I don’t mean go all George R R Martin and kill them outright. I mean that you should make an effort to put your characters into situations that seem impossible to escape from – and then watch how they ingeniously do escape.

We are all so used to fiction now, and the standard of good triumphing over evil, that it takes some doing for a fiction writer to actually make us feel like the character is in genuine danger. Even when the hero is suspended over a pit of snakes, we still know they will get out – the interest comes in finding out how.

Ideally, you’ll make people really genuinely feel there is no escape for your character, whether it be a pit of snakes, an overbearing spouse or a mental illness. You should think long and hard about what sort of situations you can put your character into which will have them stuck and stumped.

I think it’s best that you personally don’t know the answer when you first come up with these situations – that will make them feel more genuine.

Take five minutes to try to come up with five situations that appear to be impossible to escape. Here are a few to get you started:

• Jemima has been captured by her arch nemesis and trapped in a coffin (nailed shut, naturally), which is wrapped in iron chains and is on a conveyor belt heading towards a cremation furnace.
• Victor is trapped in a dead end job. He has huge debts to pay off, no qualifications and estranged from his family.
• Francis has been wrongly accused of child abuse. All her friends have turned against her and the authorities won’t listen to anything she says. She’s been fired from her job and her husband has left her and taken her children.

Once you’ve got a handful of those sorted, spend a little more time coming up with the solutions. Try not to make too much use of outside help – the character needs to solve the issue under their own steam.

Or, if you are too lazy to come up with your own, try to come up with solutions for the scenarios detailed above. Make sure you do yours before reading mine, below.

Here are my ideas:

• The coffin is wood, so as it nears the fire, the wood begins to warp and burn. She squeezes herself against the far end as far as possible, and when enough of the coffin is burning, she kicks through and escapes.
• Victor’s dead end job is selling holidays. One day a man comes in just his age but clearly much happier and more successful, who explains he has no money, but he just roams the world. Victor packs everything in and buys his own holiday with his last paycheck and sets off with just a suitcase of things. While in Thailand he discovers an aromatic incense that induces deep calm. He brings some back home with him and starts his own business selling it, which is a great success.
• Francis scours through the testimony of the child and manages to find some details which prove that they are making it up. She also researches child psychology and finds evidence that parents plant and enhance the concepts tentatively suggested by children. At the final court hearing the child who accused her breaks down in tears saying it was only meant to be a joke and he is really sorry. The judge rules in her favour.

Please do enter your ideas below!

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out our novel writing software. Designed by writers for writers.   

There was a woman sitting at the roadside between two towns when a man approached. He stopped and asked the woman what the town ahead was like.

The woman asked, “What was the town you’ve just come from like?”

The man replied, “Oh, it was awful. Filthy and full of thieves and cheats.”

The woman nodded. “You’ll find the town ahead much the same.”

The man rolled his eyes and went on his way. 

A little later, another man came along the same road, coming from the same place and heading to the same place, and asked the same question. 

Again, the woman asked, “What was the town you’ve just come from like?”

This man replied, “Oh, it was a lovely place. The streets were clean and the people kind and 

generous.”

The woman nodded. “You’ll find the town ahead much the same.”

I love this story, because it makes the point that life is what we make of it. That’s not to deny that some

people encounter more hardships than others – there is a big difference between the life of a middle class teacher in Surrey and a refugee from Sudan. However, you often find that the people who have suffered the most are the ones with the most positive outlook, focusing on the joys of life, small and large. Whereas people who have experienced to real difficulty to speak of, whinge endlessly about their lot.

Having a positive outlook to life is a good in itself and should need no further justification. However, it can also be good for your writing.

By noticing little things in life that make us happy, we become more observant to detail and these details are often simple and sensual, relating to the five senses. If we deliberately notice sights, smells, sounds, tastes and things we can touch that bring us pleasure, then we can draw on that memory bank when it comes to our writing to draw people into our fictional worlds.

Try this exercise:

1.       Make five lists of things that make you happy, under the headings: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Add at least ten things to each list. Don’t be surprised if some lists are much harder than others.

For example

Sound

1.  The sound of birds singing in the garden
2. The sound of keys in the door as my partner arrives home from work
3. The sound of a breeze through the trees on a summer’s day
4. The sound of the dog panting after a good game of chase
5.  The sound of live piano music in an echoey old house
6. The sound of bacon sizzling in a pan
7. The combination of uplifting chords in my favourite song
8. The sound of a newborn baby crying for the first time
9. The sound of a powerful shower
10. The hum of a powerful car engine

Add your favourite sensations in the comments below!

Credit to The Five Minute Writer by Margaret Geraghty for the inspiration for this post – if you liked it, you should buy the book.


Have you tried The Novel Factory? Novel writing softwarewritten for writers, by writers.

Humans are pattern matching creatures, swift to classify and categorise all elements of the world around us. This is both a great strength and terrible weakness.

As we grow up, we apply patterns and put everything in its rightful place. A chair is for sitting on. A plate is for eating from. A car is for driving.

Of course, in most cases this kind of assumption is necessary for every day life. If every time we came across a chair, we had to mentally go through all the possible ways we could use that arrangement of sticks, we would end up with very tired legs.

Children, inventors are McGuyver are examples of people that are able to think outside of the standard assumptions, and see alternate uses for every day things in order to play or solve a problem.

As authors, we need to constantly challenge these patterns and assumptions and find new and surprising ways to look at every day things in order to give our work originality. This comes in useful in everything from coming up with fresh ways to describe things, rather than resorting to hallowed clichés to coming up with a shocking plot twist that hasn’t been done a hundred times before.

An interesting way to start to break down these assumptions it to try to think about exactly when a thing becomes a thing. In doing this we can start to see that the world isn’t quite a concrete as we thought.

For example, we all know what a car is. And if you remove the roof, it’s a clearly still a car. But what if you remove the engine instead of the roof. Is it still a car now? It looks the same, assuming the bonnet is closed, but it doesn’t meet the main function of the car. What if it has the engine but no wheels or doors. At what point does it cease to be a car and become a chassis. Its’ not so easy to answer.

Similarly, if you watch a daffodil grow in the garden, at what point does it become a flower. At first it is just a green stalk. Then it starts to create a yellowish bulb and slowly the bulb unfurls, Can you pin down the exact moment it becomes a flower?

If you can encourage your brain to be more open to seeing things outside of their normal categories, you can train it to be more flexible and open to unusual ideas that can enrich your writing.

Try this writing exercise:

1.       Think of at least thirty different uses for the following things:

a.       A set of keys

b.      A cellar

c.       An iPad

d.      A wooden elephant

e.      An old tennis racquet

f.        A plank of wood

g.       A bottle of shampoo

h.      A candle

i.         A CD

j.        The Bible

Try not to be constrained by what you ‘know’ the main purpose of each of the items is. If you get stuck, try to think about different physical aspects of each of the items, including what it’s made of, its properties (strong, waterproof etc), its size and shape, conductivity, reactivity.

What you should find is that at first you will come up with obvious uses for the object, but as you are forced to think of more, your brain will work harder to become more flexible and open to unusual ideas.

For example:

A candle:

1.       A light

2.       For heating food

3.       For blocking up a hole

4.       For poking a mouse out of a hole

5.       For highlighting hidden text written in invisible ink

6.       For burning a forbidden letter

7.       For propping up a table

8.       For melting and using the wax in frisky foreplay

9.       As a time keeper

10.   Use the wick as string to tie something

11.   As a weapon

12.   To write messages on

13.   A chew or throw toy for a dog

14.   A rolling pin

15.   A signal that someone is home

16.   For sending morse code at night

17.   Use the wax to fill in scuffs in wood

18.   A drumstick

19.   To hold up a box trap

20.   To wedge open a door

21.   To weight down a helium balloon

22.   A pretend magic wand

23.   A stirring implement

24.   Carve it into a mini totem pole

25.   A spirit level (hold it by the wick)

26.   A bookmark

27.   To break up a blockage

28.   To measure the depth of oil or mud

29.   To tie a puppet to.

2.       To bring it a little closer to home, think of at least ten different endings as you can each of these tired premises:

1.       Girl meets boy – they hate each other

2.       Aliens attack planet earth

3.       There’s a bomb on the bus

4.       A bank heist

5.       A pirate adventure

For example:

Aliens attack planet earth

1.       Humans fight back and win

2.       Humans fight back and lose

3.       Aliens turn out to be an ancient generation of humans that fled earth into space and are now returning

4.       Aliens turn out to be victims of another alien race and join forces with humans to fight against the third race

5.       Humans domesticate the aliens

6.       Humans abandon earth and join the aliens

7.       Humans fight back then go and attack the aliens’ home planet

8.       Aliens integrate and interbreed with humans

9.       Aliens take humans as their slaves

10.   Aliens turn out to be humans from an alternate universe

Please post your lists in the comments below!

Credit to The Five Minute Writer by Margaret Geraghty for the inspiration for this post – if you liked it, you should buy the book.

For more articles about creative writing and novel writing, visit The Novel Factory website.

Often new writers choose to write short stories as a sort of ‘warm up’ before they start writing novels, as the short story seems a lot more achievable. 

If you do this, you’ll soon get told off, and informed that the short story is a completely different animal to the novel, and one is not simply a longer or shorter version of the other.

However. I happen to think that cutting your teeth on short stories is a great way get started with writing, as it gives you something manageable and most importantly, something that you’re more likely to finish. Finishing a story is the hardest part for a new writer (after starting!).

There is a lot of advice and guidance out there for how to structure and plot a novel, and lots of tried and tested techniques, but there is less so for short stories – partially because there is a lot more opportunity to be creative and experiment with whatever you want. Readers can put up with a lot more deviation from conventions over a short term, where it might become tedious over the course of a whole novel.

Here are some ideas that you may wish to use in your short stories:

Breakdown by time

This technique is used in the TV series 24 and book series Bridget Jones’s Diary, where each section is split to represent one hour or one day. You can use subtitles to make this explicit, and it gives you a lot of leeway for skipping chunks of time and keeping a tight focus on the exciting bits.

 

Formats

Similarly to the diary example in the breakdown by time, you can use unconventional formats to make your story more unique and original. For example you could write it as an exchange of emails, a series of newspaper reports, a collection of adverts in a local parish newsletter, or conversations between passing dog walkers. Each format will have a different impact on the story and how it plays out.

Repetition of words, sentences or themes

By hanging the story on a particular hook, you can explore several ideas and still have a satisfying, whole feeling narrative. For example, you could take a sentence, such as ‘Never again’ and use it to start three different paragraphs. Each paragraph could be from a different person’s viewpoint, or the same person at three different ages. This way we can explore the nuances of the human experience.  Or you could have an item which appears over and over again – either the exact same item, or variations of the same type of item, such as different pairs of shoes.

Full Circle

It’s normal for short stories to have a twist, but if you’re really clever, you need to make sure the twist links very closely with the setup. A nice idea can be to follow through an ironic chain of events so that an action taken right at the beginning directly results in a failure to achieve the aim of that action. For example, an actor might decide to flirt with a director in order to secure the part, for which they are already a favourite. But that upsets the actor’s partner, who then wrangles it to inform the director’s spouse of some dark secret. The spouse then ensures the actor is refused the part.

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out our novel writing software. Designed by writers for writers.  

You may think that you can’t affect the speed at which people read – fast readers will read fast, slow readers will read slowly. But in fact, our writing choices can have a huge impoact on the ‘pace’ of the writing, and how fast it feels to the reader.

If you want to write a gripping novel, you need to make sure you’ve got a steady foot on the accelerator, and know when and how to put the pedal to the metal and equally when and how to ease it off and cruise for a while.

This article explores fast pacing. For the sister article, which deals with slow pacing, click here.

What a snappy pace adds to your writing

Exciting action

Action is full of movement, and as the many fight scenes and car chases of Hollywood should tell you – fast often means exciting. In my view, you need to have a few other things tied in as well, such as emotional investment and goals, but if you want people to be gripped and whizzing through the pages, you should have a bit of fast paced action.

Building and release of tension

A highly charged scene will start slowly and build up in pace so the reader is swept along. If the pace remains slow, then the action will just fizzle out and won’t feel satisfactory and may even get tedious.

Emotionally charged conflict

Arguments should be fast paced to feel charged with energy and anger. When people are angry they react quickly and aggressively, they don’t ponder things through and consider the other people’s thoughts and the impact of their words. They may act or speak so fast they disregard the consequences, giving you the opportunity to land your characters in more delicious deep trouble.

How to increase the pace of a novel

Dialogue

The format of dialogue requires each new person speaking to begin on a new line, so unless your characters are droning on in monologues, conversations should keep the pace up. Also, dialogue tends to be more sparse than prose, as people don’t tend to describe their surroundings in great detail, they just say what they’re thinking.

Fragments

Think short. Shorter paragraphs, shorter sentences. Fragments are simply the extreme of this – as fragments are just very short sentences – ones which only contain a single clause. Using shorter structures allow readers to speed through. Readers will typically hold each ‘sentence’ idea in their head before moving to the next one. This means that if you have one sentence with several clause, they have to pause to juggle the ideas around and make sure they have them straight. However, if each sentence is a single, simple idea, they can read it and move on right away.

Focus on actions

Increasing the pace doesn’t necessarily mean rushing through the things that happen. Quite the opposite. In an exciting action scene, you may wish to focus right in on each tiny little movement. The key here is to focus on the actions – don’t waste any words describing the scenery or anything that isn’t action.

Did you know that the author of these articles has written an entire Roadmap guide to writing a novel? It takes you through step by step, from premise to final draft, offering useful tips at just the point when you need them. This Roadmap is part of The Novel Factory, which is available to try completely free for 30 days. Why not give it a go? 

This is a sister article to: Slowing down the pace in your novel.

So, you want to be a writer?

If you want to be taken seriously, here are the top ten phrases to avoid, or you’ll have seasoned writers groaning and casting you as comedy bit parts in their novels…

My punctuation / grammar / vocabulary is terrible

Punctuation, grammar and vocabulary are the nuts and bolts of writing. If you aren’t good at them, you’re not going to be a good writer. Now, don’t get me wrong, the last thing I’m saying is that if English isn’t your strong point you shouldn’t try to be writer. What I’m saying is, you need to roll up your sleeves and learn this shiz. No excuses. Editors will not fix it for you.

Speaking of which…

I expect when I get an editor, they’ll sort all that stuff out

Think again. If your manuscript isn’t in tip top shape, and that means only the absolute tiniest sprinkling of typos, then it’s not getting anywhere near an editor, Buster.

I like to break the rules, because I think it makes me edgy

If you are Chuck Palahniuk or Irvine Welsh, then fine. You may break the conventions of writing. However, usually when people say this, it’s because they don’t understand why the conventions exist and what effect breaking / following them has.

In writing, there’s a reason we use 1^st person instead of 3rd person, or use very long or very short sentences or even break the rules of capitalisation or whatnot. But if you’re going to break the rules, you’d better make damn sure not only do you know EXACTLY SPECIFICALLY what you’re doing and for what purpose, you’d better make sure it’s completely consistent, throughout the entire work.

If it’s not, I’ve got news for you – it’s not edgy, it’s lazy and sloppy.

Go to your room.

I want to be a writer, but I don’t have time

Then you’re not a writer. If you’re not writing, you’re not a writer. Don’t say you don’t have time, say nothing at all until you’ve started writing.

People don’t like my work because they don’t understand the genius of it

Well, what to say about this?

What ‘people’ are we talking about? If the people who have read your work don’t like it, it is possible you are giving it to the wrong people.

The other option is that it’s not very good.

 

Read more about 8 worst new novelist mistakes.

All stories need conflict – it is their life blood. Without conflict, you have no story, full stop.

Before we go on, it’s important to note that conflict isn’t the same as challenge, such as a big fist fight. A serious lifetime addict not having a cigarette when pregnant is more of a conflict than a martial arts expert beating up twenty baddies.

In this article we’re going to explore four potential areas of conflict: Inner, relationship, organisation and external.

Inner Conflict

Based on the conflicting desires of the protagonist.

For example, Annette wants revenge for her brother’s murder, but the murderer is her own father, who takes care of her vulnerable mother. The conflict comes between the desire for revenge / the familial love for her father / the wish to protect her mother.

The protagonist ostensibly has full control over inner conflict as it is solely up to them to make the decision.

Relationship Conflict

Based on the opposing desires of individual characters.

For example, Betty wants to go out with Carl, but Carl fancies Darren, and Darren wants to marry Annette to get hold of her mother’s fortune.

The protagonist has some control over relationship conflict, though how much depends on their situation and strength of character.

Organisation Conflict

Based on the conflict with organisations in the wider world. A common one is the police or EvilCorp, but it could be a school, boss, publisher etc. It’s usually characterised by a David and Goliath type relationship, and ruthless, faceless opponent.

For example, Emma wants to publicise the fact that EvilCorp is dumping poisoness waste in the water and the local children are being afflicted with horrible diseases that the parents can’t afford to treat and EvilCorp puts publicity, lawyers and hardmen in her way.

The protagonist has a small amount of control over how they can navigate the towering obstacles thrown in their path and force the hand of the organisation.

External Conflict

Based on conflict with random, uncontrollable factors. Such as weather, freak natural phenomenon,

computer malfunction, accidents etc. These are usually better used as incidental factors or to assist with initial story set up, rather than as main story conflicts, because there is so little control, it can feel a bit hopeless or arbitrary – and it’s hard to get real passionate hate for a mindless things that have no emotions or desires themselves.

For example, Freddy wants to get to the hospital where his wife is having his baby, when a freak snowstorm closes all the roads.

The protagonist has no control over how external conflicts play out.

Summary of conflict

Now you’ve read about four different areas of conflict, think about how you use them in your story. Are they all present? Could you make your story stronger by introducing more of them?

For more articles about creative writing and novel writing, visit The Novel Factory website.

Nanowrimo will be here soon, so I thought I’d write an article about nanoplamo, or national novel planning month. This goes hand in hand with nanowrimo, and in my mind is the absolute key to successfully completing the challenge.

If you are completely baffled by all these nano words, then you might want to check out this article about what nanowrimo is and why it’s useful and / or this article about nanowrimo success.

A step by step nanoplamo!

Step one – get your tools in order

By tools I would include:

A place to work – preferably somewhere to call your own, where you can leave your stuff permanently, but if this isn’t an option, then at least a get a box where you can pack up all your nanoplamo / nanowrimo related things and keep them together.

Computer / software – unless you write on paper (in which case you must be insane), you’ll need a decent, reliable computer and somewhere to back up your work. All you really need for the writing itself is Word and a folder system for putting notes on various things in – but if you’re like me and hate spending time on admin when you could be writing, you might want to consider some dedicated novel writing software – and as you might imagine (because we built it) we would recommend The Novel Factory.

A moleskin notebook / app – while you’re immersed in your novel planning (and writing), lots of things you see in the rest of your life will give you ideas, and unless you have a photographic memory, you’ll need somewhere to note them down. A pocket sized notebook or an app on your phone is perfect (I use iA Writer on the iPhone).

Research materials – if you are setting your novel in a particular time or place, then borrow some books from the library on the period (or buy them from if you prefer – try Green Metropolis for ethical and cheap) and have them in lovely inspiring piles around your workplace for dipping into.

Step two – make a plan

You should have a plan of action for what you need to have achieved by whatever day of the month. It may look something like this:

Day one – write your premise

Day two – sketch out the rough overall plot

Day three – outline main characters

If you don’t want to work all of the steps out from first principles, then The Novel Factory includes exactly this step by step guide, or as we like to call it - Roadmap. You can read more about the Novel Factory Roadmap without having to download the software (which is free to try anyway) here.

Step three – follow the plan!

If you’ve followed steps one and two, then you’re in a good position to get started, and all you have to do now is have the willpower and determination to follow it through. And if your plan is in good shape before the 1^st of November, then you’ll be in much better shape to get that first draft knocked out in one month.  

Good luck!