by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section TWO: Plot Layers.

In understanding how to build a breakout novel, you have to grasp the difference between subplot and a layer. Subplots are plot lines given to different characters. While layers are plot lines given to the same character. Breakout fiction makes extensive use of plot layers to reflect the natural complexity of our lives.

How many layers have you heaped on your protagonist in your current WIP? Just one?...Get busy!! Even two layers may be too few to build a breakout novel!

Step 1: What is the name of your protagonist?

Step 2: What is the overall problem he/she must solve?

Step 3: What additional problems can she face? Not complications to the main problem, but altogether different problems.

Note: A plot is layered when more than one thing happens simultaneously to the hero. There are levels of problems to utilize...public problems, personal problems, and secondary problems. Small mysteries, nagging questions, dangling threads....these can be woven into the plot.

Follow-up: For each plot layer that you add, work out at least four steps or scenes that you will need to bring this narrative line to its climax and resolution. Make notes for these additional steps or scenes.

Conclusion: Have you ever noticed how everything seems to happen at once? Good things come in threes. When it rains it pours. Layers give novels the rich texture of real life. Building them into your story is extra work, but the reward is a rich resonance and complexity!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section TWO: Complications.

Every protagonist has a goal. This means every one also has problems, because no goal is achieved without overcoming obstacles. Easily achieved goals are not goals at all...LOL! the obstacles to the goal are important, they are the essence of the plot!

Plot can literally be be the tally of many complications hurled at the hero. Complications can be inner, psychological, and private, or external, unprovoked, and public. Or both! Just make wherever your hero is going, difficult to get there.

The obstacles have to be believable, whether internal or external. Look at your favorite novel. Many pages are relegated to making the opposition real and credible. This is good storytelling.

The simplest way of opposition is to have an antagonist. But he/she needs to be a good villain. This is sometimes hard because most authors are not evil at heart. To be a good criminal you have to be able to justify your crime...and feel justified by it. Thus, motivating the villain is an essential breakout skill!

Step 1: What is your novel's main conflict?

Step 2: What are the main complications that deepen that conflict?

Step 3:To each complication, assign the name of the character who primarily will enact it. How will he/she do so?

Step 4: Work out the primary motives for each character who introduces a complication. Then list all the secondary motives, and underline the last ones you wrote down...Pick a scene involving that character and reverse that character's motivation, as you did back in the Reversing Motives in chapter six.

Note: Plot complications need characters to bring them about. The obvious choice of character is not always the most effective. For example: You would expect it to be the boss who tells you that you are running out of time. What if it was the janitor that told you he felt bad for the last guy who didn't complete the assignment on time.

Follow-up: For at least three complications, work out who will be hurt the most when it happens. Incorporate it in the story.

Conclusion:
Most authors underutilize their secondary characters. Adding complications is a way to get more mileage out of your cast!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section TWO: Public Stakes.

We sometimes think, It can't get any worse than this. (But I can tell you after our flooding two weeks ago...and now torrential downpours)...Oh, but it can! That is the essence of raising the outward, or public stakes: making things worse, showing there is more to lose, promising even bigger disasters will happen if the hero doesn't make matters come out okay.

Everyday problems presented in an ordinary way, problems that anyone might have on any given day, do not have the power to become universal. That is, to resonate within us and remind us of all humanity and its eternal struggle. But when stakes rise to a high enough order of magnitude, a protagonist's problems will become the problems that we all have. What was personal becomes public.

In your present WIP where are the stakes? How far do they rise? How bad do they get? Take them higher and deeper. Bwa hah hah...make them worse...much worse. Your novel can only get better!

Step 1: Write down your novel's overt and outward central conflict or problem.

Step 2: What would make this worse? Write down as many reasons as you can.

Step 3: When you run out of ideas, ask yourself, "What would make this problem even worse?"

Step 4: When you run out of steam ask, "What are the circumstances under which my protagonist would actually fail to solve this problem?

Step 5: Have you novel conclude with your protagonist's failures. Can you pull some measure of happiness from this ending?

Note: Things can always get worse. Raise the stakes by making what might be lost more valuable.

Follow-up: Incorporate into your story four raisings of the outward (plot) stakes.

Conclusion:A common failure in novels is that we can see the ending coming. The author signals his preferred outcome, and guess what? That's how things turn out. The only way to keep an ending in doubt is to make failure possible. Even better is to make failure happen. Maybe what's actually at stake isn't what you thought at all!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Enriching Your Cast.

Complexity in a novel is a desirable quality. Adding plot layers is one way to do it or enriching your characters is another. But not by adding new characters, but by eliminating them...or more accurately, by combining them.

Step: 1 In two columns, list in two columns...the names of all major, secondary, and minor characters...and the purpose or function of each in the story...be brief in the description, like...supports protagonist, supports antagonist, provides special knowledge.

Step: 2 If you have ten or fewer characters, cross out the name of one. Delete him/her from the story....yea...go on...do it...LOL! If you have ten or more characters, cross out two.

Step: 3 Your cast list is now shorter by one or two, but there remains one or two functions that need to be filled. Assign those functions to one or more of the remaining characters.

Note: Give the people in your novel many roles and your story will be the big beneficiary.

Follow-up: Are there other characters in your novel who can take on multiple roles? Go down the list and note the possibilities, then put them in practice. Find at least two more roles to combine into one.

Conclusion: Were you to complete this exercise. Some authors have great difficulty with it. Most are able to reduce their casts, which makes the remaining ones more interesting. Why? Because not only do they have more to do, but them have become capable of more.

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Antagonists Outline.

This is a continuation of yesterday, because I don't like to make the lesson too long...it makes me want to fall asleep, so I know it messes with ya'll!

Today we're going to do an exercise to develop the antagonist. The person we love to hate!

Step 1: What makes the antagonist the top on your dislike list? What's their biggest problem, conflict or goal?

Step 2: What does the antagonist want most in this world?

Step 3: What is the second plot layer for the antagonist?

Step 4: Name the five important steps toward your antagonists goal, or towards resolving their central problem or conflict. In other words, what are the five events, actions, or high points, of the antagonist that you could not possibly leave out.

Step 5: Name the three important steps toward, or away from, the antagonists' greatest need.

Step 6: Using the above material, outline the entire novel from the antagonist's point of view.

Note: If your novel doesn't have an antagonist, who or what opposes your protagonist. What if it's internal. Can that internal conflict have a life and personality of its own?

Follow-up find five new ways in which your antagonist can advance his/her own interests. Let these be actions that have nothing to do with your hero.

Conclusion: We don't usually think about the antagonist's inner journey...Humanize your villain. Motivate his/her actions with kindness. Let him/her be heroic, helpful, and principled...let evil wear a compassionate face!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Antagonists.

Antagonists can be fun to write. In fact, villians can wind up being the most memorable character in a novel. Despite that, many times the antagonists are left to be one-dimensional, and with this flaw they do not frighten, surprise, or linger in your memory.

Develop antagonists like you would a protagonist. It demands the same attention to extra dimensions, inner conflict, larger-than-life qualities, and the rest. When developed well, an antagonist is an equal match, or more, for the protagonist.

Villians are best when they are complex. Use these exercises to develop those depths. You may wind up with an antagonist that your readers fear or even adore! Hey, shoot for both.

Step 1: Who is the antagonist in your novel?

Step 2:Create an extra dimension. Write down your antagonist's defining quality. Write down the opposite of that. Now create a paragraph in which your antagonist demonstrates the opposite quality that you have identified.

Step 3: Create an inner conflict. Write down what your antagonist most wants. Write down the opposite of that. How can this character want both of these things simultaneously? How can they be mutually exclusive?

Step 4: Create larger-than-life qualities. Write down things your antagonist would never do, say, or think. Find places where this character can and must do, say and think those things.

Step 5: Define your antagonist's personal stakes. What is his/her main problem, conflict, or goal? Write down what would make this problem matter more, and then matter more than life itself.

Note: A well rounded villian is far more dangerous and interesting that a one-dimensional antagonist.

Follow-up: Give the above qualities to a seconary antagonist who supports the villian.

Conclusion: No one is bad all the time. Villains can act like people too. Build a villian who resembles you...That might be the most chilling adversary of all!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Creating Secondary Characters.

Novels are full of as many people as the world. but how believable are the secondary characters who fill novels out. Many are here today and gone tomorrow, and then they act in only one way.

Secondary characters don't have to act like that! They can be as strong as primary characters. when that happens it's because the author has deliberately made them multidimentional, conflicted, or surprising. And that's tough to do in limited space, but it can be done.

How much attention have you given to your secondary characters? Have you taken the time to give them extra dimentions, inner conflict, and larger than life qualities? If not, why not give it a try?

Step 1: Pick a secondary character who aids your protagonist.

Step 2:Create an extra dimention: Write down the character's defining quality. Write down the opposite of that. Now create a paragraph in which this character demonstrates the opposite quality that you have identified.

Step 3: Create an inner conflict. Write down what this character wants most. Write down the opposite of that. How can this character want both things at the same time? How can they be mutually exclusive?

Step 4: Create larger-than-life qualities. Write down the things that this character would never say, do, or think. find places where this character can and must say, do and think those things!

Note: Secondary characters can be the most vibrant and active in a manuscript. They can also be lifeless and cardboard, mere props for the hero...that's a shame!

Follow-up: follow the steps above for a different minor character who supports your protagonist.

Conclusion: You may wonder if the secondary character will get too strong for the story. Don't worry. If your secondaries occupy less page time and do not enact the novel's most significant events, they will add luster to the novel without blinding your readers to your stories true hero.

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Exposition.

We all star in our own movie. No one's life has, for each of us, the immediacy and importance of our own. Nothing is more significant than what is happening to us right now....believe me, I can identify with that thought!

This may sound self-absorbed, but it is a measure of the intensity with which we experience our lives, and the importance we attach to the things we do!

The protagonist of a novel is no different from us in that respect, or needn't be. Characters with poorly developed inner lives cannot sustain reader interest. Don't write endless passages of gushy exposition (interior monologue0, rather bring out the protagonist's self-regard that shows reflection, self-examination and the true sense of who the character really is in the story.

Self-observation can make a character enormously appealing.

Step 1:In your manuscript pick a moment when the POV character does not react to what is happening, or when in fact nothing is happening and the action of the story is paused or static.

Step 2:Write a paragraph of exposition delineating this character's self-conscious thoughts about her own state of mind, emotional condition, state of being or soul, or perception of the state of the world at this point in time.

Note: It can be as simple as "He felt lousy" or as complex as "The Hegelian paradigm was shifting." Sooner or later you must bring a reader inside your character's head and show us what's going on!

Follow-up: Repeat the above steps at four more points of deep exposition (where we experience a character's thoughts and feelings.)

Conclusion: Passages of exposition can be among the most gripping in your novel. When nothing overtly is going on, make sure that a great deal is at work beneath the surface. Otherwise your novel will have dead spots that your reader will skip!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Ultimate Stakes.

Think about why we do the things we do...Lately my version of that has been a little skewed, but none the less...We get up, scan the paper, fight the rush hour, placate the boss, mow the lawn, save for vacation, etc, etc. There are reasons for all of these things. Not that we think about them before acting, but if pressed we could come up with explanations.

We care. We feel that what we do matters, even when it is a small thing. We have to care because no one can live for long feeling that life is futile, or without purpose. If we did, at the least, we'd stay in bed in the morning. At worst, after a life without reason, we'd check out.

When life tests us to the utmost, our motives grow exponentially greater. Our deepest convictions rise close to the surface. We become more determined to make a difference, to persist, to overcome all problems and obstacles.

At the moment of ultimate testing we summon our deepest beliefs and swear that nothing, nothing, will stop us!

The hero of your novel also will be tested to the limit of his/her convictions, or at least I hope so! If not, are there enough obstacles in the way of your protagonist? How does he/she respond at this supreme moment? the way that you or I would, let's hope, but even more strongly.

Is there a moment of ultimate stakes in your current manuscript? If not, fix it on the page. Your hero's testing and eventual commitment will be fixed in your reader's mind for a long time to come!

Step 1: Identify the moment in your story when your protagonist's stakes hit home...when he/she realizes that there is no turning back. This is the moment of irrevocable commitment.

Step 2: Write out that moment in one paragraph.

Step 3:Look at the paragraph you have written. Notice its shape, feel its effect. Now imaging that this is the first paragraph of your novel.

Note: Probably it would be difficult to place that paragraph at the top of page one. It's probably part of the climax. If you put it first you'd wind up with a novel told as a flashback. And there's a Certain Agent that we all know who would set her hair on fire at the notion of this!

Even so, it's tantalizing to think that your protagonist could have that kind of commitment, and your novel, that kind of emotional power, right from the opening moment, isn't it?

Well why not? don't dump a mountain of commitment on your protagonist immediately, yet you can give him/her a passioned caring about something at the beginning. Emotionally speaking, why open the novel in low gear?

Follow-up: The moment of commitment that you just created has an opposite: a moment of irresolution, a healthy adversion, a justified selfishness, or similar reaction. Write it down. find a place earlier in you manuscript to slot this in.

Conclusion:: You may not wind up directly using the paragraph that you created with this exercise: however, let your hero's inner commitment infuse and underlie all his/her actions. Let them be driven. When resolve weakens, reinforce it. Strong commitment on the part of your protagonist will generate strong commitment on the part of your reader.

The same is true, not surprisingly, when you create strong commitment on the part of your antagonist!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Personal Stakes.

It is easy to dismiss the protagonist's personal stakes as just another way of saying what motivates him. That's too simple. Personal stakes are more than just what a hero wants to do. They illustrate why. Why this goal and the action that must be performed, matters in a profound and personal sense. The more it matters to your hero...the more it will matter to your readers.

What are your protagonist's personal stakes in your current manuscript and how do they rise? Why does he/she care? Why might he care more?
Without personal stakes, even the highest-voltage thriller is an empty plot exercise. Raise the personal stakes and we will all care what happens in your story no matter whether the plot is boiling or not.

Step 1. what is your protagonist's main problem, conflict, goal, need, desire, yearning, or whatever it is driving him/her through the story.

Step 2. What could make this problem matter more. Write down as many new reasons as you can think of.

Step 3. When you run out of reasons, ask yourself what could make this problem matter even more than that?

Step 4. When you run out of steam, ask yourself what could make this problem matter more than life itself.

Follow-up:For all the ways to deepen the personal stakes that you created above, work out how to incorporate each into your novel. Include at least six.

Conclusion: Every Protagonist has a primary motive for what they do. Outward motives are easy to devise, but inner motives most powerfully drive a character forward. Don't just look at all the possibilities...Use them! That is what raising personal stakes is all about. It's extra work, but the results will be a more gripping novel.

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Character Turnabouts and Surprises.

It would be interesting to compare early drafts to finished manuscripts to compare how scenes get resolved. We normally don't get that opportunity, but many times we find scenes that do not play out the way we expect them to.

The whole thrust is a surprise, or perhaps the scene turns in an unexpected directon, or a character does something that we do not anticipate. This comes from trying different approaches to a scene. In essence, that is what Reverse Motives...the next exercise, is about...trying different approaches to see if they work better. Here's an exercise.

Step 1. Pick a scene featuring your protagonist. What are his/her main actions in the scene. What are they trying to accomplish, obtain or aviod?

Step 2.Write a complete list of reasons why your protagonist is doing what she is doing. Write down as many of her motives as you can. Do not look at the next step until your done!

Step 3. Circle the last reason on your list.

Step 4. Rewrite your opening scene, only this time, send your protagonist into action (or avoidance) foremost and primarily for the reason you circled.

Follow-up: Reverse motives in six other scenes.

Conclusion: You may wind up retaining the original motivations in many scenes in your novel, but it is likely that some of them will become more engaging after a motive reversal!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Heightening Larger-Than-Life-Character Qualities.

We're going to work on sharpening the larger-than-life qualities throughout your story. So, okay...where to start? The opportunities can crop up anywhere. It only takes being alert to the possibilities of sending your protagonist or POV character beyond what is usual.

Look for ways to heighten anything that your protagonist says, does, or thinks...to take the temperature up, or down for that matter! Play against the prevailing mood of the scene.

A larger-than-life protagonist talks, acts, and reasons independently. Let you hero's speech, actions, and thoughts follow their own course, regardless of what's going on. Surprise us! That sounds hard, but it really is only a technique!

Step 1: At random in the middle of your manuscript, pick anything at all that your protagonist thinks, says, or does. Heighten it. Make it bigger, funnier, more shocking, more out of bounds, more over the top, more violent, more insightful, more wildly romantic, more active, more anything!

Step 2: Take another action, thought, or line of dialogue and make it smaller, quieter, more internal, more personal, more ironic, more offhand, less impassioned, barely noticeable.

Step 3: Select twenty-four more points in the story where you can heighten or diminish something that your protagonist does, says, or thinks.

Conclusion: Larger-than-life characters powerfully attract us because they are surprising, vital, and alive. They do not let life slip by. Every moment counts. Every day has meaning. How can you give that kind of life force to your protagonist. Turn up the volume!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Larger-Than-Life-Character Qualities.

Hey the guy is talking about zingers. Now this is right up my alley! He's not quick on the draw with retorts but he's happy that one of the pleasures of writing a novel is that an hour later you can still go back and add one in! Until the manuscript is turned in, there's plenty of time to slot those zingers in.

Zingers, barbs, shots across the bow, those things that you hear that you wished you had said...How do you build a larger-than-life character in your current manuscript? What does your protagonist say, do, and think that he, she, or we, would never (well in most cases I might)ever venture?

Use this exercise to develop those qualities...but do not rely on that alone. Look for opportunities throughout your story to heighten these qualities.

Step 1. What is the one thing that your protagonist would never, ever say?

Step 2.What is the one thing that your protagonist would never, ever do?

Step 3. What is the one thing your protagonist would never, ever think?

Step 4. find places in your story in which your protagonist will say, do and think those very things. What circumstances? What consequences?

Here's some clues about larger than life actions.

Winking as a stranger is easy for a flirt, but not for a shy person. Taking a swing at someone is nothing to a boxer, for a nun it would be life changing....I was going to say for Bernita, instead of the nun...but for some reason I don't think that would be too life changing for her...me either for that case...LOL

Okay...what ever it is, it has to come as a surprise, feel big, feel outrageous.

We'd all like to feel that way at one time or another. Here's your chance. Let your character do, say, or think something memorable!

Find twelve more points in the story where your protagonist can break out!

Find a single point where the protagonist pointedly lets an opportunity pass by!

Lesson done!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: Inner Conflict.

A good step for growing beyond the technique of adding character dimensions is investing your protagonist with two goals....needs, wants, longings, yearnings, desires, pinings...okay you get the drift!

But to make it work...the two have to be diametrically opposed. When the character is being pulled in opposite directions, you have conflict....and that's what makes a character truly memorable!

The best part is the inner conflict doesn't need to be limited to your protagonist. Wahooo! Any character can be conflicted!

Okay...is your character conflicted? Have you expressed it clearly so that the readers are sure about it? What actions does it cause? How does it affect other characters in the novel?

Step 1. Thinking about your protagonist as a whole, what does he/she most want?

Step 2. What is the opposite of that?

Step 3. How can your protagonist want both of these at the same time? What makes him/her want them both? How can he/she persue both desires?

Conclusion: In creating real inner conflict, it's not enough to just make inner turmoil. True inner conflict involves wanting two opposite things that tear the protagonist in two directions!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Today's lesson is in Section One: multidimensional Characters.

In well-constructed fiction, multidimensional characters keep us guessing as to what they are going to do or think...In other words there is always more of them to come! Plot events by themselves can bring out a new side to your character.

How many sides of your current protagonist do you reveal? Is he/she multidimensional only in your mind or actually on the page? Take a careful look at your manuscript. On which specific pages do you show another side to your protagonist's personality.

Highlight the passages. How many are there? List the page numbers. How many extra dimensions to your character do you really show?

Hint: The more dimensions your character has, the more involving your novel will be!

Step 1. What is your protagonist's defining quality? What is their most predominant trait? What kind of person are they?

Step 2. What is the opposite of that quality?

Step 3. Write a paragraph of your protagonist demonstrating the opposite quality. Include this paragraph in your novel showing your character's conflicting sides.

Do these three steps multiple times to open up extra dimensions to your character.

by Bonnie Calhoun

The subject is Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. Now the man knows his business! He is the President of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York, and he sells more than a hundred books a year to publishers.

What I am going to endeavor to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. This will by no means suffice as an alternative to reading the book...or the workbook. I hope it piques your appetite to buy the books. They are invaluable reading and reference!

Let's get started on Section One: Character Development

If your character sucks, nobody will like them. That's not to say that they can't have problems. But how much tolerance do you have for somebody who is constantly the negative charge on the magnetic, and wallowing around in the mud of self-pity.

What you've got to do is have the character lift him/her self above their curcumstances like a phoenix rising from the ashes. How do you do that?

You've got to start from the beginning and give us a reason not to just throw the book at the wall! Do you feel sympathy for the protag? Do you see yourself in them? Do you want them to win?

Quickly evoking that kind of identification with a protag is one of the secrets of breakout fiction! ALERT! Most manuscripts don't manage to do this!

EXERCISE:

1.Who are your personal heroes?

2.What are their greatest qualities?

3.When did you first become aware of their qualities?

4.Assign that quality to your protag. Find a way, even a small way to demonstrate that in their first scene.

Follow-up: Prior to the climax, find six more points where your protag can demonstrate heroic qualities, even in a small way.

Conclusion: Demonstrate special qualities right away, and you will immediately turn your protagonist into a hero or heroine...a character whose outcome matters.