“Stories fueled by intentions never reach their boiling point”: Writing advice from Bret Anthony Johnston

Do you write with a strict outline or a loose concept?

While there’s no right or wrong answer there are pros and cons to each strategy. A strict outline can keep your thoughts on track and provide you with motivation even when writer’s block may hit. And a general concept might be too broad and leave you without a narrative arc. However, being strict with your outline can give you tunnel vision and you might be missing out on a new, more truthful path for a character, which is something a loose idea lets you play around with.

Write High-Stakes Tension: Are you too close to your characters?

Are you too close to your characters?

You’ve engendered, given traits, and brought your characters to life on the page. It’s not surprising that writers find themselves attached to their characters and are afraid of putting them into complicated situations.

If you’ve created complex and compelling enough characters they will falter and they will hit obstacles. You’re writing a book not a description of the type of friend you’d like.

Think of the most memorable characters in fiction. Jay Gatsby. Elizabeth Bennett. Holden Caulfield. Lisbeth Salander. None of them are perfect. Perfect characters are 2D and forgettable.

Backstory and Foreshadowing: are you showing or telling?

Backstory is crucial to building a relationship between the reader and the material. This allows the reader feel like they know the character like a friend: the anecdotes, stories, likes and disappointments the characters have gone through as though the reader has been privy to that information like a confidant. It seems easy enough, but there are a number of questions to ask yourself about your characters and plot planning:

On Characters: from inception to conclusion

Bringing believable characters to life on the page is incredibly difficult. It is one thing to know them in your head and in your early drafts, but it is another to be able to carry them through to the manuscript you submit to agents. Often characters are not fully developed and throw off the balance in the manuscript (i.e. setting is a more believable character than your protagonist), which often leads to them not growing or developing throughout the story.