how to write a novel

Things I wish I knew about story development when I started writing

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Text: Things I wish I knew about story development when I started writingSo here we are for another round of writerly advice from the friendly writers of Google Plus. This time I’ve asked people for their best advice on story development.

My own personal favourite: “Figure out the worst thing that could happen next, and do that.” It works particularly well with humour where one white lie quickly becomes a disaster zone, but it works almost anywhere else too.

You’ve got to watch it as the worst thing that can happen isn’t necessarily the best thing for the story, but if you use it sensibly to generate story twists and turns, it’s magic.

Enough from me.  On with the fantastic advice from some other writers!

“Don’t worry if it fits right now; it can always be fixed later.”  Glendon Perkins

“Know what your characters want, why they want it, who or what is getting in their way and why, how far they will go to achieve their goals, and the consequences if they fail.” Kyra Halland

“Most of the time it’s the characters who seem to make the story, since, chances are, readers will already have seen your plot somewhere else, and will keep on for interesting or amusing characters and worlds.” Quinn Miczo

“If you plan your novels (plotter), concentrate on the story milestone scenes. Except for these, inevitably everything will change so don’t go into too much detail with the supporting scenes or don’t even bother planning them at all.” Mark Mercieca

“For me, the best stories are character driven and you can’t have a successful main character without a strong cast of supporting characters.” Roland Boykin

“Sometimes it’s better not to think.” Quinn Miczo

“You always need more backstory/world building than you think you will.” Ann Smyth

“Build a story bible.” Charles Barouch

“Writing is the easy part. Revision–now that’s the tough part. Suddenly you question every scene, every paragraph, every word! Everything you love could wind up on the chopping block. And it takes way longer than writing it ever did.” Traci Loudin

“The tendency to avoid conflict in life is very strong. You need to be vigilant for signs of that in your writing. Don’t necessarily shower your reader with one disaster after another (that too can be off putting) but give the characters and therefore yourself, as the author, story obstacles so challenging that you have no way out of in your head, then wait for a way to appear.” Luke Mercieca

So there you have it, fantastic advice on story development from some wonderful writers on Google Plus. What’s your best advice?

If you liked this, check out last week’s post: Things I wish I knew about writing when I started out.

The secret of writing successful stories

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Question-markIf I could tell you the secret of writing a successful book, would you like to know what it is?

There is actually a secret, and it’s pretty neat.

What’s more, it works on all genres and subgenres, and will even help you break the genre barrier and reach beyond, which is where you want to be if you hope to sell in big numbers.

A recent discussion that cropped up on Google Plus, and one that often appears among writers, was about a certain book that people love to hate.

I won’t mention it by name in order to protect the innocent filmmakers involved, but it rhymes with highlight and features sparkly vampires.

I read it a while back along with a bunch of other successful books including The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Hunger Games, all of which racked up ridiculous sales numbers.

The reason I read them, other than to appease the people telling me I should (hint hint), was to try and understand why they were so popular.

The comment that sparked the discussion on Google Plus claimed that the sparkly vampire book was badly written – a subjective remark at best, and way off the mark at worst.

To some extent I can see where the comment was coming from. The novel didn’t work for me either, but I was hardly its target audience, and that’s not a reason to say it was badly written.

Having broken it (and others) down, I found it more or less structurally perfect and technically fine. What it lacked, if anything, was originality. Other big sellers contained quite a few original elements, so the secret wasn’t there.

And I suspect that’s where this particular comment originated.

The book rhyming with highlight followed a standard formula in an emerging subgenre, while doing little more than tweaking the known tropes.

In the end it gave its readers exactly what they wanted and expected.

In short, it didn’t do anything special from a story standpoint, so the secret wasn’t there either.

So what was the secret?

Here’s a question. What would you do if you could apply that secret to your own writing, without:

  • compromising your integrity as a writer
  • giving up on originality
  • dumbing down or nullifying your brilliant ideas?

What would you do if I said the secret was simple and could be applied to almost any story?

Take a look at any book that’s sold millions of copies, read it, and then take a look at that book’s audience. What do you see?

You see people who:

  • recommend the book to their friends
  • discuss the book online and off
  • look for other books by that same author.

In short, you see fans. Lots of fans. Why do books find fans?

Because fans care about your characters and what happens to them.

It’s as simple as that.

Make your audience care and they’ll tell their friends, discuss it online, and even look for more of your stories. They’ll become fans, and you’ll become successful.

You don’t even have to alienate your niche market to do it.

It’s obviously not as easy as it sounds or everyone would be selling millions of books, but the more people you can make care about your characters and what happens to them, the more successful you’ll become as a writer – assuming you judge success by sales numbers.

If not, forget you read this post and keep on doing what you’re doing.

If you want to sell books though… well, now you know what it takes.

Read more articles about The Craft of Writing.

The value of an awesome freebie

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yWriterIt’s amazing what providing freebie can do for you. Take Simon Haynes, for example.

Simon created the novel writing program yWriter to help him write his novels because he couldn’t find anything that did what he wanted to do at the time.

Afterwards, he let people use it for free.

Today, yWriter has something of a cult following, and Simon’s name is known around the world.

His novels have had far more exposure than he could have ever hoped to gain without yWriter.

Similarly, a few years ago I created a novel structure diagram as a last-ditch effort to try and save a novel I just couldn’t get to work no matter what I did with it.

From what I could tell I was doing everything right, but it still wasn’t working.

Years of casual research went into that diagram, but it paid off because the information highlighted a whole bunch of structural elements my novel was either doing poorly or missing altogether.

The diagram was my means of making sense of it all my research; a visual clue I could see in a moment to trigger a greater understanding of what needed to happen around certain points in a story.

When complete, I posted it on my blog in the hope it would help others, and from the feedback I’ve received, it did.

So what’s the point of all this?

My blog gets more hits from that one page than any other post I’ve ever put up.

What’s more, visitors often continue on to my other posts about writing, and sometimes that trail even leads them to my fiction.

Just the other day someone posted a link in a writers’ forum asking the people there what they thought about the diagram.

Lots of writers clicked on that link and swung past my blog to check it out. Plenty of them read on.

So what’s the value in a freebie?

A diagram showing the elements of a novel and how they fit together.Would I be blogging about Simon Haynes if it wasn’t for yWriter? Would someone have posted a link to my blog without my diagram?

It means people come for something, and hopefully find something else.

Maybe you’re sitting on something that might help people too. In helping them, you just might be helping yourself.

Find out more about yWriter and/or download it from Simon’s website.

Take a look at my novel structure diagram – it may just be the answer you’re looking for.

What I’ve learned about writing and publishing – Jen Christopherson

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Today I’ve got the amazing Jen Christopherson over for a chat on her writing process and experiences in the publishing game. Please make her feel welcome.

Photo of Jen Christopherson

Howdy!

Before we get started I would like to thank Chris and fandelyon.com for having me! I am very excited to be here!

I would like to say I am one of those writers that has a schedule and writes every day on a project, adding in communicating online on a regular basis (and in all fairness, I’ve tried!!), but I’m not one of those people.

I write and communicate as time permits. I try to keep in touch online at least five days a week, but sometimes… Well, sometimes life just happens!

When I’m writing, I write. I forget about everything else, including eating. My poor boyfriend! He has to remind me to do everything while I am writing!

Editing my work is easier because I have the inclination to “social edit”.

What I mean is that I share what I am working on with my boyfriend and we edit it together. Now, with my momma living with us, there will be three of us editing! LOL

Well, being a “pantser” (I like that term! I have always been a “seat of my pants” kind of gal!), I have a difficult time blogging! Oh! I missed my cover unveiling on Facebook, too! That was humiliating!!! LOL

Tior, by Jen ChristophersonWhen I wrote Tior, I wrote from start to finish. I wrote it in 30 days!

I wasn’t on the internet because I couldn’t afford it. I say that to let you know, I have been so poor I couldn’t afford the down payment on a free sandwich! LOL.

I had no idea about editing or having someone edit it for me. I wanted a second opinion on the book and asked a friend to read it. They liked it and wanted to help me get it published.

Well, I got wrapped up in the excitement of publishing and completely forgot to review the work to make sure it was publisher ready. Oh! I learned so much from that one little book! The story is good, I just want to “finish” it!

Warrior Crone by Jen ChristophersonWarrior Crone was different.

I kept being “visited” by Winaiva (Tar-Reesh’s favorite companion) and she was reading me Tar-Reesh’s journals. I know writers will understand, not sure others would though!

Anyway, I began writing it way back in 2008, but life had a way of putting a bunch of stuff in my way and I didn’t get it finished until now.

I’m thankful for the journey I have had writing it and look forward to what is to come!

My current project, Living Winter (working title), has begun by introducing characters and scenes. I will have to figure out where they all go and how it all works out! It’s an adventure fantasy.

I suppose that would be the “ultimate pantser”, right?

Three books and three different ways to start them! I do not feel that I am an author. I am more like a “ghost writer” who gets all the credit for the characters’ work, ya know?

Writing Tior taught me about writing, publishing and marketing (or the results of the lack of it!).

You should check it to make sure it’s ready, if you don’t want to “read it again”, put it away for a while and come back to it. Make sure you are not excited about the next step when you read it, you’ll miss a lot! Research publishers on Editors and Predators website. You can learn from others before you get into a mess o’ trouble!

When you are writing a book is the best time to start marketing it. Bring others along for the ride! Let them get to know the real you and you will find the people who will enjoy your writing!

Warrior Crone could be two books. The story before Warrior Crone is what taught me a “life lesson”. I learned not to judge a religion based on the actions of the people of the faith. Someone summed it up best, “Church is the one place where people go and not one of them is fit to be there.” In other words, “Principles are the perfection we are seeking.”

Warrior Crone, the book part, has taught me to not only accept criticism, but to embrace it. Without criticism, I cannot grow as a writer and THAT is what life is about, growing. At least, for me it is.

I haven’t tried to put any morals or theme into my books, I generally find them after they are written.

I think, if I tried to put it in there, the book would suck. I would be too focused on the moral and forget about the story.

I have found I love communicating with people about my writing. I love sharing it and hearing what they think of it.

I had people in my life when Tior was published who would only say things like, “It’s ok,” or “It sucks.” When I asked for more they would say, “I dunno.”

Now, I have people who tell me things like, “That’s a terrible place to end it! What happens next?!?” I like those responses much better. I can work with those!

I have one last thing to say before I go. I’ve heard people say, “It’s the journey, not the destination.”

I thought, “Yeah, they ain’t never been where I am, if they think that.”

Well, I have begun to follow my dreams and I can testify that the journey has been the best part. If you don’t believe me, then start following your own dreams and see what happens! I dare ya! I double dog dare you to follow your dreams!!! When you do, be sure to drop by and let me know how it’s going. I don’t care what your dream is, let me know what you’re doing to follow it and what your experiences have been so far.

Alright, that’s all I have for now. Thank you for letting me ramble and rant. I hope ya’ll come on by and visit a spell.

Please leave Jen a comment below or find her at her blog – JC Publishing or on Google Plus.

Read more interviews with authors.

Two More (Hidden) Elements of Novels

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The moment I hit the ‘publish’ on The Top Ten (Hidden) Elements of Novels, I ground my teeth.

Two more additions popped into my mind. Rather than amend the post, I figured I’d drop them into a new one. They are:

Cliffhangers

Cliffhangers have come a long way from the days of ‘join us next week when we find out if our hero will survive the…’ Cliffhangers have evolved to help shape a story, to pose a question or throw in a twist at the end of a chapter that begs to be discovered. Sometimes it’s as simple as having something intrude into a scene before all the questions can be fully answered, giving people a reason to read on. If you’re subtle enough, people won’t even realise there’s a cliffhanger there, they’ll just have a burning desire to continue reading.

Buttons

Buttons? Seriously? Yup, buttons. If you’re lacking that killer cliffhanger ending to a chapter, a button is another way to draw a reader on. A button is a simple sentence – sometimes a comment, sometimes a bit of dialogue, sometimes even a joke. It can be anything from… ‘Thunder boomed in the distance, an ominous sound to match her growing unease’, to ‘You might be right, but you’re still ugly’. Whatever grabs attention, draws a smile or gives a sense of continuity – the assurance that there’s more to come and it’s only going to get better.

The previous post on the topic: The Top 10 (Hidden) Elements of Novels.

So, You’ve Written a Novel… What next?

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ACT Writers Centre LogoThis article appeared in the December 2012 issue of ACTWrite, the ACT Writers Centre newsletter.

Before you try to sell your book to a publisher (assuming that’s the path you want to take), you need to make your writing as solid as you can; agents and publishers rarely take on a project that needs more than superficial work, and no reader wants a scrappy read – so self-publishing won’t help either.

The question is: how good is good enough?

Getting some feedback should give you that answer.

Other people will see problems you miss because they’ll see it from another perspective. They’ll also pick up on things that are clear in your own mind, but not so clear on paper.

Useful feedback requires some fairly specialised skills from both you and your readers; you need to be willing accept feedback objectively, and a reader must be prepared to tell you about its problems without fear of upsetting you.

A good manuscript assessment service might be the perfect solution, but they’re costly, and you’ll need to do your research first; there’s little point in paying for someone who specialises in literary works if you write fantasy.

A cheaper and more versatile option is other writers

There are plenty of online critique groups (Critters, Authonomy), and Yahoo Groups is particularly useful for setting up your own (or finding one already established.)

If you’ve got the choice, a face-to-face group specifically formed to review each other’s manuscripts works extremely well.

For example, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG) runs a novel critique group for its members each year, which has the added benefit of providing feedback from people writing in the same genre.

Each month is devoted to critiquing a single novel, and all members of the critique group read it and meet afterward to provide face-to-face feedback followed by a written report.

Thing to consider

Regardless of the format or how you obtain your feedback, there are some things to consider when committing your manuscript to scrutiny.

Firstly, find out what genre and sub-genre each person prefers, their level of writing/editing experience, and their professional qualifications (if any).

The answers may influence the weight of any particular critique, but don’t take it as a hard rule – some people are naturally better at critiquing than others, while writing skills don’t necessarily add up to insight or knowledge.

It’s also easy to forget that people will critique your work based on what they would do. Their preferences and experience will play into their review no matter how good they are at writing or critiquing.

It’s also good to know if someone’s qualifications give them technical insight into your story.

For example, a historian might pick up on historical inaccuracies, a doctor would know a lot about current and/or historical treatments, and an astronomer will have a solid understanding of how the universe works.

Even if you disagree with the responses, assume that if several people say the same thing (even in different ways), more than likely there’s a problem.

That doesn’t mean their suggestions will solve it – only that you might need to do something about it.

Put your ego aside and give it some serious consideration – they’re trying to improve your story, not criticise you.

In fact, you may already have suspicions about your story (what’s not working), and quite likely they’ll be confirmed.

It’s good to hear it from someone else though. It means you’re on the right track.

Figure out what you want out of it

One of the most effective things you can do when putting your story ‘out there’ is to provide a list of questions you want answered.

Start with the general impressions:

  • What did you like and dislike the most? Why?
  • What were the strongest and weakest parts of the story? Why?
  • Did you care about what happened to the characters?
  • Does the plot hold together well?
  • Were there any inconsistencies?

After that, ask for more specific details:

  • key chapters
  • plot points
  • emotional impact
  • character motivations – anything you suspect isn’t working as well as it could.

Also, consider what isn’t said: if your novel is working, it should generate an emotional response.

  • Did people react the way you’d hoped?
  • Did they ask questions about your world and your characters because they were genuinely curious (or because they couldn’t figure something out)?
  • Were they passionate about the beginning, but had little to say about the end?

Listen to what your readers have to say and don’t say, and ask yourself if their feedback can improve your story.

Even an overwhelmingly positive response can generate fresh ideas

If you feel overwhelmed afterward, try writing another novel and revisiting the first when you’ve got some emotional distance. Better yet, write two – and then get more feedback. You can only improve.

However, if you can transport critical readers into your story and have them show genuine enthusiasm for the whole thing, you’ve probably written your final draft. Give it some polish and find an agent.

By Chris Andrews

Read more about the Craft of Writing, or for a bit of a laugh try Pitching to an Agent or Editor – The Cretin’s Guide.

What’s the worst thing that could happen next?

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Ever hit the wall and have no idea what to write next? Maybe you’ve just reached that point where nothing exciting is happening and you’re losing interest. And of course, if you’re losing interest, forget about your readers.

You might call it writers block. You might call it all kinds of blue-coloured words. You might simply take a break in the hope that inspiration strikes.

Worst scenario: you might give up.

Don’t! If you give up, you could be losing a fantastic story.

Instead, try this exercise:

“What’s the worst thing that could happen at this point in the story?”

Write it. Now. I’ll wait.

Very possibly, I’ve led you astray a little. The worst thing that could happen is all your characters catch a rare form of the flu and die, or an asteroid strikes the planet and they all die, or the sun explodes and they all die… you get the drift.

Okay then, lets peg it back a bit.

Your character tells a white lie – he’s had a fight with his wife, so she’s left him alone to deal with the business of running their ice-skating rink (or maybe something as simple as organising a dinner with friends). He’s too embarrassed to admit it, so he tells everyone she’s sick – caught a chill, and is resting up in bed.

What’s the worst thing that can happen? Someone’s got some medical qualifications and insists on helping.

Of course he could admit to the lie, but…

He tries to cover his lie and convinces someone to ‘play sick’ (maybe an employee, perhaps a neighbour), which not only deepens the lie, but draws someone else into it – and now you can see the snowball effect. “Oh no, it’s VERY contagious…”

And the worst thing that could happen at that point is…?

Okay, lets get back on track. We’re not actually building a story.

However, that sort of thing works particularly well with comedy, but also translates quite well into most genres.

Genre, you say.

Yes

Imagine you’re writing an action story – two tough cops go into a den of drug lords to rescue a kidnapping victim.

It’s time sensitive, and they make the call to go in early. What’s the worst thing that can happen – maybe one gets wounded and has to be dragged out – and the mission fails.

And of course, there are consequences.

Because they went in early and without backup, the kidnapping victim gets killed – and they get the blame. Suddenly they’re off the force, leaving them with the only option available – prove they did the right thing. Yet one of them is in hospital recovering…

You see where I’m going?

More than likely you’ll want to discard the first option (or four) that comes to you, but if you ever get stuck, if things slow down, or you simply can’t figure a way out of the mess you’ve created, ask yourself: “What’s the worst thing that can happen next?”

Threat Vs Conflict

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Everyone says you need conflict in your story, internal or external.

But what about threats? Are they the same thing?

Is the evil overlord presiding from the mountain of doom who wants to rule the world the conflict in the story, or some sort of threat?

Think of it this way: the threat’s coming from the evil overlord. If not stopped, the threat will realised.

A threat is the potential for all sorts of nasty things, but of itself isn’t conflict.

Losing the world, in this case, is the threat.

So what’s the conflict?

Conflict is immediate. It’s happening.

It comes from the minions trying to kill the good guys, the ally who says ‘I’m not helping you today, I’ve got a High Tea to attend’, from the evil overlord (when they finally get face-to-face), and even the self doubts and fears your characters carry.

Conflicts are immediate – threats have potential consequences your heros aren’t going to like.

Read about creating a writing/editing plan for your novel.

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