Kick-Starting the Novel – Session 2

Theme, Plot & Structure

The main reason why most first drafts of novels flounder is usually the lack of planning and preparation before the writer gets down to work. In the first session we looked at identifying the readership and publishers likely to be interested in your novel, and the 150 word ‘blurb’ will have given the outline of the plot but now we need to take this a step forward.

Theme:

The ‘theme’ gives the story its tone, its subject matter, its ‘reader identity/empathy’ and can often be summed up in a single word: jealousy, revenge, ambition, deliverance, self-discovery, flight, fight, etc. The theme is the core of the story – the plot development can be thought of as layers of an onion.  The Polti theory maintains that there are only 36 dramatic situations on which the writer of fiction can draw. By using single situations or several combinations, the basic theme of every story (long or short) ever told, written or devised, can be summed up in the following list:

Supplication : Deliverance: Crime pursued by vengeance : Vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred : Pursuit : Disaster: Falling prey to cruelty or misfortune : Revolt: Daring Enterprise: Abduction : The Enigma: Obtaining : Enmity of kinsmen: Rivalry of kinsmen: Murderous adultery : Madness : Fatal imprudence : Involuntary crimes of love: Slaying of a kinsman unrecognised : Self sacrifice for an ideal : Self sacrifice for kindred: All sacrificed for passion : Necessity of sacrificing loved ones :Rivalry of superior and inferior: Adultery Crimes of love : Discovery of the dishonour of a loved one : Obstacles to love : An enemy loved: Ambition : Conflict with God : Mistaken jealousy : Erroneous judgement: Remorse : Recovery of a lost one: Loss of a loved one.

For the novel to work, the reader must be convinced that the principal character has good reason/motivation/ability to follow the course of action needed to carry the plot along. Simply, if the character is unconvincing, no amount of clever plotting will compensate for that lack of credibility, because readers identify with the course of action and if it doesn’t convince them that they would act in the same manner, the interest will be lost.

Plot & Sub-Plot:

The ‘plot’ refers to the story-line that drives the characters into be­having the way they do and is concerned with precisely how the theme is put into effect. And the first question we should ask our­selves is: Will the story be strong enough to hold the reader’s atten­tion for 80,000+ words? It is pointless starting with a good idea for an opening and not giv­ing any further thought to how the story will develop — travel­ling hopefully is not the best way to begin a novel!

Regardless of the type of story we are writing, there needs to be plenty of tension and drama – even for romance. These elements provide the barriers that everyone must over­come in order to resolve the ‘problem’ that is at the root of the plot. They are also useful tools to provide the antagonism between the various characters because drama does not arrive in a story unbidden … something has to create it and the reader must be convinced by it.

Another point to consider at this stage is that very few novels are able to sus­tain reader interest without there being some form of sub-plot. This can be a mystery/ misunderstanding running paral­lel to the main plot; it can be developed to involve one of the other characters while only superficially imposing on the storyline; it can provide a useful red herring; it can be anything you like providing it adds breadth and dimension to your novel.

The plot will also be governed by the time-span of the story and it is a good idea to decide, right from the start, when the story will begin and end.  We all know that a story should begin with a point of high drama in order to hook the reader’s attention but for how long a period of time are we going to spin the story out? If the story is planned to unfold in, say, the period of a week, then all the necessary back­ground information can be revealed by means of conversa­tion or flashback.

When structuring the plot for The Wild Horseman, the author found it necessary to compress the entire story into 18 days and the characters were slowly revealed through the use of dialogue and personal reflec­tion. The opening and closing chapters acted as a bridge be­tween past and present, so there was no need for any long, convoluted introductions of who, why and what.

This time element can be an extremely useful device in creating drama because the characters come to the action primed and ready to partici­pate. It plunges the reader straight into the action and any relevant background details can be introduced later.

Structure:

Whether the novel is character-or plot-driven, whether we are writing crime, literary fic­tion, science fiction, fantasy, or in any other genre, the setting we choose for the story should play an integral part of our novel. The setting provides a backdrop against which the story takes place, while paint­ing a visual picture and adding authenticity: without a credible setting, the characters would be acting out their parts on a bare stage.  Exotic and/or original loca­tions can give a story an extra boost.

Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse, introduced us to the esoteric world of academe by casting his plots among the traditions and dreamy spires of Oxford uni­versity life, while Simon Raven did the same for Cambridge. Dick Francis came up with his own original formula set amongst the racing fraternity where wealth frequently rubs shoulders with the lower echelons of society. Jilly Cooper opened up the world of show jumping and polo, before turning her atten­tions on the members of an international orchestra. Ellis Peters chose medieval Britain

Having a firm idea of where the novel is set will help considera­bly when it comes down to struc­turing a provision mind-map of chapters and action because the setting will help to dictate where the action takes place.  Novelists have all sorts of methods of structuring a novel some use blank cards, other use computer spread-sheets, some even use lining paper from the DIY store. It really doesn’t mat­ter because we all approach novel writing in different ways, so find something with which you feel comfortable and start planning.

Novels in a similar genre will give a rough idea of the number of chapters we should be aiming for. For example, a crime thriller may run to 24+ long chapters because of the con­stant shift of perception and viewpoint; while a more person­alised human story like Elsie Burch Donald’s A Rope of Sand contained 22 short chapters. For The Wild Horseman, the author used a chapter per day plus an opening and close.

The initial choice for the num­ber of chapters isn’t cast in stone but it does give a firm starting point on which to structure the complete novel. If we go for the short time span, it means there needs to be a lot happening in a short space of time; a wide time span will need to be carefully divided so that the story doesn’t become unevenly time-bound in one period.  Start with a card or separate sheet for each chapter and begin to map out the point of introduction of your characters and the relevant action involving each of them.  Don’t worry too much if they stat to take on a life of their own, this is normal and often produces some interesting results.

Remember that structure is merely a guide to show where the story needs its peaks and troughs.  All novels have the occasional slow periods, to allow the reader to catch their breath before charging off for another piece of action.

For commissioning editor appeal, all fiction needs a credible plot, a plausible theme, an original location and principal characters who, whilst being sharp, intelligent and ‘successful’, to need possess a few faults and foibles to give them added dimension.

At ‘Kick-Starting the Novel’ workshops, the most frequent comment in response to all this advice, is that the participants sometimes feel such preparation to be stifling the creative urge of writing.  Many see planning as being restrictive and prefer for allow the words to ‘just flow’. That’s fine, but the majority of today’s novel writing is a potentially commercial enterprise and most typescripts we see at these workshops are a long way from being the finished product the authors believe them to be.  Successful novel writing requires a lot more discipline if we’re going to get it right this time.

Exercises: Session 2

1. Describe the nature of the theme of your novel.
2.  Drawing on the 150 word ‘blurb’ from the last session, suggest a couple of ideas that might provide a convincing sub-plot; or describe an existing sub-plot.
3.  What period and time span will the novel cover … and why?
4.  Taking this session into account, have you any further observations on why your novel became bogged down. Can you see where it started to go wrong?
5.  Create a structure breakdown for the first five chapters, showing where you intend to introduce the characters and ‘action’.

KICK-STARTING YOUR NOVEL - SESSION ONE

Everyone gets bogged down with a novel at some stage … from beginner struggling with characterisation and plotting, to the more experienced writer, who suddenly find they’ve run out of steam. There are probably thousands of unfinished typescripts at various stages of completion languishing is desk drawers and computer files that just need kick-starting to get them going again and this was the subject of a series of workshops that tried to help writers find the problem, solve it, and (hopefully) head for publication. If you’ve found yourself in this position, perhaps some of this advice may help …

Session 1: Who’s going to read my novel?
The first question I ask every workshop participant and one that every potential novelist should ask themselves, is: Who is going to read my novel? Every target market for consumable products is subject to marketing analysis by the producer. The fact that we are talking about books and publishers (or even self-publishing via e-books) doesn’t alter the fact that we are still referring to a commodity that will be aimed at a particular target market (readership). So we must start by identifying the type of reader for whom we are telling our story.

At this stage, someone will always interrupt and complain that this is not a creative approach to novel writing; or that they found this idea inhibiting, strangling the creative urge at birth; or even that they are writing for themselves and not bothered about who will read the finished story. Unfortunately, there are still the last shreds of glamour clinging to the image of the novelist and up to ten years ago we could still allow ourselves the luxury of not compromising our personal integrity by becoming a slave to commercialism. A couple of decades down the road, traditional publishing is the sole province of the accountants and every book is looked upon in terms of profit and loss - not literary merit. And so the truly ambitious make a point of understanding who’s publishing what in today’s book world if that’s the road they want to go down.

The next interruption usually voices the opinion that no-one told the ‘greats’ (Shakespeare, Dickens, et al) how to write, not taking into account that the ‘greats’ wouldn’t get passed the first glance by today’s publisher’s reader. Take my own personal favourite, whom I can still read for pleasure - Balzac. Poor old Honoré, with his ‘tell don’t show’ technique would have been blue-pencilled into oblivion!

So the image we have to dispel is the vision of the by-gone world of Dame Agatha, Wilbur Smith, Alistair Maclean, Colette, Simon Raven, Saki and Wodehouse (to name a few more favourites) when publishers and agents appreciated a good book, and knuckle down to the fact that we are competing in a vast commercial process of producing a novel that might only have a few weeks of modest fame on the shelves of Waterstones, before being remaindered and never heard of again! This is the reality of contemporary publishing and what we hope to do during this six-session series is attempt to narrow the odds in the outsider’s favour …

The first thing we need to establish is identifying the genre in which we are writing … so-called ‘slip stream’ novels are fun to write but infinitely more difficult to sell, so a lot of deliberation needs to go into this answer. Broadly speaking, the most popular commercial novels fit into the following categories even within pagan fiction.

Romance - standard boy-meets-girl plot with little or no gratuitous sex. Often thought to refer solely to Mills & Boon-type writing but can, according to the Romantic Novelists’ Association, straddle a much wider field, including historical and thrillers … and MB&S romance

Historical - anything with a period flavour up to the 1950s falls into this area, including family sagas and often a dominating theme within MB&S fiction.

Women’s fiction - generally refers to contemporary fiction covering intimate relationships, controversial domestic situations and recently including the popular ‘chick lit’ with MB&S undertones.

Science fiction/Fantasy - self explanatory but ranges from classic Arthur C Clarke sci-fi to Terry Pratchett and Harry Potter … and everything else in between, including ‘sword ‘n’ sorcery’, although the latter has lost popularity in recent years.

Crime/Thriller – generally anything that culminates in murder, either from a detection or victim point-of-view, including everything with a ‘dark’ element from Agatha Christie to Sally Spedding, David Hewson and Maureen Carter.

There are other genres such as horror, humour, war and westerns that still manage to produce the odd rabbit out of the hat, but these are extremely difficult areas to break into and publishers tend to stick with tried and tested authors, rather than taking on new ones. There is also the literary genre that is often reflected in the type of writing chosen for the Booker shortlist, and new novels from the graduates of the University of East Anglia – all of which can add a dash of paganism to offer a different dimension.

This is, of course, a very general over-view of standard publishing categories but the odds-on favourites for a new author will be those who don’t try to invent a new one. Bridget Jones’s Diary was the founder of ‘chick-lit’ but it still sat comfortably within the women’s fiction genre, just as Harry Potter had a ready-made slot within fantasy.

The second step in the exercise is to identify your target readership, because at the end of the day, this will make it easier to target the right agent or publisher for the finished typescript. What type of person would you generally expect to pick up your finished novel from the shelves of a high street bookshop? This is the same kind of market research we do when first starting writing and we learn to identify the readership of a certain type of magazine or newspaper. It is also applicable to marketing a novel, and we learn to keep an eye open in bookshops for the latest releases, especially those similar to our own plot and theme. Try to visualize your typical reader in your mind’s eye …

Just as we select the right target market for an article or short story, so we learn to make sure that our typescript is targeted at the right area of traditional pub¬lishing … there is no magical formula for this, just plain common sense. You are a potential novelist and have to supply what the publisher wants. As writing tutor Chriss McCallum commented: “You are the manufacturer, and you have to supply what the retailer wants. An editor is a retailer. He buys from the manufacturer – the writer -what he knows he can sell to his customers – his readers” – or in this case, the book buying public.
So, this is no time to be precious. Even if you intend to self-publish, it doesn’t hurt to work within the parameters of professional publishing. Get to understand the market place but just for starters, here are a few ‘rules’ that you would do well to take on board:

Don’t try to ride on the tail of what’s currently in fashion - by the time your novel is finished, never mind the time it takes between contract and launch - your piece will be outdated.

Don’t try to turn your own life-story into a novel - it doesn’t work. Draw on personal experience by all means but ‘true life’ into novel isn’t half as interesting as you may think.

Don’t bore the reader. Can your story retain the reader’s interest for 80,000 words?

Don’t try to base an entire novel on a single fragment of an idea. It may be a brilliant opening or closing scene, but without a detailed structure to unite ideas, characters, setting, drama, tension, plot and action, it will be extremely difficult to maintain the momentum.

Don’t get disheartened.

To return to the original question at the start of this piece and before doing anything else, let us identify our target reader. Few contemporary novels cover the whole spectrum of age, gender and literary style. Books written by younger authors tend to reflect the viewpoints of their own age group, while old favourites often appeal to much younger readers, as well as the older generation. Gratuitous sex and/or violence will have its own following and the writer must be able to differ¬entiate between the requirements of the various publishers, so be prepared to spend some time in your local bookstore and on the internet to find out who publishes what.

Thirdly, let’s try to establish who or what the novel is about. Some novels are plot-driven, others character-driven and to help us clarify which path we intend to take, it is a good idea to write a short ‘blurb’ for the story. In the publishing trade this is understood to be the short precise of the story, and examples can be found on the back cover of most paperback books. If you’re not sure, try to précis the novel in around 150 words. This will show whether the emphasis is a human interest story, action-packed thriller, a sex-romp, police procedural, adventure, etc.

Exercise: Who’s going to read my novel?

Forget what you’ve written so far and for your own benefit, write a synopsis and the first chapter of the novel.

Now describe your target market/genre where you think your finished typescript will be aimed and describe your target readership in terms of who you think will enjoy your book.

Which publishers have novels similar in approach to your own on their titles list?

Prepare a ‘blurb’ in no more than 150 words to show the outline for the story.

Prepare main character biographies for your two principal characters in less than 50 words for each.

Now try to give an indication of where you feel the novel has run out of steam.

If you require any further assistance with this session, message Suzanne Ruthven via Facebook and your questions will be answered as quickly as possible – time permitting. But please don’t ask me to read your typescript as this is time-consuming and very expensive.

December 2015 Update on SR Blog

As from 1st January 2016 I will be regularly updating my personal Blog to accommodate the various on-line writing groups I've joined and at the same time ceasing my connection with Compass Books as commissioning editor, having decided to concentrate on novel writing.  The first posting will be the first part of a six session workshop on 'Kick Starting the Novel'.

I have several Facebook pages that might be of interest:

http://www.facebook.com/CountryWriters
http://www.facebook.com/VampyresTale
http://www.facebook.com/BraithwaiteMysteryRuthven