Day 9 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Nailing Plot in a Character-Driven Novel

 

DAY 9

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

Nailing Plot in Your Character-Driven Novel

Okay, okay, if you ask me (and many others) ALL fiction is character-driven. But if you’re writing women’s fiction or another story that focuses on the who more so than the what — how does an effective plot fit in? How do you insure that something is always happening?

Because this is key.

Just because your characters are busy doesn’t mean something is happening in the story. And you don’t want your protagonist to have things happening around her and to her for pages and pages. Life may be that way, fiction cannot be that way.

Think of this — it’s not so much what happens to your main character but how she REACTS to what happens to her.

And I don’t mean “gasps.” I mean, how does what happens around her spur her to act? Protagonists act. That’s what they do. This goes back to passive vs. active (and you know about that, right?).

In your character-driven novel — your character DRIVES the plot. **headslap**

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

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