You know those crazy stalker walls you see in crime shows or the one in A Beautiful Mind? 

 You need one of those. 

Get yourself a bulletin board or an empty wall. Break out the red yarn and the tacks. You're going to stalk your main character. ​Using this method, you can write a whole book with just a character. I'm a visual person, and this is perfect for anyone of the same mind.

It works like a concept map. In the center of your board or wall, put your character's name and--if you have it--a picture of them. From here, wrap a string around the pin holding the name and stretch it over to a new section of the wall. More and more strings will span out from the central point and each branch will connect to an aspect of your MC. 

Some different branches you could include are:

• physical characteristics (if you don't have a picture as a reference)
• motivation(s)/drive(s)
• hobbies
• likes/favorites
• dislikes
• pocket/purse contents (This is one of my favorites because it tells you what they can't go a day without.)
• occupation (job or school, etc.)
• most traumatic experience to date

This next set can lead into plotting if you branch from each one thoroughly, but the basics will be enough to further define your character:

• home and previous homes (where it is and what it looks/feels like)
• family members (Branch from each of these to details about them and their relationship with the MC.)
  
• friends (Branch from each of these in the same way you do with the family members; include how they met the MC.)
• enemy/villain/nemesis (This might be an actual person or some physical or mental challenge that is impeding your MC; think of it as the impetus of your plot.)

Obviously, add anything else you need to define your character.

You can draw out a timeline and map your whole novel using this method, stalking your MC through a specific timeframe. You can use stalking to get into the heads of your villain and secondary characters. Your walls will be covered and you probably won't want to have company over until you're done writing, but understanding these other players as their own protagonists will make your characters shine.

Try it and post some pictures! Happy stalking!

When you're writing a memoir, it can be difficult to create scenes. Whether it be action or a conversation critical to your story, a strong setting builds the scene and gives you all the subtleties that make it feel real to readers. A simple way to get started is with the five senses. Write each sense down on a piece of paper and begin to picture the moment that you are trying to capture. 

What do you remember hearing in that moment? Think about the background noise as well as what was said.

What do you remember smelling in that moment? 

What do you remember seeing in that moment?

What do you remember tasting in that moment?

What do you remember feeling (as in touching) in that moment? Go ahead and approach this from an emotional stand point as well. Think about others' emotions in the scene as well as yours. Remember that people rarely experience just one emotion at a time.

Don't feel like you have to answer all of the sense questions (our memories may not collect everything), but try to. You might be surprised at what you remember. There's no need to use all the details created by this exercise in the actual scene, but they'll help you retell it in a livelier way that readers will appreciate. 

Fiction writers can use this as well to perk up the scenes that fall flat or to change those "tell" moments into "show" ones. Experience the scene through your characters' or narrator's eyes and answer the questions. Rewrite the scenes with your sensory notes and see what a difference it can make.

Speaking as an editor, I love it when authors come to me with questions and we open up a real discussion about their work. The editing process instantly becomes more effective when we are asking "Why was it written this way? What do you hope to accomplish in this scene?" and "What made you suggest this edit? What issue are you trying to resolve?" 

Editors sometimes suggest drastic changes--removing characters, deleting scenes. Consider your editor's notes carefully, but don't assume they're getting it right the first time either. Think about why you wrote it the way you did in the first place. If you think the editor's ideas improve on yours, take the advice. If you have doubts about it, talk to the editor. Ask them about their suggestions. We never do things without a reason and unearthing that reason could be the key to improving your manuscript. Sometimes what one might think is the problem is actually just a symptom of a different problem. To dig deep enough, you need to express your hopes for a scene to your editor. 

On the flip side, be careful not to just be blindly defending your work. Instead of arguing with your editor or beta reader, ask them about their response. "Why?" is always a good place to start. 

In short, don't assume anyone is perfectly correct (including yourself). If you have questions about why they felt a certain way or suggested a specific edit, always ask. That's how you'll discover the real problems and the real solutions for creating your masterpiece.

A story starts with the simple question of "What if..." To write something that truly challenges ourselves and our readers, we have to keep asking that question all the way through the writing process. I've read conflicting ideas about "first thoughts." Some say they're the best, some say they're the obvious and we should dig deeper. I'm of the second mind. I think before we choose our next scene or next piece of dialogue, we should ask "What if...?" and finish it with a thousand different options before we settle on the one that drives the story forward.Asking this question can lead to ideas that astonish you and in turn, your readers. 

Even though readers might not see all the fruits of your "what if" exploration, your manuscript will ultimately reap the benefits. You'll get a stronger feel for the character by looking into all the possible routes a person could take in a given situation. As you reject or entertain ideas based on the personality of your character, you'll learn what makes them unique. The better we know our characters, the stronger they become on the page. In speculative fiction, the same technique can be applied to develop the world the characters inhabit. 

"What if" can also save you when you've written yourself into a corner. Go back to the last scene you wrote and start with the first line of that scene, but as you retype it, ask what if s/he reacted differently? What if they were standing on the street instead of sitting at the diner? You'll find your way to the next scene by exploring the possibilities overlooked the the first time through. 

During the first rounds of editing, "what if" is very important. What if you take out that character completely? (This will lead to: What does s/he bring to the table that the manuscript can't do without?) What if you take out this scene? What if s/he reacts differently in that scene? Seeing the possibilities not only allows you to develop the story into the unexpected, but also helps you refine the necessary pieces and eliminate the unnecessary ones. 

In every stage of writing, from the brainstorming to the first draft to the edits and rewrites, asking "What if...?" will help you create an unforgettable piece of work. 

Edgar Allen Poe's The Philosophy of Composition is an essay on his writing method. Before he launches into his example of "The Raven", Poe ruminates on the qualities of a good piece of writing. One of the ideas he expresses is "the vastly important artistic element, totality, or unity, of effect." 

Poe writes, "It is only with the denouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points tend to the development of the intention." He writes toward one goal. Before beginning a work Poe asked himself which effect "of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is susceptible" he wants to impart with the work. Then he considers how best to invoke that effect in tone and incident. Poe believes that reading in one sitting is important for singularity of effect, otherwise the real world happenings between readings will ruin the unity. 

Although Poe's ideas are directed specifically at poetry and shorter works appropriate for one-sitting reading, he makes it easy to apply the idea to longer works when he writes, "What we term a long poem is, in fact, merely a succession of brief ones--that is to say, of brief poetical effects." We don't expect readers to devour a novel in one sitting. Even if we've done it, it is unreasonable to expect everyone to have that kind of free time. When considering the effect of your novel, think about the effects leading to that overall response. What feelings do you first need to take readers through in order to leave them with that final effect? Each of those feelings relates to a scene and each scene can be treated as Poe treats the "succession of brief ones" that make up a long poem. 

The unity of effect concept is particularly useful when you're editing. In a first draft, there is typically far more material than necessary. To trim the fat from your novel, ask a series of simple questions:
-What effect am I hoping to achieve in this sentence/scene/chapter/novel?
-How does it support or lead to the overall effect?
-Do these words, as they are, create that effect?
-Do they have any effect?
Editing this way makes it easier to find the extraneous words, phrases, or scenes in your novel. Try this the next time you're not sure if a scene should stay or go. 

If you're the writer who doesn't plan before they write, you probably end up with a lot of exposition, especially at the beginning. Even though you're not a planner, unnecessary exposition is usually disguised planning. Writers and editors talk about beginning in the right place and most of the time a first draft does not begin in the right place. Planners also encounter this problem, but if you're like me and prefer to just jump right in, you can end up with more cutting material than necessary because you do all your prewriting in the first few pages.

I'm not suggesting you turn into a planner. For some of us, the outlining thing is just never going to work. When I've imposed too many rules and goals on the project, I can't even write it anymore. At some point it stops being something I want to do and turns into a series of homework assignments. While writing one of my manuscripts, I picked up a habit that helps me keep the plot moving and avoid extraneous exposition. 

When I start writing a new project on my laptop, I get out a good old-fashioned, empty notebook. I write the working title of my new project on the cover. Sometimes that working title is more like 'the one about the frog thing' than The Princess Frog, but it's just an identifier so there's no pressure to live up to the title.

One of my pitfalls when it comes to exposition is characters. I generally write in first-person, but the protagonist tends to get a little too narrator-y when I introduce new characters. A simple writing rule for me is when I bring in a character, I grab the notebook before I write any more on the actual project and I put the character's name at the top of a new page. Then, I write all those things my protagonist wants to tell readers about that character. This way I won't have to cut it later and the character becomes developed enough that I can work with them as a real person. It also provides a handy reference so I don't have to go zooming back to page one to remember if that character was blond or had a bad temper. 

I also use the notebook for potential scenes. With a small enough notebook, you can take it with you when you need to take a writer's walk around the writer's block. This notebook is not about putting absolutes down on the page. (That would be planning, and we don't do that.) It's about collecting ideas, settings, smells, and sounds that might make it into that project. You might find them helpful for a different project too. It's like a writer's journal but focused on one project instead of those seven other ones you've started. 

The notebook becomes a reference tool and a wrecking ball for writer's block. If you're writing yourself into a corner, take out the notebook and page through for the next idea to spark a scene. If it was inspiring enough to write it down once, it will inspire you again. 

You're not really planning since that would imply work done before you start writing; you're just collecting stuff and writing down information you need and you want to appear on the page.  You want these things to come out through storytelling. Let the characters expose themselves without your narrator inserting an exposé. This method helped me cut down on the fat that would have required trimming later. 

Do you have other methods for not planning but keeping the story tight? Share them in the comments.