Writing the Novel: Intertwining Plot, Conflict, and the Tapestry of Character Development

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Novels are complex creatures. They involve a complex weave of characters and events which must still fascinate the reader from the first page to last. The key to unlocking your novel lies in integrating the personal conflicts of each individual character with the central conflict of the whole novel.  The goal is to help the reader sympathize with your characters as they struggle not only to "solve" the core problem of the novel, but also as they try to face the dangerous facts of their own lives.

Revise Your Fiction by Expanding the Details

Writers often tremble at the thought of revising a story, especially a long and complex work of fiction. But if you are working on a novel or a novella, you'll need to fill out your story with all the details and subplots necessary to present a rich experience for your readers. For advice on how to radically revise and expand a story, see "Expanding Your Fiction" on the IFP Blog.  For more examples on how to rewrite chapter openings, see "Maria Villanueva - Story Openings from Happy Ever After" or "Selonge Naita, The Martian Spy" on my Science Fiction Blog.

Manage the Shifting Tone in Your Writing

In fiction and poetry, we often discuss this idea of "shifting tone," sometimes as if it's some kind of leprous creature to be avoided at all costs.  "The tone shifts here - it really bothered me" is a common refrain in workshops.  But this isn't to say the tone of your story should remain constant throughout - quite the contrary...

Escape from the "Ethnic" Story

In class, it came up that one of my classmates doesn't feel that her stories are necessarily ethnic, but she doesn't like the fact that readers assume her characters are white simply because they aren't explicitly Asian.  And for many American writers who do write about their ancestors, there's an assumption that every story they write is meant to convey the perspectives of an entire people (see "Foreign Correspondence" in Mark Athitakis' American Fiction Notes).

March 20 Newsletter - Character, Dialogue Tags, and Contests

The latest 1-2-Writing Newsletter is now online!  You can sit it by visiting my iContact Profile.  And if you would like to receive regular updates (about two newsletters per month), then you can Subscribe to Our RSS Feed or add your e-mail over to the right.

1-2-Writing Workshops Online

Writing Short Story Characters with Purpose

The saga of the MFA Thesis continues with Character Development.

The next step: developing my characters to reveal genuine motivations in the tight form of the short story.  And this can be challenging.  In order to be interesting and compelling, characters in fiction must have something at stake in the outcome of the story.

Write Relevant Dialogue

Your story has just begun. The conflict is terrible, the plot superb, and the characters fascinating. It's time for the major scene, bringing together arch-nemesci in the same setting: the protagonist and antagonist. To pull off the ensuing confrontation, you'll need dialogue.

Setting to Illustrate Conflict and Character

I remember setting as the bread and butter of my days in Reading class. Setting was the most wonderful (and most analyzed) part of every fiction story we read. Were there trees? What did they look like? How do they make you feel?

How to Write Compelling Characters

There is nothing - nothing - that will kill a story faster than a dull protagonist. I'm not talking about a character who sits at home with his mom on Friday nights eating popcorn while watching reruns of that morning's soaps (though that would, of course, be pretty dull). Worse than this is a character who sits at home and does nothing, thinks nothing, decides nothing. The kind of protagonist who takes life in stride and learns nothing. A dull character, indeed.