I feel like I've written about tension before. But I swear to you, I searched through the Muffin's blog posts, and I can't find a specific post about this topic; so if you remember better than me, please send me an email!
I bring up making sure tension is in your novel today because I recently had a conversation with one of my WOW! novelist students about tension in her novel. She has a great voice. She has a great story idea. She even started in the right place, in my opinion, and her action is spot on. But TENSION was missing. She needed to add a time element to her novel--this main character had to get himself on his correct path to the future in a "certain amount of time" or "the worst thing in the whole world" would happen.
And that wasn't happening in the beginning of her novel...yet.
Think about some novels or movies where time/age is an element. Some that immediately come to mind: Speed, The Giver, and even Hunger Games--you can't be in the Hunger Games until you are 12, and then once you are there, your time limit is: everyone has to die before you.
Think of novels where a wedding is on the horizon--there's a deadline--all the problems in the novel have to be solved before the wedding.
Or amovie where someone is terminally ill. That's another kind of deadline that can cause great stress, tension, and page-turning in a novel.
Think about real life. We work on deadlines all the time--in our personal and professional life. So it is natural that novels also need these deadlines in them.
Do critique partners say that your novel is good but something is missing?
Do you have some kind of time element in your plot to cause more tension?
If not, think about adding one. If you do have one in your work-in-progress or have a published book with one, please tell us in the comments below. We want to learn from you!
Margo L. Dill is a writing coach, editor, children's author, and instructor, living in St. Louis, MO. Her next novel writing class starts on Friday, May 4. To find out more information about Writing a Novel with a Writing Coach, please click here.
While judging some flash fiction pieces and critiquing novel chapters for the WOW! class I teach, I found myself asking a series of questions to several different writers. These questions focused on important story elements that were missing from the piece.
This seems to happen a lot in flash fiction, especially, and maybe it's because there aren't a lot of words to work with. But winning stories tell a complete tale, and to have a whole story there, these questions have to be answered by the writer and included in the story.
Here are questions to consider, even if you are a pantser, when you're writing your flash fiction or short story:
What is the character's problem in the story?
How does she solve it?
How does she grow as a person from solving the problem?
Does she have an internal struggle she overcomes (or begins to)?
What is the climax of the story?
What is the resolution?
Obviously, in a novel, you have to have these same elements. They are usually easier to work in because you have so many more words to include than in a flash fiction or short story. But the beginning of novels are often difficult for writers, especially pantsers, because they start writing with some idea in mind, but not an outline or carefully planned plot. If you are a pantser, you may know where you are going in your novel, but not exactly how will you get there. So it's crucial to have the answers to these questions on hand, even if you aren't outlining or summarizing each of your chapters:
What is your main character's MAIN problem in the novel?
What is the inciting incident (the incident that starts the main problem)?
How will the character solve the main problem?
What do you envision as the climax of your novel? (Often writers can see the climax scene in their minds, and they are busy writing toward it.)
What is the resolution and ending?
These groups of questions are similar because fiction needs to contain certain elements to be a complete story. When writing a longer work, you can also add: What are two or three subplots my novel will also contain? In a flash fiction piece, you definitely would not have subplots.
So what about you? Are you a pantser? If so, do you know the answers to these questions above for the fiction you are writing?
Margo L. Dill is a writer, editor, and teacher, living in St. Louis, MO. She teaches a novel course for WOW! each month, which includes 4 critiques of your work-in-progress. To check out more about her, go to http://www.margoldill.com. To check out her next class starting February 2, go to the WOW! classroom. Pencil photo above by Pink Sherbert on Flickr.com
Have you ever read a blog post about the craft of writing and thought, “Well, why didn’t I think of that?” This happened to me recently, when I checked out the blog post How Being a Project Manager Helped Me Become a Better Storyteller, by WOW! Blog Tour author Jennifer-Lynn Keniston. Jennifer works as a project manager by day, and she shared tips on how her day job helped her complete and publish her first novel.
I’m the type of person who has to have deadlines—hard and fast ones. If I know an editor is waiting on something from me, I make sure I have it completed on time. When it comes to my own writing projects, I’m wimpy at best. I either hyperfocus until I finish a draft or I take my sweet time. I think this is why National Novel Writing Month works for me—because there’s a specific timeline. Unfortunately, once it is over, I’m not very good about reconnecting with the manuscripts I produce.
After reading Jennifer’s blog post, I told myself I was going to develop a plan of action to complete the first round of revisions on a young adult manuscript I wrote in 2014 during NaNoWriMo. I put my project manager hat on, and here’s what I came up with, including some fun motivational exercises taken from Novel Shortcuts, Ten Techniques That Ensure a Great First Draft by Laura Whitcomb. Project: Round One Revision for Contemporary Young Adult Novel: Under My Skin Author: Renee Roberson Timeline: 8 Weeks Project Breakdown:
Week One:
Revise Chapters 1-3 Exercise: Put together music playlist for the novel.
Week Two:
Revise Chapters 4-6 Exercise: Write 150 words of jacket copy. This will help drill down the core of the story. Week Three:
Revise Chapters 6-8 Exercise: Make a Pinterest board for the novel. Pin images of setting, what the characters might look like, pictures that represent themes, etc.
Week Four:
Revise Chapters 9-11 Exercise: List five weak areas in the novel. Write solutions for how to tackle each one of them in the revision. Week Five:
Revise Chapters 12-14 Exercise: The Ten-Minute Heartstorm. Set a timer and write as fast as you can about a pivotal scene in ten minutes. Don’t overthink it. Let the emotions take over the page.
Week Six:
Revise Chapters 15 and 16 Exercise:Focus on turning crosshair moments into great moments. Read previous chapters and make sure this is happening.
Week Seven:
Revise Chapters 17 and 18 Exercise: Remember Your Dream. List ten reasons why you want to be a novelist. Read them out loud to yourself. Week Eight:
Revise Chapters 19 Exercise: Do a cursory line edit of completed first draft. Pass on to beta reader.
We’ll see how it goes. Putting it all down on paper (and mixing in a few fun exercises) has made me excited to dive back into the story. My schedule is also pretty full with freelance writing projects in the next few months so this will require some serious time management.
Have you used a similar method to complete your own writing projects? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and editor who also works as a Blog Tour Manager for WOW! Women on Writing. Her writing has appeared in magazines such as Charlotte Parent, Lake Norman Currents, The Charlotte Observer, The Writer and more. When she’s not working on client projects, she enjoys spending time with her family and writing young adult and middle grade fiction.
Visit her website at: www.FinishedPages.com.
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