Putting Fire in Your Fiction—Part I

When drafting your novel, then self-editing, go back and determine whether or not any given scene moves the story along and how important it is. Your novel is only as good as your write it. Prepare your novel for publication while improving your craft. I can’t remember how many scenes I actually cut from “Meghan’s Choice.” I learned a lot about how to decide whether a scene was important enough to keep. #amwriting #fireinfiction

The first thing to do is to define what a turning point is. What change needs to take place? When will that change occur (exactly where in the scene)? How will the point-of-view character be changed? And consider that there are both inner and outer turning points.

Your novel is only as good as your write it. Prepare your novel for publication while improving your craft @donnalhsmith Click To Tweet.

Turning then to dialogue, we need to be conscious of it. The characters talk, talk, talk, but scenes spin in circles and don’t travel much of anywhere. Dialogue not only needs to do its own work, it also can bring clarity to middle scenes that would otherwise be muddy and inactive. Dialogue is strong (or can be). The process of stripping it down and finding the tension in it can be revealing. It can help define the purpose of a scene.

First and last lines of scenes are also important. First and last lines need not be fancy. Even a utilitarian line can work well if it yanks us straight into, or amplifies, a scene’s main action.

Another section he called “The Tornado Effect.” I loved this because I put a tornado in the middle of my novel. “Novels need events. Things need to happen: little things, big things. Especially big things. Big events shake protagonists, change the course of lives, and stay in readers’ memories.”

Here’s the tools list for Setting Goal & Setting Back

Step 1: Write down what it is in this scene that your protagonist or point-of-view character wants.

Step 2: Create three hints in this scene that your protagonist or point-of-view character will get what he wants. Also, build three reasons to believe that he won’t get what he wants.

Step 3: Write the passages that express the results of Steps 1 and 2. In rewriting the scene in the next exercise, incorporate those passages. Eliminate as much else as possible.

Just as stripping down dialogue helps punch up a scene, reducing a scene to a few strong steps toward or away from a goal also lends force and shape. Many authors wander through scene drafts, groping for the point. Do it differently. Instead start with the point and enhance from there.

Fire up your fiction. Make your novel crisp and strong. @donnalhsmith Click To Tweet #amwriting #fireinfiction

If you’re a novelist, what are your strengths? Do you know them? How about your weakness? Do you know that? My strengths were told me by my mentors. They are, and I call them CRST: 1) characterization, 2) research, 3) storytelling, 4) teachability (in other words, I’m easy to teach because I’m hungry to learn). My weaknesses (things I have to watch for) are: 1) on-the-nose writing (too much extraneous detail), 2) repetitive use of the same word or phrase, 3) POV head-hopping, and 4) telling vs. showing.

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