I can still remember how outraged I was when I read The Horse Whisperer and the author killed off Tom Booker. OK: in real life, heroes die; anyone can die. But I have to admit, I hate it when it happens to one of the characters I’ve identified with in a book!

This week, I read Simon Kernick’s TARGET. (Spoiler coming up here for Kernick fans who haven’t yet read the book.) This fast-paced novel had me engrossed all the way through, with the main character’s dogged efforts to find an old friend who had been kidnapped from her apartment while he was present. The book was written in the first person, so of course the reader was deep in Rob Fallon’s point of view.

I was gobsmacked when he was actually murdered by the bad guys. Yes, in the situation he found himself in, it was most unlikely that he wouldn’t have been shot. (He’d already had more narrow escapes than the average cat.) But… hey, this was the HERO. This was the first-person-viewpoint guy! The whole book had been based on his search for the people who abducted his old friend, Jenny. And the death happened several chapters before the end of the book.

But I read on anyway. Why? Because by this time, I had also identified with Tina Boyd, a maverick cop who was breaking rules right left and center to help Fallon in his quest. Tina had also been captured and was in desperate straits… I had to read on and find out how things turned out for her.

After I finished the book (since I can’t help reading like a writer) I thought about how the author made this work. Yes, I was upset that Rob Fallon was killed off… but I cared about Tina’s fate, too, so I kept reading.

The author pulled this off because he had woven in chapters from other viewpoints throughout the book (the prologue is in third person viewpoint: a corrupt businessman). The scenes for all viewpoint characters except for Tom Fallon were written in the third person.

Kernick wastes no time introducing Tina, who has problems of her own, so we’re interested in her story too.

It’s a good model for authors to follow if they MUST kill off a major character – one that readers will like. Ensure that you have one or two other characters that the reader cares enough about to keep reading – and to forgive you for the death they didn’t want!

Marg

Tags: killing main character,main character death
Categories: Plotting Your Story, characters
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Are you one of those writers who finds that the problem is not so much getting ideas, but keeping them at arm’s length so you can keep working on the current novel?

If you have two or three novels going at the same time (plus maybe a number of smaller projects) here are some tips:

1. Keep an ideas/characters notebook handy, or a computer file that sits on your desktop. If you suddenly get a great idea, make a note of it so you know it won’t get away, then go back to the work in progress.
2. If you have several novels on the go, then pick one to focus on. (The other one – or others – aren’t going anywhere. If you have a ‘dry day’ on the main novel, you can take a break by going back to the others – but set a time limit. Tell yourself you can only do this for a day, or two days. Then you have to go back and solve any existing problems with the first one.
3. If the problems on the first novel become a major roadblock, organise a session with some other writers to talk over the problem, or send it to a critique partner online. If necessary (and if you are REALLY committed to finishing it) then pay for a professional critique.

Whatever you do, resist dumping one novel to start another just because you hit a rocky patch. That happens with every novel, and it will happen with the bright sparkling new ones too… before too long, they will become ‘old’. There’s a real danger here of never actually finishing a book… and therefore never getting published.

Marg

Categories: General Tips, Plotting Your Story, Uncategorized
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Time limits can be used to create almost unbearable tension for the reader. The TV series ‘24′ used it particularly well.

The heroine has to reach the hero before he boards that plane or he’ll be out of her reach forever. Or Detective Joe Bloggs has just twenty-four hours to prove Heroine’s innocence before his superior calls in the cops.

Bring in the ticking clock, and you heighten suspense. Will they make it in time or won’t they?

If you introduce a time limit, make sure that the reader is constantly aware that time is running out (but don’t always simply refer to a clock or her watch! Show other ways of time passing.) Stretch that suspense. Keep raising the stakes. Use obstacles to heighten the tension.

It’s a simple and time-tested technique. Give it a try.

Categories: General Tips, Plotting Your Story, Technique
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Hazel Edwards is shaking her head about how closely today’s swine flu pandemic mirrors the pandemic flu threat to Darwin that she wrote about in her book OUTBACK FERALS three years ago. Her book was fiction… but it’s a case of the book being almost prescient!

Hazel explains that in her novel ‘Outback Ferals’ the ferals were the pigs, not the locals! She researched the  infection details carefully with quarantine authorities. The implications of a pandemic threat were woven into the plot. Her facts were right, but the story about Kyle the young undercover, eco- scientist sleuth was fiction.

“Why is my fiction prediction becoming nightly news?” she asks. ”Perhaps it’s the fiction writer’s tendency to research, look at the possible conflicts and then say What if? It’s a reasoned guess based on possibilities.”

Read more about Hazel’s OUTBACK FERALS and swine flu here:

http://www.writing4successclub.com/public/675.cfm?sd=57

And if you have a similar story with a book or story you’ve written, please let me know!

Categories: Plotting Your Story, Technique, Writing for Children
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We all know that our job is to make things as hard as possible for the main character. If things are going well, we have to throw a spanner in the works. If things start going bad, we have to make them even worse. We want to see our characters grow and change - and meet all the challenges we can throw at them!

This week, something happened that made me resolve to keep notes on real-life experiences that I might be able to use in a book later. (Or indeed, in an anecodote like this one – take note, writers of non-fiction articles!)

We’re currently holidaying at a coastal location in NSW – to be precise: at Sawtell, which is around 15 minutes south of Coffs Harbour. We have 2 kayaks strapped to the roof of our 4WD, and we’re towing a 21.5 ft caravan. After a couple of days of sunshine, it started to rain.

And rain.

And rain some more.

One night the wind was so fierce that we raced outside at 11 pm to roll up the awning of our van, which was flapping and creaking and groaning with each gust of wind. We threw the poles and the chairs under the van, and ran back inside.

Then the rivers and creeks began to flood. At our campsite, the water began to rise while the rain poured down. Just on dark, we had no choice but to hitch up the van and move – with lots of willing helpers from our fellow campers! Rob (my husband) was winding up the legs of the van, and hitching up the van to the towbar, underwater.

And naturally, we didn’t give a thought to the chairs still under the van, or the drainage hose still attached, or the awning support – we just drove out over the top of them. Then we helped other hapless ‘vanners out of a similar situation.

In the end, no great harm was done, and we are now high and dry on a nice well-drained spot… and the rain has stopped. But it got me thinking…

What if someone in a similar situation ran over something important? Something essential to survival, or some crucial clue to… well, I don’t know what, but you get the idea! For us, the weather went from bad to worse, but in the end we were fine. (Even the chairs survived!)

But what if the tow hitch had broken, or the van was bogged and we had to leave it behind? What if someone helping us had got hurt? What if we’d… somehow broken a leg?

Ah, the possibilities! That’s the great part of being a writer. Being able to dictate what happens. Great stuff!

And there’s nothing like being there to be able to write a scene and show, not tell, what it feels like to be running around in pouring rain, trying to contact emergency services and not being able to because they have too many emergencies, and what the camaraderie of the caravan park fraternity feels like as we all stand around deconstructing the events when it’s all over.

I feel a book coming on…

Tags: Add new tag
Categories: General Tips, Plotting Your Story, Technique
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I started a new book last night. (Reading one, that is, not writing one.)

To begin with, all was well. I liked the sound of the plot (from the back cover blurb). I liked the sound of the main character (from skimming the first few pages). So I settled in for a good read.

But after a dozen or so pages, I found myself skipping over paragraphs. Then skipping over pages.

Being a writer and a writing tutor, I stopped to analyse why I was doing this. In a word: PACING.

The author was continually going down side paths exploring the character’s backstory. Worse, she shifted viewpoint to another character at the end of the first chapter (not a sin in itself, of course) just when the main character had a big turning point coming up. Often, this is an excellent strategy to increase the suspense. In this case, it was frustrating – BECAUSE she kept going down those side paths, telling me every little thing that had happened to Character 2 to bring him to this point. Meanwhile, I still wanted to know what Character 1 was going to do… so I turned over about a dozen pages to find out.

What happened then? Just as the main character was setting off to the venue where she was going to meet someone important and make a big decision, we had even MORE backstory.

Too much, in fact. I closed the book, turned out the light, and reflected on what I’d just experienced. I probably won’t re-open the book. A pity, because it had the making of a good story. It was just too slow… I didn’t need to know the character’s past in such detail.

A salutory lesson for all writers.

Tags: backstory,Technique
Categories: Plotting Your Story, Technique
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For many years, I’ve been a tutor for students undertaking courses in writing romance, crime or children’s stories. In that time, I’ve marked thousands of assignments. I’ve seen hundreds of plots, thousands of scenes, millions of words. And if I had to give writers one piece of advice after seeing all those millions of words, it would be this: always ask ‘WHY?’

Why?

Because I’ve seen too many characters forced into ridiculous situations by a careless author. I’ve seen potentially good plots twisted completely out of shape – because the writer finds it easier to force characters to do dumb things than to sit down and come up with a stronger plot.

Believe me, you don’t want your readers scratching their heads in puzzlement and saying ‘But why would she do a stupid thing like that?’ or ‘As if anyone would say that at a time like this!’
Once readers start saying stuff like that, your book’s a goner.

Suddenly, the reader can’t believe in the character anymore. She’s become a puppet in the hands of the author. (‘Oh,’ says Character, ‘You want me to agree to meet this guy I know is a psychopath in the middle of the night, in a deserted area of bushland? Without backup, without a weapon, and without letting anyone know where I’ve gone? Isn’t that a bit… well… stupid? Oh, I see, it’s necessary for the plot to work… Well, okay then.’)

Now come on. What would you do in this position?

First, you would probably never in a million years agree to go anywhere to meet a known psychopath.
If for some incomprehensible reason you did, you’d certainly leave messages with key people saying where you are going, who you are planning to meet, why you are going, when they should expect to hear from you again and what action they should take if they don’t.

And that leads us to the golden rule when you are planning action for one of your characters. First ask, ‘What would I do in this situation?’ Your common-sense response is probably what most people would do. Here’s a useful chart you can use to ask your characters WHY they’re doing or saying those things, while there’s still time to change it.

[An extended version of this article, with some suggested 'Why?' questions you should ask your characters, is in the members' section of the Writing4Success Club.]

Tags: Add new tag,character motivation,characters
Categories: Plotting Your Story, Technique
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If your book is suffering from the dreaded ’sagging middle’ syndrome, it’s likely that you either don’t have a subplot or you haven’t paid enough attention to your subplots. (In shorter books, such as those for juvenile readers, you can usually ‘pep up’ the middle by adding another challenge for the main character. Long fiction needs more.)

What Is A Subplot?

To understand what a subplot is, you need look no further than your own life. Of course, real life isn’t usually as focused as a novel (just as dialogue in a book is usually much ‘tighter’ than real-life conversation) but it will serve as a guide. Here’s an example: let’s suppose that your immediate concern is to get out of debt. What’s more, you need money quickly. How can you get it? Let’s start turning this into fiction…

Main plot: You’re a single parent. You need money. Your creditors are pressuring you. You’re renting, so you can’t sell your house to tap into the equity. You wouldn’t dream of stealing or breaking the law… so how can you get money quickly? (And after that, how can you get out of debt permanently?)

Possible Sub-Plots:

1. Someone in the office is laying the blame for a serious breach of confidence on your best friend, who works for the same company. Your boss is a hair’s breadth away from firing her, and is constantly in a bad mood. Your friend is trying to deal with the fallout – but is also trying not to involve you, because you have enough problems. Eventually you become implicated too, because of your friendship.
2. Your 13 year old is lying to you and hanging out with friends you don’t approve of. She’s in trouble at school. You know your boss has a ‘thing’ about working mothers needing more time off than other workers… you don’t know how to ask for time off work to attend a meeting requested by the Principal. You dare not risk losing your job, given your existing money worries. 
3. You’ve been to the doctor because of some worrying symptoms, and you’ve been asked to go in for further tests. Sigh. Everything is money, money, money…

These three are very simple subplots, but any one (or all three) could be developed to provide extra conflict and to deepen the main story. When you start brainstorming subplots, look for ideas that will do these things:

1. generate suspense when there’s a lull in the main story 
2. serve to make things worse in the main story 
3. offer ways to deepen character or illuminate a theme

Do NOT choose a subplot that has nothing to do with the rest of the story. (That is, if your main story is about someone who is trying to find a way out of debt, don’t create a subplot about a secondary character’s efforts to audition for a talent show. Not unless that secondary character is the Lead’s daughter or sister and needs MONEY to get to the audition!)

To find out more about sub-plots (including when a sub-plot should start, and how to switch back and forth from plot to subplot) read the full text of this article here:

http://www.writing4successclub.com/public/427.cfm

Tags: plot,plotting,subplot
Categories: Plotting Your Story
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You can read six books on plotting and come up with six different methods… and that’s only a fraction of what’s possible. The bottom line is, and always will be, DO WHAT WORKS. To know ‘what works’, of course, it’s likely that you’ll have to spend some time experimenting. Your method of plotting is likely to reflect your personality, but writers have been known to use different methods. Here are three basic approaches – moving from the least structured to the most.

1. Writing on the Fly

This is beloved of many writers. Some can’t work any other way. They simply have a ‘flash’ of an idea (they ’see’ a character, or imagine a situation like a car crash or a robbery) and off they go. They write while being able to see only a short way ahead – a bit like walking through fog – and write the whole book that way.

2. Mind-Mapping

Good for right-brain types. A ‘mind map’ is sometimes referred to as ‘a cluster diagram’, or ‘branching’, or simply ‘brainstorming’. Basically, you dump lots of ideas on a page so you can see the plot at a glance. Circles, arrows, lines and scribbles tend to be representative of this method of plotting.

Lots of writers find this method works wonders. While they scribble and link ideas, they are organizing the story in their minds. Although there’s not a lot on the page, there’s plenty going on in the grey matter. All of this ’sticks’, and provides enough of a path so writers don’t lose their way.

3. The Linear Approach

I know of writers who can’t start writing the actual book until they have written an 80-page outline first. This is more like a slim version of the final book – they then go back and rewrite, fleshing it out. But before the 80-page outline came the list of characters, the time-line, the backstory for each character, the setting checklist… and so it goes on.

If this is the way you like to work, DO IT. Who says it ‘wastes time’? Who says it ‘takes the spontaneity out of your work’? So what if you could have written two books in the time it took you to prepare for one?

People who make comments like this show their preference to work in other ways, that’s all. You probably wouldn’t like their way of plotting. Remember, there’s no ‘right way’ to plot. The right way for you is the one that works. Period. If you like to spend six months preparing before you start to write, then do it. It’s your book, and your time.

This post is a summary of a longer article that lists the advantages and disadvantages of each of the above approaches to plotting. To read the full article, go here:

http://www.writing4successclub.com/public/371.cfm

Tags: plot,plotting,writing a book
Categories: Plotting Your Story
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