Goals, Conflicts, & Stakes: Why Plots Need All Three

By Janice Hardy

A strong plot is built on strong structure. 

Goal - Conflict - Stakes. They're the engine in every scene and the backbone of every novel. When something feels “off” in a story, when the middle sags, when scenes feel random, when tension fizzles, it’s almost always because one of these three pieces is weak, vague, or missing.

All three exist no matter what genre you’re writing:

• The protagonist wants something (goal).
• Something stands in the way (conflict).
• Something bad will happen if they fail (stakes).

What trips up many writers, is that each of these can be used in multiple ways. 

There are story goals and scene goals. Internal conflict and external conflict. Personal stakes and larger story stakes. If you don’t know which aspect you’re working with, it’s easy to stall around page 100, wondering why your “great idea” suddenly has nowhere to go.

Let’s break all this down.

A Common Reason Novels Fail

By Janice Hardy

Discovering your novel doesn’t work is heartbreaking, but there are things you can do to fix it.

Story ideas are wonderful things, because they hold so much potential. Every spark of inspiration has the ability to become the next Great Novel and make a writer’s whole career. Or at least lead to a solid book readers might want to buy.

Not all ideas lead to good books, though.

Sometimes it’s the idea itself that’s the problem, but frequently, it’s the execution—but not in a “badly written” kind of way. The reason the idea (and the novel) falls flat is this:

It doesn’t tell a story, it explains a situation.

The “situation novel” isn’t about characters trying to solve problems, but scene after scene that tells readers how a situation occurs, offers a flat play-by-play of how something came to be, or even examples of why this idea is so cool.

An Age-Old Question: How Do You Show a Character's Age?

By Janice Hardy

Some details are difficult to slip seamlessly into the story, but you can show a character's age without it feeling awkward. 

In some novels, age doesn't matter. The characters are adults, and whether they're thirty or fifty the book unfolds pretty much the same way. Readers can assume the characters are about "the same age as they are" (if they're adults of course) and it still tracks. 

It's more about the characters being relatable to the readers' experiences than the actual age, and this also holds true for younger readers as well. As long as the characters fit the reader's expectations of age, the story flows smoothly. 

But imagine a young adult (or worse—a middle grade) novel if it was suddenly revealed halfway through the story that the protagonist was thirty. The entire book would change, and everything read so far would probably feel...icky. Readers would have interpreted the entire story through the wrong perspective.

Character age provides context. It tells readers how to judge decisions, mistakes, and emotional reactions.

Does Your Novel Just…Stop? What Makes a Good Ending

By Janice Hardy

Your novel’s ending will have more impact than everything that came before it.

Some writers have troubles with beginnings, or more commonly, middles, but for me, it’s always been endings.

I tend to rush them once I reach the book’s climax, and summarize what happens instead of dramatizing scenes to the big finish. Then I have to rewrite those last three or four chapters several times before I get them right.

There are two reasons for this—impatience and story fatigue.

I reach a point where I’m tired of planning and want to move onto the writing. When I’m drafting it, I hit another wall of fatigue, where I’m so ready for it to be over and I rush past the ending I didn’t develop enough in the first place.

How to Sneak Clues Past Your Readers and Keep Them Guessing

By Janice Hardy

Some writers weave clues so seamlessly into a novel, readers never realize they’re there until they all converge in the end. 

My subconscious is a better writer than I am. It drops in details and makes connections in my first drafts that I don’t see until the next draft—if at all. 

Sometimes, it takes the sharp eyes of my critique group to spot the "clever things" I’ve written that I’m totally unaware of (grin). 

I suspect your subconscious does this, too. It’s only natural. 

Stories churn in our heads even when we aren’t consciously thinking about them. 

Our brains remember throwaway details and build on them without our input. And when we make the connections, we get that rush and think, “Ooo that is soooo cool.”

5 Questions to Turn a Character from Flat to Fabulous

By Janice Hardy

Sometimes we just need to ask the right questions to create a memorable character.

Some writers develop incredibly detailed characters before they ever start a story.

I am not one of those writers.

I do the bare minimum necessary to create a character, then I throw them into my story and see what they do. By the time I’ve written the first draft, I know who they are and can revise accordingly.

Although I’ve written this way for decades, I’m not sure I’d recommend it. It’s an interesting tactic, but it has left me with a lot of revising I might not have needed if I’d done a bit more character work before I started writing. Characters drive the plot, and I’m a plot-driven writer, so my process is missing a critical aspect when I think about it from that perspective.  

It doesn’t take much effort to build a solid foundation for a character.

Dipping Your Little Toe In

By Reyna Marder Gentin

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: It’s been a while since we’ve had a guest author, so I’m delighted to welcome Reyna Marder Gentin to the lecture hall today. Social media is a thorn in the sides of so many authors, but it’s a useful marketing tool that we really ought to at least try. Reyna shares her story and offers tips and insights into venturing into the online world of Instagram.

Take it away Reyna…

In 2008, when I was still practicing law, I jumped into Facebook with both feet.

I did it for all the right reasons: to find old friends from my hometown, reconnect with law school classmates, deepen relationships with relatives. I posted photographs of my children, of weddings, of reunions. It felt very innocent, like I’d been invited to a party with everyone I’d ever known, but I didn’t have to get dressed or leave my house. Social media was welcoming; there were few boundaries and no obligations.

Don’t Make This Common Characterization Mistake

By Janice Hardy

A flat character can kill an otherwise good story.

I was chatting with an editor of a publishing house who mentioned a problem he sees in a lot of the submissions that cross his desk.

Poor characterization.

Cardboard characters. No sense of depth. Names, but not people. Without that characterization, it's impossible to connect with the characters or the story.

Compelling characters are vital to a novel, so if you want readers to love and connect with your characters, they need to feel like real people. So remember:

Characters aren’t just “people with names who do things.”

Stuck in Your Story? Try This Fun Exercise to Shake Up Your Muse

By Janice Hardy

Sometimes, we get so focused on what’s supposed to happen in our novel, we forget to consider what could happen.

Unless you're incredibly lucky, at some point in your writing life your creativity is bound to stall.

The novel you loved yesterday feels flat today, all your ideas sound "meh" and nothing really excites you about your current manuscript. It happens, it's scary, but there are ways to knock your muse out of her slump and get things moving again.

Sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to look at the novel from a different perspective.

Changing your perspective can shake loose preconceived ideas and allow you to see the story and characters in ways you hadn't considered before. These different views often spark ideas that breathe new life into a novel that needs it.

The Difference Between Tricking Your Reader and Surprising Your Reader

By Janice Hardy

If you’re going to trick your readers, proceed with caution and a lot of skill.

During a world-building panel I once did at the Space Coast Comic Con, we had a brief discussion about tricking readers. Some authors on the panel were for it, some against it, and there were strong opinions on both sides.

It made me think about what makes a good twist vs. a bad trick. Because some novels trick readers and we love the author for it, but others trick readers and we refuse to ever read that author again.

I think it’s the Dallas vs. Newhart difference.

For those who weren’t watching a lot of TV in the 80s, both shows had huge twists that surprised viewers. One worked, one did not.

In the show Dallas, a beloved character (Bobby) died in a season finale. The next season proceeded without him, developing storylines and dealing with his death and all the normal things you’d expect to happen after killing off a favorite character.