Maybe the best way to start any piece of writing…

Posted on September 10, 2026 by christinedesmetauthor

Start any writing by telling a truth.

The dictionary says a “truth” as a noun is anything true or factual in accordance with reality. A lesson learned becomes a truth in one’s life, as one example.

This “truth factor” is what I’ve lived by in my fiction and in journalistic writing.

The “truth” works to fix any form of fiction, especially if your work isn’t selling or resonating with readers or your critique group. Or, maybe you just can’t figure out how to begin your novel or memoir. Give us a truth.

A “truth” is what your material is about in a soulful, heart-felt way. A truth can seem thematic, or not be the theme at all.

A “truth” might be a problem that is serious or worthy of a plot—disaster movies are famous for such truths.

A “truth” can be funny!

Here’s how I started Hot Fudge Frame-Up:

Everything and everyone has a purpose in life, and a place, my grandmother Sophie always said. “And everyone and everything can be good and then go bad. Lloyd Mueller is like beer fudge. Enjoy it now because it only has a shelf life of about three days.”

Readers know from that passage that my character Ava is in search of her purpose. She states it! And the search leads to plenty of trouble.

Any character bad or good can have their own “truth” they live by like a motto, but a story also has its own truth. 

Truth sets a story in motion. Usually the ending will circle back around to the truth. (What becomes of Lloyd Mueller? Of Ava? Of the beer fudge?)

In all my novels readers find a truth on page one that is plot or pursuit for the truth.

The suspense for any book is how that truth will pan out.

A character’s truth can change, of course. Beliefs can change by what they learn as the plot goes along.

What is your book/story/screenplay/poem about? Why should we care?

What does your character need and hope for?

Remember—tell the reader on page ONE. Maybe line one of the poem.

Expert Maggie Smith agrees with me.

She wrote Dear Writer, subtitled Pep Talks & Practical Advice For The Creative Life (2025).

Smith starts her books with something true about herself or the situation. She “sets the stage.”

What is true in your life? What bugs you? Write it down. Use it.

Being true to the truth can make writing simpler and more professional. Don’t waste a reader’s time, right?

Put a truth into dialogue. Who says it with the most power? An antagonist or protagonist? A secondary character? Revise some dialogue.

Questions for your group or yourself:

What is this character/poem/etc. really about in a few words?

What is the core need of the character or situation?

What is the lesson in life that might come out of this?

Do I begin with that truth in some form on the page?

Don’t fear that you’ll spoil the ending by telling us a truth on page one. Plenty will challenge that truth all along the way.

Things to try: 

  1. You might try focusing on a facet of the truth in each new chapter.
  2. Label each chapter with short observations about the truth in the story or characters, or about yourself in your memoir.

Stating a truth early—especially page one or line one of anything—can release the writer to relax and be more creative. Just follow the truth.

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Persistence = magic for plots, characters, memoirs

Posted on August 12, 2026 by christinedesmetauthor

Persistence is something writers need, but think about your characters as well.

Often our more interesting—especially bestselling—novels and memoirs are about persistence and its role in resolving a conflict or rising to a new level of accomplishment, or learning the harder, best lesson.

Examples? If the writer Larry McMurtry and the cowboy characters in LONESOME DOVE weren’t persistent in a huge way, we may not have had the Pulitzer winner that the book became. You need persistence to survive a dusty, multi-state cattle drive.

I recently read THE ASTRAL LIBRARY by Kate Quinn, a bestseller about a young woman with everything going wrong in her life right down to a stolen bank account—until she entered a library within a library. The magical world tested her and taught her how to be persistent against adversity.

Persistence teaches or uncovers lessons. Your character should grow smarter as your manuscript moves along. Take stock:  What has your protagonist (or you in your memoir) learned after every 30 or so pages? Make a list. Do you need to revise? At least think about things?

I often mention the memoir HOW TO CATCH A MOLE by Marc Hamer. It’s a superb example of questioning persistence in your life. How long do you fight against the moles? How long do you do anything before you change?

To persist is to refuse to give up UNTIL you learn something, get better, discover the secrets.

To persist is to prevail. How do your character prevail? Does each chapter build? Or, have you accidently let your character take too long of a rest? Get them back into persisting if you want to sell and find your magic.

Why does “persistence” work so well with characterizations and plotting?

Because it flows through an entire story (if you want to win over readers).

Persistence works, too, because it questions your character:  When is it time to change? Or quit? Or get stronger and smarter? How? Get better or not? Why?

Persistence is hard for writers and your character to sustain over the course of a novel, screenplay, story, poetry collection, etc. There are rewards for your endurance—even if it takes years for that project to get out there.

At an annual writing retreat with former novel class participants, each writer has shown PERSISTENCE. I’m in awe. These writers have been together since 2012. They started with no publications. Now they have at least two novels each published (with one almost published) with a mix of major publishers and great independent publishers, with more novels and nonfiction works coming.

Do you have a character you can’t sell or get right? A manuscript not doing so well?

Lay out “persistence” on a plot grid. How does the character (or you in the memoir) embrace and show persistence through Acts 1, 2, 3?

Writers at my retreat persist in meeting yearly, staying in touch, and supporting each other throughout the year. They persist in attending conferences and online workshops. They persist in revising multiple times.

Persistence creates magic.

Persistence is that “long-haul stuff,” but worth it.

It opens doors, just as it does in THE ASTRAL LIBRARY and HOW TO CATCH A MOLE and LONESOME DOVE…and your writing project.

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Obsess for Success

Posted on July 8, 2026 by christinedesmetauthor

The character that obsesses probably sells better.

Those characters stand out.

At least that’s my observation from years of analyzing novels, short stories, and scripts.

If our main characters (protagonist and antagonist, and often a sidekick or two) aren’t worrying about something, then what’s the point of the story?

Obsession or obsessing over something means gnawing on a topic. It’s more than normal worrying.

Plots that depend on revenge usually require a character obsessed with getting something and usually by some deadline. 

Obsession usually haunts a character. Obsession can be liking, hating, loving, plotting, planning, acting. And it doesn’t let up until there’s some resolution, usually in a big climax moment.

Obsession = Pressure.

Don’t mistake “obsession” with “mere need.”

An obsession festers—or blossoms. It grows in a story.

The obsession is like an electric current always flowing within the character, antagonist or protagonist—or a secondary character. It has to be contended with all the time. The mistake I sometimes see in manuscripts or scripts is that a character starts creatively with an obsession, but the writer leaves it behind in the first act as if it were only worth a “funny moment” or relegated to “the hook.”

Every genre (such as thriller, romance, mystery, historical) has excellent novels that show how obsession works.

In reading our best thrillers, the protagonist and antagonist don’t let go of that “do-or-die” need easily.

A sweet romance may have a character obsessed with changing or accomplishing something, even apart from the romance unfolding. That makes the character three-dimensional.

Typically we think of villains as the ones being obsessed but notice I’ve mentioned other types of characters, too. Obsessions can be fun and funny. A writer who thinks they lack the humor gene only needs to invent an obsessive character to bring in funny business.

If the obsession is solved or left behind by the midpoint, the story usually stalls, though another character could take up the obsession. Even a villain can be killed off at the Midpoint and then his buddy steps in and is worse.

An obsessed character need not be in a lot of action. What if they just sat or stood? They might reside in a prison cell the whole time, like Hannibal Lecter, from The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, book and movie. He was obsessed, certainly, and he gave us the creeps—which we loved.

We also know an octopus in an aquarium obsessed with escaping and we admired him for it and rooted for him. (Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, book and movie.)

Obsession is a layering on top of “need.” Obsessed characters often use all five senses and ACTION to try to get what they need. They do not give up.

There’s the formula for you:  A high NEED, all five senses ON ALERT, and they are compelled to go into ACTION and stay in action to get what they need.

Obsession can be funny or soft, romantic, cute, or the gut-wrenching opposite—whatever your story needs and what you enjoy writing.

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“Spice” in your work really matters

Posted on June 11, 2026 by christinedesmetauthor

Add “spice,” please, to whatever you’re writing, for sales and your own satisfaction.

When is your writing and work enough? Done? For character and plot? For editing?

I sometimes read published books where the character doesn’t seem to express much beyond what they want in the moment. I don’t know much about them after I’ve read the book or pages of a manuscript. The plot is linear:  get something or someone. The plot gets repetitive with one action after another of equal value.

What’s wrong with a book like that? Spice is missing, and it’s so easy to develop!

Spice can also refer to punctuation, which has to be correct. Don’t let people whisper “this novel needed another draft and editor.”

Of course in our unpublished manuscript we get the luxury of typos for a while. Now let’s think ahead to story pride, sales and good reviews.

Solutions to “thinness” of plot and editing seem apparent, such as “hire somebody” or “go over it one more time.” Those are options, but there is one other option: HIRE YOURSELF. Please don’t be so eager and anxiety-ridden about time passing in your life that you must rush to publish.

Consider that you are an expert at many things. Take pride in that.

You have talent and time—at any age! For extra pride, focus on being a “spice expert.” Spice is about adding texture.

I usually step back and look at my own work to add texture to scenes, and that exercise works with clients or students.

If you’re at a loss about this, look for ONE to THREE fascinating facts about something you mention on page one or page 20 and 50. Did we learn anything? Did you add any fun item? Go back and add something interesting. Keep it short.

Insert information to not just pique our interest but to show what your character cares about, what knowledge they might have to rely on to solve the plot or problems at hand or coming at them in the next 50 pages.

Bestselling authors set up scenes early with spice and at major plot point areas for plot possibilities and character enhancement. A character goes into the scene with a goal, meets with conflict, and ends with any form of cliffhanger. That pattern is basic stuff; now add one interesting “spice” element. Don’t rush to publish just because you have formula in place. Add the spice.

Is there a fact that might help? That’s spice.

A reaction that is personal to the character (or you in memoir)?

A color or temperature or other five-senses fact that might help give this scene texture?

An interesting or even goofy secondary character to help add spice?

Is there an object that could be noted or used? (Plumb your life!)

Is there a background fact to come into play to support character action or decision? (Use your background!)

What about a location detail that matters more than you think at first?

Not every scene will be loaded with answers to those questions. Please don’t load us down. “Spice” is about creating highs and lows, intriguing facts, the galloping feel of a good novel and YOUR OWN STYLE!

Consider:  As we walk away after reading your manuscript, what are you known for? How did you give us fun or memorable information or attitude?

Start with a simple task:  What’s the true SPICE in your first few pages or within a key, memorable scene anywhere? Can you add something? Even an interesting word that matters to character or plot?

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Use Backstory Wherever & Whenever it Works

Posted on May 12, 2026 by christinedesmetauthor

There are dozens of articles online about “how” and “when” to use backstory.

In addition, some will say never use backstory.

Huh?  

I’ve read enough manuscripts and novels and nonfiction books over my many years of teaching and coaching writers to know there is definitely a time to use backstory, and that can be anywhere you need it! Including page one. (Gasp, I know. So be it.)

What matters is that information about the past ENGAGES the reader and helps underpin or make believable what’s unfolding on the page.

Revered authors such as James Lee Burke will use backstory on the first page and ensuing pages to set up a novel or character. (See The New Iberia Blues.)

Other authors will feed readers backstory via a nugget or sentence at a time throughout a novel.

Still other authors bring in backstory information at the famous and common “Fatal Flaw” areas of the Midpoint Crisis and/or the Climax/Resolution. I agree that those are important places where backstory fits well and is usually accepted well by readers. Backstory can fill in the “why” of things happening.

As a writing coach, I say this:  Anything can be edited. If bringing in backstory on page one or any page helps you “feel” the story or “find” it, use backstory. Later, you can pare it back, move it, edit it for style, or drop it.

Don’t let “rules” and “advice” about backstory make you pause too much.

Keep your creativity cooking. Sometimes using backstory to “find our story” is helpful in early drafts.

Sometimes action for the sake of action is so dry as to be a “pass” by readers who might also be your agent or publisher. A car chase on page one is a ho-hum affair unless we have a hint as to why this may be important to somebody. Are these drivers old friends? Enemies? Why? Sometimes one pithy sentence about the mysterious backstory will make us laugh or gasp and turn the page. I don’t mind that sort of sneaky backstory. And of course sometimes that sort of thing isn’t backstory but just a needed fact. Don’t agonize over its label; keep writing the story!

It’s true backstory can stop the story’s plot progression if the writer gets sidetracked with it or over-writes. Be judicious.

Backstory is a tool. Much of it might go where its name implies:  in the “back” of the story. Or no place at all. You choose.

If backstory gets you into your story and it helps you find your “voice,” go for it.

Write. Okay? Just write. Find the story.

Anything can be edited and changed.

Critique partners, workshop buddies, professional editors, beta readers can help you gauge your usage of backstory.

Keep writing and enjoying the journey.

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