Get Down to Writing Tip No. 3

In my last blog I talked about planning or not planning each chapter. The most important thing is that you know how your story is going to end.  Little Red Riding Hood is going to be rescued by the forester and Grandmama will be caught along with her accomplice the Big Bad Wolf.

Your readers will only be interested in this story if they have some kind of feeling for your heroine. If she is a cardboard figure, without any interesting traits, then they are going to close your book after a couple of chapters. "I couldn't get into this" is a common remark on reviews although the reasons why are not always explained.

First of all, though, you have to have your characters lined up in your head and each one will be different from the other, will speak and think differently. So you have quite a bit of work to do. The best way to get it all straight is to use index cards, loose sheets of paper, or a tidy notebook and start writing down names and ideas for the people in your story. The following are obviously just suggestions to get you started.

Red Riding Hood is 18 years old, goes to college, is bright and friendly and very kind (this last is demonstrated by her bringing food to her grandmother). She is of medium height, blonde hair, blue eyes (obviously she can be anything you like: dark-skinned, black hair, brown eyes, or red-haired with freckles and green eyes or tall and skinny or small and plump - it is your call).
She is headstrong, likes to have her own way. Is unhappy when her father re-marries.
She likes to sing aloud as she walks through the woods. You will need some time to think up other stuff  so just leave the description for now and go on to the next important character.
The Forester works in the woods looking after the trees and wild animals. He is tall and muscular. He has been in love with Little Red Riding Hood for months now, loves to hear her sing. But he's a rough diamond so feels he can't approach this girl. Again, leave this and go back to it later on.
Next comes Grandmama and then The Big Bad Wolf. These last two are the villains in the piece and give the central plot of the whole novel so you need to spend time on 1) motive for what they plan on doing and 2) their characters and why they got to be like this.  In my last post we decided that Grandmama is the step mother pretending to be ill, she wants to get rid of Little Red Riding Hood in case she inherits her father's fortune. Every baddie has to have a redeeming feature to make them realistic.  (Remember the James Bond villain with the cat on his lap?) Grandmama maybe feeds  orphaned squirrels or looks after a sick stray cat.
The Big Bad Wolf is an ex-con who Grandmama has hired to kill Red Riding Hood. He is going to be a violent person but you can give him some redeeming feature. He is being paid for his work but just supposing he falls for Grandmama and hopes to persuade her to run away with him.  Let your imagination work here. You'll end up understanding what makes your characters tick and you'll even develop a bit of sympathy for the baddies.

Choosing names can be a headache. Half way through, you might suddenly decide that calling the forester Hugo is not one of your best ideas. Remember, you can change all the names in the middle of the story.  With a click on the Word Find/Replace feature it has never been easier. - just be sure to change them in your notes so you don't get confused.

When you have named all your story people return to the notes you made on their characters and add or subtract what feels right.
The next step is starting to write the novel.  One more thing: you can change all the rules as you go along. Whatever works for you is the right way of doing things.

Get Down to Writing No. 2

So now you have thought about what kind of novel you want to write. You've written down a one-sentence idea which goes something like: Grandma was in cohoots with the big bad wolf. 
Where do you go from here? Where do you even start a novel using that idea?
It's not as difficult as it sounds. First of all, in order to get a plot of some sort, you will need to ask the essential question: what if? 
What if grandma wasn't Little Red Riding Hood's real grandmother?
Now you have got the germ of a plot for your story. The next few questions follow logically:
If she wasn't the real grandmother, then who was she? Why do she and the wolf work together? What is her relationship to the wolf? Is he the ringleader or is she?
You could think up a lot of plot lines using that technique. Pick one that appeals to you, let's say you start to answer the first question: Grandma was really the stepmother and pretends to be ill in order to lure Little Red Riding Hood to her cottage where the wolf is lying in wait. 
Why? Because she  wants her out of the way in case she inherits her father's fortune.

Now comes the hard work of writing a 300-page novel based on that plot. There are two popular ways of writing a story.

1. You plan out all the chapters, who is doing what, when and where.
2. You develop the story as you go along - a word of caution here, you have to know where your story is going for this to work. You can't decide at page 110 that Grandma is the "good guy", not if you want the story to be believable (it's OK if you decide it from the beginning so that you can build in clues for your reader)

I use method no. 2 which means that I spend a lot of time writing and re-writng and mulling over where the story is going at any particular time, although I know how it will end.
For example, in the above story plot,  I would know that Grandma gets caught out and that there will be an exciting finish with Little Red Riding Hood fighting for her life. What happens inbetween needs to be written in a way that carries the reader along.
If you use method no. 1,  you will spend a lot of time planing out what is going to happen, chapter by chapter.
Either method doesn't provide any shortcuts to the business of writing.

You don't need to start worrying about what kind of writer you are, any method that works for you is fine. I simply wanted to demonstrate two methods to get you started on that idea in your head.

Every story needs characters. In my next blog I will have a look at developing characters for your novel.
Have fun!

Get Down to Writing that Novel

Recently I've talked to a few people who told me they intended writing a novel. When I enquired further as to what kind of novel and if they had an outline plot, they were vague. I got the feeling that they thought it was a momentous task involving blood, sweat and tears.
What I want to say today is: if you have an idea for a novel, no matter how sketchy, just write it down even if it only reads Grandma was really in cohoots with the wolf. By the way, that is an intriguing idea for a story!
Let the germ of the idea wander around in your brain. Then go out and buy a fancy notebook and write it down again at the top of the page. My guess is that, by then, a few more ideas will have popped into your head. Start listing your questions/ideas to develop the plot. Where does Little Red Riding Hood figure in all this? Who is the big bad wolf really?  FBI agent? Baddie? 
Then start your story if you are a seat-of-the-pantser or if you are a planner, start planning how the story could evolve. (I'll talk more about this in my upcoming blogs).
Grandma meets the big bad wolf and they discover they want to get rid of Red Riding Hood. Why? Because grandma wants her inheritance. Or Red Riding Hood knows what secret grandma has in her past or Red Riding Hood is a detective on the trail of the big bad wolf.
You can take your story anywhere you like.  You can change it at any time. The same rules apply to romance: girl meets guy, obstacles against them getting together: she is engaged to someone else and has set a date for the wedding or they are work colleagues/rivals and sparks fly from the beginning of their acquaintance.
Sure it's all been done before - but not by you. And there's the difference. Only you have a unique voice to tell the story in a different way to everyone else. I have read dozens and dozens of authors, some talented, some formulaic and dull. What makes a really good writer stand out? Their style, their unique voice. Compare  three classics: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. You could never confuse them with any other writer, could you? I don't think you could.
But you don't have to aim that high. First of all write down the bones of your story and maybe play around with the first chapter. It's always hard to know where to begin. I'll write more about that in my next blog.