Tag: writing tips

How to Write a Trilogy

Quan

Trilogies are a holy grail in storytelling. They make any story larger and grander, and can create a real connection over time between the reader and the central characers. I’m in the process of writing my own trilogy, so I thought I’d do some digging into what makes trilogies work. I found a bunch of great advice on a bunch of other blogs, so I thought I’d share my findings with you, along with some of my own observations from writing my own trilogy.

  1. The first part of the story must be able to stand on its own merits. The Master & Commander series of books are quite popular, but when adapted for screen, never made it past the first movie (despite the movie being pretty damned good and making a lot of money). The lesson is that you cannot assume that your storyarc will make it to book two. Make sure your first story is strong and well-told and can work as a standalone story.
  2. Part two takes everything that worked about part one and ramps everything up, the stakes are higher, the character swings are bolder, and the consequences more severe. And part three is the closure where story arcs conclude and loose ends are tied up.
  3. Throughout the stories, there have to be details, thematic or otherwise, that tie the three stories together. Ideally, your reader should be able to sit and go through all three stories in one sitting and feel that they have read one complete narrative.
  4. To piggyback off of point one: each part of the trilogy has to work as a self-contained story within itself while at the same time advancing the overall narrative. You never know which story will be somebody’s jumping-on point, so you want to make sure they get a complete story in that one instance, whether they are reading part one or part three. At the same time, the most successful trilogies have a narrative thread that develops over the course of the series. It could be a plot arc or a character development arc, or even a setting/environmental arc. I’m a huge James Bond fan, and I love each of its 25+ movies, but the stories pitting him against Spectre and Ernst Starvo Blofeld resonate the most with me because the rivalry between the two is built and developed over the course of multiple stories (i.e. Dr, No through Diamonds are Forever was an excellent build, as was Casino Royale through Spectre). Likewise, the original Foundation Trilogy chronicled the fall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the Foundation over the course of many generations.

For me, a good trilogy is a prime example of the 3 act rule that I spoke of in earlier posts, just in a bigger package and working at a Meta level. To review, Magic: The Gathering Head of R&D Mark Rosewater (who also wrote episodes of Roseanne) described the process in three steps: 1) get your protagonist stuck up a tree. 2) throw rocks at them. 3) get your character down from the tree. This works withn the confines of a regular story, but it also works within a trilogy. The first story gets your character stuck up the tree. Even within your protagonist’s resolution of the story’s central plot, there are seeds planted which show that the greater problem has not been solved yet. Think Star Wars: yes, the Death Star was destroyed, but the Empire still rules the galaxy, and the big bad (Darth Vader) was still out there to create havoc in a future movie. The second story raises the stakes and truly puts the heroes in jeopardy of not completing their overall goal; like in Empire Strikes Back, where Luke and Company were dealt devastating blows by Vader, Palpatine and the Empire and the only central plot of the story was whether our heroes could survive it all and make it to the end of the movie. And the third story ties everything together and resolves everything, like in Return of the Jedi where Luke finally redeems his father and destroys the leader of the Empire…along with another Death Star.

There are a lot of things to keep in mind if you are planning a trilogy, but then there are added challenges if a story you originally hadn’t intended on expanding organically develops into something that needs more installments. Maybe your standalone story is so successful that your fans of your publisher demand a follow-up or two. Or maybe you have so much going on in your sequel that you can’t contain it all in one book. In those instances, the best thing to do is to do a deep dive into the world you created in book one. Pick out as many aspects of the settings, plots, subplots and characters that could be explored, and find an overall theme you can build an overarching narrative from that can carry multiple books.

So if you are hankering for a good narrative challenge, try taking one of your stories and expanding it into a 3-part saga. You might discover some new things about your world that will only serve to enhance your original idea.

Interview with Jonis Agee

Quan

Jonis Agee is most likely the highest-profiled author I know. She is critically acclaimed, and has won more than her share of literary awards. She also has the distinction of being one of my creative writing teachers at the University of Michigan. I learned a ton about the craft of storytelling from her, and it is an honor to post her insights on her writing process here. Get more information about her and her books at her website jonisagee.com.

What inspires your writing?

This is a good question. I have to stop and think because it changes all the time, and it has changed over the years each time someone asks it. I always knew I would be a writer, even before I began to write. It just came to me that that would be my job. And it’s a great one! All kinds of things move me to write: it’s a form of talking to others, sharing things that move me, disturb me, fill me with happiness and beauty or outrage and a search for meaning and understanding. Each story, poem, or book I write is an investigation of something that is happening or has happened that I want to explore and address. My latest novel, The Bones of Paradise built up over fifteen years of thinking about and visiting the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, for instance. When I was told the story of what generations of ranchers did to the oldest son to guarantee their legacy, I was moved by another form of injustice and found a way to yoke the stories together to build the novel. I am currently writing a novel set in the Missouri Ozarks during the Civil War and 1930 with the building of Bagnell Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks. It explores the ongoing issues of racial, social and economic tension and the injustices that have never been resolved there. My people are from that part of the country and I have spent a lifetime trying to understand them. I guess that’s what finally moves me: the urge to tell people’s stories, people who are historically forgotten or ignored, working people and people whose lives are troubled, people who rise above their circumstances and search for dignity and meaning, and people who go the opposite direction.

What is your process of developing characters?

I collect old, historical pictures, the kind you find in junk shops and antique stores. I look for the faces and scenes that seem to speak to me, and then I began to listen to the stories they might have to tell. Sometimes a character will appear before a picture, and Flannery O’Connor style, I will hear their voice speaking and begin to write their words and feel their world unfold around them, a scene or story that led up to the words they spoke. I quickly have to find out where a character is, specifically, what the place is in detail. I guess I’m pretty literal about place and setting. The minute I see them in a place, watch them move around, I begin to know them. I work to get them to take over the story, to let the unexpected happen. I love how Toni Morrison lets her characters do good and bad things, regardless of where they fall on the axis of morality, so I try to open myself and the characters to those other sides of themselves. If I have a character who seems too good to be true, they usually are, so I roughen them up by seeing what is petty, mean, small or hidden inside them. We all have those moments where we don’t do or say the right thing for a whole variety of reasons, and to make a complete portrait of a human being we need that aspect too. The same is true of characters who are so dark or evil that they’re wooden tropes. I will write from their point of view, trying to get them to reveal their own story of themselves, how they see the world and what they are, which can bring some deeper understanding to the character for the reader. Or I look for what they love, without reservation, what they love so wholeheartedly that they are briefly disarmed in the embrace of that creature or thing. In one novel I discovered that a bad man, a truly bad man, really loved his dog. I mean, he treated that dog as if it were a girlfriend or a brother he never had. It had a terrific life, and seeing that capacity for positive feeling in that bad man, made him more complex and interesting. Another thing I do to develop characters is figure out what their dreams, desires, fantasies, nightmares, fears, and histories are. That takes a long time, but it’s key to grasping what a person is. I noticed several years ago when I was writing South of Resurrection that I had this urge to explain my characters psychologically too much when I was writing, I kept getting stuck on the word “because” and it was a real problem because I don’t have an advanced degree in psychology. Also, I was using too much of the pop psychology that was bombarding the media. Most importantly, my characters were tipping over into types because they were simply the result of a designated trauma. I made a rule then, that freed both the characters and me the writer: I could not use the word “because.” Characters acted and felt certain things without me having to pause for long and simpleminded diagrams of their mental health. I discovered that it’s important to let characters simply act and suffer or enjoy the results of that action, that we don’t always know or need to know or can know the root cause of behavior, that is what makes us interesting and worthy of spending time with, I believe.

Did you Start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

I wish I could outline my stories. It would make the writing go faster I think. But, no, I never outline. I’m just lazy enough that if I know how the story turns out, how and when the angles of change occur, then I get bored and don’t want to write the whole thing. I have to be surprised by the characters and the story. I often hear or see the opening, and then I go to work to figure out how this all started and what these people are going to do next.

How much research did you need for your story?

With the novels I do a lot of research, whether it’s concerning place or historical events and place. Always place has to be researched. For instance, I have to know what plants, trees, animals, birds, weather, sky, water, houses, economic issues, ethnic, racial, religions are in a place. I read histories of a place regardless of whether the novel is historical or not. If it is historical, for instance, The River Wife, set in the New Madrid area of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquake was the big inciting event for the novel. It was also the biggest earthquake in North America, with aftershocks lasting a year. The old town of New Madrid was taken by the Mississippi River then, and the land developed swamp and sand boils and bottomless springs. I spent time learning about earthquakes, the Civil War since a decisive battle over the control of the Mississippi River and war supplies occurred at New Madrid, cotton growing, the depression and prohibition, Hot Springs, Arkansas, and women’s rights in those periods. I had to learn about architecture of the time before the Civil War and Audubon who wandered in the region teaching young women to paint while he researched and drew birds. I read his letters, and he became a character in the novel. When I write historical novels, it usually takes me longer, say six years because the writing is slowed by research.

What researching methods did you use?

I go to the place where I am setting my novel usually. I drive around. I meet people, listen to their stories, how they see their world. I visit the historical museums in the little towns where I am going to put my story. I read a general history or two of the state or the region to get a sense of how the region developed. The Sand Hills of Nebraska where I have placed three of my novels, including the most recent, The Bones of Paradise, I did a great deal of research into the Lakota people who originally roamed the region until they were forced onto the reservations in South Dakota just over the Nebraska border. I spent time on Rosebud primarily but visited Pine Ridge too. I read a great deal, of course, about history, religion, and everyday life. Because the land itself is the source of every aspect of life out there, I had to research grasslands, cattle management such as diseases and the economics, and explore life in very small, isolated towns and ranches. I do a lot of just poking around to discover what stories are in a place, how the people there exist, how they get along and don’t. I read the small town weekly newspapers too. I used to look into the phone books to see what businesses were there, the names of people. That’s harder now, of course.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Always. That’s why I go to the place I’m writing about and put myself into the world, to see what it will send back. I have found scenes and plot lines and characters using this method. I sometimes draw on my own history. It’s impossible not to. But I don’t see myself as someone who writes autobiographically. I inhabit the worlds of my stories through my imagination. That’s what gives me the greatest pleasure, allows me to live a much broader and fuller life than I would otherwise. Reading and writing are absolutely linked in this way for me.

How did your publish?

I began writing as a poet, and my first published book was a long poem of ninety pages, with Truck Press, a small literary press. Then I turned to fiction and published two collections of stories with small literary presses, followed by my first novel which was published by what is now a division of Random House. All my novels have been published by large New York presses, and my last four short story collections have been published by Coffee House Press, which has grown to have a significant national presence as a literary, non profit press.

Why did you do it that way?

I didn’t plan it out this way. I actually got a literary agent when he was judging for the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Fiction. He liked my work. Many years later, when I had a novel, I won a Loft McKnight Fellowship in Fiction, and they printed a booklet of our fiction and sent it to Editors at big presses in New York. An editor, Jane von Mehren, liked my work, contacted me, and we sold her the novel I had been working on for eight years. She was my editor for the first five novels until she became a literary agent. The editor of my latest novel, Bones of Paradise published by William Morrow, was Jessica Williams, and she did an excellent job. Meanwhile, my short story collections seemed a better fit for Coffee House Press. They keep the books in print and give me the latitude I need to take risks with my writing and subject matter. It works for all of us.

How long did it take to land representation for your latest novel?

I sent novel drafts to my agent for about six months, and then she began to submit it. It took about a month or so to sell it to Jessica Williams at William Morrow. I try to wait until I think the novel is pretty much done before I send it to my agent, and then I make revisions as she suggests. My husband, writer Brent Spencer, is my first reader.

What advice would you have for writers looking to publish the way you published?   

For novels, find a good strong story with characters that readers want to care about even if they are not paragons of virtue. Write enough drafts that it doesn’t need a ton of work on revision. Query agents, friends, other writers with agents, etc. to get an agent if you are looking to publish commercially in New York.  Get help with a good query letter for agents. Don’t expect agents and editors to do the kind of editing you read about in the past. Everyone is overworked. If you are interested in smaller, literary presses, look at what they publish and check out their websites for submission guidelines. Again, have the book in final form.

Do you use beta readers? No.

How many revisions did it take to get a final draft of you most recent novel?

At least six. I usually write complete drafts and end up throwing some of them away, restarting, reconceiving, etc. I apologize to the trees of the world. I print out each version. Each draft is too long, especially early on…say 700 pages or so. I spend time at the end of the process cutting and compressing. That is the really painful part.

What are some of your methods for establishing a believable and immersive setting you stories? 

I look for the smallest parts after establishing the big frame of a setting. I think of those long sweeping shots of the opening of films, or of the close up camera shot that gradually pulls out. I try to find where dust is, in the air, on character clothing maybe, on tables, etc. I think about what fills interior spaces in terms of “stuff” and what accumulates that indicates our living in a place. I addressed some of the business of place earlier in my comments because it’s so important to me and my storytelling.

What are you writing now?

I’m just finishing a new collection of stories that are very different for me. They cross into fable, myth, fantasy, surrealism, you name it. They explore the intersections of realism and fable or myth that create reality.

As I noted above, I am also writing a new novel, which I hope to finish this year.

What is your advice to other writers?

Write. Read. Write some more. Enjoy your job! Seriously, if you are a writer, you were chosen as much as you chose it. Throw yourself and everything you have into it! Our village is relying on us to tell their stories.

Her latest novel is The Bones of Paradise. Go get your copy now!

Interview with Angelique Clemens

Quan

I’ve known Angelique from way back in my college days. She is a vibrant, outgoing lady with a ton of insight to offer via her debut novel “Can I Borrow Your Skin?” While creating her author website for her at angeliqueclemens.com I took the time to interview her about her book.

What inspires your writing?

Life. I am moved by significant events in my life and the life of those around me. Writing about those experiences and working through different outcomes is what inspires my writings. As humans, we naturally think through what-ifs and daydream. For me that daydreaming and trying to visualize a world different than the path I took can open doors to another story.  

What is your process of developing characters?

I write biographical fiction therefore the characters’ relatability is imperative for the success of the book. I spend time developing storyboard for each of the main character of the book and their relationship.

Did you Start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

It is a combination of both. I spend time developing the characters and their relationship, but I do not outline the entire book.

How much research did you need for your story?

Can I Borrow Your Skin is based in a time period and in an area in the world that I am quite familiar so I did not have to research those aspects of the book.

What researching methods did you use?

I did research some of the sporting event scores and schedules using the internet.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Absolutely! I definitely included elements of my own life in the book. We, as authors, do write what we know and I know my own experiences the best.

How did your publish?

I have a friend that owns a publishing company. He mentored me through the publishing process.

Why did you do it that way?

It was cost-effective and never felt like I was going at it alone.

How long did it take to land representation?

It was instantaneous for me once I reached out to him.

What advice would you have for writers looking to publish the way you published?

Contact Shawn at shawntblanchard.com, his is an excellent author, speaker, and mentor.

Who did your cover and marketing?

Shawn’s team did my cover based on my ideas. I marketed the book based on the advice received from Shawn.

Did you use beta readers? How did you secure them?

I did. I reached out to a group of authors and subject-matter experts that I knew.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

Three!

What do you think readers that have never experienced situations like your protagonist will gain from reading your story?

How to love themselves. The protagonist spends so much of her time adapting and in so doing she feels as if she is losing herself. Persons reading my book will hopefully walk away from the book thinking to themselves that it is OK to not be perfect and that trying to be what everyone expects of you will have you in a situation where you are never who you know yourself to be.

What are you writing now?

The sequel to Can I Borrow Your Skin

What is your advice to other writers?

Embrace the process! Allow yourself to enjoy the experience.

Putting Your Spin on an Established Story Type

Quan

How often have you read a book, watched a movie or played a video game and thought to yourself “You know, if I had written this, I’d have the story go another way”? I go through that a lot. Most stories follow well-established sets of tropes and conventions. But what makes a story idea “new” or “fresh” is the unique twists and changes they put on a story to make it different from what has come before. There are different ways you can do this, and each way creates fertile ground for new, groundbreaking story ideas that you can tap into.

Inverting Expectations

One of my favorite movies is the Drew Barrymore film “Ever After.” it follows a popular trend in movies where they take classic story and retell it with more modern sensibilities and attitudes. In this case it was a more assertive, independent and empowered Cinderella that didn’t need a fairy godmother or a magic pumpkin to get the attention of the prince.

It has been done countless times in comic books, like in DC Comics’ “Tales from the Dark Multiverse,” where things go horribly wrong during iconic events in the DC universe’s history, and those stories play out entirely differently from their original counterparts, with much darker outcomes.

To take this approach you can simply take a well-used story trope, study how that archetype usually progresses, and then ask yourself what would happen if you changed a few key details. There are lots of variations on the classic “hero’s journey” story type because of this. Imagine taking the story archetype used in “Dances with Wolves,” “Fern Gully” and “Avatar” and changing a key plot point so that the story goes in an entirely different direction.

Adding New Elements

The popular card game Magic: the Gathering has a history of taking popular stories and putting their spin on it. Whether it be Gothic horror with their Innistrad storyline, or Arthurian legends and Grimm Fairy tales with their Eldraine Storyline, or Japanese mythology with their Kamigawa storyline, they make a habit of taking well-known story tropes in pop culture and using them as the basis for creating something both new and familiar. You can do the same thing, by taking that story archetype, keeping the framework as-is, but adding some new elements to make the story unique. What would happen if you took that Dances with Wolves story type and added a live film crew that broadcast the whole saga like a reality show, with a live audience?

Making Fundamental Changes.

Quentin Tarantino’s film “Hateful 8” is, at its core, a chamber mystery. A bunch of unique characters are locked into a room with a mystery to solve, where possibly one of them is the culprit. It is a classic type of storytelling mastered by writers like Agatha Christie. Tarantino, however, puts two unique spins on the trope by first placing the story in the Wild West, and secondly by not having anything particularly mystery-worthy happen until more than halfway through the movie. The mystery until that point is figuring out why these disparate people were brought together in the first place.

For this approach, find a classic story archetype and try altering different aspects of it. Change the locale or the time period. Change the protagonist or the villain. And then see how those changes affect the story. We’ve seen that Dances With Wolves story in the wild west, in a Brazillian rainforest, and in outer space. What if you set the story in a circus? And had a drag queen as the protagonist instead of the typical male?

You don’t have to have a total blank slate when you are trying to come up with a new story to write. It is perfectly acceptable to take well-use story types and make changes to it to make the story your own. Give it a try and see what you come up with.

The Art of The Spinoff

Quan

There will come a time when, while writing a story, you will create a supporting character that will resonate either with you the writer or with your audience, more than you expected. Or maybe you will start a subplot arc or thread in your story that has potential but you just won’t have enough space in your story to explore it fully.

So what do you do with that breakout supporting character or that unresolved subplot? Spin it off into a new story, of course! Spinoffs are a great, organic way to expand the world of your stories, and are the most convenient way to create those shared universes I wrote about in a previous post. Having a different character interact with your setting, or expanding on a story element within that setting helps a lot with world-building and can make your universe more immersive and engaging.

The most organic way to create the shared universe

If you’re looking for that holy grail of franchising – the shared universe – then spinoffs are the most organic way to it. Everything you create in your spinoff is a direct offshoot of your original story, which adds more relevance to the original. You can, at any time, have characters and other elements from the original story make an appearance in your spinoffs, which creates that inter-connectivity of the two stories. Pratchett often had Commander Vimes from his Watch series of stories make cameo appearances in his other stories, just as a reminder that the new stories do indeed tie into the older ones.

How to tell if something or someone is spinoff worthy

Unanswered questions, dangling plotlines and unexplored character beats can be a great catalyst for developing a spinoff. If your story finishes and you as a writer, or your beta readers are asking about any plot development you may have inadvertently left dangling, that can be excellent fodder for your spinoff story. Also, take a look at your secondary characters. Examine how you’ve developed them and how they performed during your main story. Did any of them stand out in any way to make readers interested in following them around? You could also go the opposite route and look at some of your more obscure, underdeveloped characters and consider giving them their own story to flesh them out more.

Backdoor pilots and how to do one

A backdoor pilot is pretty exclusive to Television. It’s where they take an episode of an established show and devote the entire episode to new or minor characters in hopes that they will spark an interest in getting their own show. You can actually do something similar in your story by taking a chapter (or a few) and devoting it to the character you think is worthy of a spinoff. Make that person or plot the focus while still tying into the overall narrative, and you can build interest in that element to warrant its own story. I did something like that in a story I am currently seeking representation for. The epilogue of my story features some of my background characters, being put into situations that can be explored in future novels.

When a spinoff is not a good idea

The key to having a successful spinoff is first having that offshoot character or idea be interesting. And the first gauge of that is you. If you don’t find that element compelling, then why waste time trying to make it compelling for your readers? The big franchise IP is the holy grail of storytelling, but you don’t want to get caught up in trying to create extra properties for the sake of creating them. If the idea isn’t interesting to you, don’t feel obligated to develop it. Find another element that does interest you and work on that.

Let the world dictate the spinoff

For added insight, I spoke to my good friend Anne Zoelle about the process she went through in creating her spinoff books to the Masquerading the Marquess book she wrote as Anne Mallory. Here is what she told me:

“When I was writing my first book, the story plot demanded a character that both of the main characters knew—someone whose presence could bind them together as well as cause tension between them. The character who fit that slot turned out to be a very fun one to write—and from his first sentence of dialogue I knew he was getting his own book. So while I wouldn’t say that I planned a book for him right from the get go, as soon as he was on the page, I knew he was going to be a future hero. 🙂

“There was also another element that pushed toward a series as the writing continued on that first book. The backstory for the hero contained a trio of men who worked together as spies for the Crown—who were allies in society and out. That backstory ultimately bloomed into three connected books—one for each of the men.

“I think when it comes down to why writing or reading a series can be so fun, it’s that it’s interesting to have characters who aren’t islands—who have lives outside the main storyline. In order to keep stories tight, though, that might mean the extended cast has a central thread or goal that defines the series. That thread can simply be a club, brothers/sisters/family, a knitting circle, soldiers/team, etc.—but finding common elements that extend your characters into other, future character’s lives is a way to extend your story world outward while still keeping the main threads focused. It can deepen the characterization elements in the characters in your current story and give them lives outside the current story threads.”

To see how she applied that, check out her first three novels here.

Making Your Story Adaptable for Stage and Screen

Quan

I had picked up a cheap DVD at the dollar store a while back. It was “Blast” starring Eddie Griffin and Vivica Fox. It was a decent flick, nothing spectacular, but it wasn’t horrible, either. What surprised me was that the movie was based on a book.

Being a book writer, it always raises an eyebrow when a novel gets optioned for a movie or TV show. And it’s not just the holy grail franchises like “Twilight”, “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”, “Da Vinci Code”, “Bourne”, or “Harry Potter”. Even lesser-known properties like “Virgin Suicides”, and the short-lived (but AWESOME) TV show “FlashForward” are based on books. Heck, even nonfiction how-to books like “Think Like A Man” got movie treatments.

So I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering how to get a piece of that action.

There’s a lot about getting your story optioned that is out of your control. You have to find a connected literary agent that can get your story in front of movie execs or people with enough power to make stuff like that happen. You have to have a studio actually interested in your story. And then there’s negotiating a fair deal, and hoping the guys adapting your story for screen don’t butcher your creation to the point where it’s not recognizable (Think the movie version of “I Robot” vs. the book). And that’s if the story actually makes it to film – many optioned properties get lost in the development process and never actually get made into movies or TV shows.

But one thing you CAN control about the process is making your story easily translatable for television and movies. This way you story becomes more attractive to would-be producers and film execs, because they can see an easy path to getting the story in the format that will make them the most money.

Break down your book into its core elements.

Remember, movies are visual mediums, and you don’t have more than a few hours (which translate into about 150 specially formatted pages) to tell a complete story. So your story needs to get to the point and stay there. First and foremost, you need to know the core elements of your story: The central characters, the central conflict, and the setting. Most films and television episodes are plot-driven, which means you want to make sure the plot that moves your story forward is strong and engaging. With characters, you want your main characters to have strong, definable characteristics that the actors portraying the role can build around. This doesn’t mean you eschew nuance and subtlety completely, but you want to make sure that your character’s defining traits are front and center and inform most of their behavior. The setting should be well defined, enough so that your readers (and a potential producer) can visualize where everything is happening.

Your book synopsis as a movie outline

After you find these core elements, then you want to build the skeleton of you story, or find the skeleton in your existing story. Most publishers and agents require a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of your story for submission anyway, so now is a good time to put one together. Write a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of your story, and then go back and filter out the details that are least vital to the plot. Look your outline over and then determine if the plot is strong enough to carry onscreen (or stage, if you want your story to be adapted into a play). These scenes are the ones that need the most of your attention when you write your final story. They need to stand out, engage and keep the narrative moving forward.

The plot points also need to drive home the central conflict of your story. Who is you protagonist, what are they up against, and what is at stake. These elements need to be front and center throughout your story. Ultimately, you want to be able to explain the biggest elements of your story in one sentence.

With those elements established, then you can go back in and build everything else on top of that, while still keeping everything pointing towards your core elements. Just about every story I write is intended to be adaptable. Godmode was built as a sci-fi horror story, but there is heavy action and character development moments to establish Elijah and his supporting characters, along with ever-raising stakes that escalate from simple survival, to protecting people near him, to rescuing his wife and child from a nemesis that was a former friend.

Action and Dialogue matters

Since movies are a visual medium that moves in realtime, you do not really have the luxury of delving deep into aspects that cannot be visually represented on the screen/stage. So inner thoughts, explanations of how stuff works, lengthy descriptions of history and settings, while still useful and essential to your story, all take a backseat to strong dialogue and action (and by action I don’t just mean shooting, fighting and blowing stuff up. By action I mean stuff happening and moving the plot forward). So you want to make sure your characters are talking or communicating to each other in some way, shape or form, and that they are interacting with their environment.

As long as you have a strong core to your story, and your story is moving and engaging, then moviemakers should be able to see how they can bring your story to the screen. Now it’s just a matter of finding a moviemaker willing to give your story a chance. Go for it.

Creating a Sourcebook for Your World

Quan

Sometimes, when writing a story, your world gets so big that it gets hard to keep track of everything that is happening in it. You can introduce so many different elements, settings, threads and characters that telling a cohesive story that stays faithful to everything you’ve established becomes a challenge. This is especially true when you’re writing a story that needs multiple installments or sequels. I faced that problem with a story I am currently seeking representation for as of this post. I have already started writing a follow-up book, and in writing it I realized I had set up a lot of concepts in the first book that I need to flesh out before writing the second. When that happens, You might want to compile a reference source that explains everything about your world that you can come back to when you’re stuck. This is usually called a story bible, or a sourcebook.

RPG elements

The best known sourcebooks are from tabletop Role Playing Games. The Dungeon master needs source material to create the scenarios for the other players to operate in, so he uses books full of material that references locations, landmarks, magic systems, races and cultures, along with key characters and any other details about that scenario that the Dungeon master may need. Armed with this information, they can then create adventures for the other players to get involved in, and be prepared for any action or reaction the players may exhibit during the game. You can apply this same principle to your story. In essence, you are both the Dungeon master and the players, and you want to be armed with as much information as you can generate to craft the most cohesive story you can make.

Elements of sourcebooks

Many, many years ago Lloyd Brown wrote an excellent article on developing Sourcebooks for tabletop Role-Playing Games (You can read it here https://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/free09jun05.html ). Let’s take the elements he introduced and expand them for a broader range of world-building.

The Tone

In creating your sourcebook, you want to establish what the overall mood or ambiance of your world is. Is your world dark and foreboding? Paranoid and suspicious? Bright and optimistic? Grand and regal? Satirical and Tongue-in-cheek? What is the overall tone that you want your readers to feel as they engage your settings? Take some time to describe how this world feels.

The Places

Landmarks and important locales are a defining element of Role Playing games as they present backdrops for the players to romp through. This is also true for general fiction. Take some time to describe and explain the most important places of your setting How they are built, what important events occur there, and what importance they have to the overall world. If you can even map out the locations, whether its a map of their interior or an exterior map of where they are in relation to the rest of the world, that will also be a great help.

The History

The original article says it best: “Give a background on the setting’s history, explaining how it got to where it is now. If it’s a fictional setting, you might start with a creation myth and work from there. If it’s an alternate history setting, where your history deviates from real-world history is a good starting point. For science fiction games, background elements usually include Earth’s exploration of space and first contact with aliens.”

To elaborate on that, any element or concept that has any importance in the story should have a history attached to it, explaining how it came to be in your setting and what led to its importance. And any detail of your story that deviates from real-word sensibilities will also need to have some backstory attached to it. And don’t forget to make sure all of your histories and backstories work well together, to help avoid conflicts.

The People

Explaining how the people live in your world is paramount to your story. You want to delve into the different races, classes and cultures and how they operate within your word, as well as how they interact with each other. Use every tool at your disposal, from describing art styles and rituals, to traditions, dress styles and cuisine. You can even mention their language tics and music. Anything that will help you as a writer and the reader get a clearer picture of how the people in your world live and breathe will help, and the more, the better.

You might also want to add some details about your most oft-used characters. It could be a great reference for both you and the reader as you continue depicting the situations those characters get themselves into and out of.

The Religions

Religion and faith play a heavy role in how the real world operates, so it must have a place in your world, too. Even the lack of a central religion in itself is a tenement of belief. Take time to explain the roles religion has with your people, places, culture and history. Who do your people believe in? How do they express those beliefs? What landmarks and rituals do they associate with those beliefs? How do these beliefs affect the way the world is run, and how different cultures deal with each other? These can have a profound effect on your story, so you might want to take some time to flesh these details out.

Mythology counts in this category, too. The fantastic creation myths and legends of pantheons and history explaining how cultures see the world is also fair game for delving into.

The Tech

This wasn’t covered in the original article, but it really should have been. If your world has any element that operates outside of the norms of the real world, you need to explain how those aspects work. It could be explaining how magic works in your high fantasy setting, or explaining what vampires and werewolves can and can’t do in your horror story, and definitely explaining how the outlandish, futuristic gadgets work in you sci-fi or espionage story. Having a concrete set of rules for how these important elements work grounds your story and makes it easier to stay consistent the more you write about it.

The Secrets

Your setting will have loads of secrets waiting for your characters to explore and discover. The more prominent ones that have a direct effect on your story will probably need to be fleshed out if they haven’t already been covered in the previous topics. Take the time to really delve into the who, what, where, why and how of these secrets, and possibly explain why they are secrets to begin with.

Referencing

While some of the more well-known story franchises have been known to publish their sourcebooks, it is really more for your own personal reference and understanding of the world you are creating. So be sure to keep your sourcebook handy while writing so that you can come back to it whenever you need to check the accuracy or consistency of something you are writing. And be sure to keep your sourcebook flexible. You will be introducing new ideas, concepts, places and people constantly to your world, so you need to be able to update your sourcebook as needed.

You will find having a convenient reference source for the world you are creating to be a valuable resource, and it may even prompt you to do more deep exploration of how your wold works, which will in turn add more material to your sourcebook that you can mine for stories. I am constantly adding new ideas and concepts for the high fantasy trilogy I am currently writing, and most of those new concepts, landmarks, people, histories and ideas are built upon stuff I had added to the sourcebook long ago. Take some time aside to develop this, and your stories will be better for it in the long run.

Setting Up the Big Reveal

Quan

The Big Plot Twist is a staple of storytelling. Everyone uses it in any form of storytelling medium. It is a great way of progressing a story forward, and it keeps readers guessing as to what will happen next. Oftentimes, a major plot twist could make a reader totally rethink everything that has come before it and put the entire story into a new perspective. The most famous example I can think of is M. Knight Shaymalan and the twist endings that he is notorious for in movies such as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. In those movies, he saves the major plot twist for the end of the film, but in reality you can place these big reveals anywhere in the story and get a similar impact.

Setting up the twist: unexpected reveals are rarely that

When plotting a big plot twist or reveal, you want to make sure it is not something sprung on the reader for nothing more than shock value. You want it to occur organically within the progression of the story, and it has to make sense within the context of the narrative. And there are ways to do that. The trick is to have plot twists the reader won’t see coming, but at the same time they could have seen coming if they had been paying better attention leading up to the plot twist.

Leaving clues vs. direct foreshadowing

This issue is a matter of how subtle you want to be in letting your reader know a change to the plot is coming. With more subtle hints, you can still have that moment of surprise for casual readers, but you also will have a reward for more astute readers or those who are reading your book for a second time.

Try not to be cheesy or hamfisted…or obvious!

Part of the fun in partaking in a story for the first time is trying to outguess the author, and trying to figure out where the story is going or what is going to happen next before it actually happens. Making the clues, omens and foreshadowing too obvious ruins all of that. So try to avoid instances that scream “BIG PLOT TWIST COMING” like characters directly referencing stuff that will come into play later on, or blatantly display character traits that will affect the story late on. You want to be careful not to spoonfeed your reader or insult their intelligence.

How subtle is subtle?

At the same time, you don’t want to try to be too clever and go over the heads of your readers. Obscure references that don’t really fit the context of your setting or characters can make your story come off as pretentious. And that’s providing that the reader understands your clues to begin with. Make sure your setup actually makes sense.

Leaving Clues

There are ways you can foreshadow your big plot reveal to avoid making the reader feel bamboozled.

Your clues can be behavioral (In The Hand You’re Dealt, Tika’s explosive temper is established early, and it greatly affects events that happen later on), environmental (in Leopard Man, Ashlynn and Barter visit a landmark early in the story that plays a crucial role in the story’s climax), vocal (in Godmode, bible-thumping Ithaca warns Elijah about the consequences of his behavior with a bible verse early that plays out later in the story), and/or antecdotal. You can even hint at upcoming events in the names of characters and landmarks (Elijah and the company he works for – B.A.A.L. – are in reference to an epic Bible showdown between the prophet Elijah and the worshipers of the pagan god Baal). The key is planting small details that subtly point towards events that will happen later.

Now, you also don’t want to get so into adding clues that you detract from the other, more important elements of the story. It’s a lot like setting up a mystery. Knowing the truth before hand, you need to leave some breadcrumbs so readers can have an idea of what you have in store for them.

Planting red herrings: Effective ways to honestly mislead

If you are familiar with storytelling cliches and tropes, you can use those to your advantage, and swerve the reader with misleading clues and false foreshadowing. You can use accepted norms in your chosen story genre to lead your readers into thinking the story will follow the usual formula for that type of story. Then your big reveal turns everything on its head, and catches the reader totally offguard.

Even with this, though, you need to be fair. While you’re planting the obvious clues to lead the reader down the wrong way of thinking about your story, you still need to plant some more subtle hints at the way your plot is really going. Or better yet, you could craft your clues and foreshadowing in a way that they can be interpreted either way.

Use your Beta Readers

This is an element where your beta readers and content editor can really be a big help. Be sure to specifically ask them if there were any plot twists or big reveals that caught them off guard or that they didn’t see coming. And also ask them if there were plot twists they saw coming a mile away. And ask them to explain how those revelations made them feel about the story as a whole. You can use their reactions to gauge how effective your big plot twist is, as well as how effectively you set it up.

If done effectively, your big plot reveal can be a great hook to keep your readers guessing, and more importantly, to keep your readers reading. Setting it up properly can encourage multiple readings of your story, which in turn can further endear your readers to you and your writing. So be sure to make the time to set everything up effectively.

Creating Alternate Realities

Quan

Alternate realities and parallel earths has been a staple of storytelling since HG Wells’ The Time Machine. There is something intriguing about asking “What if” and exploring possibilities of what would the possibilities be if something that happened, instead happened differently. Exploring these possibilities can make for some very compelling stories if handled correctly.

One Event That Changes Everything

One of the fantasy stories I am seeking publication for deals with an “alternate present” which is a normal, modern world that had a singular event in the past change the course of history. Perhaps you can introduce a new circumstance into the world you’ve created, which alters the world and creates a new set of circumstances.

Start At the Ending.

Another approach is creating your alternate reality and highlighting the current differences from your original world, then going back and explaining how those changes came about. This is a good option when you already have ideas for how your alternate reality will be portrayed. Just go ahead and preset the ideas you have, then go back and explain how everything came to be later.

The Butterfly Effect

Sometimes creating an alternate reality is as simple as taking a decision one of your characters made and asking yourself what would ave happened had they made a different choice. This has been the basis for many alternate timeline stories from Marvel and DC.

An easy way to do this is to take a decision or action that was taken in the story and have your character do something else, maybe even the exact opposite of the action. That will create the catalyst for your world to change.

Ripple Effects

However you choose to approach your new alternate world, it would behoove you to do a deep dive into your new status quo and truly flesh o the details o how that world operates an how people operate within it. I advise creating a bible or appendix explaining as many details about your world as you can muster up. This will serve as the reference point for your world and establish the new rules and parameters of that reality that you will abide by as you craft your story. How is the flora and fauna changed in your new reality? How are economics and politics affected? How do people live and coexist?

Whether it be the goatee-clad evil alternate Star Trek characters, or the many alternate Earths in the Marvel and DC universes, exploring alternate realities is a great way to come up with and develop new story ideas.

Diversity and Representation in Storytelling

Quan

As an African-American storyteller, it is important to me to properly and respectfully address the issue of diversity and rresentation in all of my stories. I personally don’t feel I’m seeing enough of certain grops of people represented in stories (my own group included), so I try to make sure to accurately and respectfully include characers representing those groups in many of my stories.

A white male has no problem with representation because he will always be represented. For those who aren’t white, and for those who aren’t male, that is not always the case. 

So for the rest of us, it does feel good to see a character we can dircetly relate to portrayed in a non-stereotypical manner. Until recently, that was a bit of a rarity. 

I’ve been playing Magic: The Gathering since its early “Chronicles” expansion, and I was giddy when they devoted a major set to a tropical, African-inspired environment with dark-skinned characters. As an African-American, it was something I rarely saw and was something I could identify with. We can find things we relate to in really any character regardless of gender, race, religion, etc. But there is a more personal connection when you feel underrepresented or misrepresented and you see a character that is a direct reflection of your identity shown in a positive (non-stereotypical) way.

Here are a few issues I’ve identified when dealing with this in storytelling, and a perspective on how to approach them.

Using Language Tastefully to Identify Ethnicity/Culture

The way a character talks can give away a lot about their culture and background. Everything from tone of voice to their pet phrases, accent, and even the way they speak profanities can help identify their culture. One of my tricks when I write ethnic characters is have them say certain words or phrases in their “other” language. This is mostly to remind my readers of their ethnicity. But just like with all of these tips, be cautious of overkill. Having language doing the heavy lifting can come off as patronizing to your readers.

Being Authentic Without Being Offensive

There is a fine line between adding elements of a particular culture to make them identifiable, and stereotyping. That is something you want to be very cognizant of. A small element here and there, maybe a cultural tic or a particular feature would be enough to give away what that character’s background is would be enough. Sometimes even just a name can be enough. If you give your character a surname like Martinez or Rodriguez, most readers will assume the character is Latin. Likewise, if your surname is something like Valenti or Castagnacci, then the reader will assume they have Italian roots. But doing too much insults the reader’s intelligence.

If you know certain physical features that can be identified with a certain background, you can utilize those, too. But you really should go to this well sparingly. Maybe one or two mentions about bodily features tops. Especially skin color. You should only need to mention once about a character’s complexion for the reader to be able to get the visual.

Going Against Stereotype

In the grand scheme of things, having your characters buck accepted stereotypes is a good thing for a number of reasons. It challenges the reader’s preconceptions and prejudices, and helps make your character unique and memorable. If you, knowing that Asian characters are typically presented as genial and ultra-smart, want to create an Asian character that is a bit clueless, it should be within your right to do so. But I advise developing your un-stereotypical character and fully understanding why they don’t act the way readers would expect them to act, so you can portray them more authentically.

Handling Ethnic Antagonists

probably the toughest aspect of developing ethnic characters is making one that is the bad guy. The temptation is to lean in to their ethnic identifiers, or to place them in roles that are typically identified with their ethnicity (i.e. the Latino druglord, or the sheisty Jewish lawyer). But you can avoid that by taking time to truly develop your characters and fleshing them out the same way you would flesh out any villain. Preferably in a way where their villainy or villainous attitude is not inherently tied to their ethnicity or culture.

Avoiding Tokenism or Diversity Just for its Own Sake.

Many underrepresented groups feel slighted despite seeing “one of their own” in a story, because it is obvious that that character was put there as a “tolken” character.

The key to avoiding this is to make the character’s culture and background an integral part of the narrative. Having your character and your world be well-developed is the key to that. If there are aspects of your world where your unique character can exist as a part of the culture, then you create more authenticity and your character is less likely to stand out like a sore thumb.

This will also solve the problem of including characters of other races and cultures just so you can say you did it. That can come off as very disingenuous and patronizing, so making the characters and their backgrounds an integral part of the story is vital.

There are a few ideas I thought up to help you address the issue as you create your stories. I am sure there are other, better ways out there to handle it. But being cognizant of how sensitive an issue it can be and how important it is for you to get it right is a definite step in the right direction. And it doesn’t hurt to get outside opinions, either. There are plenty of groups on places like Facebook (like this one) that pay close attention to how various ethnicities and cultures are portrayed in stories. It couldn’t hurt to get their input on your story, too.