Want Vs. Need in Character Motivation

The most important questions that I ask authors about their characters are … What is driving them? What is their quest? What do they want? 

Hopefully, these questions aren’t too difficult to answer. They want to make a million, climb Everest, fall in love, defeat the monster, escape the zombies, bring down the system, solve the murder, etc. etc. 

They need a goal, and it needs to be specific and measurable so that readers can join them on their journey and dance around the room or cry into their pillow when they succeed or fail.

Perhaps more difficult to answer is … What does your character need? But it is every bit as important, if not more, than their surface motivations, and it is going to give them depth and multiple dimensions.

Often, characters – in common with real people – have no idea what they need, and it is the conscious quest to fulfil their desires (what they think they need) that leads to personal revelations, growth and healing (what they actually need). This could take the form of learning to forgive, trust or love again, processing grief, building confidence, independence, faith … anything connecting to emotional development.

Characters’ needs often appear naturally and are obvious from the novel’s conception, maybe even forming the focus of your book. Sometimes, however, especially if you are a plot-driven writer, they require a bit more thought.

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Save the Cat! (Brody, 2018) explores the distinction between want and need in depth, referring to them as the A and B Story and outlining a specific plan to structure the former while the latter develops under the surface. This is an incredibly useful resource, but we have to look no further than our own lives for inspiration.

For example, I trained for a half marathon a few years ago. It was something that I had always wanted to do and I relished the challenge. The journey from couch potato to finish line is a worthy and interesting one. 

Underneath the surface, however, running was giving me the space to deal with a loss that I had suffered, and I needed to prove to myself that I was still strong, that I wasn’t completely broken. I also needed to learn to run joyfully rather than painfully, to enjoy life again rather than suffer.

In literature, we need look no further than classic characters for further examples: Austen’s Emma’s driving force was to matchmake, oblivious to her own need for love; Verne’s Phileas Fogg was desperate to prove that he could speed his way around the world, but he needed to learn to stop and appreciate the beauty of the moment; Steinbeck’s George and Lennie were chasing the American dream, but their ill-fated brotherhood was the real treasure; Sherlock Holmes wanted to solve the crime but needed the puzzle; Bridget Jones was desperate to change herself to find a man, but she needed to accept herself just the way she was; Harry Potter wanted to become a great wizard, defeat Voldemort and avenge his parents’ murder; what he needed more was simply a place to belong.

Every character has both a want and a need and the two converge at the journey’s end when they solve the crime, having faced their personal demons; escape the prison, finally finding the strength to forgive themselves for the crime; find romantic love, along with the self-care that they never knew they needed, etc. etc. The wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented here because human emotions are universal. As long as there is depth to discover, your readers will be happy.

Hayley Sherman has spent more than a decade supporting authors on their novel-writing journeys. Would you like her to assess your manuscript?

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Brian Montgomery, Author of the Degsy Hay Trilogy, on Writing for Social Change

The Degsy Hay trilogy is a heartfelt, hard-hitting series following the many rises and falls of a young man let down by the system. But although Degsy Hay, the eponymous hero, is as hard as nails and condemned to a life on the streets or behind bars, he refuses to stay down and devotes himself to helping others find a better life. Oh, and he finds time to bring down the corrupt, fight injustice, battle his rivals and fall in love. These are explosive, emotional, sometimes funny, always human books, and I caught up with author and Whoosh! client Brian Montgomery to find out more.

I know this book is close to your heart, Brian. Can you give us a bit of background on your inspiration for Degsy?

Degsy is based on my teen years growing in a gang environment in South London. Although the book is fictional, real events did occur. Sleeping rough on the streets of London, having to protect myself from prowlers, taking solvents, drugs and alcohol to forget about the freezing cold temperatures and about life for a while, but also having to dip the bins for food. Fortunately, I never went to prison but spent time in a lock-up government children’s home.

So you must relate to Degsy quite closely?

Very close. He’s also my hero. Every good thing he does, he reminds me of me as a teen, wanting to get out of the gang trend and become a different person.

Did the writing flow easily or did your closeness to the subject matter present problems?

There were a lot of problems, some emotional. With every sentence I wrote I was confronted with my past. But it got easier as I went along.

It’s quite hard-hitting in places, covering violence and abuse; was it harrowing to write?

It was, because my past was harrowing. But those same experiences helped me to become a hardnut and I’d win most of my fights as a teen, which went a long away in keeping me safe while roughing the streets.

Did you need to do a lot of research?

No not really. I knew what type of era I was brought up in. Listening to and reading the media daily about youth knife crime and gangs, it was important for me to write about this. And I wanted to try taking would-be gang members into new, positive situations and a new kind of gang where they can help those in the community where they live.

You have worked with young people to take them away from gangs and street life, do you see the book as a continuation of that work?

Very much so, despite the barriers I'm facing from local government and police. I have now promised myself that I'll make a movie out of the books. I feel young people would pay more attention, watching a movie rather than reading books. This, of course, will need sponsoring.

Gangs and knife crime are such serious problems in the UK and globally; what do you see as being the solution?

The ideas in the book mirror those that I would like to implement in real life. The Hay Patrollers is a youth program, getting young people out of gang life, encouraging them to find a place in the community. This not only reduces crime by creating positive activities for those who participate, but also it creates employment and respect. I haven’t heard of many communities with similar ideas, creating employment and housing.

Book three in the series, Degsy Hay: Unit 16-21 (currently being written), not only explores the idea of providing apprenticeships, but also subsidising one-bed housing for each participant. This could become a huge, positive programme, but funding and sponsors will be needed.

What are you hoping to achieve with the book?

As many sales as possible so I can put 50% of the royalties back into the Hay Patrollers programme and realise my dream of making a movie.

What’s the next step for you as a writer?

Complete book three, keep the Degsy franchise open and perhaps write some thrillers or mysteries.

The first two books in the trilogy are available now and receiving positive reviews

Degsy Hay: A Juvenile Redeemed
Degsy Hay: The Hay Patrollers

Want to help? Support Brian's crucial community projects here.

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Ho! Ho! Ho! Writing Christmas Fiction with Julie Hodgson

Award-winning author and Whoosh client Julie Hodgson has written for adults and children across a range of genres, including everyone’s favourite – the Christmas book! Yes, who doesn’t love a good tale of families coming together and mean-spirited humbugs learning the true meaning of Christmas, both of which are central to her hilarious book The Gift, in which long-suffering Joe is forced to team up with the mother-in-law from hell to pass tests set by Santa himself and save his wife in time for Christmas. I caught up with Julie for a quick chat about the inspiration behind the book, what goes into writing a seasonal novel and how she’ll be spending the holidays.  

What inspired you to tackle a Christmas book?

Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year. I have already written a few Christmas stories for small children and love the subject.

What was your inspiration when writing The Gift?

Again, my love for the Christmas spirit and season. It always brings out the very best in most people. I like that.

Christmas books are often about families coming together. Tell us about the relationship between Joe and his awful, flame-haired monster-in-law.

Joe tries his best but always feels he is never good enough for Madge. She picks fault all the time without rhyme or reason. But Madge does have her ways and Joe tries to please her, just to keep the peace for Beth. Of course, when two people are thrown together it can go either way. With Joe and Madge, the results are both funny and heart warming.

Who/what inspired the terrible mother-in-law character?

We can all guess pretty well about who the mother-in-law character was based on. I think many wives or husbands have this issue with not being liked by the spouse’s mother! A son’s mother never really accepts the new woman in their son’s life … at least not every one of them! There are exceptions.

What is the most important ingredient of a Christmas book?

It’s great to have comedy, heart-warming situations and, of course, the family involved.

What advice would you give to other writers tackling Christmas books?

It’s important to have some strong characters in the book, a main one who the reader can follow. It’s essential to have lots going on, excitement, even sad situations. This will keep the reader following the story.

How important is a happy ending in seasonal writing?

To me at least, it’s very important … Although I do know it is not always the case. But Christmas is for having dreams and happy endings, especially in books.

How has creating a book with a limited window for sales affected your marketing strategy?

I never think of any one particular marketing strategy for the Christmas books, as people love them anyway … I use postcards, which are easy to give to people or leave in libraries and shops. Xmas fayres are a great way to spread the news about your Christmas saga. The cover is important, I feel, too. I always look for a wonderful cover when I’m buying a book. And now I own a book shop, but I don’t tell customers I’m an author; it’s a buzz when they pick up one of my books.

What is your favourite Christmas book?

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens!

How will you be spending Christmas this year?

As I am in Portugal this year, I am flying to Sweden to be with my grown-up children and to have a crazy family Christmas, with board games, good food and plenty of laughter. Whereas Madge has issues with Joe, I adore my son- and daughter-in-law.

Buy The Gift by Julie Hodgson on Amazon

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Three Incredibly Easy Ways to Make Your Character Descriptions Pop

                                                            She had blue eyes, brown hair, a blue jumper and a look of boredom that had been there since she read this description of herself.

We've all been guilty of lazy writing like this before. So, what follows are three tips to avoid listing your characters' attributes and elevate your description to make it pop.

One

Select Meaningful Points of Focus

Think about what you are telling your readers with your physical description. Yes, you are telling us what your characters look like, but you could be showing us so much more. What would you like us to see about your characters that’s unique to them and builds on character development?

Think about that blue jumper. She wore a blue jumper. Anyone can wear a blue jumper, but ask yourself how your character is wearing it and what it says about them. Is it new or old? Tightfitting or loose and worn? Are the sleeves rolled up? This will give you a starting point, but take it further so this jumper could only belong to your character. Does it have stains down the front? Does she fiddle with the loose threads? Perhaps it’s not a jumper at all but a t-shirt with a slogan that shows your character’s unique perspective; a shirt that he sweats through within minutes of putting it on; a painters’ shirt with more paint on it than the canvas.

And those blue eyes? She had blue eyes. What are they telling us about the character? Seventeen percent of the world’s population has blue eyes (thank you, Google). What sets your character apart from the others? What are they expressing or looking at? Do they blink particularly slowly or quickly or linger, thirsty to drink in the world around him? Or maybe there is another focal point that will tell us more about this character? His/her hands, feet, necklace, tattoo, hat, teeth?

Carefully selecting focus points is a great approach to take when describing all other aspects of your book. Think beyond literal description and about what you would like to show readers. Think about the perspective of the character viewing the room or the dog or the sky; does it affect the way you describe it? Think about who the garden or car or phone belong to; what does your description tell us about them? Use description to your advantage to reveal and develop character and plot.

Two

Show Your Description in Action

I have touched on this in the first tip, when the character fiddles with the loose strand on the blue jumper or his blue eyes linger on the world around him. Adding movement/interaction will paint a stronger picture of your characters beyond 2D descriptions, and you are killing two birds with one stone: avoiding directly telling readers how a character feels (the greatest writing sin!) and creating more dynamic description. So, 'The nervous woman in the blue jumper' becomes 'The fidgety woman fiddling with the loose strands on her worn jumper'. 'The miserable-looking man at the bar with the blue eyes' becomes 'The man at the bar who hasn’t looked up from the glass of warm beer in his hand for the last hour nor taken a sip of it'.

Even when you are not particularly saying much of anything about a character with your description and you really do just want a character to have blonde hair and blue eyes, it will be more powerfully shown dynamically rather than in list form. So, ‘She had blonde hair’ becomes ‘I hadn’t noticed just how blonde her hair was until we were out in the light’. ‘He had blue eyes’ becomes ‘Those blue eyes got me every time. How could I say no?’.

Again, use dynamic description throughout the book, beyond character description, to elevate your writing.

Three

Use all the Senses

So far, we have only looked at visual description, but there are five senses to play with, and the other four are quite often forgotten. What sounds does a person make and what do they tell us about the character? Perhaps they are so softly spoken that it’s almost as if they don’t want to be heard. Perhaps they crack their knuckles so loudly that it makes her jump every time. Perhaps the suit was so cheap that it squeaked. What about smell? Everyone has a unique smell and every smell tells a story. There are obvious smells, like BO and perfume, but it’s the unusual smells that get the cogs turning: ‘It was an odd combination of cinnamon and WD40; don’t ask me what she had spent the day doing.’

The more intimate senses are useful when characters are up close and personal, but touch also has a place in general character descriptions. Think of a simple handshake and what this could tell us about a character. Is it firm or soft? Hot or cold? Rough or soft?

If this was helpful, feel free to share it with others.

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Staying Motivated When You’re Skint, Pissed Off and Your Protagonists are Stalking Your Nightmares

You’re skint! You’ve been working on the same soul-hungry, ink-draining, end-dodging novel/screenplay/collection for so long that its characters have started to lurk around the corners of your nightmares and jump out at you with their demonic hair and crazy weapons of doom. When you wake up they’re still there, demanding your attention even though it’s a sunny day and you’ve been told there are actually real people in the world. You’ve starting to compare yourself to people your age, from your best mate to J.K. Rowling, both of whom have achievements that far outweigh your own. You’ve started to hide from your laptop because it’s looking at you all the time and you’re sure you can hear it calling you. Why aren’t you writing? You can’t run from me forever! You walk into the library and your heart sinks at the sheer volume of books confronting you. What could you possibly have to say that hasn’t already been said? And no one’s reading them anyway. You’re battling to produce a masterpiece that will end up in this large-print, pensioner-fingered graveyard before it’s even lived a life. All is lost!

But you know deep down that this is what you signed up for. You know that you can make a killing but not a living with a pen, so you drag yourself through the lean years. You know that there will be days when your characters salute you when the sun goes down and you can snuggle under your duvet as a hero of the craft, so you tolerate the struggle. You know that the majority of writers find success later in life and you’re in no hurry, but how can you keep your sanity in the meantime, when your self-confidence has buggered off in a taxi with your talent and you’re sitting on the floor thinking the unthinkable – of getting a proper job? Maybe this will help …

Read Something Awesome

This could be the book that you’ve been waiting to hit the shelves, a biography by an author who has been through what you’re going through, or your favourite book, which you’ve already read one hundred times. There is a danger of falling out of love with books when your own has had you in a headlock for so long, so be good to yourself and get into bed with a classic.

Do something Awesome
I waste a lot of time when I should be writing and I end up doing nothing. I think I’m fooling myself, but I’ve got my number. Watching ‘just one episode’ on Netflix, cleaning the house from top to bottom, alphabetising my shoes; this is not writing and I am fooling nobody. If writing just isn’t going to happen then better to be honest about it and go out into the world than spend a day wracked with guilt and zero productivity. Go have a good time and feel good. Go and do something awesome and inspiring and your creative world will reap the benefits anyway.

Make Contact with Awesome People

Write a letter (yes, a letter) to your favourite author. Why? Because they might actually write back to you with words of encouragement. Because it will make you feel good to reach out. Join writing forums and get Tweeting, join a real-life writing group to meet other writers who have pulled half their hair out over questions of point of view and characterisation. Get support.

Try an Awesome New Medium

If you’re a novelist, have a go at writing a screenplay; if you’re a screenwriter, try your hand at poetry; if you’re a poet, see what it feels like to develop a play; if you write comedy, get serious; if you are a literary author, lighten up; if you tend to write long, sprawling sentences, see what short bursts are like. Go further still; if you usually tell a story with words, try doing it with music or art, film or dance. There are many ways to tell a story and so many creative spaces in which to park your beautiful mind.

Write to Your Awesome Self

I read this tip in a book many years ago and it’s such a charming idea. Quite simply, write an emergency letter to be opened in times of deep dejection and distress. Write it when you’re feeling great. You’re the best writer ever. George Orwell and Virginia Woolf had a love affair and you were the result. There has never been a writer quite like you. Write it all down and go into specifics, remind yourself of what inspired you to write in the first place and what you would like to achieve with this project. Be kind to yourself.

Need help? Hayley Sherman has been supporting independent writers for nearly ten years as an editor, creative consultant and ghost-writer. Visit www.whoosh-editing.com for more details.

Top Ten Words I Found Down the Back of the Sofa

 I love a good top ten list and more importantly, search engines love a good top ten list, so I have compiled my own catchy countdown to draw the masses away from the mainstream Top Ten Movies, TV Shows and Celebrity Arse Cracks and back to the mothership that is the English language. This is Action 159 (Clause 12) of my cunning manifesto to take over the world with a dictionary in one hand a mug of peppermint tea in the other.

But first let me take you back a bit …

To my shame, as a child when reading, I was a skipper rather than a looker-upper, because who has the time to pull out a dictionary for every unfamiliar word when you’re a) immersed in a great book and b) more than capable of inventing a definition for the word using its sound and context? But this is where I had been going wrong; this is where mistakes are made from which one might never recover. For example, who knew the words demotic and demonstrative had absolutely nothing to do with demons? Who knew ‘bucolic’ was neither a disease nor a vegetable? Who knew a ‘sibilant’ wasn’t a robotic, mutant brother?

So, in recent times, I have treated mystery words with a little more respect, especially as it is impossible to skip words in conversations with learned colleagues who have never missed a dictionary call in their lives, and making up my own definitions leads only to embarrassment – a despot is not served for pudding, Dada is not mama’s partner, a filigree is not an accommodating horse.

Several discoveries have emerged from my rehabilitation from crimes against language; the first is a realisation that there are literally words for everything. That may sound like an obvious thing to say, but now I am committed to learning the meaning of every single word in the English language, I am convinced that many words are surplus to requirement. Interlocutor: a person having a conversation. Do we really need that one? Sonorous? I have given this word so many different meanings over the years and now I discover that all it means is deep and full. Call me old fashioned, but we already have two words for that: one is deep and the other is full. Lubricious (nothing to do with the joy of Durex Play): the simple definition of this is lewd. What I’m realising is that I should be in charge of giving words their definitions. I would be so much better at it than the joker who decided that a wonderful word like nebulous, a jewel of the OED – neberendingfabulousness – should simply mean vague.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, or cataclysm and monochrome (which actually means disaster and black and white, but let’s not Serra (Greek dance) with semantics). I love words; of course I love words. I have always loved words; I work with words; I would eat them for dinner if I could. So you won’t be surprised to find that as I worked through my blind spots I uncovered more than the odd word that made me smile. And so was born my top ten words found down the back of the sofa. I suppose I only figurative found them down the back of the sofa (or I literally found them down the back of the sofa if you’re a young person gamely determined to use the word ‘literally’ in literally every sentence and hang the consequences – I literally salute you). Enjoy …

Ten

Assuage

I include this on my list not for its meaning but because I don’t think I have ever heard it spoken, although fiction writers seem to love it. Desires and unpleasant feelings are always being assuaged, but I’m still not sure I know how the word would feel in my mouth should I need to get my assuage on.

Nine

Patina

We’re just warming up, so another fairly straightforward word, but this one seemed to appear from nowhere one day. I simply hadn’t heard of it, but then it was in every single book I read. Isn’t it strange when you learn something and then it’s suddenly everywhere although you’ve never heard of it before? It’s as if the world gave birth to it at the exact moment I discovered it. Patina: the green film found on bronze.

Eight

Lepidopterist

Now we’re cooking with gas! A student of butterflies and moths.

Seven

Costive

What can I say? I’m a childish girl-woman. This word isn’t an adjective relating to a popular coffee house chain, or a projection you would find on an accountant’s spreadsheet; it simply refers to something that causes constipation. Ha! It’s such a benign- and innocuous-looking word … and I thought I had heard of all the toilet-related words that existed.

Six

Frugivorous

Just look at it! It’s ugly but beautiful at the same time; awkward but self-contained; harsh, almost violent and then peaceful in the last few syllables. The shape of this word tells a thousand stories and takes the tongue on journeys previously untraveled. And its meaning? Fruit-eating.

Five

Xanthochroid

This is included because I previously only knew the words xenon, xenophobia, Xerox, Xmas, X-ray and xylophone beginning with X. But X has far more to deliver than this: xenogamy, xenoglossia, xenopus, etc., etc. I feel as if I have never lived when I look at these words. My number five simply describes a person with light hair and a fair complexion.

Four

Fecundity

If assuage was chosen because I didn’t quite know how it would feel in my mouth, I have chosen fecundity for the exact opposite reason. I know how it feels and it’s positively filthy. Say it out loud, savour the syllables – fe-cun-di-ty. How isn’t this a sexually explicit swear word? Disappointingly, it simply means fertility (for which we already have a word, which is fertility!)

Three

Skeuomorph.

This is a physical object or design which is made to resemble another material. That sounded quite complicated when I looked it up, but it’s really simple. For example, when you use an app that’s designed to look like something that exists in the real world (a computer keypad, a bookshelf, pages of a notepad), this is skeuomorphic. I’m not sure why this word appeals. It just does; perhaps because I only discovered it a few nights ago and it still has that fresh and exciting glow.

Two

Defenestration

Proving conclusively that there is a word for absolutely everything, this simply means to throw someone or something out of a window. I love that it is clean, succinct and specific. This word can do no wrong in my eyes.      

And at Number One

Moribund

This word absolutely stole the show for me for its awkward and unusual positioning in the sentence; the very knowledge that this word exists makes me smile most days. It is an adjective meaning ‘at the point of death’. So, for example, a slaughterhouse din might be a cacophony of moribund squeals. A man with his head in a guillotine might have moribund thoughts of a better life where his head hasn’t ended up in a guillotine. Love it!

For more articles on writing, check out the Whoosh Editing website. 

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Stop Talking Sh*t! Start Writing Believable Dialogue!

There is good dialogue and there is bad dialogue and depending on which you are writing, it will make or break your story. Nothing engages a reader more than realistic dialogue and nothing disgruntles a reader more than a phrase that is contrived, clichéd and unnatural; it will pull a reader away from your lovingly crafted prose quicker than a flat character or a thin plot could ever do.

It is not too much of a surprise, then, to discover that writing dialogue is one of the most challenging elements of fiction writing and one which takes time to master. The following list should help you through the minefield of dos and don’ts.

Do…

Listen to how people talk

This is the best way to learn about speech patterns and natural dialogue. People have many different methods of verbal expression which vary depending on who they are talking to, what they are talking about, their mood and their upbringing. Taking notes from real life will really improve the authenticity of your dialogue.

Use dialogue to move the story forward

Dialogue in fiction is an economical representation of the real thing. In addition to being realistic, it must be purposeful. Read your dialogue and ask whether it has a function. Does it establish tone or mood? Does it reveal anything about the plot or characters? Does it add to the relationship that the reader is building with the speaker? Does it add or create conflict? If it doesn’t have a purpose, delete it.

Break up dialogue with action

Breaking up the dialogue is especially useful when handling large sections of speech which a reader may find tedious. Including actions alongside dialogue also gives the reader a sense of the conversation taking place in the real world, which elevates the conversation above mere words on a page.

Vary the use and placement of speech tags

Speech tags indicate who is speaking and are essential in following dialogue (he/she said). Varying the use and placement of the tag will help the flow of the conversation and prevent the dialogue from becoming tedious. Place tags at the beginning, middle or end of speech. When experienced, a writer instinctively knows the most effective use of tags and when to leave them out completely.

Give each character a distinct voice

In theory, a reader should be able to read a line of speech and identify which character is saying it. There are many techniques for achieving this. You may give your character a distinct accent, use habitual phrases or mistakes which they tend to repeat or vary the speech patterns through the grammar. Paying attention to what a character will and will not talk about, their level of intelligence and sense of humour will also create the difference.

Be aware of pace

As with all elements of writing fiction, you are in control of the pace. In urgent situations, when you want to pick up the pace, leave out or limit narration and tags. To slow the pace and building suspense, use monologues and longer sections of narration.

Read widely

The best way to learn is to see how the masters do it. Read within your genre and note techniques that really work.

Test your dialogue by reading aloud

With dialogue, the ears are often a better judge than the eyes. Listen to the dialogue to hear the flow and notice the mistakes that interfere with it.

Don’t…

Use dialogue to dump information

This is where trust in your reader is essential. If you have done your job well, the reader will be able to follow the story as it slowly unfolds without a character speaking for the sole purpose of filling in a back story, reminding the reader of past details or over-explaining. Information dumps are unnatural, lazy and annoying. Don’t let them slip into your writing.

Obsess about grammar

People don’t obsess about grammar when they speak and you shouldn’t when you are writing speech. People speak in incomplete sentences, leave out words and interrupt each other. Relaxing the grammar can only help your dialogue to be more believable.

Overdo Tags

You may be tempted to replace ‘he/she said’ with ‘he roared, whimpered, gushed or barked’, but you will be in danger of drawing too much attention to the tag and away from the dialogue. When the dialogue is strong, simple tags will suffice and keep the reader engaged with what is really important. As stated earlier, use action to ground the reader in the reality of the conversation.

Overuse slang, stereotypes and Ummms!

Beware of overusing stereotypes and slang. These can distract or alienate your reader. They will also age your work. In real speech people take time to think about what they are saying and ‘Ummming’ and ‘Ahhhing’ is commonplace, but to keep the dialogue economical and interesting, use this sparingly.

Hayley sherman has been supporting indie authors for ten years. Find out more ...

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10 Questions to Ask of Every Single Chapter You Write…

1. Are the Opening Paragraphs Slowing it Down

Chapter divisions are a necessary part of a book, helping to pace the whole, but this doesn’t mean you have to give them too much respect and spend endless paragraphs at the beginning of the chapter re-introducing the setting, plot or characters. The very best chapter openings are those that take the readers straight into the action, resisting the temptation to recap an overview of the story so far or simply take a literary breath, where nothing is actually happening, but somehow you’ve kept the pen moving. Whatever’s happening in your chapter, get to the point as quickly as you can to keep the book moving forward.  

2. What Do We Know Now About the Plot that We Didn’t Know in the Last Chapter?

This question could be rephrased to ask ‘what is the point of this chapter’? This is something that it is useful for you to know before you start writing to keep you on track. As an editor, I often read chapters where it seems that nothing in particular happens. One reason for this is that the author has forgotten their creative licence and taken a linear pathway through the story rather than simply picking and choosing a tightly plotted route where something is always happening to take us ever onwards. That’s the beauty of being a writer; you really don’t have to include all the boring bits that happen in life in order to get the interesting bit. Be succinct in your writing and make sure that every single chapter moves your reader forward in some way. Remember, ours is such a disposable culture that it only takes one slow or ‘bad’ chapter where nothing much is happen for a reader to potentially pass you over for another read.

3. How Has Your Lead Character (Other Characters) Developed?

Again this is about making every chapter count. Use your plot development and the interaction between characters to show us exactly what makes your characters tick. Ideally they will be constantly affected by the events of your novel, so take the time to ask what this particular chunk of story is going to do to them. If your characters remain essentially unchanged throughout then something has gone wrong.

4. Is Any Part of the Chapter Unnecessary?

There are a range of reasons why parts of the chapter may be unnecessary, two of which are outlined in the preceding questions (not progressing plot or character). The ideal is for you to keep moving forward, and cutting unnecessary passages will help this, whether it’s that you are spending a little too long hammering a point home that you nailed in a few paragraphs, or you’ve written a killer description that you love, but it really is slowing the narrative down. It could be that you have chunks that are a little repetitive because you want to feel confident that you have got your point across. Have faith in your readers and your own writing ability that they will understand what you are writing immediately without dead, repetitive passages. Be ruthless in your cutting to create the best possible read.

5. What is there for Your Readers to Wonder About?

This is a huge question, responding directly to the reasons that readers choose to read at all. Whatever you are writing, you need to be one step ahead of the reader because readers want to be challenged. Mystery is not simply the domain of the crime writer; whatever you are writing, you need to leave your readers guessing. If you are asking what there is for your readers to wonder about with every chapter you write, you stand a good chance of creating a book that will deeply satisfy even the most skilled, plot-unravelling mind.

6. What is there for Your Readers to Care About?

Another reason that readers read is pure escapism and it is your responsibility to create an island for their imaginary vacation. The only way that this can happen is for you to get your readers emotionally involved, so you have to continually ask what you have created that your readers will care about. This is an extremely loose question because there are a number of ways to care and it is up to you to decide which is appropriate for you and your story. Empathy is the key here; if readers are able to relate to the characters you are creating and the situations that you put them in then you have a jumpstart.

7. Has Any Opportunity for Action Been Missed?

This is an interesting point to make and not one that is always apparent to the writer unless they make a point of adding it to a chapter checklist. Again this has become apparent to me as an editor, reading fiction of all kinds, and relates to how you choose to tell your story. Of course, there are many ways to plot events in a novel and quite simply, the most exciting route is a wrecking ball through the middle of the drama as it happens. This is how truly exciting fiction emerges. Let me qualify this by giving you an example of the alternative: picture a thriller, perhaps a detective novel, where the protagonist spends most of his or her time thinking, going over evidence, talking to people, cracking on with the clues and then eventually solving the case. It sounds good, but how much better would it be if the same protagonist always arrived at times of danger and has to put his or her life on the line to get to the truth and the clues put him or her under further private peril and he or she barely scrapes it to the end of the book in one piece? Just as mystery isn’t just the domain of the mystery writer, thriller writers don’t have the monopoly on action. Even if you are writing a non-genre, literary thinker, a love story or a comedy, you need to keep your readers engaged by keeping the stakes as high as you can.

8. Has Any Opportunity for Originality Been Missed?

While we’re making sure that you haven’t missed any opportunities, take a moment to do an originality check. Have you read or seen anything you have written in this chapter before? Worse, have you bought into any clichés that are dominating this chapter? One of the most wonderful things about being a writer is being able to present a unique view of the world to readers. This should be presented on many levels throughout the book, from the overall vision that you want to achieve and the characters and plot that gets you there, to the way events are presented throughout each chapter, right down to language level, where you are being inventing and using your personal voice to create a unique reading experience. Taking the time to check that you haven’t sloped off into a world that’s just too familiar will help you as you write each chapter.

9. Is Everything Right?

This will seem like a ridiculously broad question to ask of your chapter, but accuracy is important. I have read books where Mr Smith began as a blonde teacher and ended as a ginger accountant. I have read books where he started as Mr Smith and somehow became Mr Schmitt by the end. She grew up in Suffolk but somehow now has a Geordie accent? We’re told in the first chapter that he always calls her lollypop because of the size of her head, but then we never actually see him call her it. It’s all about consistency and accuracy. Some writers keep notes as they write to make sure that they aren’t having crises of continuity. Chapter by chapter, it may just be an idea to have a read through what you’ve already written so that you are avoiding glaring errors and equally usefully, creating a consistent reading experience in terms of your style. This is also a great time to mention SHOW don’t TELL, which I’m hoping needs no further explanation.

10. Will the Ending Keep the Pages Turning?

Chapter endings give readers the option of reading on or slipping their bookmark in for the night and coming back to you another day. Ideally you want the former, so approach the end of the chapter with this in mind. I have read books where every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger, which was great apart from the fact that I don’t remember getting any sleep at all throughout the whole reading experience. Not every book needs to have this level of drama, but ask yourself how you can end your chapter to guarantee, at the very least, a return visit from the reader. An unresolved issue is great. What also works is a reveal – readers will always want to read on to see what happens next. Surprises and twists are great also. Basically I would just encourage you to utilize what you have with the beginnings and endings of chapters and steer clear of ‘the day begins’ and ‘the day ends’ kinds of openings and closings. Chapter divides are a great tool for you to explore and master, so take the time and see what you can do.

More articles and information can be found on the Whoosh Editing website, along with full information about all of our editorial and creative services for writers ... www.whoosh-editing.com 

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