Keeping a Novel Interesting

Hello folks! I’ve been MIA due to being google doc-deep (like my not so subtle swap out of ‘knee’ with ‘google doc’?) in edits to my draft. I’ve turned that document over for review, and wanted to connect with all of you. This blog post will focus on sharing some of my learnings in keeping a novel interesting.

So before I start, I want to give credit where it is deserved. I’ve learned what I’m sharing from my agent, beta reader, an educational platform I am enrolled in, favorite writer blogs, and as a reader. And there is more to keeping a novel interesting than what I am sharing, but these are a few key elements I’ve unsurfaced in my own writing. 

First: TENSION. Dun, dun, dun, duuuuun! My WIP is historical fiction, and finding a balance between keeping the plot moving and adding interesting historical elements has been challenging for me. It is still fiction work, so readers desire that constant plot movement, and excitement. If they wanted a nonfiction history book on my topic, they’d pick one up. This is where an outline is helpful. You really need to manage your main character’s conflicts, and ensure they are substantial—both in their occurrence (two, maybe three conflicts), and in their magnitude (make horrible things happen to your main character!).

The second learning of mine is creating active sentences. Instead of saying “She was eating.” say “She ate.” I was a repeat offender of this in my draft using “I noticed” and “I felt” more than necessary. The same goes for using words like was’ing or were’ing. Instead of ‘We were jumping.” say “We jumped.” And these seem simple enough but when you are in the act of writing, you tend to make these mistakes. This is why rereading your work several times is important. You can self-edit. A well written active scene, may not even need the most intricate complications/plot struggles because the writing is so active, and thereby interesting.

A third learning of mine is using adverbs tacked on to weak verbs in place of stronger verbs. You need to use strong verbs. This one has been challenging for me, because I lean on my tried and true verbs. And quite honestly it is an easy fix by enhancing your vocabulary.

Additionally, make your characters experience inner conflict—thoughts and emotions in their nature, as well as external conflict—growing and changing overtime with life experience. People are multidimensional. How boring would we be otherwise? And people change with time and experience. So wouldn’t characters be the same way? I don’t believe there is an exact science to managing inner and external conflict, but you need to tailor the conflict to what works for your book and characters.

Lastly, remove unnecessary exposition. A key no-no in the publishing industry is too much telling, and I’m guilty of this in my draft. As writers you need to show. Some telling/exposition is necessary, but it should be significantly less in quantity than showing (I’d go as far as saying it should be an 80/20 ratio). You need to add dialogue, body language, stronger active sentences, and trust in your reader to infer from the showing scenes.

That’s all for today, friends. Were these suggestions helpful to you? What are your learnings as you’ve written? Or what are your learnings in your career and aspirations? Do tell, I’d love to know.

See you soon. Thanks for stopping by my blogspot.