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.

The Line Forms Where? Knowing Where to Start Your Novel

By Janice Hardy

If your first pages don’t grab readers, your problem might not be the writing—it might be where you started.

Openings are hard, especially if you're not sure if you're starting in the right place. The sheer amount of "is this opening working?" submissions I get in Real Life Diagnostics is testament to that.

The old "start with the action" has frustrated many a writer due to its ambiguity, and even when we think we've done it all correctly, beta readers can still feel the opening isn't grabbing them.

I've talked about first lines and first pages before, so today, let's focus on figuring out where to start your story, and how to diagnose it if you're worried you're starting in the wrong place.

First, analyze your current opening, either the first scene or the first chapter if it's only one scene:

5 Ways to Hook Your Readers

By Janice Hardy

It doesn't matter how you hook your reader, as long as you hook them.

"You need a strong hook" is advice you hear a lot in writing, and it's good advice. A strong hook pulls readers into the story and makes them want to read on.

A hook is something that captures reader attention and piques interest in the novel. It can also be the gotcha or twist that makes the novel compelling and fresh, intriguing readers even further. It’s the “ooooh” factor that probably got you excited about the idea in the first place. It might be a plot point, a character goal, or a conflict. It could even be the theme.

In harsh terms, the hook is why a reader (or agent) should care about your book and not pick up someone else’s. Readers choose a novel because one book will stand out and sound more appealing than another—one “hooks” more than the other.

How to Make an Unhappy Character "Likable"

By Janice Hardy

Novels don't always have a happy hero at the core—but that doesn't make the character any less "likable."

It's ironic that there are so many terms in writing that aren't clear exactly what they mean, or have multiple definitions or uses. "Likable" is one such term.

All the advice says we want a likable protagonist readers can root for, someone they'll want to hang out with for four hundred pages, and someone readers will connect with.

But likable isn't really the issue, and the word can be problematic.

Back in 2013, I received a question from a writer struggling to make her depressed character "likable." She also suffered from depression, and was worried readers wouldn't want to live in the head of a depressed character. It wasn't something "emotionally healthy folks are going to want to spend time with." I answered her question best I could.