How to Write a Brilliant Novel: The Easy Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Story (Go! Write Something Brilliant) by Susan May Warren Page B
Authors: Susan May Warren
Tags: Fiction, General Fiction, Reference, Writing, Writing; Research & Publishing Guides, Writing Skills
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without the setting, a play without props. Sure we’ll use our imaginations, but we have to work harder to do it. Set up your Storyworld correctly and your reader moves freely about the book.
Creating Storyworld
Building a Storyworld is simply about gathering up your elements, and then putting them together, using a few tricks.
Just the facts, ma’am.
Let’s start with the basics: the Five Ws. Who, What, Where, When, Why. The reader needs to know who is in the scene, what is going on around them, where it is, when it is, , and a little about why they are there.
I’ll use my book Nothing But Trouble (Tyndale, May 2009) to show you how I built Storyworld.
Let’s start by making a list:
Who – PJ Sugar, bad girl turned good
Where – back in her home town, at her parents’ country club When – Memorial Day weekend
What – PJ’s driving up and wrestling the courage to go inside, other cars are also driving up and people are carrying presents
Why – for her sister’s wedding
But we’re just getting started. Once we’ve figured out each of these elements, we need to go deeper:
Who – What is the state of mind of the POV character walking into the scene? In one or two words, define how the POV character feels.
Where – What details stands out to the character? Why is this significant to the character?
When is it – What is the time of year, and how do we know that? We’re looking for details here.
What – What other activities are going on in the scene? What is your POV character doing?
Why – Why is she/he in this place?
Put it all together
Who: PJ Sugar – feeling like a duck out of water, especially after being in a car for two days, but also because she’s been out of the high-society lifestyle her parents raised her in. She’s tense and grimy and uncomfortable and just wants to run.
Where: She’s back in a place where she got into trouble. She notices the new addition to the kitchen (we’ll find out why later) and the changes made to the country club in her absence, as well as the similarities—the pool, for example. It’s a place of rich, albeit difficult, memories for her.
When: June—so the lilacs are blooming, the flowers are out in pots on the verandah, the sprinklers are spraying the golf course.
What: A Mercedes pulls up and a well-groomed guest gets out holding a beautifully wrapped gift (of course PJ doesn’t have one). Also, she’s driving a Bug, and in the parking lot are Beemers, Mercedes, and Lexus’s. PJ is brushing potato chip crumbs off her lap.
Why: She’s here because her sister begged her to come and watch her son while she goes on her honeymoon. PJ returns because she longs to start over again.
So, now we have PJ’s state of mind and some of the details of the scene. But we’re not ready to build yet.
Observations – What’s in your world?
To really draw your Storyworld, you need to use your five senses to engage the reader’s emotions. Sight. Smell. Sound. Touch.Taste. When you walk into a room, all your senses are a part of your understanding of that scene.
Smell is a huge memory tool, and, just like you, your character will remember them.
Sound is essential. Rarely is there a place without some noise in it, yet we often don’t read about it or hear it in a scene. Imagine watching a movie without the sound.
Sight , of course, is what a scene is usually built on, but remember those specific, mood- enhancing details.
Touch is also important. Your character can rub her hand on the soft, worn leather of a desk chair or dig her fingers into the rough bark of an oak tree.
Taste is active in our memory too. We taste things in our memory.Your heroine could taste her fear. She tasted her past, the memory of sitting in the kitchen with her mother, sneaking cookie dough out of the bowl.
Before you sit down to write, make a sensory list of everything you perceive in that scene. You’ll use it as a “cheat sheet” as you build the scene.
Let’s
Creating Storyworld
Building a Storyworld is simply about gathering up your elements, and then putting them together, using a few tricks.
Just the facts, ma’am.
Let’s start with the basics: the Five Ws. Who, What, Where, When, Why. The reader needs to know who is in the scene, what is going on around them, where it is, when it is, , and a little about why they are there.
I’ll use my book Nothing But Trouble (Tyndale, May 2009) to show you how I built Storyworld.
Let’s start by making a list:
Who – PJ Sugar, bad girl turned good
Where – back in her home town, at her parents’ country club When – Memorial Day weekend
What – PJ’s driving up and wrestling the courage to go inside, other cars are also driving up and people are carrying presents
Why – for her sister’s wedding
But we’re just getting started. Once we’ve figured out each of these elements, we need to go deeper:
Who – What is the state of mind of the POV character walking into the scene? In one or two words, define how the POV character feels.
Where – What details stands out to the character? Why is this significant to the character?
When is it – What is the time of year, and how do we know that? We’re looking for details here.
What – What other activities are going on in the scene? What is your POV character doing?
Why – Why is she/he in this place?
Put it all together
Who: PJ Sugar – feeling like a duck out of water, especially after being in a car for two days, but also because she’s been out of the high-society lifestyle her parents raised her in. She’s tense and grimy and uncomfortable and just wants to run.
Where: She’s back in a place where she got into trouble. She notices the new addition to the kitchen (we’ll find out why later) and the changes made to the country club in her absence, as well as the similarities—the pool, for example. It’s a place of rich, albeit difficult, memories for her.
When: June—so the lilacs are blooming, the flowers are out in pots on the verandah, the sprinklers are spraying the golf course.
What: A Mercedes pulls up and a well-groomed guest gets out holding a beautifully wrapped gift (of course PJ doesn’t have one). Also, she’s driving a Bug, and in the parking lot are Beemers, Mercedes, and Lexus’s. PJ is brushing potato chip crumbs off her lap.
Why: She’s here because her sister begged her to come and watch her son while she goes on her honeymoon. PJ returns because she longs to start over again.
So, now we have PJ’s state of mind and some of the details of the scene. But we’re not ready to build yet.
Observations – What’s in your world?
To really draw your Storyworld, you need to use your five senses to engage the reader’s emotions. Sight. Smell. Sound. Touch.Taste. When you walk into a room, all your senses are a part of your understanding of that scene.
Smell is a huge memory tool, and, just like you, your character will remember them.
Sound is essential. Rarely is there a place without some noise in it, yet we often don’t read about it or hear it in a scene. Imagine watching a movie without the sound.
Sight , of course, is what a scene is usually built on, but remember those specific, mood- enhancing details.
Touch is also important. Your character can rub her hand on the soft, worn leather of a desk chair or dig her fingers into the rough bark of an oak tree.
Taste is active in our memory too. We taste things in our memory.Your heroine could taste her fear. She tasted her past, the memory of sitting in the kitchen with her mother, sneaking cookie dough out of the bowl.
Before you sit down to write, make a sensory list of everything you perceive in that scene. You’ll use it as a “cheat sheet” as you build the scene.
Let’s
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