Author Archives: christinedesmetauthor

Sometimes a manuscript, or even a published novel or movie doesn’t work as well as it could have.

That may happen because we didn’t experience enough danger or danger that was deep enough or serious enough.

Our novels are about danger.

A character is in a dangerous situation. The plot is about learning something to improve or strengthen the character and thus control or conquer the danger.

Writing “danger” can feel off-putting at first to a new writer because, after all, we’re nice people. Stories, though, are about how people are in danger or put themselves in danger and then get out of danger or save somebody else from a dangerous situation.

Danger can be intellectual, romantic, emotional, physical, environmental, and so on. Danger can come from supernatural or science fiction entities.

In the hand of good writers, danger can be funny, too.

There’s danger at the core of all genres. Dinosaurs eat children in picture books, after all. In Young Adult novels teens deal with murderers, drug dealers, abusive parents, and more.

Remember:  Show how to fight the danger and survive it (or not).

Make the danger important enough or big enough to last a novel’s length.

The opposite of danger may be more than just survival; often it’s “triumph.” Your novel’s last act or ending has to fit the level of danger you present from the beginning.

If you get stuck in the middle of your manuscript, re-assess how you’re working “danger” in the story.

Do you have a very strong protagonist but the danger you put him or her in is rather tepid?

What about secondary characters, or the sidekick? What is dangerous for them? How will they deal with it?

Fiction is about danger. Danger sells. Analyze how you’re using danger. Perhaps revise.

Write dangerously and all will be well.

Sometimes it’s tough to get your character to change, but the writer knows change is good, even necessary. After all, we know about the necessity of a “transformational arc.”

What if your character doesn’t want to change? What if you are getting lackluster responses from agents, editors (or reviewers if you self-published)?

Some characters don’t change much, but change still has to happen to something or someone in the story because the lesson about “change” is why a story exists.

Great stories also transform an ENTITY, according to James Bonnet in the writing guide called Stealing Fire From the Gods.

He suggests writers ask:  What “unit” does your story change? A town? A family? He points out Star Wars changed a whole galaxy.

Your novel or script might be about something smaller. What might your character help fix or build? It might be as small as them re-decorating a room or fixing a car during the story.

Here’s the KEY:  Let the process push your character to think about how they might change, too, as the “entity” of your story changes. The REFLECTION by your character is important to include.

Bonnet points out, “The fate of the entity is linked to the destiny of the hero who is caught in the middle.”

Keep things credible. The larger the entity, the slower the change.

Map out how the “entity” might change in your story start to finish.

Then map out your character’s reactions to the entity’s changes.

Often, a protagonist will be reticent in the beginning but dive in at the climax to help push the entity to a new status. And voila, you have a more interesting character with a transformational arc that sells better.

Sometimes in our fevered pitch to tap out a novel or script for whatever deadline, we forget an important aspect:  What does the story promise the reader?

Writing is hard. An idea may seize us and then we just write until the end shows up. Or we’re stuck after the first page and wonder, what next? Or, worse yet, even with careful plotting and planning, the story fails to attract readers (such as a literary agent, a producer, or just an ordinary discerning reader).

When writing my own stories and when working with writers I’ve always loved the notion that a story promises to demonstrate human needs readers can identify with and care about.

In addition, a well-designed story addresses human needs scene by scene.

Do your scenes carry emotional resonance? Do details and reactions help us care?

Bill Johnson, in his fine book I highly recommend called A Story Is A Promise, mentions what may seem obvious:  A story that clearly communicates its promise draws in an audience.

A few questions Bill (and I) ask, with my embellishments added:

…What does your story promise the audience? (One notion or promise, please, not a half-dozen promises. Stories de-rail fast when the focus becomes diffused.)

…How do you introduce your story’s promise? Is it interesting enough? With emotional resonance (which can be of any kind)?

…What events fulfill your story’s promise? (Do you need more events? Bigger ones?)

…What details evoke the drama of your story’s promise? 

…In the opening scene of every chapter or act, how are you making a downpayment on your story’s promise?

…Do the events of your story make the stakes clear?

From expert Lisa Cron in her book, Story Genius: “Story is about an internal struggle, not an external one. It’s about what the protagonist has to learn, to overcome, to deal with internally in order to solve the problem that the external plot poses.”

Use the one “promise” of your story as your “control,” then write and revise. Your story will become sharper and affect readers in an amazing way.