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!

This is a checklist of the Follow-up work taken from each exercise in the book. If you truly wish to write a breakout novel, do each piece of work ad check it off the list only when you have incorporated the results into your manuscript. There are 591 steps! The investment of time to complete this is huge...But then your ambition is huge too!

On the left will be the follow-up, after it will be the number of tasks.

Demonstrate heroic qualities..................6
Create extra character dimensions.............3
Make goals mutually exclusive.................1
Create larger-than-life moments..............12
Heighten speech, action, or exposition.......24
Reverse motives in additional scenes..........6
Add the opposite of ultimate commitment.......1
Deepen passages of exposition.................4
Develop a additional secondary character......5
Develop a secondary antagonist................5
Combine two more roles........................1
Incorporate higher stakes into the story......4
Incorporate damage from complications.........3
Develop 4 steps/scenes for two layers.........8
Add nodes of conjunction to the story.........6
Add subplots, even to first-person novel......3
Heighten turning points within scene.........20
Delineate extra turning points................6
Incorporate high moments......................5
Add bridging conflict.........................4
Cut "tea" (inactive or review) scenes.........1
Move backstory back in the manuscript.........1
Add tension to each page...........350 (approx)
Change your first line........................1
Change the last line..........................1
Freeze moments in time........................4
Delineate antagonist's changing view of hero..3
Delineate changing view of a place............2
Strengthen point of view.....................30
Delineate character traits...................48
Create impossible good outcome................1
Develop a secondary theme.....................4
Incorporate related problems..................2
Give someone the opposite problem.............1
Make the antagonist right.....................1
Add the opposite symbol.......................1
Reverse stockpiled story ideas................1
Shorten your pitch............................1

TOTAL TASKS..................591

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 Plot Development, now we're moving on to General Story Techniques! Today's lesson is in Appendix A: Outlining Your Novel.


There are pros and cons to doing an outline. Today we're pro people. The number in parenthesis after each step tells you the number of paragraphs that each step will yield. If you are able to follow the steps exactly, you will wind up with fifty paragraphs. If you then average four paragraphs per page, at the end of this process you will have the rough draft of a twelve-and-a-half page outline! Along the way you may also have found some new material for your novel itself!

Write down the answers to the following:

A. Plot fundamentals.

1. Where is your novel set, who is your main character, and what is the main problem, conflict, or goal? (1)
2. What does your protagonist most want, and why? (1)
3. What is your protagonist's second plot layer? (1)
4. What is your protagonist's third plot layer? (1)
5. What is the first subplot? (1)
6. What is the second subplot? (1)
7. Who is the most important secondary or supporting character, what is their main problem, conflict, or goal, and what do they most want? (1)
8. Who is the novel's antagonist, what is his main problem, conflict, or goal, and what does he most want? (1)

B. The Middle

9. What are the five biggest steps toward the solution of your protagonist's main problem? Another was to ask that is: What are the five turning points or events that you positively cannot leave out? (Include your story's climax.) (5)

10. What are the five most important steps toward, or away from, what your protagonist most wants? (5)

11. What are the three most important steps (each) toward, or away from, the resolution of your first and second subplots? (6)

12. What are the three most important steps toward, or away from, the resolution of each main problem facing your foremost secondary character and your antagonist? (6)

13. What are the three most important steps toward, or away from, the resolution of each main problem facing your foremost secondary character and your antagonist? (6)

C. Highlights.

14. Two moments of strong inner conflict. (2)

15. Three larger-than-life actions. (3)

16. Five places to heighten turning points or high moments.

17. Two moments frozen in time. (2)

18. Two measures of change. (2)

19. The psychology of place with respect to the setting of the novel's climax. (1)

20. Three dialogue snippets (3)

21. A paragraph of resolution. (1)

D. Putting it together
Elaborate in a paragraph what you wrote down in each of the steps above!

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 THREE: The Pitch.

Okay, let's finish up our look at 'The Pitch'.

We left off yesterday looking at the pertinent parts of a query letter. The next part to include is...What is the main problem? Some query writers find a reduction of the central conflict too frightening. They prefer to start with the inciting incident, the moment when the problem begins, and let the story blossom from there.

(Believe me on this one, as I'm pointing one finger out there, four are pointing back at me!)

Once your cruising down the highway of plot summary it is tempting to stay on it. Exit immediately! The details that make the story different are usually lacking. there are no new stories...just new ways of telling old ones!

Here ya go...The best query letters put across the essence of the story in one hundred words or less! Donald Maass says he has seen it done in forty words and fewer!

Use the following exercise to hone down the essentials of your story, then trust your premise to excite the agents and editors whom you have targeted. After all, your story is original isn't it? The world in which it is set is rife with conflict, right? You have invested your story with power and gut emotional appeal? Right, then. You have it all.

Step 1: Write down your novel's title, catagory, setting, protagonist, and central problem.

Step 2: Write down one colorful detail that makes any one of the above elements different.

Step 3: Identify a way in which your story has any one of the following:

Credibility (This could happen to any of us)
Inherent Conflict (This is a world of conflicting forces)
Originality (A reversal of the expected, a new angle on an old subject, or familiar story elements combined in unfamiliar ways)
Gut Emotional Appeal (I would hate if this happened to me!)

Step 4: Write down these five words: love, heart, dream, journey, fortune, destiny.

Step 5: Set a timer for five minutes. ONLY five minutes In that time, write a one-paragraph pitch for your novel, incorporating the material you wrote down in the steps one to three. In your last sentence, use one of the words you wrote doen in step four.

Note: Consider: We summarize movies, TV shows, and books all the time, and rarely take more than thirty seconds to do so. Actually, all it takes to interest someone in a story is its beginning: the setting, the protagonist, and the problem. That's it. Fixing the problem and no more leaves your listener wondering what will happen next!

Follow-up: Put away your pitch for a week or more, then re-read it. Shorten it to one hundred words. Put it away for another week. Now shorten it to fifty words.

Conclusion: In pitching, less is more. It is fear that makes us blather on and on. Say less than you want to. Interest in your novel will be that much greater for your restraint!

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!

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 THREE: Brainstorming.

Did you ever hear a premise, snap your fingers, and think to yourself, "Now, that is a great idea for a story!" Or maybe you thought, "Boy, I wish I had thought of that one myself!"

Some ideas are like that: They immediately engage. They are naturals. Right away the story begins to write itself in your head. You can see what will happen first and exactly how it will go after that. Strangely, although the story already is familiar, so much so that you have begun to appropriate it, your feeling is not "How common," but "How original!"

What causes that reaction? Why is it that although there are no new stories, some ideas nevertheless feel fresh? I believe that there are several qualities that can invoke that feeling.

First is the surprising new twist on an old idea. Take the murder mystery: The essential story is the same every time. Someone is killed, and a detective figures out who did it. So familiar is this formula that it is frequently reduced to "who-dunit".

Every working novelist must come up with ideas, but beyond the premise, it is developed by brainstorming to develop it into a full-fledged plot. The key to keeping a novel lively and surprising is remembering the principle of reversal. When mapping out a scene, toss your first choices and go the opposite way. Why? First choices tend to be the safest, and most predictable.

Mostly, though, originality is within everyone's reach. Practice the techniques of brainstorming: new twists on old ideas, combining stories, gut emotional appeal, and reversing the expected. These techniques will steer you to some challenging, and definitely interesting, choices for your story.

Step 1: Pick a time and a place. Pick a problem...Brainstorm!

Step 2: Every time you write down an idea, reverse it. Go the opposite way. See where it takes you.

Note: The best villain is often less obvious; someone who is, say, connected to the hero in a personal way. A better choice than "senator" is almost always, "the hero's mentor." You see? It takes work to make that person a credible antagonist, but the conflict between hero and villain is a;already more complex because of their prior alliance.

Follow-up:
Go through your folder of story ideas. Pick a check mark on those that offer a new twist to an old idea, or that have gut emotional appeal. Try combining ideas. Also try turning them upside down and inside out. Reverse them. See what happens!

Conclusion: Whatever you do, push your premise and plotlines further. Do not be satisfied with just a good story. Be satisfied with a story that is original, gut grabbing, unexpected, layered, and complex. In other words, stop working only when your story is great. How will you know? It will take longer than you think. Keep pushing!

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 THREE: Symbols.

Symbols, which sometimes go by their more academic name, objective correlative, are another literary device that feels old-fashioned. The very word takes you back to high school!

In their simplest form, though, symbols are anything outward that stands in for anything inward, or abstract, such as a mood or an idea. A statement like, "He was in turmoil" can feel blunt. Instead, we might substitute an image; say, "Outside, the Siberian Elms held their heads in their hands and swayed, wailing like a chorus of Greek women." Okay so it's over the top, but it nevertheless conveys an inner state.

Symbols can be glaringly obvious, of course. Think sunsets and trains rushing into tunnels. At their best, though, they are elegant and evocative. Their effect can be subliminal, barely noticed. A device they may be, but they also can be quite powerful.

Are there physical objects or recurring events that might serve as symbols in your novel? The exercise that follows asks you not to impose symbols on your manuscript, but to discover them already there. They are buried like artifacts that readers can happen upon and enjoy, either consciously or not, for the extra meaning that they add to your story.

Step 1: What is one prominent object, event, or action that appears in your novel?

Step 2: How can that object, event, or action recur at your novel's end?

Step 3: Find three other places where this object, event, or action can recur in the course of the story.

Note: Whether it is a gathering hurricane or a pink ribbon from a child hood Christmas package, symbols gain power as they recur. Naturally a hurricane forming in every scene would be a ridiculous run of bad weather, but as the opening and closing framework to a story? That could work.

Same thing with rings, ribbons, whooping cranes, green Packard convertible...Any natural or inanimate object that returns at portentous moments. Such objects soak up meaning and then release it.

Follow-up: What is the opposite of that object, event, or action? Find a place for that to appear or occur too.

Conclusion: Sometimes called objective correlatives, symbols can be overly obvious, but when cleverly chosen and tactically deployed they can punctuate a story in powerful ways!

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 THREE: Theme.

This is the final exercise in this section. It's called Making the Antagonist's Case.

Step 1: What does your antagonist believe in? Why do they feel justified and right? How would the world be better, through their eyes, if things ran the way they would like them to run?

Step 2: Make the antagonist's case stronger. Assume that the antagonist is actually correct: What support for their case can be found in philosophy or religion? On a practical level, how would things really be better? Explain in writing.

Step 3: Choose a character who supports your antagonist, and make the antagonist's case from that character's point of view.

Note: In many manuscripts the antagonists are cardboard. They are bluntly evil or wrong. One dimensional villains do not frighten me...or most readers. Far scarier are villains who have a good reason for doing what they do, and who can justify their intents and actions as working for the good.

The more sincere your antagonist, the more effective they will be, and the more powerfully you will be forcing your reader to decide what constitutes right and wrong. (Which, of course is more effective than telling your reader your own opinion outright, don't you agree?)

Follow-up: find the moment in your story when your protagonist realizes that you antagonist is right, and why.

Conclusion: Certainly you want your hero to doubt himself at times, don't you? Why not push that all the way and let your hero doubt him/her self in the extreme? What would be the circumstances? How close to failure does your protagonist come? In that moment, you will be very close to your core values and theme.

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 THREE: Theme.

This is the third and final exercise to this chapter. This one is entitled Same Problem, Other Characters!

Step 1: What is the main problem in the novel?

Step 2: Who else in the story besides your protagonist could have that problem? How would it manifest differently for these other characters?

Step 3: Incorporate the results of the previous step into the story. Make notes!

Note: Theme is not smeared onto your story in the final draft. Like frosting on a cake. Rather, it emerges from the very substance of the story. To make your theme large and resonant, let it work in your story in more ways than one. It doesn't matter that the central problem is different for other characters. Your variations on the theme will only reinforce the themes itself.

Follow-up: Who in your story could have the oppositeproblem? Incorporate that into your novel!

Conclusion: Just as it is advisable to strengthen your theme, it is also no problem to run counter to it. Does your hero rescue his family from the wilderness, struggling against nature? What about the hermit who helps them? He lives at peace with nature, yes? His struggle man be the opposite: to connect again with his fellow man.

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 THREE: Theme.

Yesterday we went over Theme, and the exercise was about alternate endings. Today we'll do "the Larger Problem" as an exercise.

Step: 1 Thinking about the story as a whole, what is the main problem facing your protagonist?

Step: 2 What is the bigger problem beyond that?

Step: 3 What is the problem that your protagonist cannot solve?

Step: 4 Find ways to introduce into the story the bigger problem and the problem that cannot be solved. How can that be accomplished?

Note: What public issues stir you up. If you could change the world what would you change. Allow the words to emerge from not only your heart, but from your protagonists problems!

Follow-up: What is the main problem in your protagonists second plot layer? Write it down and follow the steps above to develop a secondary theme.

Conclusion: Every issue conceals a bigger issue. At the heart of every big issue is a dilemma that has no answer. While it may sound downbeat to introduce these elements into your story, in fact they will amplify the problem at hand. the ripples that they send outward in your readers minds are, in essence, your novel's deepest issues, or to put in another way, it's theme at work!

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 THREE: Theme.

This chapter is too big to be one post, so I'll divide it up over a couple days!

There are many different ways to discover and develop the themes in your novel. Themes can be motifs, recurring patterns, outlooks, messages, morals...any number of deliberate elements that make your manuscript more than just a story...indeed, that makes it a novel with something to say.

What are the themes of your current novel, and how are you developing them? Whether you are making your point by creating a backward antagonist, or by giving other characters parallel problems, or by introducing problems that are bigger than your protagonist, or by showing us what your character is aiming for (or at least will settle for).

Be sure that you have a means to bring out what you want to say. A novel that has nothing to say will have a tough time breaking out!

Step:1 With respect to the story as a whole, what does your protagonist want?

Step:2 If your protagonist cannot get that, what would she/he take second?

Step:3 If he/she can get nothing else, what would he settle for?

Step:4 Work out alternative endings for the novel based on each of the above answers. How would each ending go?

Note: the point of this exercise is not necessarily to change the ending of your novel( although it might). It is to use alternate outcomes to understand what it is that your protagonist is really after, and why.

Is second-best or the minimum good enough? Then perhaps you need to raise the personal stakes so that those lesser outcomes are in no way acceptable. Buried in the results of this exercise also are clues to what you novel, really is about: it's theme!

Follow-up: Again thinking of the story as a whole, what outcome would be more than your protagonist possible could hope for?

Conclusion: Ah! The answer to that last question may open up even more possible outcomes for the story. Could it be that your protagonist (or you) has her sights set too low? Even if that dream outcome is not practical, how can that vision of greater good be incorporated into the story?

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 THREE: Character Delineation.

Having sharpened the POV's you have chosen for your novel, it is now time to take the next step and make sure that your characters sound, act, and think differently from each other. That's the business of character delineation.

How are your characters different from one another? In your mind, I'm sure they are quite different, but how is that specifically conveyed to your readers? Use a chart to create separate vocabularies, traits, actions, and more for your characters. You will be surprised how much more individual they become.

Step 1: Create a chart in a spread sheet program like Excel. Write down the first column: sofa, bureau, dress, pants, shoes, auto, soda, coffee, alcohol, cash, "Hello", "Cool", "Oh well", God, mother, father, partner/spouse, man, woman, attractive, unattractive, music, periodical. Now in the next three columns to the right place a POV character at the top. Down each column fill in the character's word for the one you've listed.

Note: You can make the list as long as you want. The point is to find each characters voice.

Follow-up: for each POV character give them unique traits, gestures, rationalizations, peeves, hot buttons etc.

Conclusion: Have you ever read a novel where all the characters sounded the same? That's weak POV writing. Strong POV is more than just the words, even cadence and sentence structure will be different. Make your characters different just as people are different!

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 THREE: Point of View.

Most contemporary novels are written from the POV of their characters. This can get quite intimate...first person being as intimate as you can get! But there are plenty of alternate POV's to employ, including the objective and authorial POV's.

Although these are older approaches as somewhat out of fashion...Hey who ever though bell bottoms and platform shoes would come back...LOL!

Whatever your choice, POV is the perspective you give your readers on the action of the story. It pays to make it strong.

What sort of voice do you have? Soprano? Alto? Tenor? Bass? What kind of soprano...bright? What kind of tenor...high? Is your voice pop, smooth, operatic, or belting? The type of singing voice you have makes a difference to the sound that comes out of your mouth, correct?

So it is with the voice of your novel. The voice will largely be determined by your choice of POV, but more than that by how you use that POV. Are the voices ordinary and generic, or are they highly colored and specific?

Heighten POV throughout your manuscript, and you will strengthen your story's impact.

Step 1: Open your manuscript at random. Whose POV are we experiencing the action through?

Step 2: On this page, select anything the POV character says, does, or thinks. Heighten it. Change the dialogue. Exaggerate the action. Grow the emotion, thought, or observation to make it even more characteristic of this character.

Note: Capturing a character's unique speech and outlook is perhaps easier in a first-person novel. But POV is more than just looking through a set of eyes onto the world. The mouth and brain must come into play also or your novel will have the chilliness of a movie camera

Follow-up: Turn to another page at random. Do the same exercise....repeat the steps about once in every scene in your novel.

Conclusion: What would happen if you did this exercise instead of just think about it? Your novel would take longer to write, but wouldn't it be stronger? Good news. The next exercise is a tool that might make the job easier!

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 THREE: Setting.

How many settings are there in your current novel? From how many POV's is each of them seen? Each outlook on each location is an opportunity to enrich your story. In your novel, how many of those opportunities are you taking?

Our perception of place changes as we change. The difference between a town as remembered from long ago and how it seems now is the difference between who we once were and who we are now. The same is true of characters in fiction. Take them anywhere and show us how they feel abut the place, or how that place makes them feel, and you will reveal to us volumes about their inner frozenness, or growth.

Step 1: Pick a high moment, turning point, or climax involving your protagonist. Where is it set?

Step 2: Write a paragraph describing how this place makes your character feel, or how your protagonist feels about this place.

Step 3: Move forward one week in time or backwards one week in time. Return your protagonist to this place. Write a paragraph describing how it makes your character feel now.

Note: There is something powerful about returning to to a place of significant action and discovering how it feels different. Pinning that down is using the psychology of place, that is, employing the perception of place as another way to measure change.

Follow-up: What is the setting that recurs most often in your novel? From whose point of view is it most often seen. Count the number of times that character is in that place. Write a list, and for each return to that place find one way in which that character's perception of it changes.

Conclusion: Bringing to life the world of your novel is more than just describing it using the five senses. A place lives most vividly through the eyes of characters. Delineate those evolving perceptions, and the world of your novel will feel rich, dynamic, and alive!

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 THREE: Inner Change.

We grow and change. We also note the growth and change in others. The moments in breakout novels in which such changes are observed are milestones that measure the journey that is each story.

Change in characters, or rather, characters' perceptions of the changes within themselves and others, may happen within a scene or across long stretches of time.
It doesn't matter. Inner changes calibrate a plot, lending it a sense of inexorable progress and pace.

How does your protagonist's picture of himself change throughout the course of your novel? How does she/he view others in the story, and how do those views change? How do others see your protagonist? How do those assessments, in turn, alter? Delineate these shifts in your characters' self-perceptions and perceptions of each other. It is yet another way to tighten the weave of the story.

Step 1: Find a moment in your manuscript when your hero is speaking with a major secondary character, or when that secondary character carries the point of view while speaking with your hero.

Step 2: Create a paragraph in which your hero assesses this other character; that is, delineates for himself this other character's qualities, mood, or situation in life. Put simply, how does your hero see this character right now?

....Alternately, have your point of view character regard your hero by the same criteria. How does she view your hero at this particular moment?

Step 3: Move forward to a later point in the story when these two characters are again together on the page. Repeat the previous step. How does your hero view this character now?

....Alternately, how does that character view your protagonist at this point?

Note: You grow and change, so do your characters. But you need to once in a while measure the difference so that we as readers see it!

Follow-up: Find three points in the story in which to delineate your antagonist's view of your protagonist.

Conclusion: allow characters occasional moments to take stock of each other is a powerful way to mark each players progress through the story. Examine your hero from several points of view; later, show us how those views have shifted.

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 THREE: Moments in Time.

There's no doubt that immersing ourselves in another world is one of the pleasures of reading a well-written novel. But as a writer, how can you capture the world of the story, and lives of the characters in just the right way?

As an exercise, it is, in part, a matter of selecting individual moments to freeze for the reader. How do you delineate these in your current manuscript? Can you identify six passages in which you go beyond simple scene settings to capture the flavor of the moment in time, the feeling of an historical era of the uniqueness of a place like no other?

If nit, is there any reason not to put that stuff in!

Step 1: find in your novel a moment of transition, a pause, a moment of character definition or testing, a place where the action can be momentarily frozen, or the prelude to (or the aftermath of) an important plot event.

Step 2: What are three things that make this minute in time different from any other minute in time?

Step 3: What are three things that make this place uniquely different from any other place.

Step 4: What are three things that define the social world of the story at this precise moment?

Step 5: Use the details generated in any of the steps above to craft a paragraph that freezes, for the reader how the world looks and feels toward your POV character. Pin down those unique feelings

Note: Yes we always want to keep things moving in our stories, but it must happen in time, in space and in social context that is credible, detailed and specific! Use the steps above to create at a given moment a snapshot of the story's time to bring the world of the story into sharp focus.

Follow-up: Choose four other moments in time to freeze in the novel and delineate them using the steps above.

Conclusion: Here is where you apply your powers of observation. Give your protagonist the same awareness of the world that you have, or maybe one that is keener!

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 THREE: General Story Techniques.

Oh, BTW...I've been using this book as a review for the manuscript I just edited, so I had to work ahead of you guys so that I was done by the time I leave for Phila!!

Today we're going to look at First and Last lines. No doubt about it, a great first line pulls us immediately into a story. It hooks. It intrigues. It opens a world in which things already are happening, in which discovery awaits.

Or it can, sadly, lie flat on the page doing nothing helpful all all, merely setting a scene or in some other way getting ready for the story rather than telling it. Weak first lines greet us like a limp handshake.

What makes a first line effective? Part of it would be the intrigue factor. It's the element that makes us wonder..."What does that mean? or "What happens next?...and therefore leads us to the next line where we may find the answer.

All of this usually happens so fast that we don't notice it. In the few seconds it takes to read an opening line, our subconscious minds are already racing ahead!

Just as surely as an intriguing first line can draw, a stunning exit sentence can propel a reader onward in wonder...wondering perhaps, when your next novel will be out!

Have you yet reached the last line of your current novel? If you have, go back. If you haven't, pause when you get there. Take the time to get your last line just right. Whether it leads forward or lifts our spirits or softly closes a door. Make it a line we will remember...Especially when we see your next novel on the bookstore shelves!

Step 1: What is the intrigue factor in your opening line? What question does it pose, or what puzzle does it present?

Step 2:If you are not able to answer the question in the first step, try shortening your first line. If that doesn't work, audition your second line for the lead spot. Or combine elements from your first paragraph into one short, supercharged sentence. Whatever you do, choose or construct a different first line.

Note: the one thing that all good first lines have in common is the intrigue factor.

Follow-up: Work on your last line until it has wit, a touch of poetry, or a sense of dawning peace. Try it out on others!

Conclusion: Whether it is a sigh of satisfaction, a soaring passage of word art, or nothing more than a clever exit line, put the same effort into your last line as went into your first. A book needs front and back covers to hold together; in the same way a novel needs strong brackets to bind it!

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: Low Tension: Part 3.

Tension on every page is the secret of great storytelling. Everyone knows that. Practically no one does it! The dialogue of the how are you would you like a cup of coffee variety can put you to sleep. Mere talk does not keep us glued to the pages. Disagreement does.

Friction in dialogue arrests our attention. It begs the unspoken question: Will these people be able to resolve their differences? We slow down to read the next line to find out.

Dialogue, backstory, slack moments...these are just a few of the many low-tension danger spots that breakout novelists can make riviting. It's so simple, really! Tension on every page works. Low tension does not.

Make that your mantra!

Step 1: Turn to any page in your manuscript at random. Put your finger on any line at random.

Step 2: find a way to add tension at this moment. If there is already tension, skip to the next line, and heighten the tension there.

Note: Tension can be many things. it can be as obvious as a gun to the temple or as subtle as forlorn hope. Even the mere anticipation of change is a kind of tension. Without tension we have no reason to wonder how things will turn out. We might at first, but soon we start to skim

Follow-up: Pick another page at random, the pick another line. Heighten the tension at this point.

Follow-up 2: Continue picking pages at random, until you've gone through the whole novel!

Conclusion: Go back to your favorite novels and read them with an eye for tension. you will find that your favorite novelists always have tension on the page!

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: Low Tension: Part 2.


This lesson deals with burdensome backstory! This is one of the most common ways that an inexperienced novelist...and even sometimes the practiced ones...bog down their openings.

You may think that backstory tells things about a character, that we just have to know...LOL...sometimes it can, but that still doesn't make it necessary. We don't always need to know all of these facts, all at once, or right in the beginning.

Backstory doesn't tell a story, have tension or complicate problems. However once problems have been introduced, backstory can be artfully deployed to deepen them. It can be particularly useful in developing inner conflicts.

Force yourself to withhold the backstory stuff. Having it in the first few chapters always feels awfully necessary. But it is not. It may be more useful later in the story. If when you get there you find you don't need it after all, then maybe you didn't need it in the first place.

Step 1: In the first fifty pages of your novel, find any scene that establishes the setting, brings the players to the stage, sets up the situation, or that is otherwise backstory.

Step 2: Put brackets around this material, or highlight it in your electronic file.

Step 3: cut and paste this material into chapter fifteen...Yes, chapter fifteen
NOTE: Over and over authors bog down their beginnings with setup and backstory. The fact is, the author needs to know these things, of course, but the reader does not. The reader needs the story to begin.

Follow-up: Now, look at chapter fifteen. Does the backstory belong here? If not, can it be cut outright? If that is not possible, where is the best place for it to reside after the midpoint of your novel!

Conclusion: Backstory is less important than most novelists think. If you must include it at all, place it so that it answers a long-standing question, illuminating some side of a character rather than just setting it up.

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: Low Tension: Part 1.
In tonight's lesson, we're going to look at Low Tension part 1, subtitled The Problem with Tea!

Donald Maass, in his workshop on this book teaches authors to cut scenes set in the kitchen or living room or cars driving from one place to another, or that involve drinking tea or coffee or taking showers or baths, particularly in the novel's first fifty pages.

Wonder of wonders! Hardly anyone wants to cut such material. Best selling author Jennifer Cruise even tacked him down at a writers retreat in Kentucky to debate the point about kitchens. She argued without kitchens, how can you tell a family story?

These kind of novels invite you to skim...and most people do! The reason is that in careless hands, such scenes lack tension. They do not add new information. They do not subtract allies , deepen conflict, or open new dimensions of character.

Typically scenes like these are to relax the tension. They do not raise questions or make use tense or worried. No wonder they don't hold people's attention!

Put your tension mete on its most sensitive setting. When your fingers try to type any scene set in a kitchen, living room, or car, I hope your tension meter sinks into the red zone and sets off a screaming alarm in your brain....Low tension alert!

Step 1: Find a scene that involves your hero taking a shower or bath, drinking tea or coffee, smoking a cigarette or reviewing prior action.

Step 2: Cut the scene

Step 3: If you cannot cut the scene, add tension.

Step 4: Find a scene set in a kitchen, living room, office, or in a car that your hero is driving from one place to another.

Step 5: Cut the scene.

Step 6: If you cannot cut the scene, add tension.

Note: The above exercise usually provokes anxiety in workshop participants. The fact is, people usually jump over such pointless review. Another trap is telling us how your hero reached a decision. Why bother? Instead, show us what happens as a result.

Follow-up: Find ten more low-tension scenes to cut or juice up with more tension.

Conclusion: Ninety-nine percent of scenes involving the above categories are by nature inactive. They are usually filler. You think you need them...but probably you don't!

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: Bridging Conflict.

Did you ever arrive early for a party? It's awkward, isn't it? The music isn't playing. The host and hostess aren't ready. You offer help, but there's nothing you can do....except feel awkward.

That's how some manuscripts are. Pieces of the story are being assembled, but nothing is happening yet, and the protagonist hasn't arrived. I fact nobody you like has shown up and your wondering why you accepted the invitation.

Bridging conflict is a story element that takes care of that. It is the temporary conflict or mini-problem or interim worry that makes opening material matter. There are many ways to create it. Even anticipation of changes is a kind of conflict that can make us lean forward and wonder, What is going to happen?

How do you bridge from your opening page to your novel's main events? Do you just get us there, filling space with arrival, setup, and backstory? Or do you use the preliminary pages of your manuscript to build tension of a different sort?

Step 1: Does your novel include a prologue that does not include your protagonist, or one or more opening chapters in which your hero does not appear. Move your hero's first scene to page one.

Step 2: Once your protagonist arrives on stage what business do you feel must be included before the first big change, conflict, problem, or plot development arrives?

Step 3: What is the bridging conflict that carries us through those opening steps to the first big change, conflict, problem, or plot development?

Step 4: Open your manuscript to page one. How can you make that bridging conflict stronger at this point?

Step 5: turn to page two. Repeat the previous step. Continue until you reach the first big change, conflict, problem, or plot development.

Note: The number one reason for rejection..no conflict, especially in the opening pages.

Follow-up: Find four places in your novel, ones that fall between plot development or scenes, in which the problem does not immediately arrive.

Conclusion: To maintain high tension it isn't necessary to keep your novel's central conflict squarely front and center. Bridging conflict adds contrast and variety, and makes even peripheral action matter. It is what keeps your readers' eyes glued always to the page, even when your main plot is taking a break!

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: High Moments.

I love it when a novel makes you suck in your breath and go, "Oh!" These are high moments, when the story soars above itself and awes or inspires us in some way.

How are such effects achieved? It's easier than you think. Granted there are certain types of story events that are guaranteed to produce wide-eyed reactions. What are they?....forgiveness, self-sacrifice, reversals of direction, moral choices, and death. Do any of these occur in your current manuscript? If not, is there a place for them?

Step 1: In your novel is there one character who can be forgiven by another? What is being forgiven? When? Why?

Step 2: In your novel is there a character who can sacrifice his/herself, or something dearly loved, in some way? Who is it? What does he sacrifice?

Step 3: In your novel is there ancharacter who can change direction? Who is it? What causes the turnabout? When does it happen?

Step 4: In your novel is there a character who faces a moral choice? Who? What choice? How can that choice become more difficult?

Step 5: In your novel is there a character whom we do not expect to die, but who can nevertheless perish? Kill that character.

Note: What are the memorable moments in a novel? The high moments, of course, but what do we mean by that? They can mean many things like reconciliation, self-sacrifice, transformation, tests of character, or death. In many novels none of these things occur!

Follow-up: Using the notes you made above, incorporate each of those high moments into your novel!

Conclusion: For a novel to feel big, big things must happen: irrevocalbe changes, hearts opening, hearts breaking, saying farewell to one well loved whom we will never meet again. Create these moments. Use them. They are the high moments that make a novel highly dramatic.

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: the Inner Journey.

Plot development creates easy to see plot points. Less easy to identify are your protag's inner turning points. Call it growth, call it exposition, but get inside your characters head and find out where he/she is right now1

Take the time to demark the inner turning points in your current WIP. We want to know about your characters, particularly how they are changing. Show us. A sense of the trick inner lives unfolding is one of the hallmarks of a breakout novel.

Step 1: Choose any turning point except the climax.

Step 2: Wind the clock back...How does the character feel about himself NOW!

Step 3:Write a paragraph in which you delineate this character's state of mind or state of being at this earlier moment.

Step 4: Now, write a paragraph in which you delineate this character's state of mind, or state of being ten minutes after the turning point.

Step 5: Use the material you generated in the steps above to pull together a single paragraph.

Note: Has your life ever changed in a moment? Was there an incident, a second in time where your life changed irrevocable. Bring the same inner transformation that has taken place into a very detailed exercise.

Follow-up: Some novelist only do a short amount of work. Find out the feelings of a child. What does it feel to be like a child? Find out the answers from a child!

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: Turning Points.

A turning point in a story is when things change. It could be new info coming in, a shift in events, a reversal, a twist (like revealing another role for a character), a challenge, or a disaster.

Figuring out turning points is easy enough. Making them as dramatic as possible is another story...LOL...Heightening takes work. Sometimes it is as simple as letting go of an old way of looking at things.

Take a look at the turning points throughout your manuscript. Are they as dramatic as they possibly can be? No...I guarantee it. Go back to work on them. Use stronger words, hand objects, dramatic gestures, more evocative settings...whatever it takes to wring out of them all that they have to give.

Step 1: Pick a turning point in your story. It can be a major change of direction in the plot or a small discovery in the course of a scene.

Step 2: Heighten it. Change the setting in some way. Make the action bigger. Magnify the dialogue. Make the inner change experienced by your POV character as cataclysmic as an earthquake.

Step 3: Take the same moment, and underplay it. make it quieter. Take away action. Remove dialogue. Make the transition small and internal, a tide just beginnning to ebb.

Note: Which works better, heightening the turning point or underplaying it. How did you change the setting, or use it differently? How did you make action more dramatic? Did the dialogue get louder, sharper, harder, more cutting? If a realization has taken place, how did it deepen?

Follow-up: go through your novel and find the turning points in twenty scenes. find ways to heighten (or pointedly diminish) them.

Conclusion: Many novels do not strive forward in pronounced steps. Many authors are afraid to exaggerate what is happening. That is a mistake. Stories, like life, are about change. Delineating the changes scene by scene gives a novel a sense of unfolding drama, and gives its characters a feeling of purpose over time.

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: Subplots.

Plot layers are the several narrative lines experiences by the protagonist, while subplots are the narrative lines experienced by other characters. What does a narrative line look like? It's problems that take more than one step to resolve, in other words...it grows more complicated!

Now that we understand the lingo, which is better, layers or subplots? Today the word subplot is kinda' old-fashioned. Subplots are found throughout 20th century literature, and in contemporary novels.

Novels today benefit more from tightly weaving plot layers, than from the broad sprawl of subplots. but it is not to say that subplots don't have a place in a breakout novel!

Are there subplots that can be developed for your novel? Some writers are afraid to add subplots, for fear their story will run away with them. That fear is unfounded. Subplots may make a novel sprawl, but if carefully woven together with the main layers, the novel will have the rich tapestry feeling of real life!

Step 1: Who are your novel's most important secondary characters?

Step 2: what is the main problem, conflict, or goal faced by each of these characters?

Step 3: For each, what are the three main steps leading to the solution of that problem, the resolution of that conflict, or the attainment of that goal. Put another way, what are three actions, events, or developments...of the secondary characters...that you could not possibly leave out.

Step 4: Outline each secondary character's story. while your protagonist is at work on the main problem, what is each character doing to slove his own problem?

Note: What if your novel is not really about your hero, but about another character? That is the point of this exercise: To make secondary characters active, to give them lives and stories of their own. These are true subplots!

Follow-up: Weave your plot layers together with your subplots using the method in the building Plot exercis steps from yesterday. Add the nodes of conjuncture that you discover to your novel.

Conclusion: Can subplots and secondary characters steal the show? Yep! If they do it effectively enough, you may have the wrong protagonist. But most subplots are underdeveloped or nonexistent. This exercise can help give subplots a vital pulse.

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: Weaving a Story.

Yesterday we added layers. The next is to get them to work together. Without linking them you might as well be writing separate novels for each layer. Weaving them together is finding ways for them to coexist.

The devices that you use to make the connections are called nodes of conjunction. A setting in your story may recur in different layers, thus serving double duty. A character who faces his own problems in a subplot may bring relief, or introduce a complication, to your protag, who is facing their own conflict.

Secondary characters can get dragged into storylines they did not expect to grapple with. These are the ways in which storylines cross. Count the nodes of conjunction that weave together the layers in your novel. How many are there? Search for more!

Step 1: On a single sheet of paper, make three columns. In the first one list major and secondary characters. In the middle, list the principle narrative lines, main problems, extra plot layers, subplots, minor narrative threads, questions to be answered in the course of the story, etc, In the third column list the novel's principle places and major settings.

Step 2: With circles and lines, connect a character, a narrative line, and a place. Keep drawing lines and circles at random, making connections. See what develops. When a random connection suddenly makes sense...make notes.

Note: Try this and you will find connections you never saw before, characters that cross from one storyline to another, settings that host more than one storyline. these nodes of conjunction give a novel texture, a feeling of being woven together.

Follow-up: Add to you novel at least six of the nodes of conjunction that you came up with.

Conclusion: You may feel that you story is runninf away from you out of control. This panic is normal. Trust the process. If you have set a strong central problem, added layers, and found ways to weave them together, then the whole thing will come together in the end!