My Writing Cheat Sheet

I’m moving through an important phase in my writing right now. I’m attempting to morph from a good writer into a great writer. Ha! Aren’t we all? Historically, the feedback I’ve received was that I could write, but it just wasn’t there yet. I’d heard this from betas and agents alike. Of course, how helpful is that? Not very. But then I met an awesome writer, Michelle Davidson Argyle. She not only gave me a detailed critique on what I was missing, but how I could actually fix it with solid, concrete examples! I think I understand now what separates good writers from great writers. And being the very organized person that I am, I’ve created a cheat sheet I can refer to while writing. The first 4 on the list are no-brainers. These qualities can make up a story just fine. However, if you want to be a great writer and draw your reader into your characters and the world you’ve created, you need to move on to the remaining 5.

Have I included what my MC is:
1. Seeing? (description)
2. Saying? (dialogue)
3. Doing? (action)
4. Thinking? (internal thought)
5. Smelling? (4 other senses)
6. Tasting?
7. Touching?
8. Hearing?
9. Remembering! (back story)

Why did I put an explanation point on Remembering? Because this was probably the most lacking part of my writing. I was so freaking afraid of back story dumps that I relied solely on dialogue to bring out the past. But what I’ve learned recently is that memories can be your friend. Memories can help the reader connect to your character; to understand them better and have compassion for them. Here’s an example:

“Ooh, ooh, guess what?” asked Jenna, bouncing in her seat. “I found the perfect flower for the bouquets. Hydrangeas!”

Quinn gulped and forced a smile. Hydrangeas were her mother’s favorite flower. She thought of her mother bent over her garden, wearing a large sun hat, her hands covered in dirt. Quinn had planted hydrangeas at her grave just last week. She could still feel the cool earth shifting beneath her fingers. Her throat tightened as the hurt returned like a reopened wound. She stood up, the chair legs squeaking against the floor. “Where’s the restroom?”

By bringing in her memories, not only has it explained her odd behavior, but it has let the reader into her mind, and also added much needed back story that her mother is dead and she’s still hurting from it.

Another good use of the cheat sheet above is to get past writer’s block. So many times I’ve gone out on a limb and had my character see or hear something and it’s taken me on a completely different path (hopefully better!) than where I was originally heading. A good example of this is in my MG where Migizi is lying on the couch with the cat curled up on his lap and the silence of the night is shattered by glass breaking. From there, my story just flew from not knowing what the heck I was going to say next to vandalism and a rebellious band targeting his grandfather. All because in my MC’s head I “heard” glass shattering. So the next time you’re unsure of which direction to take, run through the 9 rules of my cheat sheet and see where it takes you!

Do you have any tricks you use when writing to make sure you’re drawing in the reader? Is there anything you would add to my cheat sheet?