This week on the Story Works Round Table: conversations about craft, Kathryn and Alida discuss writing backstory. It’s been coming up for both of us lately, including in Alida’s fiction coaching group. What is the one critical element to getting it right? How do you successfully transition your narrative into and out of backstory? Want a great example of a great author deftly handling backstory? We got one!
This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida & Kathryn discuss what to do with your villain in act II. As we know, they aren’t usually black-hat-evil-doers, but we still need an escalation of stakes for our protagonist. How do we keep act II moving along at a good pace, whether our villain is a bad person or a force or situation in our character’s life that causes challenges? We look at multiple scenarios for our heroes and what to do to keep them and the villain rising toward the climax.
What are some problems that authors encounter with dialogue? Should you give your character an accent or dialect? And how should you represent that on the page? What makes for good dialogue tags and action beats? We talk pet peeves, our own dialogue tics we struggle with and Include some very entertaining examples of what not to do from Robert!
What is a hook? And what are the different functions they can serve in a novel? How do you craft an opening hook, and what things should you keep in mind as you do? And finally, don’t forget about the value that first sentence can have on your whole work.
What is the third person point of view and why is it so popular? How do you use multiple points of view in the third person? And what are the pitfalls that authors encounter? How do you know if a character has earned their point of view? And whose point of view should your next scene be written in?
Continuing our conversations on point of view, we take a look at first person point of view. We delve into common misconceptions about first person point of view, and challenges that writers face with the viewpoint. How can you utilize first person to develop your characters voice? And why does young adult fiction seem to prefer the first person point of view?
What is point of view, how do we use it, and what are the different nuances behind it? What is a narrator and how does the narrative voice effect the story? Did you pick the wrong point of view characters? And how can point of view create nuance and depth in your writing?
What is trouble? How does it contribute to both character and plot arcs? How do you have to pay off trouble? And do you have to get it into every scene? We enjoy making a character struggle with a speeding ticket, and talk about how it can contribute to hooks both between chapters and books.
What is a soggy middle? And what kind of writers tend to have problems with it? Are you giving your middle the attention and care it deserves? And what makes a soggy middle after all? After some much needed middle shaming we all agree – do not tolerate a soggy middle!
What is it like to write in two different languages? How do you make that choice and why pick one over the other? How does it affect voice and how can immersion in the project effect that coveted flow state?
This week, in a continuation of writing prompts part 1, we share our freewriting. In addition to reading and reacting to our writing, we talk about the benefits of sharing writing prompts with others, what cultural touchstones we drew on, and the implicit issues genetic manipulation brings.