I’m driving through upstate New York. If you’ve ever seen calendar pictures for October with the brilliant reds, golds, yellows, and greens, you know what I mean. It’s beautiful. I live in Western Montana, in the midst of the rugged Rocky Mountains, and am blessed with glorious fall colors, too. But a definite difference exists between these two fall displays. My fall colors are limited to the valley floor, with the exception of tamaracks in the mountains, but here in NY the colors flow with the rolling hills, which affords a dimension to the hues I don’t get to experience in Montana.
When writing fiction, setting is as important as characters, plot, and theme. In fact, the setting can become a kind of character (think: creepy mansion with a malevolent personality; or the sand and surf where your protagonist goes for comfort and solace, or add clouds and wind and it becomes a raging surf, tempting our hero to throw himself off the cliff into the crashing waves below—remember Rebecca?
Setting can create additional conflict for the protagonist, adding depth to the plot. For example, your story might center around two brothers who are always locked in one quarrel or another: they both want the same girl, one is smarter than the other, one seems to get all the breaks, mom loves one best . . . any number of typical struggles brothers can have. But let’s put them in the midst of the Civil War (or for my Southern readers, the Northern Aggression), one fights for the South, the other for the North and your setting kicks up your conflict to new levels.
Also, setting can simply be someplace we could never “see” without the author’s creation of the world he or she takes us into. C. S. Lewis and Narnia, and J. R. R. Tolkein and his world come to mind. These are nonexistent settings, yet these authors make them real for their characters and for us. Because of the authors’ vivid descriptions, we readers can move through and experience these “make believe” worlds alongside the characters.
What author creates the most fascinating settings for you?
Most activities and projects require advanced preparation. Taking a trip involves planning your route/flight, gassing up the car or buying tickets, packing your bags, canceling newspaper and mail deliveries. It’s a lot of work, but doing these things makes the trip more enjoyable and reduces the stress level along the way.
The same can be said for planning your next great American novel. Preparation will make the journey of writing your book, a difficult task, easier: create your characters, including their back stories and motivations; determine your protagonist’s conflict and how she or he will change; build your setting; establish your plot and subplots—all before you write one single word.
If you’re a SOP writer (seat of pants), this preparation will, do doubt, be difficult or boring for you. You might be tempted to skip it. But if you don’t prepare, I promise you’ll have an abundance of stress that could have been avoided. If you’ve done the preliminary work, you’ll know how your character will act in a given situation. If you’ve not done it and your character is in the toughest circumstances of her life, you’ll have to stop and think and ponder and hunt through the previous 100 pages and . . . see what I mean? Determining the plot and subplots ahead of time could reveal some logic problems, which you can easily fix—much easier to do before you write than after you’ve penned 150 pages, and then have to go back and do a massive rewrite of thelast 149 pages.
And a reminder to those who get a rush from the preparation—all that organizing and planning: don’t go overboard. Planners can enjoy the preparation stage so much they become obsessed with it and miss their flight! Or for the writer: they dream, plan, create, sketch, plot . . . but never get around to writing the story!
Each of these writing styles has strengths . . . and weaknesses if taken to the extreme. So identify your style, borrow some strengths from the “sister” style, and write that great American novel!
This week I’m giving you a list of my favorite “Help Me Write” tools. These are books or other sources I turn to when I’m editing or writing. I hope you'll find them helpful, too.
Top-notch fiction articles from top-notch writers, editors, and agents—beats Writer’s Digest hands down for content, and it’s FREE: http://www.christianfictiononlinemagazine.com (Technical editor is Yours Truly!)
Sample documents for writers: http://scrivenings.com/resources/sample-documents-for-writers
How to write nonfiction proposals: http://www.stevelaube.com/How%20to%20Write%20a%20Non-fiction%20Book%20Proposal.pdf
Fabulous workshops and lecture packets filled with everything you need to write the next best seller; best bang for your $20 bucks: http://www.margielawson.com/
How build and write a novel that is sure to break out of the pack: Writing the Breakout Novel (book and workbook) by Donald Maass
Not only a great how-to-write book, but how to break into the industry and build a career in writing: Writing for the Soul by Jerry B. Jenkins
Create a believable and memorable plot: Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
Beyond a dictionary and thesaurus—helps you determine the precise word: Flip Dictionary by Barbara Ann Kipfer
I could list many, many more books and Web sites, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. What I have offered is a small sampling of resources that address the various aspects of writing, including self-editing and a bit of the business side of the biz.
I am sitting in the hospital birthing room, awaiting my eleventh grandchild. (No, I’m not that old; I’ve been blessed with many children who love children!) This baby boy is one of those “surprise” babies. (Been there; done that.)
Before labor gets too intense and I’m called into action, I have time to wonder how this child will enrich our lives. Each time a new baby joins our family, he or she adds a new dimension to us all. What will he be like? What quirks will he have? What kind of personality will he have?
This baby, Jude Isaac, is taking his time to make his entrance into the world. I was a slow laborer with each of my seven children. You’d think that after even the second one, I would be more efficient about this birthing business. But no, that’s not my reality. (And I have to admit that even now, after all these years, when I hear of a woman giving birth in a matter of a few hours, I feel a twinge of jealousy.)
This is how it is as authors give birth to their characters. Sometimes they come to us quickly, and other times they come to us after only weeks and maybe even years of “labor.” We begin to ponder what kind of person our protagonists are. How they will handle their challenges. Maybe we know what the story we want to tell and create someone to fit into it. Many times we have no clue what the plot is, but we see in our minds’ eyes a full-bodied character that begs to live, to be seen and heard.
Either way, giving birth to characters who tell our stories is a labor of love.
What is your experience in birthing characters? I’d love to hear your story!
