So 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.
These are great pieces of advice. I think my favourite is that anything can be fixed.
I agree Lynda – it can. Always allow yourself the luxury of a crappy first draft!
Mine would be: you have a whole book in which to get us acquainted with the characters, their situation, their politics, their country, their hangups, their history, etc etc. Don’t try to do it all on the first page.
That’s really good advice Patty! Good call!
Some of the best advice I’ve heard is to keep secrets. Hint a little, but don’t give away too much until it’s the right time. Secrets keep novels and characters interesting.
I agree Shell. And the more important a secret is, the longer you need to keep it!