Giving your characters a deadline—and suitably disagreeable consequences if they fail to meet it—ups the ante and keeps readers glued to your story suspense. Even better, it’s a super-easy trick to apply to your story! Your hero’s goal is what shapes your story. Without something he needs or wants, your hero just an interesting personality […]
February 7, 2010 by 43 Comments Plotting Your NovelPlot vs. Character: Which Is More Important?
Authors debate plot vs. character, as if the two were gladiators, waging war on the sands of the Coliseum in some winner-take-all death battle. Both sides of the debate claim a definitive superiority for their chosen gladiator, and for the most part, the battle splits nicely down the lines of literary and commercial fiction, the […]
April 12, 2009 by 17 Comments Plotting Your Novel6 Things Your Characters Want–and 4 Ways to Keep Them Frustrated
We authors are pretty mean folk. Here we are, creating characters whom we love almost as much as our family and friends–and yet every day, on every page, we make them suffer. We figure out what characters want and then refuse to give it to them. Actually, truth be known, we kind of enjoy making […]
September 6, 2008 by 44 Comments Plotting Your NovelThree Easy Ways You’ve Never Thought of to Keep Track of Time in Your Novel
Do you know, without looking, how much time your novel covers? If the question has just pushed you into the predicament of either scrunching up your face or staring at the ceiling in an effort to tally up your various scenes and arrive a reasonable figure of days, then the answer is probably an unqualified, […]
August 17, 2008 by 30 Comments Plotting Your Novel6 Ways to Create Riveting Conflict in Your Story
Who says conflict is a bad thing? Who says world peace is the most important goal of humanity? Who says arguing with your little brother when you’re a kid means you’ll grow up to be an ill-mannered ruffian? Not a writer, that’s for sure! Arguably, the single most important tenet of fiction can be summed […]
