Novel writing

A South African Writers’ Circle Workshop

By Sue Trollip

Tip 1

from Jack London

‘You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.’

Tip 2

Make use of Word’s features:

It may make things easier if you write different points of view in different colours (green for the frog and purple for the dinosaur).

And, when editing, change the font, it supposedly tricks the brain into thinking it’s seeing something new.

There are, arguably, two parts to a novel

• Character, and • Plot

Character

There are memorable characters for all sorts of good reasons, like Mr Darcy, and there are memorable characters for all sorts of bad reasons like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Read and see for yourself what makes a memorable character then try to infuse some of that into your characters.

F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tom (The Great Gatsby)

‘He was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body – he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage – a cruel body. His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked.’

Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

‘The ragbag colours of her boy’s hair, tawny streaks, strands of albino-blond and yellow, caught the hall light. It was a warm evening, nearly summer, and she wore a slim cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker. For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap and lemon cleanness, a rough pink darkening in the cheeks. Her mouth was large, her nose upturned. A pair of dark glasses blotted out her eyes. It was a face beyond childhood, yet this side of belonging to a woman. I though her anywhere between sixteen and thirty.’

Plot

Simply put plot is your protagonist moving from point A to point B

A nice straight line

But your plot is driven forward by conflict and motivation.

So imagine this:

You’re on a Karoo highway and for 100 kms in front of you and 99 kms in your rear view mirror you can see the road clearly. There’s not another car in sight, the only distraction are sheep scattered across the flat landscape. Now even if you’re in a Ferrari doing 220 kms with your favourite band blasting from the speakers, after an hour or so you’re going to get sleepy, you’re going to start seeing mirages.

Boredom!

Now imagine you’re driving along a mountain pass in Bolivia. There are sheer cliff drops and hairpin bends and maniac drivers. You are going to be clinging to the steering wheel with your eyes wide open waiting to see what happens next.

And that’s what you want your reader to do.

So instead of that straight line between point A and point B you want a jagged line with hairpin bends and sheer cliff faces and maniac drivers (metaphorically speaking, of course). Don’t forget motivation.

Why does your protagonist have to be on that mountain pass road to get to point B? Why are they not sitting in the business class lounge at the nearest airport?

7 Basic Plots

Comedy – A Midsummer Night’s DreamOvercoming the Monster – James Bond Rags to Riches – Jane EyreRebirth – A Christmas Carol The Quest – Lord of the RingsTragedy – Anna Karenina Voyage and Return – Alice in Wonderland