Ah, fiction! The world of make-believe. The chance for the author to “create” people, places and things. What power!
And how we love it. But creating an imaginary world and filling it with people is only a part of the process. Fiction writing is hard work. Welcome, everyone! This is Janice Thompson, full-time freelance author and speaker – and avid fiction fan. I’ve written over fifty books in my lifetime and most of them have been novels, so I have a soft spot in my heart for well-developed stories. If you’ve signed on to these lessons, you clearly have a spot in your heart for novel-writing, too.
Components: Let’s Start at the Beginning…
Let’s start by talking about the various components of a great novel. Think of your story as a puzzle in many pieces. If any of these pieces are missing when you’ve finished writing, then you don’t have a “whole” story. Understanding the components of a great novel is critical to the book’s success.
So, what are those components? First is a thorough understanding of genre. Maybe you’ve heard this word, but don’t really know what it means. “Genre” is just a fancy way of saying “category.” All novels fit into one category or another and you need to know where your book “fits” so that you can effectively pitch it to an editor (and so that it reaches the appropriate audience).
Here are some of the most common fiction categories: historical, contemporary, romance, women’s lit, inspirational, chick-lit, mystery, suspense, thriller, YA (young adult), biblical, sci-fi, paranormal, crime, western, literary and allegory.
Questions to Answer:
- What genre does your novel fall into?
- Do you want to be “branded” as a genre writer?
- Can you see both positives and negatives to this scenario?
The next component to a great novel is the title.
Do you realize the importance of your title choice? A great title is a great hook. Sometimes a poor title can cause book sales to suffer. Answer the following questions about your title:
- What have you titled your novel?
- Does the title clearly reflect the book’s content?
- Is it a sellable title? Does it have a great hook?
- Have you “tried out” the title on friends and family?
Are there other titles that might work? Think of at least three or four, just in case the publishing house opts not to use your working title.
The next component of fiction writing is the story’s plot
Your story must have an awesome beginning, middle and end. Careful plotting will lead the reader on a satisfactory, realistic journey through each of those stages, creatively weaving in and out, up and down. But how do we begin to plot our stories? Is there a magic formula?
Yes, there is! All great plots will have the following:
- Goals and motivation
- Conflict (internal and external)
- Pacing (to keep the action going)
- Highs and lows, ups and downs (so that the story never grows cold or gets boring)
- Great chapter endings (so important)
- Continual building towards great climax
- Believable (and satisfactory) resolution
Now let’s switch gears and talking about the next component of the novel, which is the setting. Whether you’ve chosen lush, tropical Hawaii, or an African desert, your setting can greatly affect your overall story.
But there’s more to it than that…
Choosing your setting includes:
- Setting a “time” for your story: (as in) a time in history, a time of day, a time of year, a time (season) in a person’s life.
- Setting a “place” for your story: “Where” in the world, “where” in the country, “where” in the city or country, “where” in the neighborhood, “where” in the house, etc.
- Setting a “mood” for your story: This can be accomplished in many ways, but good descriptions help.
That leads me to one of the more important things you’ll need to know about setting: Sensory Elements. Your story should tap into all five senses. Let your reader see it, smell it, hear it, taste it and touch it. Finally, let them “feel” it – on every level.
The next component to a great novel is well-developed characters
Readers need characters they can connect with. Even if you have great action and place the story in an exciting location, the reader will toss the book if you don’t give her a character she can either fall in love with or in some way relate to. And that character has to have a believable/workable name.
Once you’ve named your character, you’ll need a full description (internal and external). You need to know what makes him/her tick. One way to find out how your character reacts under stress is to put him/her on “the witness stand” and ask a host of questions. You might be surprised at some of the answers!
Just a quick word about good guys and bad guys. Good guys aren’t all good and bad guys aren’t all bad. Your “good” characters must have some flaws and your “bad” guys must have some redeeming qualities/traits. Otherwise, your story comes across as slanted. Besides, that’s how life is! Even good people make mistakes. And bad ones are rarely all bad.
Once you know who your characters are, you then have to figure out ways to introduce them to your readers. There are four main ways to show character in fiction:
Show Off Those Characters!
1. Tell the reader: This is the easiest way of showing character, but your reader won’t necessarily believe you (who believes everything they are told?). And even if they do believe you, this kind of character description is easy to forget.
2. Have the character tell the reader: This is usually a substitute for #1 in stories told in first person, but can also be done in a third person story through the character’s thoughts.
3. Have other characters tell the reader: This is usually done by having other characters speaking to each other about the character in question. If you are using a shifting viewpoint, you can also have various characters express their opinions (through thoughts or dialogue) while they are the viewpoint character.
4. Use the character’s actions: This is probably the strongest and most believable means of depicting character available to a writer. The reader won’t believe everything they are told, but they will believe it if they “see” it.
POV
The next component of a great novel is POV (Point of View)
I could spend pages discussing POV (point of view) and its importance in fiction writing. This is the one area where I see the most need for improvement in young writers. Who is telling your story? Through whose eyes will the reader see the action? Think of the POV in much the same way you’d think of a camera angle. Your point of view character is the one behind the camera. When you’re writing from his POV, you are someone limited, in that the only real perceptions you can show. . .are his. His thoughts, his feelings, his responses. He can suppose what others are thinking and feeling, but you have to stay inside his head, not head-hop to other characters in the scene.
There are three primary POVs used by writers today. Basically, they include:
Omniscient: Most of the classics are written this way. “Omniscient” POV is also known as the “all-seeing God-eye.” In other words, a novel written in this POV will give the reader opportunity to see inside the head and heart of every character. That’s the polar opposite of what I described earlier, isn’t it. The problem with this point of view is that it is too vague. There’s no one to connect with. How can you distinguish your primary character from the others if you’re revealing motives/actions of all? Publishers today aren’t keen on Omniscient POV. Why? Because the author who writes this way is really telling his reader the story when he could be showing it. The reader is simply an observer, and that’s never a good thing. You want your reader to have a vested interest in your characters.
The next point of view is Third-Person: Many (if not most) modern novels are written in third-person POV. There are two different types of Third-Person POV. They include: Limited (meaning you only see through the eyes of a handful of characters in the story) or multiple, meaning the scenes skip from one POV character to the next. Both are popular. Some novels have as many as six or seven third-person POV’s. However, a new author shouldn’t tackle something this complex. It can rarely be done well. Start with two, maybe three at the most.
The final POV is First-Person: It has become quite trendy to write in first-person. A first person novel gives the reader a chance to really connect (and connect well) with a particular character. Using the “I” voice, this character reveals issues of the heart, matters of conscience and motivations. In fact, readers who enjoy this POV often come away from the book saying, “It was almost like the author WAS the character.”
Dialogue & Narrative
The next two components of a great novel are Dialogue and Narrative
Basically, the “telling” of the story falls into a couple of categories: narrative/prose and dialogue. Dialogue is fairly self-explanatory. It includes the back and forth conversations of your characters (with or without the he said, she said tags). Dialogue should always advance the plot or offer insight into a characters motivations/situation.
Narrative is the glue between conversations. With your narrative, you have an opportunity to share a lot of information. But, beware! As we’ve already mentioned, you don’t want to resort to “telling” your story when you should be showing. Show your character doing something. Don’t just tell the reader he did it.
One of the things you can do to make your narrative (and dialogue) more effective is to choose active verbs, as opposed to passive ones. Look over your WIP (work in progress) and answer the following questions:
- Are your verbs active?
- How can you “punch up” your verbs?
- Is your story adverb-heavy?
- Can you re-word sentences, killing off adverbs and strengthening verbs? Give it a shot!
That’s it for this lesson, writers. We’ve covered a lot, haven’t we! Thanks for joining us for this glimpse into the world of fiction writing.
