Janice Hardy's Blog, page 23

Which Story Structure Is Right for Your Novel?

By Savannah Cordova

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: All novels have a narrative structure, but finding the right one can be tricky. Savannah Cordova shares tips on which structure best suits the story you're trying to tell.

Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing short stories.

Take it away Savannah...
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

3 Shortcuts to Character-Driven Stories

By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: Characters drive the plot through their actions, and some drive it more than others. Laurence MacNaughton shares three shortcuts for developing character-driven fiction.
Believe it or not, your characters can offer you a wealth of story ideas. If you're feeling stuck about what to write next, don't worry. No matter what genre you write, character-driven stories are always a hit with readers. With a little brainstorming, you can generate endless ideas from any of your main characters. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Dig down deep into your character.
Start by writing down a few important details about your main character. These can be any facts you can think of, as long as they are important enough to have an impact on the story.

We aren't looking for long paragraphs of exposition, here. Short phrases are fine.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

WIP Diagnostic: Is This Working? A Closer Look at Making Readers Care Enough to Read On

Critique by Maria D'Marco

WIP Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

If you're interested in submitting to WIP Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines. 

Submissions currently in the queue: Six

Please Note: As of today, critique slots are booked through June 19.

This week’s questions:

1. Would this opening make you want to turn the page? (Right after this opening, he goes to a jazz club and meets a woman who may turn out to be The One.)

2. Is the character of Noah likeable, or interesting, enough? (He's a fairly successful writer who lives alone and is lonely, (though he doesn't know it) and just agreed to join a sailing crew to race around the world for 3-5 months.)

3. Do you need to know more about him to care what happens to him?

Market/Genre: Commercial Fiction

On to the diagnosis…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

How to Punch Readers in the Feels: A Case Study

By José Pablo Iriarte, @LabyrinthRat

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: The best stories do more than just tell a tale. José Pablo Iriarte shares tips on how to pull more emotion from your plot.
As luck would have it, my newest published short story hit the world this week: "Proof by Induction," in Uncanny Magazine, a story about grief and about mathematics. If you want to see an example of what I mean when I talk about short fiction craft, I hope you'll check it out. (Content warning: death of a parent.) You can find the issue online here, or go straight to the story here. You can read the story for free online, but if you like what you see at Uncanny, I would encourage you to subscribe to them through Weightless Books or Amazon, or support them on Patreon. You can also buy this individual issue here. If you're a reader of this website, you know that good fiction is worth supporting, so that magazines like Uncanny can keep on publishing it.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

On the Road: 5 Ways to Keep Your Protagonist Proactive

I'm guest posting at Writers in the Storm today, with 5 Ways to Keep Your Protagonist Proactive and your plot moving. 

If your protagonist isn’t making the story happen, then why are they the protagonist?

A protagonist who sits around waiting for things to happen or just goes along for the ride when things do happen, isn’t doing anything to help advance the story. It might seem like it because they’re in the middle of everything, but if you took them out and put any other character in there, would things still unfold the same way?

With a reactive protagonist, the answer is often “Yes,” because the plot is happening to them, not because of them. They’re not making any decisions that only they could make, based on motivations unique to them. Anyone faced with X problem would make Y choice, because the author set it up that way so Z would happen. The character is irrelevant to how the plot turns out.
Read the full post here!
Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Easy Tips to Incorporate Backstory into Your Novel

By Jenna Harte
Part of The How They Do It Series
JH: Backstory helps readers understand a character, but too much of it can turn readers off. Jenna Harte shares tips on adding the right details to show the past and not bog down the present. 
Jenna Harte is a die-hard romantic writing about characters who are passionate about and committed to each other, and frequently getting into trouble. She is the author of the Valentine Mysteries, the first of which,  Deadly Valentine , reached the quarter-finals in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013. She has a contemporary romance series, Southern Heat, and a cozy mystery series, Sophie Parker Coupon Mystery Series. 

Romance authors can join her free writing community for support, accountability and more at WritewithHarte. Jenna loves talking to anyone and everyone about romance fiction. You can join her free romance fiction reader community, SwoonworthyHEA to talk romance with other readers. 
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube
Take it away Jenna...

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

5 Reasons You’re Struggling with Your Revision (And How to Fix Them)

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Revising a novel is a lot of work, but if every word is a struggle, there might be a problem you’re missing.

In theory, novel revisions should be easy. You’ve already written the story, you know where it goes and how it all unfolds, and now it’s just a matter of making the novel better.

In practice, it takes work. The first draft is more brain dump than workable manuscript, and there are always details to work out, characters to develop, and plot holes to fill.

Revisions are a part of writing, and as much as we wish they'd go smoothly, they don't always work out like we planned.
Some manuscripts fight us more than usual and nothing we do makes them into the glorious novels we know they could be. When we run into such a troublesome beast, it helps to step back and figure out the problem before we make a mess of our stories.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

WIP Diagnostic: Is This Working? A Closer Look at the Importance of Clarity on the Opening Page

Critique by Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

WIP Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

If you're interested in submitting to WIP Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines. 

Submissions currently in the queue: Two

Please Note: As of today, critique slots are booked through May 15.

This week’s question:

1. Does this opening work?

Market/Genre: Young Adult

On to the diagnosis…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Building POV and Stakes in Short Stories

By Rachelle Shaw

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Short stories have little time to make readers care about the protagonist and their problem. Rachelle Shaw shares tips on how point of view and stakes can pull readers into your story.

Individually, POV and stakes both play an important role in developing a story that compels readers to keep going. For short works of fiction, the biggest challenge usually comes with choosing which POV is right and what kind of stakes works best for the chosen narrative.
In a previous post on this site, I mentioned how short stories should cover a single event that shapes the main character’s journey in their overall arc. Even though only a snippet of that larger arc is covered, the backstory leading up to that point serves as motivation for the choices your character will make during the event.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Pulling Levers in the God Machine

By Spencer Ellsworth, @spencimus
Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: A deus ex machina ending usually kills a novel, but a little "god manipulation" is common in some genres—and readers are fine with that. Spencer Ellsworth share thoughts on how much readers will accept when it comes to the "unexplained win."

Spencer Ellsworth is the author of  The Great Faerie Strike  from Broken Eye Books and the Starfire space opera trilogy from Tor. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three children, and would really like a war mammoth if you know a guy.
Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Take it away Spencer…

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com