These are notes I took from a wonderful writing symposium called Life, the Universe and Everything. We have a lot of talented people in Utah and visitors with a great deal of knowledge. Any Misinformation is the fault of the note taker. With the length of my notes, I will present this in three sections. This is part B.

Avoid clichés (like the plague – sorry couldn’t resist)
– A person looking in a mirror to get a description.
– Characters running 7 miles in one scene but does not show exercising behavior to keep in shape elsewhere in the book.
– Start and end chapters with waking up and going to sleep.
– Melva> fix pursued on this.
For shadow:
– Place the smoking gun on the mantle
– If you foreshadow something that will be introduced later in the story.
– If you planned to have a character to have an arc later in the book and it does happen then remove the info of that arc.
Characterization:
– Check the consistent accuracy of your character names.
– Watch characters names that look or sound the same.
– Every aspect of the story needs to be grounded in the characters, their baggage.
– Check the main character their baggage to makes them act a certain way that creates issues or provide a lack of tension.
– Need to have character likes and dislikes.
– Need to have hobbies and goals when they grow up mg or a place in the world.
– Check their world campus> what are their moods.
– If a point of view character can walk away from the problem the book then there is a problem with the book.
– Supporting characters may have an opposing goal to the character.
– Character voice: need to aim for consistency. A character is rough around the edges then later they talk in an educated voice is not consistent.
– Melva> some will read dialogs only for a certain character and they use specific word choice.
– Melva> some will color-code all the dialog of one character in a text and read-only that text to check for consistency of behavior, motivation and dialog patterns.
– Amplify Emotion: Provide contract examples> she was so sad she couldn’t breathe.
Dialog:
– Remember, provide info of a story for the reader on a need to know basis.
– To look if have a weakness of realistic dialog then hear a conversation.
– Your characters should have distinct voices that are influenced by their baggage and personality.
– All characters have filters.
– Dialog tag ‘said’ is just fine.
– Word choice can depict origin. One example is the word choice for British such as boot, trainers, and bloke.
– Use adverbs sparingly. i.e. ‘said excitedly’.
– https://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/subverting-adverbs-and-cliches
– https://grammargoddess.com/are-you-guilty-of-using-too-many-adverbs/

Tension:
– Need to face something they fear to obtain what they need.
– Scene> Gandalf falls, all attacks, crying time. Then after had a scene in on intense battle they chill a little in the elven city.
– If have tension on and off throughout the book.
– Authors often try to protect their character. After a bad situation, they are shown to have no physical repercussions of being physically or mentally hurt. Physical and physiological.
– The consequences are based on the level of the stakes to be achieved.
– Tension should come from multiple sources. Get hobbits to Mordor. Internal grieving thinking not good enough. The ring is eating his soul.

Pacing:
– Is the speed and rhythm of your novel. There should be a variety, an ebb, and flow. Fast and slow.
– Can tell if the pacing is slow with big blocks of text.
– Fast pacing: action scenes and dialog makes for fast reading.
– If pacing too slow. Look for shorter sentences. See how deeply emotionally connected to the character.
– Pacing too fast? A lot of dialog that goes too long. The reader is not getting a moment to observe the contents. Add bigger paragraphs and more emotional response showing body reactions to events.
– Engage emotion of reader what feel, see.
– Flashbacks can be effective but can slow down the pacing. And then the text to rebuild to momentum back when coming back to the present text of the book.

If you have additional recommendations, feel free to add them in the comment section of this blog.