New Year, New Tricks

By Angela Hunt

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions . . . probably because I’m failed at so many in years past. What I do believe in is learning new tricks, and the new year is the perfect opportunity to start learning a few.

I like to try something new with each book I write. Of course, the subject is always new, but in years past I’ve tried using present tense, using mixed points of view, using what they’re now calling “dual time” (I called it two books in one, with one being historical). I’ve tried using different kinds of resources, having characters speak directly to readers, playing with time, adding background music, and more.

So why not make that one of your goals for the coming year? No matter what project you’re working on, try something new with it. Or plan a writing exercise for the week and experiment with something new in each exercise. There are a gazillion writing books out there to give you ideas, but here’s one to get you started:

Play with time. In a scene where something happens suddenly—a car crash, an accidental fall, a gunshot wound—slow time to a crawl by writing a long, run on sentence.  Like this:

Sally made her way toward him, and too late she saw the glimmer of water on the floor, probably left by her mastiff’s over-enthusiastic dog drool after she showed him a cookie, and she felt her smile freeze as her shoe encountered the almost gelatinous mess, and her weight shifted, and oh my goodness, Tom was certainly never going to think of her as graceful again, and she felt her center slipping as one leg moved forward and the other moved to the side, and she reached for the kitchen counter, only to encounter her mother’s prized teapot, so it moved toward destruction, too, in the opposite direction of her momentum, and she only had time for a flicker of recognition, an instant of seeing Tom’s astonished expression, before her knee cracked the tile, pain shot through her leg, and she found, to her astonishment, that she could still do a split, though not with as much grace as she’d exhibited in high school.

Warning—this is an odd technique, and I wouldn’t advise doing it more than once per book, but it works!

Now . . . write a scene that speeds up time, when a character is racing against the clock to catch a dog in traffic or deactivate a bomb. How? By doing the opposite—use short, abrupt sentences. Like this:

The dog slipped away. Tammy’s heart slammed against her chest. Quick, run, and she did, heart beating, feet pounding, eyes closing. Lord. Help. Me. Get. That. Mutt.

You get the idea.  Whatever you do, have fun with your exercises and keep on being creative!

Angela Hunt stopped counting books after 165 or so, and she keeps busy in Florida with her mastiffs, her mutt, and her chickens. And her husband, of course. She is also producing a newsletter for writers: angelahunt.substack.com.