1. Write the story you’d
most want to read. Don’t write a story
just because you think it might be a bestseller or that it would make Great
Aunt Edna proud. Think about the books you love, the ones you really lose
yourself in. If those are mysteries, then don’t try to write an historical
romance or a quiet literary novel. It might not be anything genre-specific that
you love, but a certain voice, or type of story, or kinds of characters. Write
what you love. Do me a favor — right now, today, start a list of all your crazy
obsessions, the things that get your heart pumping, that wake you up in the
middle of the night. Put it above your desk and use it to guide you,
to jump start your writing each and every day.
2. Begin with character. Make her flawed and believable. Let her
live and breathe and give her the freedom to surprise you and take the story in
unexpected directions. If she’s not surprising you, you can bet she’ll seem
flat to your readers. One exercise I always do when I’m getting to know a
character is ask her to tell me her secrets. Sit down with a pen and paper and
start with, “I never told anybody…” and go from there, writing in the voice of
your character.
3. Give that character a
compelling problem. Your character has
to have something that’s going to challenge her, torment her and propel her
forward. At the heart of every story is conflict – whether external or
internal, make it a good one, and remember that this problem is going to shape
your character, leaving her forever changed.
4. Make things happen! You can have the greatest characters in
the world, and write beautifully, but if nothing’s happening, the story falls
on its face pretty quickly. In my books, I make sure something important to the
plot is happening in each scene. And if there’s a scene in there that isn’t
helping to move the story along in some vital way, I cut it, no matter how
great it is. When I’m editing, I’ll go scene by scene and write a single word
sentence describing the action on an index card. Then I lay the cards out and
I’ve got the bare bones of my story. I can see if things are moving forward, if
I’m throwing in enough twists and turns, and if there are scenes that just
aren't pulling their weight.
5. Make it believable. Ah, you say, but you sometimes write
stories with ghosts and fairies – how believable is that? It works if you make
it believable in the universe of the book. In Promise Not to Tell, I came
up with rules for the ghost – things she could and couldn't do. I gave her a
history and compelling reason to return. Readers hate cheap tricks. Don’t pull
the evil twin routine in the final hour. Don’t bring in a new character at the
end to solve the protagonist’s problem for her. She’s got to resolve things herself,
for better or worse.
6. Stick with it the
project. You’ll be tempted
to give up a thousand and one times. Don’t. Finish the story. Then work twice
as hard to revise it. Do your best to get it out in the world. When it’s
rejected by agents and publishers (which it will be) keep sending it out. In
the meantime, write another. Then another. Trust me, you get better every time.
You’re not in this writing business because it’s easy. It took me
four books, two agents and seven years to get my first novel published. It was
a long tough road, but so, so worth it in the end!
7. And lastly: Ignore
the rules. (Including
mine.) Everyone’s got advice and theories; people want to pigeonhole you,
put you in a genre with its own rules and conventions. I think the work comes
out better when we leave all that behind; when the only thing to be true to is
the writing.
GIVEAWAY: Jennifer is excited to give away a
free copy of her latest novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks;
winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog
contest even if you've won before.
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