I’ve had a similar problem in the recent past, so I hope this is helpful!

Too much jumping back and forth can be confusing, yes. If you need to switch the POV, I recommend alternating each chapter: every odd chapter= character A, every even chapter= character B.

This will make the story neat and keep the POV clear. Some examples of this in literature are the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan.

However, one sad truth about writing is that you may need to cut some things you really thought you needed for your story. For instance, I too was writing a story with 2 narrators (3rd person limited), but for the sake of simplicity, I ended up choosing one character to narrate alone. It was tough, but it had to be done.

If switching the perspective becomes too messy, you can always decide which character’s voice is more prominent and stick with them. It’s usually the character you created first, or spent the most time on. If you want to pick one narrator, try writing the same scene from both perspectives and see which one comes off stronger. Which one is more fun to write? Which one fits with the mood and theme the best? Which one tells the story better?

If your answer is both, then alternating the POV each chapter is the safest way to go!

Good luck!

-Cait  

Honestly, it’s okay to do whatever you want to do. If you’re wondering whether or not people will like chapters focused solely on character development, then I have good news for you. Because plot and character are designed to be linked together, I bet that your character-development chapters are doing more for your plot than you realize. Regardless, let’s break down different types of “character-development” scenes and see where you’re at. 

Character Development vs. Characters Arcs

I think this is a good place to start with this post. Every novel should have a plot or subplot that explores the main character’s transformation. And yes, you better have a transformation of some kind. For a story to be effective, the plot should be big enough that it changes your characters in some way. Think about who they are at the beginning and imagine how their experiences throughout the novel change them. This is what creates your character arc. 

Character development is such a big, bold term that many of us just throw around to describe anything character related. But let’s look a little deeper. Development is about shaping and molding your characters, as if you were sculpting them from a mound of clay. The more details you include, the more vivid the character. And when you do something unexpected with these details (avoiding cliched characters), you create pieces of art that intrigue readers and make them like the character even more. Development is your process of defining the character. 

You know you’ve done your job well when you (the writer) can predict a character’s actions or reactions in any situation, regardless of whether or not that situation actually occurs in the novel. Challenge yourself with this. What would they do as a bystander in an armed robbery? How would they react to losing their job? What would they say if they discovered someone had lied to them? 

This is what character development is. When it comes to character development within your novel, you’re attempting to translate what you already know about your character to your readers. The most effective way to do this is to show it. Put them in scenarios that reveal who they are. 

If you’re spending entire chapters simply listing a character’s attributes and describing how they respond to vague situations and scenarios, then you’re telling. This is where I would caution a writer to avoid chapters entirely devoted to development. Readers don’t want character traits to be relayed to them; they want them to be demonstrated. 

Character Development Scenes

Alrighty, moving ahead. So we’ve eliminated scenes where you’re simply writing a character description. What about scenes where you do show who the character is? What if you write that armed robbery scene to show how they respond in a tense situation, and it turns out that this armed robbery has no bearing on the rest of the plot? Is this okay? 

It can be. Assuming the reaction to the armed robbery leads to change. Because in any challenging moment, a character will experience an immediate action and a followup action. The immediate action encompasses what they do in the moment. Did they try to disarm the person? Did they attempt to alert the police in secret? Did they try to run away? The followup action is how they approach new decisions given this new experience. The fear of death in that situation may lead them to take action against other (plot-related) events in their life. They may receive an injury that impedes their progress or forces them to adapt. All of this impacts how the character approaches the internal and external conflicts. In other words, the armed robbery served to move the plot forward, despite its initial disconnect from the main event. 

Maybe the character-development scenes you’re thinking of are less intense. Maybe they’re introspective walks or light-hearted conversations. 

For the latter, remember that dialogue should be purposeful. A humorous jab or quippy exchange is delightful and fun to read, but if you’re going to spend a lot of page real estate on nothing but playful banter between characters, you better be building to something. Good examples of this would be the relationship eventually falling apart or being challenged.

When it comes to introspection, you should be building to a decision. A character that thinks back through recent events should be doing so in an effort to devise a strategy. An introspective walk should be because “Hell, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. Maybe if I take a walk and clear my head, I’ll figure it out.” When they’re thinking, they’re preparing to act. And that is related to your plot in a BIG way. 

The Flashback 

Okay, I’ve been answering questions on Tumblr for over 4 years now, and this has come up many times. The flashback is the number one culprit for gratuitous character development. We writers take a considerable amount of time coming up with complex backstories for our characters and nothing kills us more than spending time on material that no one ever gets to see. So it’s only natural that we push to include flashbacks in our novels, so that we not only get to write these exciting histories, but readers get to enjoy them too. 

Often, the problem is that whatever past is being shared in the flashback has no bearing on the current conflict. Whatever it is has long since been resolved. So writers start to get worried that the flashback fails to move the plot forward, which is something they’re told that every single scene should do. 

Obviously novels where past events affect the present timeline should have flashbacks. These are novels where timelines are interspersed to tell a complete story. One of my favorite novels I read this past year was The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton, which features dual timelines. Eventually the past catches up to the present, and we move forward for the rest of the novel. This type of situation is definitely okay. 

Flashbacks that do nothing but reveal something of the character’s past can work…as long as that flashback is contributing to the character arc. Remember, our character arc is showcasing our character’s transformation. If you can justify this flashback as being relevant to where the character started and how they will change, then it will probably work without being superfluous. 

Plot Development Can Be Unpredictable

In spite of all this, don’t forget that your plot evolves as your character evolves. We often don’t really know our characters until we start writing them. This means that any plot decision we’ve already made can change in a heartbeat as our character’s development takes an unexpected turn. Be willing to adapt to these changes and let your character development impact what happens. 

Characters should affect your plot. So when you look at that way, a scene that focuses on character development always has the potential to move your plot forward. 

-Rebekah

NaNoPlaMo - National Novel Planning Month

I’ve been wanting to post about novel prep in anticipation of November’s NaNoWriMo and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it. We have an anon with a vague idea that they’re looking to build off of. How perfect!

*If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo, read up on it!

The Building Block Method

I’m going to preface the rest of this post by saying that I drew a lot of inspiration from The Snowflake Method. Sarah did a post a while back where she gave us a brief overview of this process. It was originally developed by Randy Ingermanson, and I have to say that this man is my hero. If this method sounds too intense for you, I’m going to simplify it using the building block metaphor. 

Building blocks are a great way of thinking about story planning because each plot element you plan needs support in order to have impact. Starting with a good foundation allows you to build up an impressive structure. And of course, when you’re frustrated, it’s easy enough to tear it down and start again.

Choose Your Blocks

Our anon has a couple story details to start with, but we’re going to backtrack as if we have nothing. To get started off on the right foot, construct your first five blocks. 

Make sure you have an idea for each block before you start delving deeper into others. Our anon already has 3 blocks figured out.

See, I left the protagonist and antagonist open because it’s all a matter of perspective. Does the kidnapper have to be the antagonist? Not necessarily. The important thing is that the writer knows which is which. This leaves us with the setting and the genre. 

Don’t overthink your genre at this point. You don’t need to define it in specific terms just yet, but it’s a good idea to at least know if your story will be grounded in reality or not. 

Build Each Block

A block has 6 sides, yes? Each of the blocks we defined will need 6 sides to complete it. Start wherever you want with this process. For each side, make sure that each description is no longer than one sentence. Notice that the sides for protagonist and antagonist are the same, because well, they’re both characters. 

Protagonist/Antagonist

*For top priority, think of vague ideas: creative expression, professional advancement, family relationships, financial stability, self acceptance. 

Conflict

I’m going to break this down by using the anon’s story as an example. Remember our conflict is the kidnapping. Who/what sets the conflict in motion? The kidnapper. If we know more at this stage, we can provide more as long as we keep it under a sentence. For example, an organization looking to exploit the protagonist’s superpowers may be behind the kidnapping, and therefore, sets the conflict in motion. 

What will happen if this conflict is not acted upon? The girl has been kidnapped, so what will happen if she is not un-kidnapped (i.e., saved)? This will help you define the stakes of your story. If the organization is looking to exploit her powers, the answer to this question could be whatever they look to do with those powers (the world is destroyed) or it could be a personal consequence (the girl is killed, the girl is corrupted). 

What will be gained? Now we’re looking at how the story will actually play out. Think in terms of your protagonist. If the kidnapped girl is our main character, what will she gain from begin kidnapped? This is a tough question to answer, but more often than not, the responses here will have to do with how that person changes as a result of the story’s conflict. If you’ve already completed your protagonist block, it may be as simple as pulling from the top priority side. Perhaps her top priority is self acceptance, and she gains it by going through this ordeal. Or maybe it’s family relationships, and this situation enables her to establish a better bond with a family member.

*What is gained does not have to be the character’s top priority, but it’s a good place to start if you’re stuck on this one. 

What will be lost? Again, we’re talking about what will actually happen in the story. What does our kidnapped girl lose from being kidnapped? She may suffer physical or psychological traumas that change her life. She may literally lose a friend, whether that is because the friend dies in trying to rescue her or because the friend betrays her. Maybe she loses her home because she can’t return there, even after she’s freed from her prison. 

Who are the players? Think basic. We’ve obviously got our kidnapper and our kidnap-ee, but who else is involved? Start with the protagonist’s and antagonist’s allies. For example, who assists the protagonist in obtaining her freedom, or who ultimately rescues her? Who assists the antagonist in carrying out their goal (the henchmen)? Again, you don’t need specifics. Brainstorm ideas for additional characters at this stage. 

Who will survive? Decide upfront if there will be deaths, whether on the good side or the bad side. Planning a character death can help you construct your ending and build to it, so the death feels more integrated into the story and less a matter of shock value. This is especially good for horror stories or murder mysteries where there will likely be a lot of death. 

Setting

Real or fictional is whether you made up the location or whether you based it off of somewhere that’s real. Accurate or inaccurate expands on real locations/time periods to determine if you’re taking liberties or attempting to tell an accurate portrayal. Static or variable refers to the amount of times the setting or time period changes. If a character is on a long journey, you’ll likely have a variable setting that changes constantly. Same with time travel. New or familiar should tell you if your character is going somewhere new, of if they’re facing challenges in an environment they feel comfortable in. 

How the setting changes depends on how the conflict influences it. A barren wasteland may be made fertile again based on the outcome of the story. A violent country may become peaceful. This gets you thinking about big picture goals for your story’s universe. 

How the setting compels change is the opposite. What does the setting do to your character? Does it force them to develop new survival techniques? Does it make them examine aspects of their life they used to ignore?  

Genre

Genre is structured a bit differently. Instead of basing each side on a particular idea, list six concepts or adjectives that will describe your story. These can be more detail about the genre (urban fantasy, psychological thriller, young adult), they can be themes or tropes (coming-of-age, chosen-one, grief) or world-building details (magic, time travel, serial killers) or even types of people or species (fairies, vampires, astronomers, middle-class). 

Think of six words or phrases that you find fascinating. Imagine how you’d complete the sentence: “I’ve always wanted to write about ______.” This will help you develop a story that intrigues you and holds your interest. 

Start Building

Now comes the fun part. You have all your blocks, with 6 sides each. Now you can start making connections. Make notecards for each side (maybe different colors for each block), and then randomly draw 2 or 3 at a time. Look at the items on the notecards and see if you can connect them with new threads. 

For example, say we draw our “who are the players” side, along our protagonist’s age. This gives you an opportunity to consider the ages of the other players, and how they’ll relate to the protagonist. Remember we referred to potential players as the protagonist’s allies? Are they older than her or younger than her? Does this lead to domineering or submissive relationships? Is someone protective of someone else? Does someone look up to someone and think them indestructible? 

Each time you make connections, you’re starting the construction of a new block. These second tier blocks will be more dynamic because they pull in pieces from your five foundation blocks.

Don’t Be Afraid to Knock It Down

As you’re building, you may run into things that no longer work or that just don’t interest you anymore. It’s okay to tear down the tower and start constructing something new, whether you come up with new foundation blocks or attempt to use your existing ones in a different way.

Things may not seem crystal clear during this process, and you may run into some speed bumps along the way, but don’t let it discourage you. The whole concept behind this method is play. You’re developing a story from the ground up and that takes a lot of patience, and a considerable amount of trial and error. Cut yourself some slack and just enjoy the process. 

-Rebekah

The Big Reveal

These scenes can be a lot of fun to write, but when you’re dealing with more than one character finding out a secret, the reactions can become overwhelming. Focusing on one character at a time seems like the way to go, but then you end up writing similar scenes back-to-back as each character is told the secret. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you prepare:

How Do My Characters Discover the Secret?

This is a pretty basic question, but it will start off the whole process. Does something happen in the main character’s life that compels them to finally share the secret? If that’s the case, I would imagine that he’d gather them all together and tell them at once.

Your other option would be them discovering some kind of evidence that either hints at or blatantly reveals it. This could be physical evidence, like documents or other items, OR it could be a third party telling them what happened. Whether they find out one-by-one is up to you. Once one of them has obtained some kind of clue that this traumatic event has happened, they would proceed in one of three ways:

How this ultimately goes depends on the characters’ personalities and their relationships with each other. If they’re the type that hates confrontation, they may be less likely to bring it up to the MC directly. Some characters may bluntly tell the MC that they know, while others may try to coax the MC to confide in them so they don’t have to reveal that they already knew.

If things have been strained in the relationship, they may not even tell the MC that they know and simply let the news give them understanding and empathy for everything their brother went through. 

So see, it all kind of depends on who these characters are. 

What Kind of Scenes Do You Want to Write?

Short stories allow you to somewhat let your plot influence the characters you create. If you wanted to write a dramatic one-shot where all the brothers have found out and are coming to the MC to address it, then you would obviously craft characters that would confer with each other before taking it to the protagonist. If you wanted to write a series of scenes where each brother finds out the secret, then you would adapt their personalities to fit this situation. 

For the second circumstance, where you’re writing each brother finding out separately, I would strongly consider whether their reactions will be different enough to make for unique scenes. Not only should their emotional reactions be different, but the brother’s method of revealing should be different. Unless you’re making a point about him rehearsing what he’s going to say, you should vary his words and sentences in each reveal. Consider different settings and think about other topics he might discuss with each brother before or after the reveal (to lead up to or ease out of it). How would each conversation change the way he approaches the next one?

I hope this helped you outline your short story! 

-Rebekah

Character Development

One thing all readers and writers can agree on is that character development is an integral part of a story. We need to believe this character as a person. We need a reason to care about them.

Here are a few things I suggest if you’re having trouble developing a character:

I also recommend checking out the tumblr blog @characterdevelopmentforwriters. They post niche questions that get you thinking about your characters in a fun way.

Good luck!

-Cait :)

Act One, Scene One (or Choosing an Effective Starting Point)

The one potential advantage you have with fan fiction is that you don’t have to lay the groundwork as much in the opening scene. Readers will already be familiar with your characters and settings. The only backstory you may have to provide is enough to inform your reader at what point in canon your story occurs. If the story is an AU, or non-canon, then you’ll probably need to add more details to explain this so a reader knows what to expect.

Apart from this, I think the idea of first scenes applies to all types of stories, fan fiction included, so I’m going to generalize this to cover all opening sequences.

Choosing Your Starting Point

We all know the pressures of that first chapter. I attended a panel earlier this year where agents and editors listened to readings of the first page of a novel and raised their hands when they would stop reading. It was astounding how quick they were to give up on each work! I think the average reader is a bit more patient than paid readers, since their time does not equal money, but the same principle applies. You need to engage readers from the beginning if you want to keep them invested.

To simplify this process, we’re going to start wide and slowly narrow to that precise moment.

Step One: Fix Your Mindset

I could do a whole post on ignoring structure and just getting the story written. I could say that you should choose your opening scene later once you’ve drafted a good portion of the story. However, I do not think that advice would help my anon since they’re writing fan fiction, which isn’t typically written in drafts. I also think at some point, you do have to worry about structure.

Nonetheless, you shouldn’t enter into any outline or first draft with that first scene carrying so much weight. It simply needs to exist so you can move on to later chapters. When the story is more developed, the opening chapter might be clearer to you. It’s okay to start the process of writing a story with a flimsy first scene. You can find that sweet spot in later drafts.

Step Two: Choose a Point on the Timeline

A good plot includes far more than the opening line and “the end.” There will be events that happened before chapter one, and maybe even events that will happen after the final sentence. A novel isn’t necessarily a complete story from beginning to end - it’s a snapshot of the most important, most interesting part of something’s life, whether that’s a character, a monster, a story universe, ect.

Maybe you already know what point in your timeline you’re going to begin, but if you don’t, start there. Write out everything you know about your characters and your plot and decide which portions of this are going to be backstory and which portions will occur in real time. Once you’ve chosen that point, you’re one step closer to narrowing your focus.

Step Three: Choose a Character to Start With

This character doesn’t have to be the protagonist, but I strongly recommend it. When we start reading novels, we latch onto the first character we meet. If the character is engaging, we dig deeper. If they’re not, we let go. Likewise, if the character dies in chapter one, we let go.

This was one thing that bothered me about how Leigh Bardugo began Six of Crows. The first chapter reveals a POV character, and at the end of that chapter, we’re done with that character. We get a small detail late in the novel that reveals that character’s fate, but it was kind of like a “gotcha” moment. It put me on shaky ground for chapter two, and I was slower to sink my talons into Inej’s perspective (who is actually a protagonist).

I don’t like investing my energy in chapter one into a character that I have no reason to care about. An exception to this could be changing the “chapter one" heading to “prologue.” We have less character expectations for prologues and tend to assume that a character introduced in a prologue is not necessarily a protagonist - they’re simply involved in an important event of the story. Prologues are honestly a topic of great debate, and I won’t offer my opinion one way or the other in this post, but when it comes to choosing the star character of your opening scene, I highly recommend you make that character an important one.

Step Four: The Perfect Moment

Okay, we know the general point of the timeline, and we know which character we’re going to introduce first. Now, we need to find that sweet spot. A good opening scene will do several things:

A popular way to start a novel is by showing the “status quo” of the world you’ve created and showing a typical problem within that status quo. This is what I mean by “short-term” problem - it’s a problem that your character faces on a regular basis and they’re solving it like they normally would (with some possible hiccups along the way). For the character, this might be routine, but for us, it’s new. We’re learning about this character and their world in an exciting and suspenseful way.

I just started rereading Red Rising by Pierce Brown, and this novel does an excellent job of showcasing this. Our main character Darrow is shown mining in the dangerous depths of Mars, solving a problem when he runs into a potential gas pocket. This particular moment does not define the story’s later conflict, but it shows us what Darrow’s routine looks like in an “exciting and suspenseful” way. The author shows us the status quote and presents a short-term problem.

Brown also hints at a greater problem in this opening scene by briefly describing the conditions that Darrow’s peers work in and how much they compete for rations. The hierarchy in this universe becomes hugely important later on, so it’s a detail that begins to set up the later conflict.

Step Five: Don’t Make It Complicated

If your reader needs five pages of backstory to understand what’s going on in your opening scene, then it’s not a good moment. It’s possible that you’re overthinking how much your reader actually needs to know, and it’s also possible that you’ve chosen a moment too far into the timeline. If you’re in a position to have your first scene critiqued, experiment by eliminating most of the backstory from your draft. Have someone read it and ask them what points were confusing. That’ll help you decide which details are absolutely necessary.

This isn’t the only way to choose an opening scene, but it’s a popular method that should help you start your story off with a bang.

Good luck!

-Rebekah

I feel your pain, anon. Filler material and transitions between scenes can be a tricky part of writing for those of us who are more plot driven.  

You know where your character is and where they need to end up. Now, you need to figure out how they’re going to get there!

-Remember your side plots. Don’t have any? Create some! Use your minor characters and other aspects of your protagonist’s life to create some side plots that can be explored when you don’t know what else to write. Side plots are ultimately there to support the main plot. Your character can’t be fighting the bad guys in every single scene. What else is going on in their life? What specific items, skills, etc. do they need to achieve their goals? Who do they meet along the way? Do they learn any lessons?  

-Include your side characters. You’ve created each character for a reason. Use them! If you find that you don’t have enough characters, you can always create more. Is there a love interest? A voice of reason? A mentor? A protégé? Figure out all of the types of characters you need for the story and put them to use!

-Consider the theme and message. What exactly do you want to say with your story? What do you want your readers to get out of this? Perhaps you need specific scenes to further this message.

-Refine your notes. Sometimes our story notes are vague. You may have a point that says, “they have a conversation”, or something of the like. Expand on everything. What is this conversation about? Why does it need to happen? At what point does it fit in to the story?

-Take your time. The ugly truth all writers know; writing takes time. We all want our stories to be at their best when we’re finished with them. Rushing your story will show in the writing. Taking time to think and simply live will allow you to come up with more and more incredible plot points, themes, lines and ideas that will make your story everything you imagined it would be. Waiting is difficult when you’re really eager, but patience pays off.

Good luck!

-Cait

We may venture into a little bit of philosophy here, so beware!

Determining Good Verses Bad

The first thing you need to consider is what you actually want out of your story. Does there need to be a good guy and a bad guy? Sometimes there are none. Some of the most interesting characters are the ones whose moral alignment is indeterminable. Such a character will keep your readers guessing.  

If you do want a clear hero and villain, figure out what qualifies as good and bad in your story.

Say your story is about people fighting to stop an old building from being demolished. Maybe this impending demolition is so they can build a new school, which the protesters are selfishly getting in the way of. Or, perhaps the building is a safe house the protesters are trying to protect from a big corporation. Why is the right thing right? Why is the wrong thing wrong?What determines the good from the bad often depends on the point of view from which the story is being told. This, as well as the way it’s portrayed.

That in mind, who is your protagonist? What are they trying to accomplish? What do they have to do to get it? Do they succeed? Who is in their way? What is at stake? What do they lose? How do they interact with others in the story? Why?    

Sometimes your narrator is the villain and their rivalry is the hero. Either way, your narrator needs to believe they are doing the right thing. A well written villain may even be able to convince your readers they are doing the right thing e.g. Light Yagami from Death Note. Stories like this can raise questions of morality.

Good luck!

-Cait  

Choosing POV for Your Story

I love this question, because I LOVE third person. In fact, I probably have a very unhealthy relationship with third person. I recently did some character building exercises, and I was writing big chunks of text from the first person POV of each character. Somehow, by the time I got to the second page, I had switched to third person without even realizing it. It’s not the first time this has happened either.

Whether you experience this or the exact opposite of this (slipping back into first person when attempting to write third person), then the first step is admitting that you have a strong preference for one point of view over the other. The second step? Learn to be okay with it. 

POV Isn’t Just a Style Choice

Point of view is a complex beast, and to answer this question effectively, I’d rather not turn it into a POV fundamentals post. If you’re new to the concept of using point of view, visit this blog to brush up on the basics. I recommend it even if you already know the basics, because there’s some great tips in there!

Few people acknowledge the role that point of view plays in plot development. When you use first person, you’ve decided that your protagonist is going to be in every single scene. This means you won’t be showing the premeditation of your antagonist’s schemes, nor will you be showing any of your side characters’ pursuits and adventures (there are some exceptions, but I’m generalizing for clarity’s sake).

This is fine when you have a dynamic protagonist that has a lot going on. When establishing POV, you have to decide if your main POV character’s plot arc is strong enough to carry the whole novel. If you have any doubts about this, I would shy away from first person POV. 

First person is really popular in YA novels, particularly where there is a clear protagonist with an engaging story that needs to be told. You see third person much more frequently with novels where the cast is fairly balanced. The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater is one example, along with Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom. Both of these examples may have one “leader” that stands out, but the cast generally works together to achieve the goals laid out in the beginning. 

So your POV choice really depends on how your plot is laid out. If you think you’ll need scenes with other characters and/or your antagonist to make the story dynamic and coherent, then you probably want to avoid first person. Consider the number of characters you have that actively contribute to your plot’s development. Will the story be missing key elements if you only focus on this one character?

[Sidenote: There’s a third option here, using multiple first person points of view, like Rainbow Rowell does in Carry On, but I don’t recommend it unless you have a strong reason to delve into each individual character’s complex emotions. It’s a tricky thing to do, so proceed at your own risk]

Third Person Is Not Lame

I know first person is popular, but that doesn’t mean that third person novels don’t sell. We usually avoid publishing topics here, but I don’t want anyone shying away from their preferred point of view because they think an agent or publisher will reject it on that basis alone. The only time point of view will hurt you is if you make the wrong choice for the story. Third person is often the absolute right choice. 

The only time your reading should influence this choice is if the story you’re telling has similar qualities to the one you’re reading. In this case, you’ll be recognizing what types of POV work in what types of stories. Your reading will have helped you improve your writing decisions. 

Stay In Your Comfort Zone

This is perhaps in unpopular opinion, but with POV, I always recommend writers stick with what’s comfortable for them. If you’re new to writing, you’ll probably try out both first and third person to see what suits you better. For those who have settled into a strong preference (like I described in my opening paragraph), stick with that preference. 

The point of view that you choose impacts every sentence you write. Novels will present you with a million challenges as you go through the process; don’t make POV more difficult than it needs to be. If you like third person, write in third person. If you like first, go with first. 

Chances are, if you do favor one over the other, then the stories you’re plotting coincide with that choice. Trust your instincts. 

I hope that helped you anon!

-Rebekah

I Love Generators (I Really Do) 

@aesterea 

This is an old question, but hopefully my asker is still working away on this story. My advice? Use a random object generator. It sounds like lame advice, so let me elaborate. 

I really do love generators (hence my title). They get a bad rep because it seems lazy to have something else “generate” your ideas for you, but that’s not really what generators do. Generators are kind of like prompts, in that they give you a starting point to build off of. 

The most common use of generators are for character names, and I use them habitually for this. But I’ve also used generators (or long, long lists of examples) for bigger things like, character weaknesses, fears and motivations. I just cycle through examples until something triggers a bulb in my head and I go “Hmmm...” 

Twelve objects is a LOT, and while you’ve been able to come up with some by just thinking about it, you can help speed up the process by using some kind of generator to help you generate more ideas. Use ones that give you multiple results in one click. This allows you to go through a higher volume of examples at a faster rate. Because you may click refresh about 50 times before you get anywhere. It’s a process, and it takes time. But it may take less time than just sitting and stewing over it for hours. 

Google generators that apply to what you’re looking for. In this case, I started with “fantasy object generator” and discovered that this doesn’t really get what you’re looking for (suggestions are too abstract) so then I tried just “random object generator.” I found this one the most useful. From continually clicking “items get,” I landed on some possibilities:  key, handheld mirror, a bell...this was after hitting the button about 6x with about 3-4 suggestions per click. 

Generators are NOT lazy.

I’ll say it again: they’re just not. Imagine you’re an improv artist standing on a stage. Generators are like those people in the audience throwing out ideas. The only difference is, you don’t HAVE to use everything they yell at you. You get to make choices and do all the hard work involved in bringing each choice to fruition. None of that is lazy. 

Generators get you thinking about new concepts and give you a direction to go. If it doesn’t work, you’ll know then and you can backtrack and find a new direction. 

Good luck! Happy generating :)

-Rebekah

Turning Character Goals Into a Story

If you’ve got a good idea of what your character wants and their motivation to get what they want, then the big question you ask next is:

What will stop them from getting it? 

When you break a story down into its bare bones, all you ultimately end up with is a character wanting something and having the worst time trying to get it. For each main character, grab a piece of paper (or a document) and write their goal in big, bold letters at the top of the page. Then underneath, write: What will stop them from getting it? Then, start listing ideas. 

These ideas can be both internal and external. Internal ideas may be that the character lacks the knowledge or ability to obtain the goal. External may be an adversary getting in their way. Think outside the box and list everything, even if they contradict other items in the list. The plan isn’t to use every idea you generate, but to get your brain moving on something. 

Once you’ve got several ideas, pick the ones that seem the most interesting to you. Then, for each of these ideas, brainstorm a solution around that obstacle. 

For example, if one of the obstacles is the character lacking knowledge or skill, where will they obtain this knowledge or skill? A school? A teacher? Traveling to a dark, deserted cave? What is the immediate solution to that obstacle? 

Now that you have a solution, guess what? You have a new goal. Now, start the process over with that goal at the top of a sheet of paper and ask the question: What will stop them from getting it? 

If there’s a specific teacher that the character needs to learn from, what will keep them from learning from them? Is the teacher a recluse that won’t talk to anyone? Have they just been kidnapped? Do they live in a corner of the globe that’s difficult to find? What obstacles stand in the character’s way of reaching this teacher? 

Okay, so let’s continue. Let’s say teacher has been kidnapped. The solution? Solve the mystery of teacher’s disappearance. And guess what? You got it - we now have a new goal to put obstacles around. See a pattern?

Goal > Obstacles  > Solution (Goal)  > Obstacles > Solution (Goal)

Keep working with this until you get to that goal you outlined at the very beginning of the story, or the ultimate goal the character is trying to achieve. 

This is a really simplistic strategy to develop a plot outline, but it works. Give it a try and hopefully that’ll give you something to play with. 

I hope that helps!

-Rebekah

Dealing With a Boring Character

Friend, I’ll get to your specific questions about your plot and characters in a moment, but first, here’s some general advice about tackling an abandoned draft. Think about why you started writing this story. You might already remember, since you want to rewrite it, but consider this question anyway, in case you want to set it aside again. Did the characters grab you? The setting? The plot? Does this book send a message that’s important to you? Whatever that reason is, write it down. Keep it nearby, so you have it on hand when you feel unsure.

Next, think about why you stopped writing. It might have been a crazy life event–those happen, and if so it’s no fault of your own. But it might have been something deeper. You say the plot and characters feel boring. Did you sense that while you were writing the first time? Or was it something else? Did your plot run into a wall? Did you feel unsure about the voice and tone? Did the characters feel like cardboard cutouts? If you can answer this question now, you can avoid running into the same problem. If your plot didn’t work, try some outlining techniques. If the voice was wrong, try to nail it down. As for the character problems…

You say the main character feels flat. Again, the question here is why. They could be boring because they aren’t well developed. How much do you know about this character’s history? How alive do they feel to you? Would you want to be friends with this character, or at least find them interesting if you met them in real life? It may be that you need to sit down and write out some character sheets for your protagonist. Or you could try writing some short stories about them, to flesh them out without the pressure of writing an entire novel.

The main character could be boring in terms of the plot. Are they a passive protagonist, reacting instead of acting? Do they lack a driving motivation? If so, go back and figure out how to make them an actor. What do they want more than anything? Figure out how they can get it. What can’t they bear to lose? Take it away from them.  What’s the worst thing they can imagine? Make it happen to them and see what they do. None of these things have to be part of your story, but they can help you figure out what your story is.

Or the main character could be boring compared to other characters. Do you like other characters better than your protagonist? If so, why? Are they more motivated? Funnier? Charming? Do they drive the plot instead of the protagonist? If the answer to these questions is yes, then take a step back and ask why your protagonist is the main character. What makes them important enough to be the center of your book? Why are they more important than this other character you like more? Bring that reason into the story. Or maybe you need to refocus the book around that other character.

Finally, you say your story overall is boring. This could be the main character’s fault. They’re the focus, after all, and if you don’t like them, then the rest of the story won’t work either. As you improve your main character, your story improves with them. And if you’re writing about the wrong main character altogether, then of course the story feels boring.

However, there could be problems with the story beyond the protagonist. You might mean that your plot meanders. Break your story down by scene and list what happens in each. Is there a clear forward momentum? Does each scene do more than one thing? If not, how can you fix this? Even a slice of life story has an engine  hidden somewhere.

Hopefully those get you thinking, friend. One final note: this could just be a crisis of confidence. If none of these questions help spark your thoughts, ask someone else to take a look at your draft. Showing unfinished works to other people can be scary, but sometimes all it takes is one person who says, “I really like this!” to get you started again.

-M.A. 

Interested in being a guest blogger? Go here and fill out our short form :)