The Comfy Hermit

I may be struggling with the formatting of this website, but there are some things I don’t struggle with-like plot diagrams!

Some classes will help you focus on the basics, but never really dedicate time to them. You may understand understand the three-act structure, but struggle with character development. At the end of the day, I am not here to teach you it, just point you in the right direction.

If you aren’t sure where your writing is struggling, your alpha and beta readers will tell you!

Point of View
Figure out your point-of-view (POV) and stick to it. It helps with your story because it controls the intimacy of the read (how close your reader is to the character’s motivations, thoughts, etc.) This lovely article by reedsy reviews POV, gives examples, and shares which genres typically use which.

Again, this your writing, so you may change things up. There are industry standards, but no rules. You’re the artist, have fun. But, make sure its clear. If your writing is a jumbled up mess and no one can understand it, it will only hurt you and your reputation in the community.

Tense
Be consistent with your tenses. That’s past, present, and future. If you are flip-flopping, it will pull your reader out of the story. Here is a quick article from Masterclass on tenses.

Active vs. Passive Voice
I hated this feedback for the longest time. “Your writing is too passive.” Well, yes, I am a passive person, for the most part. Long story short, passive writing adds filler words, making your story longer, and bores your readers. Also, longer books cost more money to print. Apparently, average readers don’t want books over 90,000 words, so do yourself a favor and cut that word count down.

This article by Reedsy goes over the difference in voices.

Plot Structure
If your story has no structure, it will be all over the place and incredibly difficult to follow. According to Reedsy, there are 7 types of plot structures in Western Literature. Since my first book is book one of a series, I have used the three act structure. I believe most Americans have been taught the Basic Structure or Freytag Structure.

Pacing, Chapter Length, Book Length
Pacing is the speed at which the story is told. What can affect this is the voice, POV, and structure. Each chapter should have purpose, each paragraph should move the plot forward. You should not have “filler”. If you find yourself with filler, you can always do a time skip (typically indicated with ***), take the opportunity to further develop your character, or build your world. Remember, each word costs money to print. Make your choices worth it in the end.

While there are not standards for chapter length, for a beginning writer, try to aim for ten pages per chapter, and 20 chapters in the book (taken from coursera’s Write Your First Novel course-it’s free). That will give you a 200 page manuscript. At the end of the day, you can have a chapter be one page long-as demonstrated by Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon, she demonstrated time skips with chapters titled after months and leaving the chapters blank.

Do not use your Microsoft or Google docs page length as a true measure of your book’s length. You may be wondering why, we will get into that in a moment.

Manuscripts have different formatting requirements than books. You would give your manuscript to your editor, and eventually an agent. Here’s an article, but long story short:

• 12 point font.
• Sans fonts only, like Times New Roman, Arial, etc. keep it simple (also, from an accessibility standpoint, if your reader has a vision impairment, using fancy fonts may not work for them and prevent them from reviewing your work).
• Do not use all caps.
• Do not use underlining.
• If you’re like me and put two spaces after a period, that was for typewriters, not computers. Single space.

In the industry, we look at word count (for standard word count lengths, check out this article), not page length, because of industry standards for physical book formatting. The most common is 6″*9″ (” indicates inches) for fiction. Reedsy has a handy article here that you can reference. The rule of thumb is 250-300 words can fit on a single 6″*9″ page. You could use that to guesstimate your page numbers (which impacts your paperback and hard cover book design because of spine thickness) or you could use amazon’s handy calculator here (it’s under the file setup calculator). I know there are feelings surrounding using KDP/Amazon. Use it, don’t use it, that’s your personal choice. I am sharing resources, not personal opinions.

Attention cover artists make your life easier, here’s their calculator. I use Sketchbook on my tablet and GIMP2 on my PC (photoshop, but free). In Sketchbook, go to your menu, Edit Canvas, select the 3*3 grid tab, change dimensions from pixels to inches, and set it 6*9. You can set this as a preset as well. Now, get to designing. See you later on a different page. You can also use Canva, for access to their premium features, you need to pay for it-in my opinion, totally worth it.

Character Development
Time to admit something. I. LOVE. CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT! Phew, glad I got that off my chest.
No, not every character needs a fully fleshed out backstory. But, important characters who impact the plot, spend a lot of time with the main character, and reoccur? Heck yeah. Dive in.
Here’s an extensive tool from Reedsy.
Please flesh out your characters. The reader will sink their teeth in more, connect with them more, and if you have inconsistent motives, it will confuse and potentially cost you readers.

While Cover Art Resources, Artists, and such are at the front of my mind, I am going to end this post and switch over.

Remember, this is not a blog, but a resource hub. Please contribute by sharing resources.