind you and focusing on the writing you're going to do today.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

Fear of failure is something that keeps many people from writing. They dream of being published but hold back because they're afraid their writing isn't good enough. They worry other people will read it and think it sucks.

Sometimes this fear is enough to stop a writer from sending her manuscript out to agents and publishers. Sometimes it's enough to stop her from writing anything at all.

In my experience, there is only one surefire way to overcome this fear -- give yourself the freedom to fail.

Give yourself permission to suck. In fact, don't just give yourself permission. Expect your first draft to suck. That's why it’s called the first draft -- because it's the first in a planned series of drafts, each hopefully better than the last. Even bestselling authors don't turn out perfect prose on their first try.

One screenwriter I know refers to her first draft as the "vomit draft", nicknamed as such because the process involves spewing forth the words as quickly as possible without letting the messiness of it all slow you down.

Give yourself the freedom to write crappy material. Don't worry about how it sounds. Don't worry about grammar or spelling errors. Don't worry about anything other than the fact that if you don't try, you'll never know. If you don't write, you'll never publish that novel. You'll never sell that screenplay. You'll grow old thinking and wishing about what you could have done.

Turn off your internal editor and just get the words on paper.

This is more difficult than it sounds. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your internal editor just won't shut up. When that happens, take a five-minute break and have a friendly little chat with it. Tell it you value its opinion, you're grateful for its help, and very soon it will have its time in the spotlight, but at the moment your goal is to give it some words to play with later. The operative word here is "later". Not now, when your only objective is to get through the first draft.

So don't just give yourself permission to write badly. Plan it. Tell yourself, "This draft is going to stink, and that's perfectly fine with me." When your first draft is finished, it probably won't stink nearly as much as you expected it to, but if it really does stink, that's okay. It's a learning experience. Every chapter, scene, and draft is one more step along the path.

If you give yourself the freedom to fail, every page you write will bring you closer to success.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

I’m back after a six-month hiatus. I wanted to take some time off from blogging to focus on my novel and also to work on my latest script. It was a productive six months, but I sold myself short in thinking I couldn’t keep up with the blog and work on my writing projects at the same time. In retrospect, it would have been a better lesson in self-discipline if I’d continued to post new material here while also meeting my daily word-count for the novel.

During my time away from the blog, I learned quite a bit about how to balance several different writing projects. I also discovered some useful things about creativity, motivation, and discipline. I’ll be sharing those things with you in upcoming posts.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking around!

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

At one time or another, every writer searches her heart and mind for a great story idea and comes up short. The muse is silent. The motivation is gone. The driving force that compels her to write just isn't there.

At this point, the writer has two options. One: wallow in self-pity, bemoan the situation and dwell on the lack of creative flow in the hopes that some interesting tidbit of an idea might magically present itself. Or two: take action and find something to get those creative juices flowing again.

While it often seems like the best ideas just appear in the mind — usually popping in at the most inconvenient and untimely moments — those ideas don't manifest themselves out of nothing at all. They come from somewhere, from a place deep within, where all the input your senses have ever received meets in a tangled jungle of sights and sounds and smells, textures and thoughts and emotion. That somewhere, that jungle, is what you as a writer need to learn to tap into at will.

That's where the Idea Generator comes in.

Not a machine but a technique, or combination of techniques, designed to propel you into creative mode.

This entry will deal with the first of those techniques, a simple method that forces your mind to look beyond what your eyes see, to probe your inner jungle to find the deeper story in everything around you. After practicing this technique, you'll find it difficult to look at any object and not see the potential for story.

How it works:

Grab a notebook and a pen and sit in the center of a room. Any room, the bedroom, the living room, it doesn't even have to be your room. A public place will do just as well.

Look around. A writer's greatest asset is the power of observation, and object targeting is a terrific way to hone that ability to a fine point.

Instead of focusing on the room itself, concentrate on what's in the room. What objects do you see? You may see furniture, you may see pictures on the walls, you may see knick-knacks on the shelves. If you're in your own room, each of these items may have special meaning to you. You may know Great Aunt Helen gave you the ceramic dog that sits by the door or that the silver candlesticks on the mantle were a wedding gift and the painting on the wall was a terrific bargain at the local flea market for five dollars, but for now, forget everything you know.

Focus on the objects in the room as if you've never seen them before. Let yourself be drawn to one object in particular. It might be a feature of the room, such as a fireplace, or something as simple as a book or figurine. You may be attracted to it because of its color or shape or simply because it's unique.

Once you've decided on an object, write a brief description of it in your notebook. This should be your initial impression of the object. Remember to look at it as if you are seeing it for the first time.

As an example, I'll write about that ceramic dog. (No, I don't really own a ceramic dog, but for the sake of this exercise I'll pretend I do.)

"Ceramic dalmatian, glass eyes, approximately 12 inches high, somewhat tacky."

Now study the object more intently. If possible, pick it up. Turn it over in your hands. Set it in front of you and walk around it. If your object is a feature of the room, approach and study it from several vantage points.

Make notes about any features that strike you.

My notes:

"Dalmation is hollow, ceramic, has a small chip in the front right paw, a plastic stopper underneath which covers a circular hole cut into the base of the figurine. Glass eyes seem to follow you around the room. Kind of creepy."

Now sit back and imagine the life of your object. How did it come to exist? Where has it been? Who had contact with it prior to it coming into your possession? Who might want or own an object like this? What role can this object play in a story?

These questions alone can provide a wealth of story ideas. How many novels or films can you name that feature an object as the driving force of the story? The Lord of the Rings, The Red Violin, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and countless other stories have been made with an object as the central focus. Characters need something to strive for, a goal, and often that goal is to obtain a specific tangible object rather than a certain emotional state.

Back to the ceramic dalmatian:

I ask myself, what role can this object play in a story? How can I create a story from nothing but a ceramic dog?

Well, let's see...

For starters, my dalmatian needs a home. We'll put him in the home of a rather wealthy couple. (Hey, even the rich don't always have great taste.)

Now that he has a home, how do I make him the central focus of my story?

Maybe he's valuable, an antique, or an exotic import that once belonged to someone famous. In fact, he's so valuable he draws the attention of a thief. Or maybe the dog itself isn't valuable, but, being hollow, he contains something that is...

It might not be great but it's a start, and all stories have to start somewhere. The goal of this technique is to get those creative juices flowing.

Maybe the map to a buried treasure is hidden in the fireplace behind the third brick from the left (an action-adventure). Maybe one of those silver candlesticks was once used as a murder weapon (a mystery/thriller) and maybe it still possesses the spirit of the victim (a horror).

Everything has a story to tell, if you're willing to listen.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.

In working on my novel, I’ve discovered one of the less talked-about differences between screenwriting and novel writing: point of view.

I never realized what a luxury it was to be able to write without having to worry about which character’s point of view should be used for a particular scene. In screenwriting, the point of view belongs to the audience. Even if the main character is present in every scene, the story still unfolds from the audience’s point of view as they watch that character in action. In a movie, all the characters could be on-screen together in a single scene, but the screenwriter doesn't have to consider which of those characters' points of view should be used in the script.

With a novel, the reader is your audience, but the story is told from one or more points of view. If several characters are present in a single scene, the author needs to decide which of those characters should be the POV character, and the author needs to determine whether that character should be granted the POV for that scene alone, for several scenes or chapters, or even for the entire novel. Screenwriters never have to wonder if a scene should be written from the hero’s point of view or the villain’s. Novelists do. (Of course, screenwriters have plenty of challenges of their own to deal with, but that's a post for another day.)

Deciding which point-of-view style to use is tougher than it sounds. Each narrative form has its own benefits and drawbacks. But before I get to that, let’s quickly go over the most common POV styles.

First-person POV – The story is told from the inner perspective of a single character. (as in, “I slammed the door.”)

Second-person POV – The story is portrayed from the reader’s point of view. (as in, “You slammed the door.”) This format isn’t common, except in choose your own adventure novels.

Third person limited POV – The story is portrayed from one character’s perspective, but viewed from outside the character, as opposed to the inner narrative used in first-person POV. (as in, “He slammed the door.”) Some authors write the entire novel from only one character’s point of view. Other authors rotate between several different characters, but only when shifting to a new chapter or a new scene. Only one character’s point of view is used per scene.

Third person omniscient POV – The story is portrayed from the point of view of an omniscient narrator who has knowledge of all characters and their thoughts and actions at any time and place.

I’m going to weigh the pros and cons of first-person POV and third-person limited POV. I’m not going to cover second-person POV because it’s usually not practical to use that form in a mainstream novel. I’m not going to cover third-person omniscient POV because I loathe it. It inevitably results in “head hopping”, where the perspective shifts from one character’s to another’s in mid-scene, sometimes even in mid-paragraph. I don’t enjoy reading novels written in that form, so I’m not going to write my own novels in that form.

The Pros and Cons of First-Person POV

One of the biggest benefits of first-person POV is the opportunity to fully embody a single character, to give the audience a glimpse at the character’s innermost thoughts and feelings, even when those thoughts and feelings are hidden from other characters. It also allows you to develop the character’s personality not just through his actions but also through his voice, his storytelling style.

At the same time, first-person POV suffers from a few drawbacks. If readers don’t love your character’s voice and storytelling style, they might be turned off. They might not empathize with your character as much as they would have if they’d been offered the distance that comes with third-person limited POV instead.

Readers might not get to know your other characters as well because the story is told from only one character’s point of view. Each character will be perceived through the lens of the POV character, with the POV character’s personal opinions affecting how those other characters appear to the reader.

If you’re writing a mystery or suspense novel, your main character won’t know the details your villain knows, meaning you’ll have to structure the story so those details unfold as the main character discovers them. This can be tricky in a suspense novel. Often, the source of the suspense comes from the reader knowing a specific something awful is going to happen if the hero doesn’t somehow manage to save the day. If the hero isn’t yet aware of the something awful that’s going to occur at some point in the near future, the audience also isn’t aware of it and that source of suspense is removed. But, many authors are easily able to develop suspense through other means. Several of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels are written in first-person POV and they’re filled with suspense. Barry Eisler's John Rain novels use first-person POV and they're also full of suspense.

The first-person POV is limiting but also liberating. You are restricted to only one character’s perspective, but you can explore that character’s perspective more fully and in much more depth.

The Pros and Cons of Third-Person Limited POV

Third-person limited POV offers its own benefits. It works well in suspense novels because you can write one chapter from the hero’s point of view and the next chapter from the villain’s point of view, giving readers a peek at what the villain is planning. If you have several characters working toward the same goal but those characters are in different locations, you can write one chapter from one character’s point of view and write the next chapter from a different character’s point of view, and then return to the first character’s point of view in the third chapter. As long as you use only one character’s point of view per scene, and as long as you make it clear right away which character has the point of view for a scene or chapter, readers will have no trouble keeping up with the shifts in POV.

Third-person limited POV offers you the opportunity to develop more than one character’s personality to a greater extent. You might even have more than one main character. Many novels feature two or more heroes, all of whom fit the role of “main character”. Another benefit of multiple points of view is if readers don’t like the character whose POV appears in one chapter, they won’t have to worry for long because a different character’s POV comes along shortly after.

The tough part of using third-person limited POV is making sure your main character (or characters) gets the right amount of face-time. You don’t want to end up with a novel where the villain’s chapters comprise 70% of the book and the hero’s chapters comprise only 30%. (And if you end up with a novel like that, you might want to reconsider whose story you’re telling and whether the story might be better served with the villain in the main role.)

If you’re writing in third-person limited POV, you might also choose to stick with only one character’s perspective. This is similar to writing in first-person POV because you can develop that character’s personality more than those of other characters. You are still inside that character’s head, but the third-person POV gives a bit more distance than first-person POV. This is simultaneously a benefit and a drawback. You don’t get to write in the main character’s voice, but sometimes that extra distance is a bonus because readers are more easily able to step into the character’s shoes and take on his/her role in the story. With that tiny bit of distance, they can more easily envision themselves as that character.

As you can see, there are clear pros and cons to each POV style. For each project, you’ll need to consider those pros and cons and decide which style best suits your story. I’m using third-person limited POV for my novel-in-progress but I’m experimenting with first-person POV for a different project, and I've found both styles equally challenging and rewarding.

©2010 Kris Cramer. All Rights Reserved.