Tips on Starting a Book - Part 3
Introducing and Describing Characters:
I recently started reading a detective story that started with a murder, a fairly typical opening to that type of book. However, the author introduced well over a dozen characters in the first chapter. There was the detective and his partner, several police officers, the police chief, the medical examiner and his assistant, and a couple of reporters. Then a couple more detectives appeared on the scene because they thought the case should have been assigned to them. I was lost and kept paging back and forth trying to figure out who was who in this story. I even started writing some of the names down so I could keep track of them. But, in the end, I found it too confusing and I abandoned the book.
Tip: Don’t introduce your characters too quickly. Let the reader get to know each character before moving on to the next.
This advice doesn’t apply only to fiction. If you’re writing your memoir, we don’t have to learn about your mother, your father, your three brothers and two sisters all in the first chapter. Pick one and then move on to the next. If you were particularly close with your father and he was the person who steered you down the path you’re on, start with him. If your older brother bullied you and impacted your life, leave that until a later chapter.
The level of description of each character should match their level of importance to the story. Your protagonist and antagonist are normally described in the most detail. Don’t spend three paragraphs describing the kid behind the counter at the local 7-Eleven if all you ever do is buy a pop from him.
You want the reader to be able to build a mental picture of that character. In my book Goliath, I was always imagining my real brother when I was writing the scenes about how he looked and acted when he was in one of his manic states. I was speaking to someone who had read my book and she told me she thought I had really “nailed” that character because she also had someone in her family who was bipolar. When she read the book, she didn’t have a mental image of my brother when she read those sections, she had a mental picture of her own family member.
If there is an important characteristic of one of the characters in your book, make sure you introduce that feature early in the book. For example, if your character walks with a limp, don’t suddenly introduce that in chapter 18. The reader will have already built up their mental image of that character by that point. If you suddenly introduce a limp, it will throw your reader out of the story and confuse them.
Tip: Try to make your characters as different as possible.
If your book is a young adult novel with three high school girls, try not to give them similar names such as Jennifer, Julie and Janet. The reader will have a hard time differentiating between them.
Setting and Scenes:
Where does your story take place? That’s the setting. You should provide enough of a description to let the reader feel grounded, and no more. If your story takes place in a library, you shouldn’t need an elaborate description because (hopefully) most of your readers have been in a library a few times. If you spend three pages describing the library at the start of your book, your reader will probably abandon the book or start skimming through your book, and once they start skimming, it’s hard to get them to stop.
However, if you’re writing a sci-fi novel in a galaxy far, far away, you’re going to have to spend a lot more time describing the setting. If your novel is about a fantasy world, you’ll also require a fairly elaborate description.
I’ve previously mentioned my book The Legacy, which is a kidnapping story that takes place in Brazil. I’ve never been there and I suspect many of my readers haven’t been there either, so I spent more time trying to set the scene. I thought I did a pretty good job. However, shortly after the book was released, I was talking to the head of a local book club as I was trying to convince her to include my novel in their reading list for that year. She said she was interested because she had recently visited Brazil and had, in fact, stayed in the same hotel in Rio that I had described in my book.
This made me a little nervous - okay - a lot nervous. I had done all of my research online. I had read all about Rio and the favelas. I had gone to the hotel’s website and looked at pictures of the hotel and its surroundings.
After she read my book, the head of the book club said my story was “pretty good” but she could tell that I’d never actually been to Rio or Brazil.
“How?” I asked.
“Because you didn’t describe how it smelled.”
She said that was one of the first things she noticed when she went to Brazil and I had never even mentioned it. I guess I’ll have to put some money in my travel budget to visit these places before I write about them.
Tip: Try to remember to use all of the senses when describing the setting.
Whereas the setting is the backdrop of your story, scenes dramatize the events taking place. Every scene in your book should have a purpose, whether it is to introduce or develop characters, create atmosphere or suspense, show conflict, or to advance the story. If the action is relatively simple or if you are just providing information, then it will typically not require the creation of a scene.
For example, if in your story, John walks up the stairs and enters the house, then you should just state that as simple narrative. But if you’re writing a horror story, then you might want to create a scene to build the suspense. Your scene would show John fearfully climbing the stairs and hearing the creak of the wood on every step he takes. You might describe the old oak door that looks like it’s a thousand years old, or the dried blood stains on the door handle. I’ll discuss this a bit more in the section on “Showing versus Telling”.
Tip: Write with emotion.
It is important that your writing shows the emotion of the scene. Sometimes, this is difficult to do. One thing I do a lot in my books is include real life events and then fictionalize them in the book. For example, in The Back Nine, there is a scene where Max races home because he’s received a call telling him that his elderly mother has collapsed and they’ve called 9-1-1. When he gets there, his mother says she is fine but the paramedics take her to the hospital anyway. As Max follows the ambulance to the hospital, he is praying that they don’t turn on the siren and the lights because as long as they remain off, he knows that she is okay. When I wrote that fictional scene, I was actually reliving a similar scene that happened to my mother in real life.
When you are feeling emotional, those emotions will come through in your writing. I find it is better that I be in a happy mood if I’m writing a funny scene, or feeling somewhat down myself if I’m writing a sad scene.
In the next part of this series, I'll be giving some tips on writing dialogue.
I recently started reading a detective story that started with a murder, a fairly typical opening to that type of book. However, the author introduced well over a dozen characters in the first chapter. There was the detective and his partner, several police officers, the police chief, the medical examiner and his assistant, and a couple of reporters. Then a couple more detectives appeared on the scene because they thought the case should have been assigned to them. I was lost and kept paging back and forth trying to figure out who was who in this story. I even started writing some of the names down so I could keep track of them. But, in the end, I found it too confusing and I abandoned the book.
Tip: Don’t introduce your characters too quickly. Let the reader get to know each character before moving on to the next.
This advice doesn’t apply only to fiction. If you’re writing your memoir, we don’t have to learn about your mother, your father, your three brothers and two sisters all in the first chapter. Pick one and then move on to the next. If you were particularly close with your father and he was the person who steered you down the path you’re on, start with him. If your older brother bullied you and impacted your life, leave that until a later chapter.
The level of description of each character should match their level of importance to the story. Your protagonist and antagonist are normally described in the most detail. Don’t spend three paragraphs describing the kid behind the counter at the local 7-Eleven if all you ever do is buy a pop from him.
You want the reader to be able to build a mental picture of that character. In my book Goliath, I was always imagining my real brother when I was writing the scenes about how he looked and acted when he was in one of his manic states. I was speaking to someone who had read my book and she told me she thought I had really “nailed” that character because she also had someone in her family who was bipolar. When she read the book, she didn’t have a mental image of my brother when she read those sections, she had a mental picture of her own family member.
If there is an important characteristic of one of the characters in your book, make sure you introduce that feature early in the book. For example, if your character walks with a limp, don’t suddenly introduce that in chapter 18. The reader will have already built up their mental image of that character by that point. If you suddenly introduce a limp, it will throw your reader out of the story and confuse them.
Tip: Try to make your characters as different as possible.
If your book is a young adult novel with three high school girls, try not to give them similar names such as Jennifer, Julie and Janet. The reader will have a hard time differentiating between them.
Setting and Scenes:
Where does your story take place? That’s the setting. You should provide enough of a description to let the reader feel grounded, and no more. If your story takes place in a library, you shouldn’t need an elaborate description because (hopefully) most of your readers have been in a library a few times. If you spend three pages describing the library at the start of your book, your reader will probably abandon the book or start skimming through your book, and once they start skimming, it’s hard to get them to stop.
However, if you’re writing a sci-fi novel in a galaxy far, far away, you’re going to have to spend a lot more time describing the setting. If your novel is about a fantasy world, you’ll also require a fairly elaborate description.
I’ve previously mentioned my book The Legacy, which is a kidnapping story that takes place in Brazil. I’ve never been there and I suspect many of my readers haven’t been there either, so I spent more time trying to set the scene. I thought I did a pretty good job. However, shortly after the book was released, I was talking to the head of a local book club as I was trying to convince her to include my novel in their reading list for that year. She said she was interested because she had recently visited Brazil and had, in fact, stayed in the same hotel in Rio that I had described in my book.
This made me a little nervous - okay - a lot nervous. I had done all of my research online. I had read all about Rio and the favelas. I had gone to the hotel’s website and looked at pictures of the hotel and its surroundings.
After she read my book, the head of the book club said my story was “pretty good” but she could tell that I’d never actually been to Rio or Brazil.
“How?” I asked.
“Because you didn’t describe how it smelled.”
She said that was one of the first things she noticed when she went to Brazil and I had never even mentioned it. I guess I’ll have to put some money in my travel budget to visit these places before I write about them.
Tip: Try to remember to use all of the senses when describing the setting.
Whereas the setting is the backdrop of your story, scenes dramatize the events taking place. Every scene in your book should have a purpose, whether it is to introduce or develop characters, create atmosphere or suspense, show conflict, or to advance the story. If the action is relatively simple or if you are just providing information, then it will typically not require the creation of a scene.
For example, if in your story, John walks up the stairs and enters the house, then you should just state that as simple narrative. But if you’re writing a horror story, then you might want to create a scene to build the suspense. Your scene would show John fearfully climbing the stairs and hearing the creak of the wood on every step he takes. You might describe the old oak door that looks like it’s a thousand years old, or the dried blood stains on the door handle. I’ll discuss this a bit more in the section on “Showing versus Telling”.
Tip: Write with emotion.
It is important that your writing shows the emotion of the scene. Sometimes, this is difficult to do. One thing I do a lot in my books is include real life events and then fictionalize them in the book. For example, in The Back Nine, there is a scene where Max races home because he’s received a call telling him that his elderly mother has collapsed and they’ve called 9-1-1. When he gets there, his mother says she is fine but the paramedics take her to the hospital anyway. As Max follows the ambulance to the hospital, he is praying that they don’t turn on the siren and the lights because as long as they remain off, he knows that she is okay. When I wrote that fictional scene, I was actually reliving a similar scene that happened to my mother in real life.
When you are feeling emotional, those emotions will come through in your writing. I find it is better that I be in a happy mood if I’m writing a funny scene, or feeling somewhat down myself if I’m writing a sad scene.
In the next part of this series, I'll be giving some tips on writing dialogue.
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