4 Must-Ask Questions Before You Start Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A little thinking before you start writing can make a huge difference in how easy that story is to write.

For some writers, a blank page is a scary thing to face. For others, they see all that white space as an opportunity, and can't wait to dive in and tell their story. The vast majority of us probably fall somewhere in between, with some ideas making us eager to write, and some fighting us for every word.

I've discovered through (often painful) trial and error, that my novels go smoother when I spend some time planning them before I write them. I don't have to figure everything out, but knowing what my core conflict is, what my protagonist needs to do, and who my antagonist is makes it a lot easier to write the first draft. I struggle less, my plot comes together more quickly, and the manuscript turns out much cleaner.

You Can Fight Mama Nature: What to do When Your Antagonist is Nature Herself

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Some antagonists can't be fought—they can only be survived.

It's common to hear "antagonist" and think "villain," but the two are not synonymous. An antagonist is just who or what is preventing your protagonist from achieving their goal. Often, that is a person and a bad one at that, but it can also be from a conflict type that has no personal stake in the game. 

Like Mother Nature. 

Your antagonist can come from any of the four basic conflict types, and they each focus on a different type of conflict opposition. We've discussed the person vs. society conflicts, and person vs. self antagonists, so let's look at the person vs. nature conflicts.  

Person vs. Nature conflicts have often undefeatable foes to deal with, because they focus on taming the untamable or surviving the overwhelming threat.  

A great example of a nature antagonist is a traditional disaster movie like Volcano. 

An Easy Tip for Tightening Your Novel’s Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A loose plot can easily unravel, but tying up the threads strengthens the entire novel.

One of my favorite things when writing is when I make an accidental connection that fits so well it looks like I’d planned it all along. It’s my subconscious working in the background.

One day, it dawned on me that I didn’t have to wait for my inner writer to clue me in—I could consciously look for those connections.

Once I started looking, I found multiple “hidden connections” per book that deepened the plot and made it more unpredictable. The obvious characters became red herrings for the more subtle characters lurking in the background doing “plot things” and making the story work.

Plus, it’s a ton of fun.

Broken, but Still Good: 3 Ways to Create Character Flaws

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Choose the right flaws and weaknesses to round out your characters.

There's an old saying: "I'm not looking for the perfect man, just one with faults I like." No clue where I heard this, but it always stuck with me, because it’s so true. Everyone has faults, and some are more palatable than others.

This is true for our characters, too. Their flaws and weaknesses make them three-dimensional people readers can relate to and root for. They also allow our characters to make the mistakes and bad choices that lead to compelling plots.

But picking any old flaw isn't going to cut it. Who cares if the protagonist can't cook if cooking never matters to the story? So what if they can’t commit if they’re never asked to? It's important to choose flaws and weaknesses that add to the overall novel.

Why You Should Write a Novel "Just for Fun"

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Not everything you write needs to be published—or even publishable.

A few years after I published my third novel (Darkfall), I fell into a dark time with my writing. I was drafting a novel that did not want to work the way I wanted it to, and I dreaded sitting down at the keyboard every day. Writing was no longer fun.

With sad relief, I set the manuscript aside and worked on a non-fiction project I'd been wanting to do (my very first writing book, Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure). I fully intended to return to fiction afterward, expecting my dread of the novel to have passed by then.

It hadn't.

I'll be honest—it was terrifying.

Why Conflict Is so Hard to Create in Romance

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Romances don’t usually have a villain, but there is a strong conflict driving the plot.

The romance genre is an odd mix of writing difficulties. On one hand, it’s easy to write because it has a clear structure and set of goals for every story—get two people to fall in love and live happily ever after. 

On the other hand, since both protagonists want the same thing, it’s extremely difficult to create conflict—and plot is created by conflict.

Unlike most novels, there's no mustache-twirling antagonist standing between the lovebirds and happiness. And since the protagonists need to come together in the end, you can’t have one defeat the other, or it throws off the balance of power in the relationship and makes for a bad (and unhealthy) romance.

Without these common antagonistic elements, finding a conflict strong enough to drive a plot can be quite the challenge.

5 Common Problems With Endings

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Your ending is the whole point of your book.

This is the last post in my mini-series on common problems in beginnings, middles, and endings. Today, we’ll take a look at common problems with endings.

When a reader picks up your novel, they do so because something about the blurb made them think "This sounds like a great book." It might be the premise, the voice, the setting, or even a character, but something intrigued them enough to give it a try. How you end the novel and resolve the story will determine whether or not that reader raves about the novel the next day, or forgets about it before the week is over.

Oh yeah, endings have that kind of power. 

Because the ending is the moment readers have been waiting for the entire book (no pressure). It resolves the core conflict of the novel and puts the protagonist up against the antagonist, which is why the most common problem with endings is that they don't live up to that promise.

The only thing tougher than an ending is the middle. Except for the beginning.

How Your Character’s Internal Conflict Can Help You Plot

Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If you've been struggling with a plot, or you're looking for ways to deepen an existing plot, try looking at how your protagonist's internal conflict is driving her external actions.

A lot of focus gets put on the core conflict of a novel—the main problem the protagonist has to solve to win—and for good reason. It's the whole point of the book. But sometimes, when we look too hard at the external problems, we miss out on opportunities to let the internal problems muck things up. This is especially true in a character-driven novel, since that inner journey is what's driving the entire book.

While you can’t plot with a character arc, you can use it to create your plot, because what a character has been through and fears, if what determines how they face their problems and make decisions.

At the heart of every good internal conflict is a fear created by trauma.

Getting the Best Response From Your Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Don't confuse your readers by mixing up what happens when and why.

When one of my nieces was little, she'd tell me stories about her day. They usually made no sense, and not just because she was seven. She'd always tell me what she did before she told me why she did it.

"I cried on the swings, because it wasn't fair and they yelled at me."

It often took multiple follow-up questions to get the real story that she got scolded for playing in a sandbox she'd been told three times not to play in (the reason why involved a cat mistaking it for a litter box).  

Granted, few writers write a novel like a seven year old telling a story, but mixing up the stimulus/response structure happens all the time. Usually it's a small mistake that readers can figure out and move on from, but sometimes it's a big error and leaves them confused.

Using Story Archetypes to Find Your Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Story archetypes are useful tools to develop a novel or story.

Although we hear about character archetypes a lot in writing, I’ve found story archetypes much more useful when developing a story. They’re solid jumping off points to help shape an idea and figure out the best direction to take it.

Story archetypes are the common events or situations often seen in fiction. 

Coming of age, rags to riches, the quest, getting retribution, earning redemption, battle of the underdog. They’re classic story types readers have come to recognize and even seek out.

Some story archetypes offer clear tropes and plots to follow, while others are more thematic, fitting whichever style or process a writer has. Those looking for more direction might welcome a trope-laden archetype, while those looking for general inspiration might prefer the theme-laden side. For example: