On Fridays, I usually meet a couple friends (who also work from home) at Starbucks, and we work from there for a few hours before heading back home. And I didn’t realize just how bulky my laptop was until we started our Starbucks ritual.

You see, both of the aforementioned friends have Mac laptop computers, and I’ve got a bulky HP that sits more than an inch high when the screen is closed. At our little Starbucks table, my laptop takes up most of the table top real estate. (As a side note, that’s one reason I’m trying to switch to Mac.)

So, what does that have to do with writing? Well, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten any real writing done, but when I DO write, I usually pack up my laptop and head out to the nearest Starbucks, away from the distractions of home. I know a lot of writers prefer to be hermits, locked away in a dark corner of their houses, but as I mentioned before, in my full-time job, I work from home, so by the end of the day, I need a change of scenery.

Anyways, if you’ve ever tried to pack up a 17″ HP Pavilion zd7000 laptop and take it to Starbucks, then you know what a hassle it can be. By the time you’ve packed it up at home and unpacked it at Starbucks, you’ve wasted a good 5 minutes that you could have spent writing. Now 5 minutes may not seem like much, but when you’ve got as little free time as I do, 5 minutes is a treasure!

If only I had a Mac Book Pro! They’re so much lighter and faster and easier to transport!

So, what’s my point? Am I trying to get everyone to buy a new Mac? No, of course not! My point is that when you’re writing, you need to examine all of the things that hinder you from getting that done . . . no matter how small they may be. If there are any little things you can do to increase your productivity, it will definitely be worth it in the long run to get rid of those obstacles. Even if it just gives you 5 extra minutes of writing time, won’t it be worth it? Think about it, if you write 5 days a week, then adding 5 more minutes of writing time per day will give you 25 extra minutes per week, 100 extra minutes per month, and 21 EXTRA HOURS of writing per year!

As I was was playing my guitar this afternoon, I was reminded of an important aspect of songwriting — variety.

Variety should be prevalent in every aspect of a well-written song. The melody should be infused with a wide variety (or range) of notes, or else the song gets repetitive, often sounding monotone and emotionless. If the rhythms are too repetitive, the music begins to sound robotic and stiff. If the chorus sounds too much like the verse, the entire song becomes monotonous.

And it hit me that it’s no different with writing fiction. If you open up any of the classics, you will find that the authors use a great deal of variety in every aspect of their work, from broad themes all the way down to sentence structure and word choice. Without this sense of variety, a written work doesn’t flow properly. Take sentence length, for example. If every sentence in a work of literature were long and verbose, bleeding across half a page, complex in structure to the point where you no long remember where the sentence began, then it becomes a very tedious read, and you quickly find yourself moving on to something else. Likewise, if you have too many short, five-word sentences in a row, then it begins to sound very choppy and broken.

On the other hand, if you employ variety in the length and structure of your sentences, then you will notice a more pleasant flow. When you read it out loud, it will sound natural, almost conversational.

But it doesn’t stop with sentence structure. Variety needs to be infused into your word choice. Don’t repeat the same words or phrases over and over again in the same sentence or paragraph. Also, consider the length of your paragraphs. Don’t make them all long, but don’t make them all short, either.

On a broader scale, use variety in your setting and plot. Unless it’s absolutely essential to the story (such as in the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away), don’t keep your characters in the exact same spot throughout the entire narration. If it is essential, then provide variety in other ways, such as the weather or the threats that are being faced.

Add a variety of themes (always staying consistent with your overall theme, of course), plot twists, moods, and dialogs. If all your characters speak the same way, using the same word choice and sentence structure, then ALL of your characters will start to become flat, no matter how much work you’ve done on their back stories.

I think you get the point. If something doesn’t seem quite right when you’re reading through your manuscripts, take a step back and consider whether or not there’s enough variety in the story. Adding a little variety may just give your story the spark you’ve been looking for.

But before I wrap it up, let me also say that there may be times when you purposefully want some repetition and monotony. Going back to the idea of songwriting, if you’re composing a funeral dirge, then you probably won’t have as much variety in harmony or rhythm as you would for a song of celebration. But as an overall rule, try to mix it up a little.

In the Writer Inside Blog, I just posted about the seemingly invincible Jack Bauer, and it inspired an idea for a new writing exercise. So try this one on for size:

This exercise will work best if you already have a work in progress. What I want you to do is to find a situation in your plot where your character(s) are in a particularly vulnerable situation. Maybe they’ve gotten into trouble, and you can’t figure out how to get them out. You’ve racked your brain, and you can’t find a way of escape that seems reasonable. What do you do?

Make it worse! That’s right. You heard me. Even if this is already the darkest point in the plot, make it worse. If you’re not scared for your character’s life, then your reader won’t be scared. You need to convince your readers that you’re perfectly willing to completely annihilate your character and/or everything that he/she has been working towards.

And then, after you’ve made things worse than you ever thought you would, finish it off. Write a few pages that completely destroys your plot and sends everything into ruin. Give your antagonist complete victory, and then drop your pen and walk away.

Don’t worry. It’s not really the end. Obviously, you’re not going to leave everything like this. After you’ve killed your character off or destroyed everything the character was working towards, walk away and give it some time to sink in. Allow yourself to mourn for the character. Convince yourself that what you’ve written has really happened.

This may seem like a morbid exercise, but if you use it right, it could just the exercise you need in order to infuse your writing with the tension it needs. Your reader at some point needs to believe that there’s no way out, and if you can convince yourself of that, then you will be that much more likely to convince your reader.

Enjoy!

As I type this post, I’m watching an episode of the fourth season of the hit TV show, 24, and reflecting on one of the most popular characters in television history–the seemingly indestructible Jack Bauer.

What is it about ol’ Jackie Boy that has so many people glued to their screens to watch him?

The answer is easy — he’s complicated!

Jack’s a good guy. He’s brave, he’s dedicated, he’s loyal, and he’s got some mad fighting skills. No matter what he’s going through, whether he’s being shot at or being tortured within an inch of his life, he never shows fear. He never balks. He never betrays the people or the values that he cares about.

But that’s not what makes him an interesting character. If Jack consisted of nothing more than his noble character, he would be a flat, 2-dimensional paper doll that would be impossible to relate to. He would be nothing more than a comic book hero.

What draws us to Jack–and this is very important to pay attention to if you want to write believable characters–is that he also has a dark side. He’s willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how dark, in order to serve the greater good. Even if it means shooting one of his own coworkers in the back of the head in order to satisfy the demands of a maniac who is prepared to kill millions of people, Jack is willing to do it.

And we can see it wearing on him, tearing him apart, destroying his relationships.

When you write, give your heroes strength. Give your heroes courage. Infuse them with the ability to move mountains (metaphorically speaking, of course). But don’t forget to give them flaws. Give them a dark side. Give them impossible decisions, but make them decisive. Whether their decisions are right or wrong will be revealed in the long run, but make sure your characters aren’t flat.

If you character has to choose between bad and worse, don’t always give him an easy way out. Make him choose, and give his decision a consequence.

Oh, and one more thing. I mentioned before that Jack was “seemingly indestructible.” And it’s true. No matter how many close calls he’s had, he always comes out on top. But it’s very important to make your readers believe that the hero could die. Even though I know there’s a season 5 and a season 6, this show has kept me on the edge of my seat, and there were moments where I couldn’t imagine how Jack was going to get out of the mess he was in.

That, my friends, is good writing.

Your thoughts?

As you can see, WriterInside.com has undergone a major facelift. I decided that it would be infinitely easier to keep the website updated if I installed WordPress, so we’ll see how it goes.

In other news, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s been a while since I’ve worked on the first draft of my novel, and lately, I’ve been feeling a strong urge to get back to my story. I owe it to my characters to finish this, and if I’m ever able to free up enough time, I plan on attacking the rest of the story full force.

Fiction is a funny thing. Even though the characters aren’t real, they still call to me sometimes. They cry out for attention, and I yearn for the day when I can give it to them.

Let me know how it’s going with you guys!