By Sara McGrath

Introduction

You can complete a novel of at least 50,000 words within thirty days while receiving the guidance through this course. You’ll learn to write for quantity and quality while you steadily increase your word count, advance your story, and give your characters, plot, and theme the added impact they need to catch the eye of an agent or editor.

 

Lesson 1: You Can Write A Novel in Thirty Days

You can write a novel of at least 50,000 words in thirty days even if you have a day job, a social life, and a toddler. I know this because I have all three. In this first lesson, I’ll discuss being a writer, scheduling your writing time, finding inspiration, and staying motivated. Then we’ll start writing.

I recommend the following three books to supplement this course. The course can be completed without them, however, they contain significantly helpful information. Besides these three books, there are numerous inspiring books on writing including those listed in the lesson bibliographies. You will find books on every aspect of writing at your local bookstore, library, or Internet bookstore such as Writer’s Digest.

Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass. This book, subtitled, “Insider advice for taking your fiction to the next level,” is a well-written, helpful book that offers techniques to elevate your use of characters, settings, plots, and themes to the best-seller level. It gives genre-specific and literary information.

Writer’s Market, by Kathryn S. Brogan and Robert Lee Brewer is a directory of agents and book and magazine publishers. It also contains helpful articles on the process of preparing and submitting a work for publication.

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. In her book subtitled, “Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” Ms. Lamott gives specific information about writing while also telling the story of her journey into the writing life.

Being A Writer

If you’re like most writers, you’ve always wanted to write, felt compelled to express yourself, and wished to make a difference in the world by inspiring, entertaining, or otherwise affecting your readers. Writing fulfills a need for most writers. It can be lonely at times, exciting at others. Because we expose ourselves when we write, it takes courage. We face and overcome our insecurities each time we sit to write at our desk, in the local coffee shop, or under a big tree at the park.

Writing is often a solitary activity, so it’s important for writers to connect with other writers once in awhile, because only another writer can truly empathize with the emotional challenges of expressing ourselves in this form, offering our artistic efforts to an unknown audience who may criticize our work. It’s natural to take these criticisms personally.

I encourage you to write something every day even when you’re not working on a novel. I also encourage you to continue to read a variety of fiction and nonfiction. As well as entertaining and enlightening you, reading serves as subconscious writing lessons. If you haven’t already, you can begin to pay conscious attention to the ways your favorite authors describe characters and settings and how they use dialogue and show thoughts.

Everything you read or have read will influence your writing to some degree. For this reason, I recommend that you don’t read anything too similar to what you’re currently writing to avoid subconscious mirroring or copying.

Good luck in this courageous journey. Express yourself. That’s what writing is about.

 

Lesson 1: You Can Write A Novel in Thirty Days

Scheduling Your Writing

If you plan to write for money, sticking to a writing schedule is important. To successfully complete this course, it’s essential. For some writers, this discipline gives them the push they need to follow through with their ideas when the energy that accompanied that initial spark has waned.

It’s a good idea to set aside a block of time to write when you are most alert and least likely to be interrupted or distracted. In order to complete your 50,000 words by the end of this course, you’ll have a quota of 1,667 words per day, weekends included. If you choose to take weekends off, you’ll write about 2,273 words per day. I recommend making writing part of your routine every day. You may choose to do it all in one sitting, break it up into several blocks, or write when you can throughout the day. The longer you can spend at a stretch without becoming mentally exhausted, the better for the depth of your story and the success of reaching your goal.

Where you write may greatly influence your ability to keep at it. If you are easily distracted, you may do better in a back bedroom or at the library. But if you don’t do well in isolation, your kitchen table or a booth at a coffee shop might be a better choice. Some libraries or cities offer special accommodations for writers such as desks or cubicles for rent.

Writing may feel difficult at times, but it should always be enjoyable. The emotional pain you experience while facing a mental challenge in writing should be approached in the same way as physical pain in an athletic challenge. You can do it!

 

Lesson 1: You Can Write A Novel in Thirty Days

Finding Inspiration and Staying Motivated

Ideas come from everywhere. They pass through your mind constantly as you use your senses to experience the world. They come from things you see and hear now and in your thoughts and memories. The trick is tuning in to their presence, recognizing them as you experience them, and recording them before you lose them. Once they’re caught, their growth is limitless. I will discuss developing these ideas in the next lesson.

Once you’ve focused on an idea, have written it down, and have exhausted that first rush of inspiration, it’s time to get to work. Staying motivated in the face of your doubts may be the most difficult work. I don’t know an author or artist who does not have to battle their insecurities in order to complete their works. You may imagine that once one is published or otherwise recognized, insecurities and doubts will disappear. Unfortunately, no, because the work is a personal expression of the author, and personal expressions open us up to feelings of vulnerability.

The best defense against our doubts is to keep working. Stick to your writing schedule. Write something every day. New inspiration could hit at anytime. Take short breaks from your writing when exhaustion threatens. I recommend taking a walk, but don’t forget to take a notepad with you.

 

Lesson 1: You Can Write A Novel in Thirty Days

Exercises

Writing: Complete the first 6,250 words of your novel. Beginning today, and continuing for thirty days, you will write 1,667 words each day (or 2,273 words each day if you take off two days each week.) Meeting your quota each day is essential to completing your 50,000-word novel in thirty days. Whether or not you count character and setting descriptions and backstory as part of your word quota is up to you. Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to begin or what your story will be about. Just start writing. Focus on quantity for now. Don’t worry if you don’t know what form to put your words into. Describe your characters, where the story takes place, the situation, anything at all that will happen or influence what happens in your novel.

Reading: See Writing the Breakout Novel, Chapter 2, for information on testing the potential of your story idea. Read the introduction of Bird by Bird.

 

Lesson 1: You Can Write A Novel in Thirty Days

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

Berg, Elizabeth. Escaping Into the Open. Perennial, New York, NY, 1999.

Baty, Chris. “Tips and Strategies from Headquarters.” NaNoWriMo.org.

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

While you write your first draft, focus on recording the ideas, events, dialogue, descriptions, etc. that you want to go into your novel. It’s not important, at this stage, to worry about the shape of your novel or the exact words used. Some of your story will come out perfect the first time you write it, but most of your early writing will serve to stimulate your imagination and move your story forward. During this lesson, I’ll discuss developing ideas, writing quality and quantity, choosing viewpoint and tense, planning and organizing, and making changes.

Developing Ideas

An idea that sparks your imagination is exciting. You write as fast as you can to capture the idea. It may start with an interesting person, place, or event, then your imagination runs with it. After a short time, or a long time if you’re lucky, your pen slows. Where do you go now? Have you come to a dead end? Is this writer’s block? Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Don’t give up! When you reach this point, change direction. Look at what you’ve written. Who are your characters? What do they look like? Start asking them questions. What do they want? (This is important.) What have they been through? Ask them anything you want to know. They’ll tell you who they are. Some authors are so in tune to their characters in this way that they claim their characters write the story for them.

Where does the story take place? What does it look like? Pay attention to the details of the image in your mind. Use all your senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and emotional feeling. Does the setting have a mood? Is this a real place or an imaginary one? If it’s a real place, your readers expect you to portray it truthfully.

What’s going on? Why is it happening? What events led up to it? What’s going to happen next? If you’re not sure, ask “what if…?” Try out some possibilities.

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

Writing Quantity and Quality

For the purpose of your goal to write a novel in thirty days, the quantity of your daily achievement is equal, if not more important, to its quality. Your motto is “keep writing at all costs.” Push yourself to meet your daily word quota even if you don’t know where your story is going.

There are many things to explore while writing a story. How did your characters meet? What are their relationships to one another. If you were telling someone about each of them, how would you describe them? What happened in their lives before they arrived where (in time) they are now. What do they want most in life? The more you know behind the scenes, the better your scenes will be.

What about your settings? Why did you choose them? Use all your senses to describe the surroundings. How do the settings affect the moods and actions of the characters? Do the settings mirror or contrast the moods of the characters?

Why are you writing this story? Is there a lesson you are consciously, or subconsciously, trying to get across? What are the characters’ learning about life? What do they want? What are they trying to achieve? What are they trying to overcome? What would happen to your characters if they didn’t get what they want? (This is important.)

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

Choosing Viewpoint and Tense

Who is the main character? From whose point of view should you tell the story? (From whose eyes will your readers see the story?) Should it be told in first- or third- person? (Will the story be told by or about the main character?) Or will you try something more unusual like second-person or omniscient third-person? I’ll define these terms below. Also consider what tense you will write your story in. Past tense is most common as most stories told have already happened. Present tense may give your story a more active feel.

First-Person. Using this viewpoint, one of your characters tells the story using the word “I.” He tells us what he did, saw, thought, etc. This character could be the main character or another character who tells the main character’s story. First-person may feel the most natural to you as the teller of your story, because it’s the way you experience the real world, but this viewpoint can be limiting because we can only see and otherwise experience the story through one person’s eyes. You will need to be creative to include information relevant to the story that was experienced by other characters when they were away from the first-person narrator.

Third-Person. Using this viewpoint, a narrator tells the story using the pronouns “he,” “she,” and “they.” He tells us what the characters did, saw, thought, etc. In modern third-person storytelling, the narrator is limited to one character’s viewpoint at a time. Third-person may feel the most natural to your readers, because it’s probably the most common way to tell a story.

Second-Person. Using this viewpoint, you address the reader as “you.” You tell them what they are doing or thinking. It’s used most often in nonfiction, and often in present tense. You use this viewpoint as a way to try to get inside the readers’ heads.

Omniscient. Using this viewpoint, a narrator tells the story using pronouns as in third-person, but is not limited to one character’s viewpoint at a time. This narrator can hop from one “head” to the next, telling us what one character thinks, then what another thinks. He sees all and knows all. Third-person omniscient is considered old-fashioned.

First- and Third-person are the most common viewpoints from which to tell a story, but don’t let that discourage you from using another viewpoint if it better serves your story. Don’t be afraid to experiment. In first or third-person stories, you can alternate the point of view between characters, but you should avoid changing viewpoints within the same chapter. I’ll discuss book and chapter divisions in the next section.

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

Planning and Organizing

Scene. Chapter. Book. Novel. A scene is the smallest division of a novel. Each scene describes an event. The event advances the story by focusing on character, plot, or theme. Each scene contains a beginning, middle, and ending within itself, as does each chapter, as does the entire novel. Scene changes indicate changes in event, setting, time, etc.

A chapter is a group of scenes (or events) that combine to form a larger mini-story with a beginning, middle, and ending. Chapter divisions may indicate changes such as viewpoint, situation, setting, time, etc.

A book is a group of chapters. This division isn’t always used. It might be used to separate different periods in a character’s life such as before and after a major life event or before and after a change in a character’s outlook on life.

A novel is a group of books or chapters. It contains the entire story from beginning to end.

The idea of planning and organizing your novel may seem overwhelming at first, but all you really need to focus on is one scene (one mini-story) at a time. You can write the entire story this way, but it helps to have some idea where you are going. Sometimes you’ll know, sometimes you won’t, and sometimes you’ll be surprised. The natural progression of your story is instinctual for most writers, though you may move the parts around as you complete more of your novel and your understanding of your story increases.

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

Making Changes

What if you realize that something you’ve written won’t work with where your story is going? Or you think of something that should have happened to make your story stronger and more meaningful? While writing the first draft, avoid slowing your momentum by going back to do heavy rewriting. For now, just go back and make a note, a summary, of the change you want to make. If you cut large portions out of your story, I highly recommend pasting those portions into a new document and saving them.

You might choose to edit each scene as you complete it, but I don’t recommend editing too thoroughly at this stage because you may decide to change something later and your time is better spent moving forward with your story. If you choose to edit as you go, try to read through your scene as if you were a reader encountering it for the first time. While you read, note any ideas you have for improving it. Do you enjoy what you are reading? Make sure you’ve stayed in the same person and tense throughout the scene. Does each line advance the story through the development of character, plot, or theme? If words are only there because you liked the way they sounded, perhaps they should be cut. Don’t hesitate to cut parts of your story that aren’t doing their work, but don’t throw them away. Save them for later or for another story.

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

Exercises

Writing: Complete 12,500 words of your novel. Write about your story. Consider keeping a writing or theme journal while you write your novel. Do you know why you are writing your story? What will your readers learn about life from your story? Write down any connections or recurring symbols that you notice developing in your story. Is it a genre story? (Can it easily be categorized as a romance, science fiction, western, etc.?)

Reading: See Bird by Bird, Chapter 1, for information on writing your first draft.

 

 

Lesson 2: Writing Your First Draft

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

Collier, Oscar and Frances Spatz Leighton. How to Write and Sell Your First Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH. 1997.

 

Lesson 3: Characters

Whether you consider your novel to be plot-driven or character-driven, your characters have great influence on your plot. Their personalities determine how they react to the events they encounter. In a character-driven novel, the story focuses more on the characters themselves than on what they do and what happens to them. In this lesson, I’ll discuss creating new characters, basing characters on people you know, and delineating characters. I’ll discuss plots in the next lesson.

(For more information on character development, see Writing the Breakout Novel, chapter 5, and Bird by Bird, pages 44-53.)

Creating New Characters

We relate to the inner conflicts of characters more than to their outer experiences, because they do and say things for which we don’t normally have the courage. They experience things beyond the scope of our common lives. Your readers want to meet characters who are realistic, but not ordinary. They want to share experiences with characters who are larger than life, and who are memorable because of distinctive traits such as nervous habits or unique hobbies and interests.

You may begin with a physical image of a character in your mind, a line of dialogue, or a role. To discover more about this character, ask her questions. What does she look like? How does she feel about herself? What do other people think about her? What kind of home life did she have? Where did she grow up? How did she get herself into this situation? What does she most want in life? Etc., etc., etc. Ask her anything you want to know. Chances are that she has an answer for you.

Once you know quite a bit about your characters, ask yourself why your readers should care about each character. Most readers relate to suffering. But they don’t want your characters to suffer for no good reason. They want them to struggle and succeed in some way, even if it’s not by reaching the goal they strove toward. Give your character a noble goal, then make them suffer for it. By the end of your story, your characters, particularly your main character, must have changed in some way.

Rather than grouping characters into good and bad, try to see them each more realistically as people who have good and bad sides to their personalities. Even “bad” characters should evoke some sympathy from your readers. “Good” and “bad” behavior is more realistically the result of each character’s awareness level of themselves and those around them. Did they have time to think about what they were doing? What kept them honest or what lead them astray?

 

Lesson 3: Characters

Basing Characters on People You Know

It’s impossible not to base characters, at least in part, on the people in your life (especially yourself), but it’s important to make sure that your characters don’t resemble those people too closely. If the person you base your character on is healthy and attractive, give your character physical flaws, change her hair color, change her occupation, or give her a different personal history. Change her enough so that no one you and she know will recognize her.

You may know a lot about your characters because you know a lot about the people you base them on, but don’t stop there. Once you’ve protected the identities of the people in your life by mixing up and disguising their recognizable traits, use your imagination to fill in the blanks where the real people end and the characters begin. What do they think about? Why do they do the things they do? What do they write in their diaries? What are their deepest secrets and desires?

 

Lesson 3: Characters

Delineating Characters

Similarities among characters are ok unless those shared traits make it difficult for readers to keep each character separate in their minds. Give your characters distinctive traits that set them apart. For example, if both your main character and a secondary character have long, brown hair, consider changing one’s hair color. If two characters share similar histories, determine whether this similarity supports the story or confuses readers.

How do each of your characters regard themselves? Though they may seem similar on the surface, they are probably much different on the inside. Emphasize these differences by showing ways each character interprets their own thoughts and feelings.

Will your readers be able to tell who is speaking by the way that individual characters talk? They should be able to, but avoid the use of accents or dialects in your dialogue. It’s easier for the reader to imagine an accent if you tell them that the character has one rather than if you try to sound one out in your writing. If your dialogue doesn’t sound natural, take time to listen to people speak. Don’t forget to include the physical gestures, both universal and unique, that go along with speech.

You should have only one main character (or in some cases, one main group). All other characters support or influence this character in some way. Being aware of each character’s level of importance in the story will help you determine who deserves the most focus which will further differentiate your characters.

 

Lesson 3: Characters

Exercises

Writing: Complete 18,750 words of your novel. Create a chart that shows how your characters are related to one another. How does each character influence the main character? Rank your characters from the main character down to the secondary, supporting, and bit part characters.

Reading: See Writing the Breakout Novel, Chapter 5, and Bird by Bird, Pages 44-53, for information on characterization.

 

Lesson 3: Characters

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

Ballon, Rachel, Ph.D. Breathing Life Into Your Characters. Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2003.

 

Lesson 4: Plot

In simple terms, plot is what happens during your story. It’s the sequence of events that happen to, and because of, your characters from the beginning to the ending of your novel. In this lesson, I’ll discuss the beginning, middle, and climax and ending of your story, as well as subplots.

(For more information on plot development, see Writing the Breakout Novel, chapter 6, and Bird by Bird, pages 54-63.)

Beginning

The opening scene of your novel, beginning with your opening line, should hook your readers. It should be compelling by giving your readers a hint of what they can expect from the story. Your story probably won’t begin at the beginning, but rather at a high, or low, point in the main character’s life. It will likely be an active event, either externally or internally. You’ll pique the readers’ interest by introducing them to your main character and the problem she will face. The opening scene, as well as all others, will advance the story through the development of character, plot, and theme, but it will focus primarily on one of those elements. In other words, though plot is always present, it may not always be the most visible element in a scene if it doesn’t best serve the purpose of advancing the story in the direction you wish.

Your beginning scene must not only grab your readers’ attention, it must engage their sympathies for your characters, and the problem she faces must not be easy to solve. If a character’s life, emotional or physical, is in danger, we must first care about that character for her life to really matter enough for us to turn the page.

 

Lesson 4: Plot

Middle

The middle of your story is where you throw things at your main character that trip her up. Wrong turns, obstacles, moral dilemmas, etc. This is the longest part your novel. It’s everything that stands between your characters and what they want. A common method of developing your plot is by asking “What if…?” of each situation your characters encounter.

There should be tension on every page. Leave out boring experiences that don’t directly advance the story such as drives from place to place, showers, waking each morning, etc. Character, plot, and theme are your tools for advancing the story. A drive from one location to the next could give important information about character, plot, or theme, but if it doesn’t, skip it. Your readers will automatically fill it in without having been bored by reading it.

Foreshadowing. You may use subtle hints about where the story is going, but don’t give it away.

Flashback. Dramatizing something that happened in a character’s history through the use of memories, etc., should actually result in moving the story forward by giving the readers essential information for understanding what is happening in the present. You can avoid using flashbacks by simply having one character tell another what happened.

Flashforward. You can hook your readers by beginning in the future, then going back to tell how your characters arrived at that point.

Subplots. This middle section is where any subplots are commonly introduced. I’ll discuss them in the next section.

 

Lesson 4: Plot

Subplots

Do your secondary characters have their own stories to tell, their own goals to reach? You must determine if these subplots support your main plot. If they do, they will strengthen your novel. If not, they don’t belong in this story. Cut them, but don’t throw them away.

Limit the number of subplots in your novel to three or less to avoid blurring the focus of your novel. Each subplot, though a story in itself, should stay close to your main plot in purpose. Emphasize the connections between your subplots and main plot by using common settings, symbols, or situations. Connect the characters in multiple ways. For example, a secondary character can serve not only as the friend of the main character, but also as the past love interest of another supporting character.

Like all plots, subplots must have beginnings, middles, and endings with conflicts, climaxes, and resolutions. Aim to end your subplots before or at the same time as your main plot.

 

Lesson 4: Plot

Climax and Ending

Your story ends when all subplot problems and the main problem have been resolved in some way (not necessarily as the characters hoped.) Readers prefer a happy ending or one in which justice has been done. When this has been accomplished, stop writing. Well, you might give the readers a quick glance at the aftereffects, but don’t drag it out, because their interest after the resolution is pretty much gone.

The climax of your story is the moment when the main conflict is resolved. If possible, organize your story so all conflicts, internal and external, subplot and main plot, are resolved in the same moment, through the same action.

Your readers want your characters to get what they want, but they don’t want to expect it. They want to be surprised. Keep them in suspense, allow them to believe your characters might not succeed, right up to that climactic moment. Remember that a successful ending need not be the ending your characters hoped for.

 

Lesson 4: Plot

Exercises

Writing: Complete 25,000 words of your novel. If you are including subplots, map out each subplot to see it’s organization as a story in itself. Do this also for your main plot.

Reading: See Writing the Breakout Novel, Chapter 6, and Bird by Bird, Pages 54-63, for information on developing plot.

 

 

Lesson 4: Plot

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

Obstfeld, Raymond. Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2000.

Davis, J. Madison. Novelist’s Essential Guide to Creating Plot. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2000.

 

Lesson 5: Theme

Theme is the universal truth behind your story. It’s the hidden message that you and your readers subtly feel rather than consciously acknowledge. It’s what you wanted to say all along, whether you knew it or not. It may be a moral lesson or your personal philosophy of life. Whatever it is, it’s important enough to you to become embedded in the stories you tell. In this lesson, I’ll discuss finding your theme and polishing it.

Finding the Theme in Your Story

As I’ve mentioned, you advance your story through the development of character, plot, and theme. Most often you don’t write with theme in mind, at least not consciously. If you did, you’d run the risk of sounding preachy. Your readers don’t want to be lectured. If you don’t already know why you’re writing your current story, don’t worry. As you continue writing, you’ll likely eventually realize what your characters really want or what lesson they’re learning. In some cases, your theme may be so deeply embedded, a reader discovers it for you.

Theme may be present in your story as a conflict of ideals, values, or morals. It may be present as a strong opinion that you hold that comes out in the mouths of your characters. It may show itself as a recurring symbol. A symbol could be an object, phrase, gesture, etc., that evokes a feeling in you, your characters, and your readers.

 

Lesson 5: Theme

Polishing Your Theme

Once you’ve uncovered the theme in your story, you can polish it, make it more visible. You do this by making sure that your theme is present, though not obvious, throughout your novel. Your theme is developed in depth from the beginning to the ending of your story through the moral expressions of your characters, subtly emphasized symbols, visible connections, and passionately written scenes.

Your theme will likely be most clearly expressed through the words and actions of your characters. They, not you, are the best deliverers of your message.

Whether or not you intended to place symbols in your story, they will likely appear there. Find them and make sure they are placed to optimally advance your story.

Find all the connections between your characters, settings, objects, etc.

The things you feel strongly about will make their way into your stories. Allow yourself to be passionate, especially when writing dialogue and deciding how your characters will react to the situations they face.

 

Lesson 5: Theme

Exercises

Writing: Complete 31,250 words of your novel. In one paragraph, what is your story about? Dig deep. What is it really about? If you’re still not sure if you’ve gotten to the core of what your story is about, try these questions. What does your main character want? Why does he want it? Why does he need it? What is at stake?

Reading: See Writing the Breakout Novel, Chapter 10, and Bird by Bird, Pages 103-109, for information on developing theme.

 

Lesson 5: Theme

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

 

Lesson 6: Advanced Techniques

Once you’ve got your basic story idea down, it’s time to make it more powerful by raising the stakes, pushing the characters, and using the setting to full advantage. In this lesson we’ll discuss these techniques for elevating your story.

(For more information on taking your fiction to the next level, see Writing the Breakout Novel.)

Raising the Stakes

If your characters don’t get what they want, what will happen? Something terrible? I hope so, because if not, why does it matter to your readers if your characters reach their goals? It has to matter a great deal to your characters and to your readers. Your characters should feel that life is not worth living if they don’t reach their goals. Alternately, the world should be changed for the worse, or other characters should suffer, if your characters don’t get what they want.

When you imagine what will happen to your characters if they don’t get what they are struggling toward, it should be the worst thing you can imagine. Raise those stakes to the highest possible level. Ask yourself what exactly would be lost if your character didn’t reach his goal. Is it a significant enough loss for the readers to care enough to keep turning pages?

In order for high stakes to matter, the character, himself, must also matter to the readers. We don’t necessarily care about any old character running for his life. He must have already been made sufficiently sympathetic by the time his stakes are introduced.

 

Lesson 6: Advanced Techniques

Pushing the Characters

Write your characters into a corner. I know that you like your characters, but I want you to push them, to make them suffer for the good of your novel. I’m not asking you to write a depressing story, I’m asking you to challenge your characters. Your readers want to see your characters, who they have come to care about, fully achieve something. They want to be impressed, moved, and inspired when your characters face huge internal and external challenges, and come out alive.

“Push,” is the magic word. Push your characters in everything they do to evoke an emotional response from your readers. If you find that an action isn’t doing that job, what action would make it more meaningful? Push.

 

Lesson 6: Advanced Techniques

Using the Setting

The setting should support what’s going on in the scene. It should act as a character in itself. Use it as a metaphor for how your characters are feeling or what they are doing. For example, let the forceful water that tugs at your character’s feet threaten to pull her off the rock she’s sitting on while she fears that she’s losing control of her life.

Rather than describing an entire room or landscape, focus on the specific details so that they imply the larger setting. For example, rather than telling your readers that the moonlight showed through the window, tell them that each piece of silverware beside your main character’s dinner plate imprisoned a tiny moon. (Does your character feel that she is trapped or that she is losing parts of herself as the moon has?)

 

Lesson 6: Advanced Techniques

Exercises

Writing: Complete 37,500 words of your novel. List ways you can raise the stakes, use settings as metaphors, and push your characters to evoke stronger emotional responses from your readers.

Reading: See Writing the Breakout Novel, Chapters 3 and 4, for information on raising the stakes and using setting.

 

 

Lesson 6: Advanced Techniques

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

 

Lesson 7: Editing and Polishing

As I said in an earlier lesson, while writing your first draft, it’s more important to focus on getting your story down than on creating fine writing. Now that you’ve got the hang of writing for quantity, let’s look at writing for quality. In this lesson, I’ll discuss tips to keep in mind while writing and while fine tuning your rough draft.

Reading Through Your Novel

If by some miraculous feat you’ve already completed your first draft, put it away for at least a couple of weeks. During this time, take a break from writing, read a novel, or begin a new project. Whatever you do, resist the urge to read and edit your novel. This time away from your story will give you an objective ear from which to experience your story as a first reader would.

After several weeks, take out your novel and read through it as you would a novel written by someone else, but don’t change anything yet. As you read, note the things you wish to change, questions that were not answered, goals that were not reached, or problems that were not resolved.

 

 

Lesson 7: Editing and Polishing

Making Changes

Before you delete or throw out anything, I highly recommend keeping a copy of the sections you remove from your novel. You may decide later to put them back in, to use them somewhere else in your novel, or to use them in another novel. Below are several tips to keep in mind when analyzing your story for needed changes.

Narration. Show don’t tell. What do various emotions look like? Be specific. Show, rather than tell, the reader what is happening during important scenes. Save telling for passages of time (between important scenes) where nothing exciting happens. For example, rather than telling your readers that your main character was angry, show them how he jumped to his feet and threw his glass at another person in the room.

Dialogue. Nothing brings your characters to life like dialogue. Read your dialogue aloud to make sure that it sounds natural. Also make sure that it serves the purpose of advancing the story. Keep your dialogue tags simple. “He said” and “she said” are all you need. Whispering and shouting are ok if necessary, but avoid other descriptive tags such as “he laughed,” “she demanded,” etc, because they are often repetitive and call attention away from the dialogue. Tags can be omitted if it’s clear, without them, who is speaking. You shouldn’t need to explain your dialogue. It should speak for itself.

Thoughts. Take care not to overuse interior monologue. If a character’s behavior or what he says makes it clear what his thoughts are, omit repetitive thought descriptions.

Characters. Introduce your characters gradually through action, reaction, and dialogue rather than from long descriptions that slows the story. It’s important to let your readers get to know your characters in the present before delving too deeply into the past via flashbacks, etc. Try to introduce your characters’ histories only when they are needed. Distribute this information in smaller pieces throughout your story if possible.

Point of View. Be sure that you use your chosen point of view consistently, and that your chosen point of view is the most appropriate choice for your story.

Repetition. Know what you are trying to accomplish with each scene, chapter, etc. of your story, so you can avoid using multiple sections of the book to repeat a purpose. Also avoid overusing words or fictional devices such as flashbacks.

Passage of Time. It may be more effective to cut from place to place than to detail every moment between.

Action. Use active verbs. He jumped. She shuddered. The tree spread its branches. Avoid -ing verbs.

Voice. As you tell your story, be yourself. If you try to write like your favorite authors, you run the risk of sounding contrived.

 

Lesson 7: Editing and Polishing

Choosing First Readers

It’s not a bad idea to get someone else’s opinion about your book, but be sure that the person you choose understands what you want from them. Do you want to know how they feel about the story or do you want grammatical or organizational advice? Do you want to know if they like your characters?

Be sure that your first reader will be tactful in their responses to your book. Also be sure that this person is not someone to whose opinion you are overly sensitive. Take the comments of your reader as suggestions that you may or may not follow.

 

Lesson 7: Editing and Polishing

Exercises

Writing: Complete 43,750 words of your novel. Keep writing. Read through relevant sections of your text books.

Reading: See Bird by Bird, Pages 162-171, for information on choosing first readers.

 

Lesson 7: Editing and Polishing

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel . Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird . Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

Collier, Oscar and Frances Spatz Leighton. How to Write and Sell Your First Novel . Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH. 1997.

Browne, Renni and Dave King. Self-Editing For Fiction Writers. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 1993.

 

Lesson 8: Marketing and Selling

In this lesson, I’ll briefly discuss how to format your manuscript, how to find markets, how to submit your manuscript with or without an agent, and what to do while you wait for a response from the publisher. For additional information, see Writing the Breakout Novel, Chapter 11, Bird by Bird, Pages 208-222, and the many articles in 2004 Witer’s Market.

Submitting Your Manuscript

Preparing Your Manuscript. In general, your manuscript should be plain and easy-to-read. It should be printed in black ink on white, letter-sized paper. The text should be in a common font, double spaced, with a one-inch margin on all sides. Individual agents and publishers may have specific guidelines for the format of your manuscript.

Finding an Agent or Publisher. There is little more to the process of finding an agent or publisher than locating a listing in a market directory such as Writer’s Market. You can purchase a copy at most bookstores or reference it at the library. (See the link in the next section to Writer’s Market Online.) The tough part is figuring out which agent or publisher (of the thousands listed) will be most receptive to your book proposal so you don’t waste your time or theirs with the submission process. Before you submit your manuscript, carefully check over the agent or publisher’s submission guidelines provided in the market directory.

Using an agent is optional, but may be significantly beneficial because agents know the publishing industry well, and editors will be more receptive to viewing the work of an author represented by an agent. Most agents will accept unsolicited query letters in which you propose your story idea. If the agent contacts you with his interest, he’ll likely ask you to send either an outline, sample chapters, or the complete manuscript. Writer’s Market offers tips for query letter writing and contacting an agent.

Waiting for a Response. Agents and editors are busy people. You may wait months for a response to your query letter. During this time, redirect your attention to a new project. Most listings in Writer’s Market give an approximate response time. After this time as passed, you may send a follow up letter in which you describe your original query and include a self-addressed, stamped reply postcard or envelope as you did with your original query.

 

Lesson 8: Marketing and Selling

Online Resources

Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Market

National Novel Writing Month

 

Lesson 8: Marketing and Selling

Feedback

You’ve reached the end of this course, and hopefully you’re close to reaching your goal of completing a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. Even if you haven’t reached the 50,000 mark, any work toward completing your novel is an achievement. Don’t give up. At this point, you may find that your story is complete at 50,000 words, or you may find that it requires more words. Keep writing!

 

Lesson 8: Marketing and Selling

Bibliography

Maas, Donald. Writing the Breakout Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2001.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1994.

Collier, Oscar and Frances Spatz Leighton. How to Write and Sell Your First Novel. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH. 1997.

Brogan, Kathryn S. and Robert Lee Brewer. 2004 Writer’s Market. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2003.