Make Your List

Welcome to October's IWSG and thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for letting me co-host. Co-hosts this month are myself at Susan Says, Beverly Stowe McClure, Megan Morgan, Viola Fury, Madeline Mora-Summonte, and Angela Wooldridge.

You still have time to get those submissions in for the next IWSG anthology. Get those fantasy stories ready.  There is an adjustment in the details. Submissions can be between 3,000 and 6,000 words. There's still time to write that short story. Publication in a story anthology with the promotional power of IWSG behind you is a great career opportunity.
 Here are the details.

The question this month for IWSGers to use or not is:

When do you know if your story is ready?

As you visit all those blogs today, you'll gain insight into each writer's process and their methods. Everyone has a checklist, either one they've found or one they've created. If you take notes today, you can probably improve your checklist. But you'll also see things that don't work for your process. Read and learn, but do your own thing.

If you're looking for words from the pros, check out The CliffsNotes Checklist for Improving Your First Draft. It's pretty detailed and has a lot more items on it than what I look for in my first draft but everything is something that eventually needs to be done.

Writer's Digest has this Checklist for Your Final Draft. This list actually fits into what I shared on my own blog for the most part. I do these things much sooner than the final draft.

This list is called The Ultimate 15 Point Writing Checklist and is somewhere in the middle of the other two.

But the truth is, you must design your own checklist and do what works for you to make your story ready. Taking advice from professionals is a good place to start if you don't know when your story is ready. And be prepared to adjust if needed.

Are you making a list and checking it twice? Do you come up with it on your own or find it elsewhere?

End Cliche Speed Bumps

Cliches are all around us. Cliched plot lines. Cliched characters. Cliched blog posts? Sometimes cliches slip into our writing and we don't realize it. How can they be avoided? Do we even realize how many we use? Is crying a cliche when showing a character's sadness? How else can we write sadness instead of just having a person cry? Drooping shoulders. Flat, monotone voice. Heavy-footed walk. Staring down at empty hands or clutching a token like a cross of memorabilia.

Think of other things we write or read many, many times. Ear to ear grin ... sounds a bit creepy instead of joyful. Waves of nausea. Quaking knees. Shivers crawling up the spine. Pounding heart.

Most of us write a few of those into our work. And the more experienced you are, the more likely that they create a snag in the flow. You stop typing, knowing you have to make that sentence better. You have to get the emotion across without an overused phrase. I used to do this all the time. But another writer gave me permission to not let these things slow me down. Cliches are permitted in first drafts. Now when I write one I wince, but I keep on moving. Fix it in the next draft. Fix it when your critique partner points it out. Fix it before an editor sees it but don't let it slow you down in the first draft.

One of the ways I fix my cliches is by using the best-selling resource, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression. A member of my writers' group recommended this book a few years ago. I've had it on my desk side shelf for a while now. I don't pull it out for the first draft but keep it on hand during the second.

So instead of worrying that your protagonist shed a single tear or their eyes widened again, finish the first draft and then make the second draft as shiny as a new penny and cliche free.

What cliches do you find in your writing? Any particular cliche you see often when reading that really bothers you?  Are you familiar with The Emotional Thesaurus and its sequels? And why couldn't I figure out how to get the accent mark over the 'e' in cliche?