THE WRITE WHISPER: The question you must answer

We've all heard the terms 'premise' and 'theme' bandied around.

And if you're anything like me, having to label my story kinda freaks me out.

If I had to do it, I'd say many of my contemporary romances have been stories of second chances.

But there's something more important than figuring out theme while you're actually writing. Answering the all important STORY QUESTION.

So what is a story question?
It's the question that drives a reader to finish the book or watch a movie.

eg. Will Bella and Edward overcome all obstacles to be together?
Will Woody and Buzz save their toy mates and get played with in safety?

Interestingly, the answer to the question isn't often in doubt.

We know Bella and Edward will overcome all obstacles to live HEA.
We know Woody and Buzz will look after their mates and save the day in the process.

But what's important is getting your reader to care about the story question.
And to do this, we need to get our readers to care about our characters.

Both Bella and Edward are fish out of water characters. They don't belong. They're outcasts/strange in their respective worlds. And Edward is 'out' of this world. But Bella's desire for the vampire is strong. She'll let nothing stand in their way of being together and a powerful desire makes a character more compelling.

Along with getting your reader to care about your characters, your reader should be in doubt how your story question will be resolved. (Even though the ultimate outcome is rarely in doubt.)

eg. Though we strongly suspect Bella and Edward will end up together, they face enormous obstacles in getting there. Jacob, the Volturi, Victoria, their families, the list goes on.

So want to write a great story?

-Create a compelling story question.

-Create a character reader's will root for

-And a reason why they'll support that character through to the end.

-Create obstacles, make it look like that character can't obtain what they want.

-Try to answer your story question in an unexpected way.

Happy writing!

THE WRITE WHISPER: Mind Maps

I stumbled across Mind Maps when I did a creative writing course years ago. It was at a time where the first stirrings of my itchy fingers started, when I wanted to pick up pen and paper and start writing.

I can't remember much of the course other than the teacher bringing in weird and wonderful objects each week and asking us to write a short story about them. Stories I recently re-read when I stumbled across the folder from the course, stories I'm sure won't ever see the light of day!

An interesting aside caught my attention as I flicked through this folder.

Mind maps.

I'd done one for each story, done one for my current release TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED (though I didn't know it at the time!)

Stupidly, I threw them all out, otherwise I could've scanned one for you to see here. And the mind map I created in Word last night especially for this blog won't upload (so if anyone wants a copy of it, you can email me at nicola@nicolamarsh.com and I'll forward it to you.) I'll try and describe it for you now.

Mind mapping is basically concept planning.

You take a central theme and collect ideas in different categories around it.
I guess you can say it's a diagramatic form of brainstorming.

Possible elements of a story map include:

Central theme/title
Characters
Setting
Time period
Uses of theme
Useful catch phrases/symbology/etc...

To create your own mind map, go into Word, click on 'Insert', then 'Diagram', then choose 'Radial Diagram'.
You'll end up with a central circle and loads of circles branching off from this like tentacles.

Then you can start having fun!

With the book I'm currently plotting, I had the heroine's job as the central theme because it's highly unusual. From there, my branches included: brief emotional descriptions of hero and heroine, secondary characters, setting, time period. Basically, you can include anything!
I used colourful crayons too, just for something different and it was strangely liberating.

So get those minds mapping.
You never know what gem of an idea may pop up.