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.
Where do story idea’s come from? Can you cultivate ideas or do you have to wait for inspiration? We talk about travel, dreams, visions and how the writing process truly is one of discovery. Do you need an idea in order to write? And is creativity a limited well or a muscle you can whip into shape? What if someone else steals your ideas? You will be surprised where some of our inspiration comes from!
What is agency? And how do you keep your protagonist active? Do coincidences and natural disasters take away character agency? What is they try/fail cycle and what does Alida have against it? What is the difference between a reaction and a response? When should you plan your characters agency? And how do you handle reaction scenes? In the end just ask yourself: “did my character lose a hand?”. If he did, then you have a pretty good chance – he’s active!
Are endings hard? What makes a good ending, and how do you make it surprising and inevitable? How do you resolve a book differently if it’s a short story, versus a novel, versus a novel in a series? And how can you create that satisfying ending for both you and the reader?
What exactly is a subplot? When do you need them? Who should they revolve around? And can they really alleviate the soggy middle syndrome? And please don’t forget your characters have lives too! Don’t make them live entirely in the main plot line.
Want to know what it takes to write a good opening? How do you hook your reader and get them invested in your story? How do you create character empathy and what are the action steps that you need to take in order to write a great opening?
Can an author do their own cover? What is it like to work with a professional cover designer? And how should you start the process? We explore market and genre conventions, as well as some tricky pitfalls of wanting a person on your cover. We even talk about how hard it was to find the houses for Alida’s covers! Stay tuned for an amazing side by side cover comparison, as well as a very generous offer. Make sure you check Daria out!
Do we write ourselves into our novels? Is everything we write autobiographical? And what if you don’t have the experiences your characters do?
What are the benefits and pitfalls of writing groups? What kind of criticism is good criticism? And how can I be a better critic?
Have you ever struggled with your antagonist or supporting characters motivation? Or wonder what kind of work you need to put in before you start writing? We even get into what we do for character sketches and how our journals will lead to posthumous fame!