What's at Stake? How to Make Readers Care About Your Story

By Janice Hardy

If readers don't care about your story, they'll never get past the first scene. 

Like many writers, I have story ideas languishing in my files that I really like, but haven't been able to make work yet because they don't have an answer to the "who cares?" question: 

Why should the reader care about this person and this problem?

Until I figure out a way to make the stakes personal, to make me care, those stories will stay languishing.

I know I'm not alone in this. I do a lot of critiques for a wide variety of writers. One of the most common comments I make is about the stakes. Why does this matter? Why should the reader care? 

Often I can see the stakes in the story, but they're general and vast, so they don't make me care. The author could put any protagonist into the lead and nothing about the consequences really changes.

How Your Character’s Internal Conflict Can Help You Plot

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.

Since today is Halloween, I thought it would be fun to look at ways a character's fear can help you plot. 

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.

Want Better Characters? Get Rid of the Dialogue

By Janice Hardy

Let your characters show you—and readers—who they truly are.

In novels, we often rely on what a character says to show who they are. Their actions also play a role, but the focus is usually on the big stuff—the choices made, the sweeping gestures, the plot-driving tasks. 

Yet, it’s often the little things people do that make them memorable.

I once read a book (I don’t remember which one or who wrote it it was so long ago), where something had happened and the police were talking to witnesses. The protagonist did not want to be remembered. So a character helping her scrunched up the side of his face so it twitched, limped over to police, and answered questions with a strong southern accent. 

She was appalled, and thought he’d just given them away. He said, “Nope, all they’ll remember is the twitch, the limp, and the accent.” Funny thing, after probably twenty-five years, that’s all I remember about that book as well.

The Literary Tour Guide: How Much Do You Need to Describe Your Setting?

By Janice Hardy

Description is a blessing and a curse. 

Setting the scene is vital to help readers immerse themselves in your story world, but too much of it can bore readers and encourage them to skim past it. But find the proper balance between words and word pictures, and readers feel as though they've stepped into the book and live in your world.

How much do you need to describe your setting?

The pat answer is, "enough to make it feel real without bogging the reader down in too many details," but that isn't very helpful. How do you know how much detail is too much? Where is that fine line between immersive and oppressive? And the really frustrating part, is that there is no clear cut right answer. What is "enough" for an epic fantasy is usually too much for women's fiction, and what a thriller needs is different from a middle grade contemporary.

Let's look at a few guidelines.

5 Ways to Convey Emotions in Your Novel

By Janice Hardy

Emotions are critical in most novels, but writing them can sometimes be a challenge.  

Describing outward emotions can often sound forced because people in the moment feeling those emotions aren't usually thinking, "I just want to stare deeply into his eyes." They're thinking about the color, the way the other person makes their heart race, how time seems to stop when their gazes meet. It's the effect of that deep gazing that's on their minds, not the actual gazing part.

Let's say you're writing a situation that requires an emotional response. Instead of looking at the character who's about to become emotional in some way, try going inside her head and thinking about what that person would feel.

What's the Problem? The Four Classic Conflict Types

By Janice Hardy

Your novel's conflict—and the antagonist—can come from any number of places. 

Conflict is vital to any story, but it isn't always between people, which can be a bit confusing for writers looking for their antagonist. Some stories pit the protagonist against society, or a natural disaster. Others have the traditional hero vs. villain setup.

No matter the genre though, there will be conflict in the story, and understanding what's at the heart of yours will make it easier to write. For example, if you have a person vs. self conflict, you'll know your protagonist will act in ways that are personally harmful, and the plot will show how he or she overcomes that trait or flaw causing trouble in his or her life.

Let's look at the four classic story conflict types and how they define the basic conflict structure.

Do I Look Like a Protagonist? Ways to Describe Your First Person Narrator

By Janice Hardy

Finding ways to describe your first-person point of view narrator isn't easy—and a few things not to do.

First person point of view has its own share of challenges, but one of the trickier ones is describing your narrator. You’re always looking out, never in, and it can be awkward to have your character talk about their own attributes. If done poorly, you wind up with a character who sounds incredible self-absorbed.

Before I suggest things to try, let’s start with some common clichés you don't want to do.

Shh! It's a Secret: How to Raise Tension and Conflict in a Scene

By Janice Hardy

Tension is a valuable tool for getting readers to turn the page—no matter what genre you write in. 

Conflict and tension are two things writers want in every scene, but it can be rough getting them both in there without a fight. Characters can't always be at odds or butting heads, and "conflict as a fight" gets old pretty fast. Even a solid difference of opinion can only happen so many times before it starts to feel repetitious.

It's also tough to find new ways to build tension when the characters in the scene are friends working toward the same goal. How do you create conflict and not have friends turn on each other?

Theme Me Up: How to Develop Your Novel's Theme

By Janice Hardy

Theme is an often overlooked tool in a writer's toolbox. Here's another look at finding the greater meaning in your story.  

Several years ago, I attended a workshop on theme at RWA. It was a fascinating session, because the presenters were romance author Suzanne Brockmann and English professor and literary critic, Sarah Frantz, who studies romance in general, and Brockmann in particular. To see what the reader took away from the book versus what the author intended was quite interesting. They were similar, but not always exact. 

And that's okay, because everyone takes away something different from a book.

Some of the things they said made me look at theme in a new light, and made me think about ways to discuss theme that can be directly applied to a writer's work. Looking back on this, I can see how theme has become a much bigger part of my writing process, because a great book is about something, and we all want our books to be more than plots and characters. And using a theme is a great way to accomplish that.

Here are three ways a theme can help writers tell a richer story:

Want to Improve Your Writing? Change Your Thinking

By Janice Hardy

A mental shift in how we think about our writing and process can change our perspective, and thus, help us see the things we’ve been missing.

A long time ago, when I was still fairly new to writing, I had my mind blown by a simple “change of perspective” in how I looked at writing. It was a light-bulb moment that finally made me understand something I’d been struggling with at that time—point of view.

In the years that followed, I’ve had plenty of moments where changing how I thought about something writing-related helped me understand it, or use it better. As I’ve spoken with other writers, I’ve seen the same lights go on in their eyes as they looked at something they’d struggled with and finally saw things click into place.