3 fixes to make your first novel fly: part 3 – don't be linear

A good story keeps moving the goalposts

The middle of a story is often problematic. The writer has realised that real meat is needed between the bread of the beginning and the bread of the end. They do the logical thing – break the journey into several stages that gradually reach the goal.

That's definitely an improvement, but it's usually too predictable.

A story needs ups and downs, twists and turns. If a story is a straightforward journey from A to B and finally to Z, that's hardly worth telling. It's known as a linear plot – and is about as entertaining as a set of instructions for building a bookshelf.

So what gives a story those twists and turns? In a word, the answer is change – within the story and the characters.

Fix 3, part 1: move the goalposts

Characters should start out with a goal, but a good story keeps moving the goalposts.

Here's an example. A character starts off thinking she wants a job on a magazine. She gets it – and it's shallow and bitchy. Change one – it's not what she thought. What might she do then? She needs the money so she puts up with the misery, but it's affecting her relationships with friends and family. She hates it more. But something happens to show her a facet of it that she likes, and then she starts to embrace the world. Change two – she's not just fitting in, she's sacrificing her integrity. Now she might have another aim – to become queen bee. And so on, down the slippery slope… (This is loosely based on Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada)

Moving the goalposts like this makes the story really come alive and develop a pulse of its own.

Of course, there has to be some unity in the end, so that the finale seems to arise from what happened at the start. The character can even end up getting what she wanted right at the start. But she will do it as a different person, who has learned where she really fits and what matters – and it will feel well earned and true.

Fix 3, part 2: add a sub-plot

A novel also needs more than one story. This is where the sub-plot comes in. Sub-plots do all sorts of wonderful things. They allow you to explore your theme from another angle, at a stroke making your story more complete and complex. They also give you a chance to hop to another strand of story to vary the pace or the tone – or to keep a cliff-hanger screeching a little longer.

Ideally they will interweave with the main plot at some stage and might even merge to join it. Even in a first-person narrative, where you're focussing just on that character's goals, there should be a way of getting a subsidiary story in.

A lot of first novels I see are afraid to get messy with the plot. It is as if the writer sees a target at the end of the book and is afraid to take their eye off it. But what you do between the start and the finish is the story.

 

So, to recap (and thank you for the picture, ContentAction on Flickr)

My 3 fixes to make your first novel fly

Hook the reader with head AND heart
Give the story a middle
Set goals and keep moving the goalposts