This prompt kicks off a month focused on speculative fiction here at JPC Allen Writes. I’ll have guest bloggers later in the month to discuss what inspires them to write this genre. For today, give a name to this superhero.
Her dress and the setting makes me think she has power over ice or water. But that’s a bit obvious. Can you think of an unusual power that fits her costume and setting? I remember from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien that Uinen, a Maia, calmed stormy seas for sailors. She was called The Lady of the Seas. If calming seas was this character’s superpower, I’m not sure how it would work when confronting a supervillain. If her power was just calming people or weather in general, she’d be a strange character to fight. Her name has to sound soothing like Sylene or Hailer.
The beginning of your story is intriguing, sure to hook anyone who picks up it. But now that you’ve reached the middle, it’s just lying there, limp and lifeless. What do you do with a saggy middle? Add a set piece to your novel.
What’s a Set Piece?
I’ve heard this term in connection with movies, specifically the thrillers by Alfred Hitchcock, so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, the term originated when a movie needed the production team to build a new set instead of reusing sets leftover from other movies at the studio. To make such an expense worthwhile, the filmmaker made the setting part of an important scene. Now the term means a critical or jaw-dropping scene or sequence within a movie.
The rescue of Princess Leia and the escape from the trash compactor is a set piece in the middle of Star Wars: A New Hope.Foreign Correspondent by Alfred Hitchcock has several set pieces: an assassination on the steps of a large building during a rainstorm, the hero sneaking through a windmill in Holland as he eavesdrops on Nazi spies, and a murder attempt at the top of Winchester Cathedral in London.
So How Do I Use a Set Piece in a Novel?
Use a set piece when you want your story to take a dramatic or unexpected turn that will affect the rest of the story. You can use more than one, depending upon the genre and kind of story you are telling.
In my teen cozy mystery, A Shadow on the Snow, I have set piece smack in the middle of my novel because the plot takes a dramatic turn from that point on. Like in the old days of the movies when the director built scenes around an expensive set, I want my readers to have the time to appreciate what’s happening in the set piece, so I slow the narrative down. The set-up, actual set piece, and wrap up play over three chapters. The set piece itself has a shadowy figure chase my main character, amateur sleuth Rae Riley, through her small hometown in a snowstorm on the night of Valentine’s Day. This chase leads to a pivotal scene with her newly found father. In that scene, I let the dialogue take over, which also slows the story down.
Two Warnings
I said to slow your story, not stop it. Your story is a glider. If you slow it too much, it will crash.
My other warning is that any set piece can’t be more exciting than your climax. If your set piece in the middle of your novel has the heroine save London from certain destruction, she’d better be saving the world from that same fate at the end. In the climax of Foreign Correspondent, the heroes’s plane is shot out of the sky. They are forced to make a crash landing and then cling to the wreckage while they wait for rescue. If you find your set piece is overshadowing your climax, you either need to tone down the set piece or amp up your climax.
I’d love to hear from you. In your writing, had you ever had to add a set piece to your novel? Readers, what’s a memorable set piece?
I seem to be favoring older characters this month. Like last week, this was a photo in which the expression of the subject snatched my attention. What could be his mirror moment, the moment in the middle of a story in which the main character reflects on his identity and makes a decisions based on this consideration as described by James Scott Bell in his book, Write Your Novel from the Middle.
Since my mind revolves around crime, maybe this man is a career criminal, and he has an opportunity to go straight. Or reverse it. He’s always been honest, but he’s now desperately in need of money and sees a dishonest way to make it.
Or he’s a widower contemplating remarrying, an idea that he’s never considered before. Or he could be a wizard who hasn’t trained a student in years because of a tragic experience. He’s come across a gifted kid and must decide whether to take on his teaching role again.
How does this photo inspire you? Let me know in the comments!
I’m reposting Bettie Boswell’s article on how to patchwork the middle of a novel because she offers such good advice. I’ve used this technique in the past and almost employed it while working on my current mystery because I got stuck in a scene and spent way too much time mulling over a single plot point. I was just about to skip ahead to another scene when I had a breakthrough. But I’m keeping this tool in my writer’s toolbox.
One method that recently worked well for me is to patch that muddled manuscript middle together like a quilt. This was a strategy I used when writing my novel,Free to Love.
Warning:
You need to kind of know where you’re going before you start working on your patchwork blocks. When I reached the point where I struggled to keep things moving, I sometimes skipped ahead to an idea that I thought would eventually be a scene in my story.
I would jump into that scene and fill in the conversations, stitching them together with setting, tags, the five senses, conflict or tension, an arc, and any other good writing tactics needed to complete the scene. The work went faster because I had skipped the hurdle holding me back. With less effort, because I felt free to move on, I soon had a nice block of story for my quilt. I jumped around and created several blocks. Before long, I was even able to go back and take on the scene making the hurdle that held me back in the first place.
When I exhausted my creation of blocks, I then figured out the placement of each scene and what might be a good binding strip to attach each blocked scene to another. At this point I printed out what I had written in small print, with two pages on one piece of paper (a function on most printers.) I cut scenes out and put the blocks in an order that made sense for the story. Some of the blocks had changed my story but they still met the goals and themes I set at the beginning.
After I figured out the order that each block would fall in my quilted story, it was time to put the patchwork together. I did that by binding each block into the story by using transitions, adjusting wording to make things fit, figuring out where to leave the reader hanging between chapters and scenes, and sometimes throwing a scene back into the rag bin for another quilted story.
This type of organization worked for me. It might not work for anyone else but you never know until you try. I am not as good at quilting as my grandmother but her beautiful bed coverings provided inspiration for this type of writing. If nothing else works, snuggle under or relax on top of your favorite quilt and brainstorm what might happen next in your story. Happy writing!
Amber’s father, Max, betrayed her and her mom when she was sixteen. Determined to make it on her own she refused all contact with the man and paid her way through college by making jewelry. Now, she finds it hard to let any man get close to her heart.
Months ago, he asked her to make some jewelry. She reluctantly agreed, needing the money he offered to set up her new venture, a studio for artists. Then he died, leaving a jeweled trail of trouble connected to a ring of cybercriminals.
Against her will, Amber must team up with Federal Agent Graham to gather up clues and stay one step ahead of people who don’t care who they hurt to protect their secrets.
The wounds of Graham’s past complicate their cross-country race as he becomes attracted to Amber. As they uncover the secrets her father left behind, they must learn to trust each other, before time runs out to defeat their nameless enemies, and find long-delayed healing.
*****
Bettie Boswell always loved to read and create stories for family and friends. In 2016 she began writing and illustrating stories to share with the world. She is now an author/illustrator of both children and Christian adult fiction and non-fiction books. Her efforts include contributions to educational works, leveled readers, magazine articles, and devotional and short story anthologies. Bettie has two grown sons, one daughter-in-law, three grandchildren, and a busy minister husband. Follow Bettie on her website, Bettie Boswell Author/Illustrator.
Sometimes, a picture just grabs your attention. That’s what this photo did to me. The woman looks a little stunned, caught in some kind of conflict. Use this scene in mirror moment, a moment in the middle of a story when the main character makes a decisions about his or her identity.
Maybe the woman has seen something, and she’s trying to decide if she should intervene. She’s always been a person who tackles problems with guns a-blazing, but serious repercussions to this approach have occurred at the beginning of the story. Now she hesitates, questioning if seeing every problem as a life-and-death battle has been wise. But maybe what she’s witnessed just now requires this attitude. Then again, maybe not.
