Last week, my husband and I traveled to the
North Georgia Mountains with a group of friends from church. One of our stops
was at Mercier Orchards. The orchard and farm covers more than 300 acres and has
been owned and operated by the Mercier family since 1943. We ate lunch at their
restaurant, shopped in their store and watched truckloads of apples being
brought in from the fields, unloaded, sorted, weighed and boxed for delivery.
The relaxing getaway, the picturesque
countryside, falling leaves and cool, crisp mountain air as well as the
plentiful harvest of apples brought to mind a scripture God placed on my heart
soon after I received “The Call.”
“It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit.”
~John 15:36~
Let’s spend today—in this season of Thanksgiving—looking back over the “fruit” we’ve produced during this past year and ponder the steps we’ve taken to improve our writing. Often we talk about success and failure, but today, I’d like to discuss strengths and weaknesses as a way to gauge our progress.
Those of you just starting out might find it
difficult to identify the positive aspects of your writing. If you’ve received
an especially brutal critique, you may wonder if anything you write has merit.
Of course, it does, but sometimes it’s hard to separate what works from what
doesn’t.
So let’s look at a few elements of story
structure…
Inciting Incident
Strength: Does your story start with action
that grabs the reader and makes her want to keep turning the pages? In the
suspense genre, your lead character needs to be in danger. In a romance, the danger
deals more with the heart rather than physical well-being. Congrats if your story
opens with a bang!
Weakness: If your beginning rambles with no
hint of how the story will play out, tighten your prose and add something
unexpected, like a surprise twist, to engage the reader and jump start the
story.
First Meet
Strength: Good for you if your hero and heroine
meet within the first scene or at least by the end of the first chapter.
Weakness: No meeting in the opening chapters? Move the meet to the first few pages to change a weakness into a
strength. Tip: The first POV character is usually the protagonist. The first
person introduced of the opposite sex is usually the love interest. If that’s
not the case, clue in the reader!
Goals
Strength: Your hero and heroine must have specific goals
at the onset of the story. Whether shared or individual, each goal needs to be
concrete, meaning capable of being perceived by the senses and not abstract or
imaginary. A valid identifiable goal could be to save a parcel of land from
being turned into a shopping mall or renovating grandma’s home to make it wheelchair
accessible so she doesn’t have to move to a nursing home. In a suspense, the
goal might be to stop a serial killer from striking again. Kudos if you’ve
mentioned your protagonist’s goal in the first scene. Extra kudos if the love
interest in the story has a conflicting goal.
Weakness:
No mention of a concrete goal at the onset leaves the reader floundering
as to where the story is headed. State the hero and heroine’s goals clearly and
then hint at any conflict that could develop so the reader can anticipate the
struggle that will ensue. Tip: Falling in love is not a goal.
Motivation
Strength: High five if you’ve explained why the
goal—even if it seems somewhat trivial—is important to the character. If the
reader understands what’s at stake, she’ll buy into the story. Landing an
interview with the new governor of the state might not be a life and death
issue, but if the reporter’s job depends on her bringing in a lead story, the
interview becomes significant, especially if the single mom reporter needs the
job to pay for her special needs daughter’s private therapy.
Weakness: A lack of motivation means there’s no
reason for the hero to face insurmountable odds to achieve his goal. Give him a
reason to do the unthinkable or the impossible or the foolish. Tip: The greater
the negative consequences if he doesn’t achieve his goal, the more the reader
will want him to succeed.
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| Workers pack apples for shipping at Mercier Orchards. Could this be the start of a romance? |
Internal conflict
Strength: What’s keeping your characters from
living life to the full? Rejection? A broken heart? A life changing
disappointment? A disparaging comment overheard and accepted as truth? Good for
you if you’ve nailed that inner wound.
Weakness: Unsure of what holds your hero back? If
so, dig more deeply into your character’s past. Come up with a specific
incident or moment in time that still causes pain. Tip: Hint at that brokenness
early on and reveal more details later in the story.
Pacing
Strength: Is the pacing of your story in
keeping with the genre you’re writing? In this day and age, readers don’t want
to linger too long at the beginning or meander too slowly through the middle
and they certainly don't want to tip toe toward a less than exciting climax. Congrats
if your story moves quickly from start to finish.
Weakness: Extraneous prose can slow your pace.
Superfluous scenes and dialogue that goes nowhere can have the same effect. Cut
out duplication and pare down introspection to strengthen your pacing. Tip: As
tension escalates, such as in a suspense, chapters and scenes often shorten.
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| Mercier Orchards, Blue Ridge, GA. Such a picturesque setting! |
Dialogue
Strength: Give yourself a pat on the back if
your characters speak in short bursts of dialogue punctuated with action beats.
Give yourself another pat if their banter and body language have a deeper
meaning.
Weakness: Are your characters too chatty? Too
friendly? Too easygoing at the onset of the story? Increase the tension to keep
the reader on the edge of her seat and get rid of idle chitchat that doesn’t have
bearing on the story. Tip: Cut greetings, such as “hello” and “how are you” as
well as unnecessary farewells.
Black Moment
Strength: Take a bow if the reader believes the
romance between the hero and heroine is over. You’ve done your job if their
differences seem too significant to overcome, and the reader doesn’t see how
they’ll ever get together again.
Weakness: Don’t let the split be coincidental or
something that could be easily fixed. Rework the black moment until there’s a
sense of hopelessness about the relationship. Tip: A well-structured black
moment makes the reader fear that a happily ever after isn’t in their future.
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| Views from my deck. We've been blessed with a beautiful fall in Georgia. |
Climax
Strength: The hero must battle the antagonist, and
the antagonist, or villain, must be a strong and savvy adversary. That fight,
whether a physical altercation or a battle of wills, needs to be significant,
and the hero and/or heroine must triumph in the end. Good for you if the reader
fears for the hero and heroine’s well-being.
Weakness: Weak villains are…well, weak. Beef up
the bad guy to make the climactic confrontation memorable. Tip: Even villains
have a GMC.
We’ve looked at a few elements
common to all fictionalized stories. Now let’s identify the three strongest
elements of your writing? Is romantic tension your forte? Do you excel at character
development? Can you create intriguing plots? Do your scenes end with a strong
hook? Is each scene written in one character’s point of view with no head
hopping? Are you a master of snappy dialogue? Riveting suspense? Humor? Sexual
tension? Whatever your strengths, pepper in those positives throughout your manuscripts.
In other words, take what you do well and add that strong writing into other areas
of the story. As an example, if you’ve mastered inciting incidents at the beginning of your
manuscript, use that same technique at various turning points or as you gear up
for the climax.
Can you identify three
areas of weakness? To improve and enhance the areas and aspects of storytelling
that fall short, study crafts books. Read other writers and analyze how they
handle similar problems. Do a google search for articles that provide
strategies for improvement. Recognizing a shortcoming is half the battle. Once
you realize what you’re doing wrong, you’re better able to to fix the problem. Don’t
get discouraged. Sometimes the smallest change or revision can
make a so-so story shine.
Grab a cup of coffee and a muffin or pastry from the breakfast bar, and let’s discuss the strengths and weaknesses in our writing. Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a copy of my latest release, PLAIN TRUTH, a journal, a copy of "The Writer’s Prayer" and – in honor of Seekerville’s 9th Birthday—a $9 gift card from Starbucks!
As always, I’m praying
for you and asking that the work of your hands bears good fruit.
Happy Writing! Happy
Thanksgiving!
Wishing you abundant
blessings,
Debby Giusti
By Debby Giusti
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