Category: Plot

How to Balance Plot and Character Development in Your Novel

Writing compelling plots and characters

My good friend author M. Liz Boyle posed this question: how to balance plot and character development in your novel. I had to give this a lot of thought because, although I know how I do it, I wasn’t sure how to explain my approach in a way others will understand. I’m a very instinctive writer. So when my story is veering off the rails, I rely on my gut to warn me. Since other writers can’t rely on my gut–and that might get messy anyway–here are some guidelines for balancing plot and characters.

Story Is King

When you write genre fiction, the rules of the genre set the boundaries for your novel. I write traditional mysteries. If plot twist or a character arc doesn’t serve the point of the a detective solving a mystery, I should examine it and either change it into something more supportive or eliminate it.

How do you know if an aspect of your novel is serving the story? You should be able to sum up the main problem of your novel in one to three sentences.

For example, I can sum up my third Rae Riley novel, A Riddle in the Lonesome October, this way:

A hidden inheritance, a family feud, a riding accident, a fake medium and rumors of bigfoot all lead to murder as Rae Riley tries to solve the riddle that will allow her great aunt to inherit a fortune and uncover the secret of the deputy she’s fallen for. 

All those elements have to support solving the riddle because it’s the main engine of the story. All the plot twists and character development need to feed that engine.

But how do you strike a balance?

The best way to strike a balance between plot points and character development is to combine them. In my first novel, A Shadow on the Snow, Rae is getting to know her father and learning how he feels about her and how she feels about him. I can show those feelings through their interactions as they try to figure out who is stalking Rae threatening letters vandalism. If your fantasy novel features a quest, then your characters develop as they meet challenges on their adventure.

But you can still add small tangents.

What do I mean by “small tangents?” Short additions of dialogue or action that aren’t directly tied to the mission of your novel but deliver some flavor to the mix.

In Riddle, rumors of a rogue black bear circulate around the county. Rae’s ten-year-old half brother Aaron invents an alarm to blast music if anyone gets too close to the family’s farmhouse. Now the alarm provides a clue to the mystery, but just for fun, I added that every time the alarm catches a family member, Aaron interviews him or her to see how scared they were to judge the alarm’s effectiveness. As he tells them, he can’t interview a bear if it triggers the alarm.

It’s short, funny, and reveals something about Aaron. Keep your tangents brief and few to increase their impact. The more often you combine a plot point to reveal character, the more compelling your novel will be.

Here are all of this month’s writing tips on plotting a novel.

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3 Tips for Writing Internal Dialogue With Tension in Your Novel

How to write high-tension scene for your novel

Since tension is the key to keeping the plot moving in any story, how do you maintain that tension when you only have one character in a scene? This is a question I often wrestle with because I write mysteries. I often have several scenes where my amateur sleuth Rae Riley is thinking through what she’s learned so far about her case. So how can I write scenes like that without boring readers? Read on for the 3 tips for writing internal dialogue with tension in your novel.

Let’s examine a one-character scene for tension. Here’s the opening scene from my short story, “A Rose from the Ashes”. Rae is in this scene alone.

*****

“Glancing left and right, I crunched across the frozen weeds to the abandoned children’s home. I could not afford to be spotted now. If only I could take a few seconds and snap some pictures. The light from the early December sunset was perfect. Gashes of blood-red light seeped through the clotted clouds, creating an ominous background for the gray stone building that was rumored to be the scene of a murder.

“At the back wall of the home, I slung the strap for my camera across my chest and climbed through an opening that once held a window. I dropped to the bare ground, my long, dark gold braid catching on a loose nail in the sill. I disentangled myself and crossed the dirt floor. The fire had burned the wooden floor away. And the roof and the whole interior. The four stone walls loomed above me like a medieval fortress as the sunset’s rays spotlighted sections of the garbage-strewn floor.

“I knelt by a large fireplace, straining to detect any sound of psychics, ghost hunters, or thrill-seeking high school kids who had come to catch sight of the ghost of Bella Rydell.

“Nothing but a few caws from crows and sighs as the wind sailed through the empty window frames.
A lonely place. Very lonely, stuck on twenty acres of unused county land.

“Shaking off a shiver, I unzipped my down vest and removed the two roses. I laid them on the rusty iron grate of the fireplace.

“These would start everyone in the county talking again.”

*****

So how did I tension to this scene?

Description

I use description to show that my protagonist isn’t entirely comfortable in this setting, using words and phrases like “gashes of blood read light” “ominous,” “a few caws from crows”, and “the wind sailed through empty window frames”. Also Rae shakes “off a shiver.” Here is a post about how to use uncomfortable settings to add tension to your novel.

Foreshadow

Hinting at plot points that will become significant later in the story keeps readers turning the page. “The gray stone building that was rumored to be the scene of a murder” and “any sound of psychics, ghost hunters, or thrill-seeking high school kids who had come to catch sight of the ghost of Bella Rydell.”

Raise questions

Rae lays two roses in the grate of the fireplace and thinks that will get everyone in the county talking. Why? The key to raising questions is that while you can be mysterious, you can’t be confusing. Although readers wonder why the roses will provoke talk, they understand exactly what Rae is doing.

These aren’t the only ways to write internal dialogue with tension. Next week, I’ll discuss what I think is the most underused plotting technique for creating tension and one I rely on all the time.

Who is an author who writes tension-filled internal dialogue?

Here are my previous posts on plot this month.

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How to Write High-Tension Dialogue in Your Novel: a Step By Step Guide

How to write plot in your novel

As I’ve said in previous posts, tension is the engine that propels readers through a story. You can add tension to every aspect of writing, but this week, I’m going to focus on how to write high-tension dialogue in your novel.

How do you start to add tension?

Before you write one word of dialogue, ask yourself–what’s the point of this dialogue? Why do I need this dialogue in my novel? Start with the expectations in the genre you’re writing. For example, I write cozy mysteries for teens. Cozy mysteries almost always mean that the protagonist is an amateur sleuth, someone without official law enforcement or legal authority. That aspect alone creates tension for the detective character investigating the crime. Another expectation of cozy mysteries is that the amateur sleuth will question witnesses and suspects.

So one reason for writing dialogue between two characters is that my detective needs to uncover the first clue in the mystery. With that in mind, I can start the conversation. Since this dialogue isn’t the opening scene, I’ll have to give you some background: the protagonist is 18-year-old Harper. She’s investigating who stole a family album from her great-grandmother’s house. She’s speaking to a neighbor, Mr. Thompson.

*****

Mr. Thompson pulled weeds growing under a bush beside his front porch with a hoe.

I said, “Did you hear about somebody breaking into my great-grandma’s house and stealing a photo album a couple of days ago?”

He kept hoeing. “I heard something about that.”

“It was Friday evening. Did you see or hear anything unusual?”

“I didn’t know you joined the police force.”

“The cops don’t have a lot of time to investigate a stolen album that only has sentimental value. Gram’s really upset about the loss.”

“Then she should lock her doors.”

“A lot of people don’t in this town.”

The hoe flung a clump of weeds. “I wasn’t home Friday night until late. Went to visit my sister.”

My eyebrows lowered. “But Gram saw your car parked on your drive when she got home from the football game Friday night. That’s why she thought you might have seen something.”

He leaned on his hoe. “Your great-grandmothers is over eighty. She got her nights mixed up. I wasn’t here.”

Gram was old but not senile. Why was Mr. Thompson lying?

*****

It’s not bad. Readers have discovered the first clue, but there’s a ton of room to add tension. I have the meat of the scene. Now I need to add some seasoning by adding specific words that show Mr. Thompson’s hostility and Harper’s reluctance to speak to him.

*****

Mr. Thompson attacked weeds growing under a bush beside his front porch with a hoe.

My mouth dried, but I managed to get out, “Did you hear about somebody breaking into my great-grandma’s house and stealing a photo album a couple of days ago?”

He sunk his hoe into the hard ground. “I heard something about that.”

“It was Friday evening. Did you see or hear anything unusual?”

“I didn’t know you joined the police force.”

Hard to believe but my mouth dried even more. “The cops don’t have a lot of time to investigate a stolen album that only has sentimental value. Gram’s really upset about the loss.”

“Then she should lock her doors.” He flicked a clump of weeds from the end of his hoe.

“A lot of people don’t in this town.”

The hoe flung another clump.. “I wasn’t home Friday night until late. Went to visit my sister.”

My eyebrows lowered. “But Gram saw your car parked on your drive when she got home from the football game Friday night. That’s why she thought you might have seen something.”

The hoe bit into the ground again, and he leaned on it toward me.

I drew back.

“Your great-grandmother’s over eighty. She got her nights mixed up. I wasn’t here.” He fixed me with a steely glare and then swung his hoe.

Gram was old but not senile. Why was Mr. Thompson lying?

*****

This is better, but I can add even more tension by dropping in some backstory. But only a dollop. Like red pepper flakes, a little backstory goes a long, long way. One way to keep it under control is to get in the head of your protagonist. What thoughts would be passing through Harper’s mind as she approaches and interacts with Mr. Thompson?

*****

I stepped onto Gram’s front stoop.

Mr. Thompson attacked weeds growing under a bush beside his front porch with a hoe.

Why did Gram’s next door neighbor have to be the most unneighborly neighbor on the street?

My mouth dried, like it did every time I had to do a presentation for class, but I managed to get out, “Did you hear about somebody breaking into my great-grandma’s house and stealing a photo album a couple of days ago?”

…. the rest of the story is the same as above.

*****

So adding a little backstory gives readers information that makes them understand the characters better and the feelings and reactions of the protagonist.

Since this conversation uncovers Harper’s first clue, the dialogue isn’t as intense as it should be if she was confronting Mr. Thompson at the climax. Scenes and dialogues should grow more tense as you approach the climax with the climax being the most intense part of your novel.

Here are more tips on writing plots for novels.

Which authors are exceptionally good at creating tension in their novels?

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2 Essential Keys to Building a Captivating Plot in Any Genre

How to write effective plots for novels

Did I really mean that? There are only 2 essential keys to building a captivating plot in any genre? Yes. If you understand these 2 elements and can implement them, you can write any kind of plot effectively.

Key #1: Understand your genre thoroughly

Every genre has its own rules that authors have to meet in order to satisfy readers. I grew up on mysteries, starting with Saturday mornings in front of the tv enjoying Scooby Doo. (Actually, if you’d like to write a traditional mystery and want to understand the basic rules to it, watching a Scooby Doo episode from the original series, “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?”, or the updated series, “What’s New, Scooby Doo?” is a great introduction to mystery writing.)

The rules of an effective mystery are so much a part of my thought patterns that when I watch any crime show now, I immediately begin to analyze the story structure: okay, they’ve introduced three viable suspects so far. Was that conversation a red herring? The detective is using one of his quirks to deduce a clue.

You probably want to write a novel in the genre that’s your favorite. So you probably already have a good understanding of how that genre works. Keep reading novels in the genre you want to write in with a thoughtful eye so that you become steeped in the rules of what you can and can’t do in the genre.

One of the helpful things about writing genre fiction is that if you understand the rules, you’re on your way to achieving the second key to writing a captivating plot.

#2: Write with tension

Most genres have tension built in. How does the couple end up together in a romcom? How will the detective solve the mystery? How will the hero end his quest?

Why is this important? Because, like I said in my post on writing about uncomfortable settings, tension is the engine that keeps readers turning the page. Understanding how the rules of your particular genre deliver tension will provide the framework for you to add more tension in your specific story.

When I write a mystery, I know the detective has to solve it. But I get to choose the kind of detective, the crime, suspects, clues, and red herrings. So how do I add tension? Well, one of the major suspects could be the detective’s brother. He could believe a witness and then find out he swallowed a whole pack of lies. He could find a clue and then lose it. Anything that happens in a story which makes readers want to read further to find out what happens next is good tension.

What books have you read that use tension to create a memorable plot?

Here are more tips on writing plot.

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How NOT to Plot a Series

How NOT to Plot a Series

A lot of the advice I read on plotting concerns stand-alone novels. When a novel is a stand-alone, then the advice authors give about creating the highest stakes and the worst setbacks for your main characters makes sense. As a writer, you want to leave it all on the field because you won’t be returning to these characters. But when you write a series, you must plot differently. Below are tips about how not to plot a series, lessons I’ve learned as I’ve worked on my series, Rae Riley Mysteries. Next week, I’ll have advice on how to plot a series.

Writing Without an Ending

If you are writing a series and know exactly how many books you are going to write and how the series will end, good for you! You are a rarity in the writing world. That makes plotting your series easier when you have the whole picture to work from.

But most series don’t develop that way, especially mystery series. A writer may had a great idea for the first novel, and a good grasp of what she wants to write in the second. But she might not have any idea what happens next.

I happen to know how I want to end my series. But I’m not sure how many novels it will take to get there.

Series writers have to be flexible, looking at what works in the novels they publish, and then figuring out to incorporate those aspects in the next book.

It Can’t Always Be Highest Stakes and Worst Obstacles

If you write a series in which your main character (MC) is always fighting for the highest stakes imaginable and the worst events possible keeping happening to him, then you don’t have a series. It’s more like you have a retelling of the Book of Job. Or worse, a soap opera.

I don’t want to read a mystery series in which the MC’s father is murdered in the first book. In the second, she learns he led a double life. In the third, she finds out she has an evil half-sister. In the fourth, her mother led a double life. All these horrible developments do raise the stakes very high for the MC. But they also stretch believability to the breaking point.

Bad things do happen to people. But if I overwhelm my MC with such tragic events, then the fifth, sixth, and seventh novels will have to focus on the therapy she undergoes to handle such trauma. If I want to be realistic at all. It’s much easier to introduce all that heartache in a stand-alone because you don’t have to deal with the aftermath in the next novel.

To make my novels in a series both interesting and realistic, I have to balance the dramatic events that occur in my MC’s life by spreading the drama to other characters, while still giving my MC personal stakes and setbacks.

I’ll cover that in next week’s post about how to plot a series. For more tips on plotting, click here.

Writers, how do you plot a series? Readers, what series has especially good plotting.

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