How to Create Details of Setting in a Novel

By Lanee’ Blunt

Details are important in setting--
Image by Kaeska.

Building setting in your novel must be done carefully. Details in a novel are either used to the extreme or some writer’s don’t give enough details. The details of setting should be weaved into the fiction without notice. When setting is done correctly it pulls your reader into your fiction world and helps them imagine your novel vividly.

The setting has to be incorporated into the fiction and not just stuck in. If you are writing about a character’s feelings don’t describe what the room looks like. For example, Maria was hurt by John. She noticed that her kitchen was a mess. There were pots and pans on the stove and the dishes were piled high almost to the ceiling.

That information may describe the room but what does it have to do with Maria’s feelings toward John? The messy kitchen has nothing to do with Maria’s hurt feelings. It is just there and it doesn’t emphasize her feelings.

Example

Maria felt like the empty dirty glass in the sink. What was she just something to be tossed aside when John was finished using her? She slammed the glass into the sink on top of the dirty dishes and broke it.

When you write your setting this way you never leave the focus of the character and you still got in the details of the messy kitchen. Professional writer’s use these details so skillfully that the reader is immediately drawn into the fiction and never notices them.

Reference:

Leonard Bishop; Dare to Be a Great Writer; Writer’s Digest Books 

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How to Create a Plot in a Novel

By Lanee’ Blunt

Writ a plot outline--
Image by Lusi.

Plotting your novel doesn’t have to be difficult. Writing from a plot outline will make your job easier.  A lot of writer's don't want to write from an outline for fear that the novel will sound stale.  Having your novel plotted will help you especially if you have gotten lost and gone off in another direction. Plot is built on significant events that have important consequences.

Start with an idea

Your idea must be big enough for a whole novel. You can have a lot of ideas for a novel but some of them are only fragments of a story and will be difficult to turn into a novel.

Moving

Your plot must have a beginning, middle, and an ending.  When you are plotting your novel think of the idea as a vivid opening. Think about a beginning scene and the next scene after that. What is going to take place in the middle of the novel? What is the final confrontation or resolution of the novel?

Conflict

Plotting a novel is putting your protagonist into conflict with another character, machine, society, or nature.  The conflict will be present throughout the middle of your novel. What is at stake? Is there something that the character is going to lose? What is the struggle in the book, and that is the basis of plot? Show and don’t tell, but show in vivid scenes of what will happen to the characters, and make your readers care about what happens to them.

Reference:

“Plot”; Ansen Dibell; 1988

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Point of View: Multiple Viewpoints in a Novel

By Lanee’ Blunt

Explore with multiple viewpoints--
Mattox

Having multiple viewpoints has its advantages when writing a novel. The writer has more control over the novel and the focus. The first person point of view has limitations of what the characters know about other characters and what is inside their heads.  The third person allows you to step outside of the character and create a complicated universe.

Multiple viewpoints have the advantage of exploring what is going on around the character. The characters can be viewed by other characters and can explore what the characters are thinking.

First person is easier for new writers to master. It feels more personal because at first they are writing about themselves. The first-person narrator only knows his own feelings and can only reveal those responses to another character. 

Multiple viewpoints allow you to get inside the character’s mind and heart. “The multiple viewpoint allows the writer to explore the consciousness of several people within the same scene. The focus is mobile, it can shift,” according to Leonard Bishop. You have more control over the novel because you can move around into the consciousness of the characters helping the reader know more about them. Make sure that you stay in third person view point in your novel and don’t switch from third person to first person point of view.

Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish) (Write Great Fiction)

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Reference:

Leonard Bishop; Dare to Be a Great Writer; Writer’s Digest Books

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Writing Dialogue for Your Novel

By Lanee’ Blunt

Dialogue is important when writing a novel and is a subtle writing device that the writer can use. It has the ability to authenticate and build what you are saying. Dialogue when written correctly will add depth to your characters and move fiction forward.

Express Insights

It can be used for giving insight into a character. Dialogue when used properly helps you describe situations sometimes better than description and exposition. The character’s speech will carry more impact than if the writer narrated the scene. Sometimes the character can explain it better than the writer, so don’t step in the way.

Believable

You have spent a lot of time setting up the character and the setting. The dialogue can make or break the novel. Always stay in character and they must speak in a manner determined by their educational, economic and ethnic origins. In real life, if a nurse is going home after her long shift and saying goodnight to her patient, she may say, “Yo, its Friday night time to party!” That may be her true way of speaking every day to her patients. In fiction writing—most nurses are more believable if they say, “I’ll see you Monday, Mrs. Simms.” In fiction you must use dialogue that is compatible with the education level of the character.

Dialogue is used to affirm the believability of the character and offers information that furthers the situation of the story.

Reference:

Leonard Bishop; Dare to Be a Great Writer; Writer’s Digest

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