Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

8 Keys to Constructing a Great Plot for Your Novel

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Constructing a great framework for your plot, helps you build an novel that leaves readers hungry for more of your fiction books.

It’s not an inflexible box that you put your story into, but rather it keeps changing as things happen in your story.

When I’m writing a new story, I feel free to go in new directions, as long as I stay true to the story – the goals, motivation and conflicts – and keep them clear throughout.

My current work-in-progress, is a historical western romance(with suspense… of course;), set in the early 1900s, near Calgary, Alberta. So I’m digging deeper into the details of goal, motivation and conflict.

I wanted to share some tips on how plots come about and what makes them work.

8 Keys to constructing

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8 Keys to Constructing a Great Plot for Your Novel

Here’s some thoughts on how fiction stories are put together and what makes them work.

1.Every story needs a goal, motivation and conflict for the main characters. These need to be vital enough to take your novel from beginning to end. If it isn’t, then your plot and your story are going to fall flat and readers will put your book down at some point. The key to a great novel, is that the stakes keep increasing. This means that things get worse and worse, until your characters finally learn the lessons they are in the story to learn. The Writer’s Journey by Michael Vogler gives useful tips on how to increase tension so little by little the plot gets increasingly worse.

2.Remember your character’s weaknesses will get them into trouble time and time again and their strengths are what will save them in the end. Do you have a character who is saying yes to everyone and can’t say no to save her life? Then she will do that over and over again throughout the book. However, maybe she’s good at organizing things. And maybe while she’s over at her Aunt Carol’s business helping her organize her files and working through her bookkeeping – maybe she notices some money is missing. So now your wallflower character who says yes to everything, helped to save Aunt Carol’s business at a critical moment and send the villain to jail.

The characters have to fail time and time again, and then succeed at the very end, at the climax of the book.

3. People/and characters are slow learners and they need to have things progressively get worse and worse – where they feel their life is out of control – before they ‘get it’ and make changes in their lives. This is one of the most important things to remember throughout your novel as you increase the stakes in your novel.

4.Each scene needs to have a smaller goal, motivation and conflict. As you go back and edit your novel, look at each scene. Look at whose point of view the scene opens up in and decide what that character’s goal is for the scene, why she/he wants that goal and what is standing in her/his way.

If you don’t discover a goal, then that’s a problem. At that point the scene needs a rewrite or you need to get rid of it. A scene without a goal slows the pacing and your plot and doesn’t increase the stakes(refer to #1).

5.After you understand the POV character’s goal for the scene, make a list of six motivations why she/he wants that goal. It’s good to dig down really deep – and it takes a lot of thinking – to come up with the sixth one. The last motivation is a buried, emotional one and many times it’s quite powerful. You can rewrite the scene using the last motivation as the first one. By finding buried motivations, you can uncover that last little spark you need to make a compelling scene. Then you can bring more layers to your story with better and deeper meanings… which readers love!

6.Characters need conflict. I struggle with adding enough conflict. I’ve noticed that most of the time I don’t like to put my characters in horrible situations. As writers, we pull back from adding too much conflict into the story, because, after all we like these characters we’ve created. But still, they need conflict. And conflict is what makes a great story.

Just like people, characters don’t like change.

Give your character issues to work through and put obstacles in their path. Make them work for what they want. [Tweet this]

The conflict is; whatever is standing in her/his way. It’s the “I really want to do this, But, this situation or person is standing in my way. So if you don’t have enough ‘but’ moments in your story it won’t be compelling and you won’t meet your first goal.

7.Your characters need to grow and change. For many people, a big reason they read novels is they want to live second-hand through the characters. We want to see these characters learn life lessons, to become better people and win in the end. Just like we have a plot arc, we should also create an emotional arc for your characters. These characters we love to write about, need to be changed people by the end of the book.  It’s like real life – we go through big life-changing moments to learn a lesson and to grow and change.

8.Listen to your instincts. If you’ve worked on the above steps, then the next step is to do another read through(out loud if you can;) of your novel. Trust yourself and your instincts as you re-read your scenes. If your instincts are telling you it’s okay, you might consider asking a few beta readers to read through it. . After you’ve fixed your novel up one last time and proofread it, then you’re ready to self-publish… which is a great time to start another book.

Those are some ideas that I’m working through in my current work in progress right now. I hope some of it has helped you. But, I’d love to learn from you…

What are some other tips you’ve found to put together a great novel? I’d love it if you’d share your ideas in the comments. Lets learn from each other 😉

 

 

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

016 Social Media Tips Just For Writers with Frances Caballo

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I had a fun chat with Frances Caballo in this Podcast Interview. Frances is a social media strategist and manager for writers. She helps authors to get past the barriers that hold them back from flourishing online and selling more of their books.

Frances talked about creating great images for sharing on social media and your author website, which inspired many ideas 🙂 Also, her tips on how to understand your reading audience better by searching your google analytics for your website and on Facebook, were a big help.

You can find Frances by going to her website, socialmediajustforwriters.com and you can connect with her on Twitter, and Facebook.

Watch the Video Interview 

Heres’s some resources I share in the update:

1.Books I’ve found super helpful by Frances Caballo are: Avoid Social Media Time Suck; Social Media Just for Writers; Blogging Just for Writers; and her newest book available for pre-order, The Author’s Guide to Goodreads: How to Engage with Readers and Market Your Books.

2.I discovered an amazing new book for writers by James Scott Bell… 😉 Just Write: Creating Unforgettable Fiction and a Rewarding Writing Life. Some aha moments from reading this book were, his tips on how to set up your writing project so it’s not so overwhelming and his 10 ways to inspire your muse.

Also, I would love to hear about the book you’re writing now, or one that you’ve just finished. If you Tweet me a one sentence summary of your story along with your name and website on Twitter (connect with me @lornafaith), I’d love to mention you, your story(your work in progress or published book) and your website in the updates of the next Podcast.

Summary of Interview

*Frances starts by sharing her inspiration to move into the writing and social media realm. She worked as a reporter before she moved into the field of public relations. When social media emerged it seemed like a natural next step.

In her book, Frances encourages writers to tweak these 4 steps to attract your readers and grow your audience:

1.Focus on Social Media networks where your readers are. Frances encourages writers to don’t feel like they need to be on every social media network, because it’s a huge waste of time when you really want to spend the majority of your time writing.

2.Study where people are on social media. Find out if your demographic is on Facebook (usually 45 plus) or if your audience is mostly women – women dominate Facebook and Pinterest…. which is also a great place for romance authors. LinkedIn is for professionals – so if you have a nonfiction book, that’s a great place for you to be. SnapChat, Instagram and Tumblr are great places to be if you’re writing a YA novel.

3.Have good content. People wanted to be entertained and/or given great information. 80% should be about you curating other people’s content and sharing it, and 20% is your stuff.

4. Check your analytics on google. If you haven’t signed up for your website to have google analytics, that would be super helpful. Here’s a blogpost & video and shows you how to set that up. Find out what gender the people are who visit your blog. Also check Facebook analytics to find out what ages and gender people are who visit your page. Ideally you want your analytics on your Facebook page and your author website to match. For example, if you are reaching ages 45 to 60 on Facebook then you should be reaching the same age group on your website. If it’s not the same, you might need to recalibrate and rethink of your marketing messages and what you’re sharing in your website and on social media.

* Frances also encourages authors to survey their readers to ask them want they want you to talk about and share on social media or on your blog. This is important for fiction and nonfiction authors. Try the free version of SurveyMonkey to get started.

*Here are 38 blogging topics for writers that might give you ideas if you’re unsure what to write about.

Free Images for blogging or social media: unsplash.com; pixabay.com; pexels.com; wikimedia.com; morguefile.com; deathtostockphoto.com. Use the Free version of canva.com, to resize your pictures and to add text.

To Compress your Images so they load faster on mobile devices go to this link.

 On being Authentic: Self-Reflect before you Self-Reveal

*Ask yourself, how comfortable am I sharing this information about myself? See how your readers respond to photos you share.

*Frances talks about the importance of being genuine and authentic on social media. Care about your readers by replying to questions/ educating and entertaining them. Treat your readers how you would treat them if you asked them out for coffee.

Your brand as an author rests on your ability to be authentic. As humans it’s innate for us to be drawn to people who are the most authentic in our lives.

*If you’ve chosen to use a pen name as an author, you can still be authentic to your author brand and your niche. Frances gives the example of writer and editor C.S. Lakin who writes under the pen name Charlene Whitman as a Western romance author.

*For new writers, Frances recommends starting with one social media network, to avoid overwhelm. Then after 6 months start a new social media account.

As you’re comfortable, begin being a guest blogger for your friends websites and then at some point, you’ll begin blogging for high traffic websites.

On the question of blogging for authors…

*Frances begins by saying there’s many different opinions on this. She refers to the book The Martian, by Andy Weir and how he began by blogging that book on his website. Then scientists found his chapters and gave him tips on some facts he had wrong, and then it was through the many views he had on his blog that his book got noticed by a publisher.

If you decide to blog, consider blogging once a week to keep readers updated on what you’re doing and that they hear from you regularly.

*Some ideas to get your blog noticed: use keywords. Keywords are the words that a reader would type in “google search” to find a subject they are looking for. So start using keywords in your blog and in your guest posts.

You can grab your free copy of Twitter Just for Writers on France Caballo’s website, socialmediajustforwriters.com. She also helps people who just need help getting started on social media and offers training sessions on her website.

What is the area you struggle with most as a writer on social media? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

 

 

*Photo Credit: Frances Caballo

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

3 Groups of Words or Phrases to Edit in Your Novel

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Do you ever find yourself reading through your book and feeling like something is off, but not sure what needs to be changed?

If that’s you, you’re not alone.

When I was going through edits with my editor for my new release, she would send me back comments on word echoes, weasel words, cliches, repetitive words or phrases. She noticed all the things I missed… and there was a bunch of changes I needed to make.

Making changes to all those words you poured hours into creating is no fun… but it is an important part of writing a book readers love.

So, I thought I’d share some of the groups or phrases that keep popping up as I write, that I’ve needed to change or delete.

3 groups of words or phrases

3 Groups of Words or Phrases to Edit in Your Novel

When you discover so much to either change or delete in your novel, it can feel discouraging. And sometimes you might even feel like throwing in the towel ~ if you don’t know what steps to take next.

So here’s 3 ideas that I hope will help you write a un-put-down-able novel:

1.Echo Words and Echo Phrases. These are words or phrases that are repeated 2, 3 or more times in one paragraph, or many times in the same scene. For example, in my recent novel, I repeat the words wink, nervous and anxious a lot. I’m not sure why, but there it is. So I used the thesaurus to find words that relate or I took them out completely and rewrote the sentence.

Here’s an example of Echo Words to watch for: treasured, smirk, wink, anxious, nervous, smile, frown, smile, engulfed, tag, played, playful, washed over(ie. anger washed over her; grief washed over her, etc), harboured, gasp, eventful, grip, pace, shudder, seeped, pace, swivel, turn, look, looked, looks, looking.

When a reader reads these echo words or phrases, they experience a ‘stumble’ in their reading. And as writers our goal is to for the story to flow smoothly and be as compelling as possible.

Some examples of vague, useless or weasel words are: very, wonderful, at all, often, some, maybe, really, however, of course, great, in such a way that, a bit, even, though, not true.

2.Redundant words. These are words that share the same meaning twice…. which is a needless repetition.  For example, look at the phrase sit down: If you are going to sit, then it means you will be down. So you only really need the word sit. These are phrases that we hear all the time and when we write, it’s difficult not to use those redundant phrases.

Here’s some examples of redundant words or phrases: burning hot, honest truth, kneel down, climb up, sit down, stand up, crouch down, flinch back, tall giant, short midget, new recruit, free gift, sad misfortune, close proximity, new innovation, roaring noise, bare naked, completely naked, recur again, cancel out, anonymous stranger, dark-haired brunette, advance planning, true facts, dead body, suffocated to death, live witness, join together, poisonous venom, literate readers, etc.

A great book that helps you cut out extra words is You Can Write a Novel, by James V. Smith, Jr. He talks about how to Gain A Page(GAP) by having a goal to shorten every chapter by a page but cutting out extra words. This is something I want to learn how to do better as I tend to be really wordy when I write.

3.Create White Space on the Page. If you look at bestselling novels, you’ll find a few pages that don’t have as much text as other pages. The writer has created white space on the page. White space is important because it helps to pick up the pace of the story. It gives the reader’s eyes and brain a break. When there’s white space it can also highlight really great writing.

Some good ways to create white space, is by writing quick and brief dialogue. When you have a long section of dialogue with short responses, it creates white space… which can make for snappy reading. You can also add active and compelling body language to create a page-turning story.

Ultimately, we all want stories that start strong and have fresh writing that draws us in… until we type the end.

Easier said than done… I struggle with all three of these.

But I’ve been learning and working on applying these ideas to my work in progress. I hope these editing ideas help you too.

When your story has as few wasted words as possible, then the reader can start at the beginning and read right through to the end, uninterrupted. When each word in your sentence really fits, it’s magical. That’s one of the ways your novel becomes un-put-down-able.

That’s a compelling read.

 

Do you have words or phrase that you need to edit during your rewriting process? What are some of your tips for making your writing fresh? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments… let’s learn from each other 😉

 

 

 

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

015 Story Structure and Success Mindset for Authors with Jennifer Blanchard

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I had fun interviewing story coach Jennifer Blanchard for this podcast. She is a professional novelist and story coach who turns struggling novelists into serious, emerging authors of amazing books that keep readers hooked from page one.

I learned a ton about story structure and having a success mindset from Jennifer, I hope you find the tips you need to write awesome books in this interview too 😉  You can find more about Jennifer on her website jenniferblanchard.net or connect with her on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Watch the Video Interview

Here’s some resources I share in the update:

1.Jennifer mentions her 6 week find your story book. She encourages writers who want to learn more details about story to grab the FREE book at jenniferblanchard.net/findyourstory, or you can grab the Kindle version for 99 cents on Amazon here. You can also join her Facebook Group for Free here: Emerging Novelists Incubator.

2. Story Engineering  and  Story Structure – Demystified, by Larry Brooks have been really helped me break down my story… answering the questions: what do I write next?  And where do I put it?

3. GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon is a book every fiction writer should have in as one of their tools of the trade. This book helps fiction writers shape their stories and also lends urgency to their stories to keep readers turning the pages.

I hope these books will help you as much as they’ve helped me 😉

Summary of Interview

There are many helpful tips for struggling novelists on how write a story that is compelling in this interview.

*She shares how a few years ago, she first heard Larry Brooks talk about story structure and that’s when she had a light bulb moment, and really understood story structure for the first time. She decided from then on she would spread story structure as far as she could to as many writers as needed to hear it. In 2010 she put her first ebook out and began coaching writers.

 

Her first novel is a contemporary romance titled, SoundCheck.

Jennifer has just finished her second fiction book.

*Jennifer’s tips for writers who are just starting out writing stories. If you’re lacking ideas: 1) keep a journal. Journalling is a powerful tool for writers. Write down all the things you’ve been through and are doing right now. Writing down how you think about things is a good place to start. 2) Pay attention to what’s going on around you. Listen to other people’s life stories; listen for ideas seeds in little blips of things that are going on in the world around you.

*Once you have your story idea, let it marinate for awhile. Instead of madly writing a 50,000 word draft – think about it – get inspired by the truths you want to tell people. We tell lies in fiction to show a truth of some kind. This is the beginning point – then there’s story development that needs to happen.

*Jennifer recommends for each story you write, start by developing a concept and a premise. Concept: what is conceptual about your story? Is it a love story set on the Titanic? Add something more than just a man and woman meeting and falling in love. Add something that makes it interesting.  Concept is your story setting or landscape.                              Premise: is your plot. What’s happening in your story? Instead of just writing about the character’s life(which is an episodic narrative), write about what the protagonist wants. Short definition of story is: a protagonist that wants something, an antagonist that opposes what the protagonist wants and a journey that ensues because of it.

*Great questions to ask yourself as you develop your story: What is my core story? Who is my protagonist? What does my protagonist want? What opposition will they face trying to get to their goals?

*Questions for your protagonist: 1. What is their inner demon? What will they struggle with externally and internally? Sometimes we only have the internal battle going on and we don’t realize that there has to be an external battle happening at the same time.  2. What’s their goal in the story? It needs to be compelling for readers to be drawn to it. They have to have a goal of some kind. It will make them three dimensional… without that it falls flat.

*Questions for your antagonist: 1. What’s the opposing goal? What does the antagonist want that opposes the antagonist. In real life there doesn’t have to be a reason or motivation – but in a fiction story there has to be a reason behind why they do something.

*It’s important that your main character has grown from the beginning to the end of the story. In order for the hero to change and win, they need to change and to overcome their inner demon. During the course of the story they learn and experience things they need so they can defeat the bad guy.

Example: Happy Gilmore movie. In the beginning he wants to be a hockey player. But the First Plot Point is that his grandmother’s house is being repossessed and his goal now is to raise $250,000 by playing golf in order to save the house that his grandfather built. His hockey goal is put on hold for awhile.

*Jennifer coaches new fiction writers through a six week story planning process which she describes in detail in her book, Find Your Story: The 6-Week Story Planning Process or you can get the book for free at jenniferblanchard.net/findyourstory.

  • Week One: Idea, Concept, Premise.
  • Week Two: Creating Characters.
  • Week Three: Story Structure(Take 1).
  • Week Four: Story Structure(Take 2).
  • Week Five: Story Beat Sheet.
  • Week Six: Story Roadmap.

 

*Jennifer has a new perspective on how to create a success mindset as a writer. Instead of thinking that you’re always trying to move toward something, instead see yourself as if you already are at that specific place where you want to be. For example: if you want to be a bestselling novelist, act like you already are one. Ask yourself what would a bestselling novelist do? Would they skip their writing session that morning, or would they write until they got their word count finished?

Success Habits for Authors…

The following is what Jennifer does everyday to develop a success mindset – to get rid of the negative self doubts and limitations.

1. Journal. Write in 3 journals as soon as you wake up in the morning.

  • Write Morning Pages. This is 3 handwritten pages which is just writing down what’s in  your head. Write in the morning and before you go to bed. You can reprogram yourself by writing in your journal around those times.  It gets rid of all the negative unbelief.
  • Write your reality Journal. Basically this is where you pretend you already have everything you want. For example if you want to be a bestselling novelist write things like: tonight I’m going to the movie premiere for my novel. What ends up happening – is by writing this over and over again you program yourself to give our dream life.
  • Write statements about yourself.  Write a half page of I AM; I WILL statements. Write something like: I am strong; I am brave; I am excited for today… etc. After that write gratitude statements. Thank you for my bestselling novel… etc.

2.Write in short bursts using a timer. Jennifer says she times her writing and that has done so much for her productivity. Start with 10 or 15 minutes of writing bursts.

3.Follow a Checklist. Write down the actions that you need to do for that day. Do this for every single day. Each item on there should be timed. For example: write a blogpost = 1 hour.  A timer is very useful in improving your productivity.

“Writers tend to have a limited belief and negative thoughts about themselves. Much of these are from Societal things we’re told: you can’t make money as a writer; being a novelist is not a career choice, etc. You can create your own reality and you can do it based on the things you believe, the thoughts you think and the actions that you take. If you want something, go for it.” Jennifer Blanchard

Whenever you can, work on your mindset. Being positive and believing you can(fill in blank here) is 90% of success in anything.

To learn more about what Jennifer is up to, you can find her on her website where she has a ton of blog posts, videos and you can get access to her membership site here.  Right now you can get story tips from Jennifer on Instagram where she does 15 seconds of story videos and connect with her when you join the Facebook Group: Emerging Novelists Incubator.

What tips did you find most helpful in this interview? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

 

 

*Photo credit: Jennifer Blanchard

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

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