Finding Focus for Your Fiction by Marie Wells Coutu

If you’re like me, this whole COVID-19 shutdown has made it hard to focus on writing.

Between the news, social media, and families at home, there is much to distract us from our BICHOK (bottom in chair, hands on keyboard) tasks.

But it occurs to me that focus is key to telling our stories. So let’s turn our F-O-C-U-S to writing a scene and use it to deepen our characters and strengthen our fiction.

F-Field of vision. When your character enters a room, you can describe the whole room down to the last detail—and bore your reader. Or you can show what in that room is most important to your character. What’s in your character’s “field of vision”? What your character notices first reveals something about her. Depending on what is going on in her head, the first thing she notices may be a piece of furniture, the color of the walls, or a particular person. It might even be something or someone missing from the setting that she expected to be there. Narrow the field of vision for your reader, emphasizing the things that will develop the character or advance the plot.

O-Orient. You’ll want to help the reader understand what’s happening by orienting the scene. Make sure the reader knows where the scene is taking place. For your own information, try what’s called “blocking” in theater. Know where your characters are in relation to each other and to important objects, and “block” your scene as you write to show how they interact with each other. And bring your reader along when they move.

Of course, you can’t spell out every movement (or you’ll have a million-word novel), but if you have a character getting out of his Ford Prius and in the next line, he’s talking to someone in the kitchen, your reader will get whiplash. Provide enough information so your reader is oriented to the setting and your scene makes sense.

C-Concerns. What gets mentioned gets noticed. Consider the well-known advice that if you show a gun in Act I, it should be used before the play (or book) ends. Use that sort of focus to help your readers understand what motivates your POV character. Show what interests him, what his concerns are, and what’s important to him.

U-Unify. Give unity to your story by choosing scenes and plot elements that reveal the theme in different ways. The TV show Bluebloods is an excellent example: in an hour-long episode, three (or more) members of the Reagan family will deal with a similar issue from various perspectives through three different plotlines. For example, in a 2006 episode called “Justice Delayed,” Jaime and Eddy discovered thousands in cash in a dead man’s apartment; Erin sought to prosecute a man accused of killing his wife; and Frank and Danny dealt with a man released after 20 years in jail for murder and his son who confessed to a recent murder. By the end, the issue is brought into focus during a discussion at the Sunday dinner table.

In this episode, the themes of justice, second chances, secrets, and truth all played a part, but Frank pointed out the overarching theme of grace. By showing different facets of a complex theme, you can unify your plot and your novel.

S-Sharpen. Using a (virtual) spotlight to emphasize what’s important will help to sharpen your scenes. Eliminate the extraneous and focus on aspects of the setting and characters that contribute to the overall effect of the story.

Pages and pages of description of the moors in Wuthering Heights may have set the mood for the story, but today’s readers will quickly lose interest. By turning the spotlight on key elements, you can achieve the desired mood and help your readers experience the story through the eyes and hearts of the characters.

Narrow the field of vision for your reader, emphasizing things that will develop the character or advance the plot. @mwcoutu @MaryAFelkins #writingtips

Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like old houses, gnarly trees, and forgotten treasures. When she’s not writing about finding restoration and healing through God-designed journeys, she enjoys taking broken things and making them useful.
She is currently working on historical romance novels set in the 1930s. One manuscript won the 2019 Touched by Love Contest and the 2019 Sheila Contest, and a second novel also won in the Sheila Contest.
Her published novels are women’s contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, For Such a Moment, won the Books of Hope Contest. The Secret Heart, her newest release, and Thirsting for More, the second book in the series, were finalists in several contests.

You can find more about Marie and her novels on her Facebook author page and her website, MarieWellsCoutu.com,
Follow her on Twitter @mwcoutu or on Amazon.

Sometimes Story Overrides Rules by Annette M. Irby

The story gushed onto the laptop screen. Wait, let’s back up a second. Not the story first. First, the characters. Vibrant. Living. Talking-to-me-already characters. I could see them. I learned their names. I easily found matching photographs online for the ensemble cast. I hadn’t written books with so many characters before. But this book’s hero had a posse. These guys hung out together, rooted for each other. And, rule-breakers that they were, they were on screen from the opening pages of the book. As if they didn’t care that we writers have a slew of rules, one of them being to keep the character count to a minimum as a story opens. Nope. Turns out, they were more concerned with the story, and jumping right in meant finding them in the inciting incident scene with my hero. A heap of peeps. Together and indifferent to my plight.

I didn’t set out to write an ensemble-cast novel, but the story took me for a ride.

NaNo is a time of fast-drafting—where you prepare ahead of time with character sketches and perhaps an outline or a thought or two, and then dive in once November 1 rolls around. Your goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. No small feat during the holidays. On deadline for a contract, that’s what I did—prepped ahead. I can tell you where I was sitting as, in late October, these guys filled my head, showing up and, as adrenaline junkies often do, showing off.

So, should rules dictate how our stories come together, or how they read at completion? Yes and no. I’ve worked in acquisitions, and I’ve published novels. I understand both sides. I’m guessing I’ve rejected a manuscript because the author didn’t follow the rules, but if the story reeled me in and held on to me, some writing rules were negotiable. (I know. Eeeps!) At various writers’ conferences in my life as an author, I’ve heard publishing representatives say repeatedly, “I’m looking for a good story. A new, fresh idea. Strong story is everything.”

Should rules paralyze us? Maybe not, and here’s why:

Rules change. Even spelling preferences change. A few years ago, the preference in the editors’ go-to choice for spelling (Merriam Webster online) for “goodbye” was “good-bye.” Then, without warning, M-W.com replaced their preference and poof! All of us had a choice to make. Publishing house style guides were rewritten. A rule had changed. What about the pesky comma before "too"? Used to be, we needed to include it. Now, not so much, most of the time. Or what I call "priority commas," where you forego using one or more commas because others already in the sentence aid meaning without an overload of punctuation. Some houses practice this, some do not.

Trends change. A decade or more ago, a genre known as ChickLit thrived. But you won’t find many books in this genre coming out these days. Point-of-view is another area that has changed over the years. Now, editors and readers prefer purist point of view, rather than switching heads within a scene (head-hopping), or seeing things from God’s perspective (omniscient), or, what I call “collective POV” where we experience more than one person’s perspective at any given time. Like: They all felt better when the fire alarm stopped blaring. That may be true, but show us through your POVC (point-of-view character) rather than getting into everyone’s perspective at once.

Various editors and publishers have their own style guides. The Chicago Manual of Style only covers so much. The writers of CMS leave many things to interpretation, indicating that clarity should be the editor's  (and writer's) goal. Because of this, editors and publishers have in-house style guides for what-to-do-when-faced-with most textual situations. You could appease seven in ten editors, and the other three may shake their heads at your grammatical, spelling, or storytelling choices.

Preferences differ. Oh, find me a roomful of folks who can all agree on anything and you may have worked a miracle. Editors have varying opinions. Readers, the same. Some love a genre, some hate it. Some have pet peeves that you’ve never thought of as you write. Poke one of those, and you may receive a negative review. Some readers balk because they read your Christian book and you included talk of . . . gulp, Christ in the narrative.

One of the keys for writers and editors is avoiding confusion. If you can write a story that engages us without disorienting us, you're halfway there. Editors can help you clean up any other manuscript issues. At times, story rules over writing rules.

Done well, story sweeps both writer and reader away, and extra kudos to the storytellers who can transport editors. Though I had a partial outline, I didn’t anticipate all the elements I’d include in my Bainbridge book. I was surprised as I fast-drafted. And then, the story seemed to be working, so, since it was NaNo and since the story line was engaging, I didn’t back down. Sure, I knew the rules. The story, the characters, the plot didn’t care.

Your turn: Have you ever had to overcome a writing rule in order to write a stronger story? How did that go? Would you do it again? Does knowing the rules of story paralyze you? How do you overcome?

When story overrides writing rules. Today at #SeriouslyWrite. @annettemirby #seriouslywrite #amwriting #BainbridgeIslandNovel

That time my ensemble-cast characters didn't care about writing rules. @annettemirby #seriouslywrite #amwriting #BainbridgeIslandNovel

~~~~~

FL on Bainbridge Island

Finding Love on Bainbridge Island, Washington by Annette M. Irby

Book Two in the Washington Island Romance series.

Find book three, the latest release, here.

Kindle Unlimited members can read the Washington Island Romance series for free.

Neither of them is ready for a relationship, but love may not give them an out.

Jenna-Shea Brown considers herself a broken therapist. Years ago, she witnessed something that caused PTSD. She can’t let her boss or her patients know about her battle. Who would want to trust her to help them, when she can’t help herself? She’s finally able to find a fresh start in her family’s beach cabin, but the renovations aren’t complete. Her parents have hired her ex-boyfriend to finalize them, but his negligence led to her being in the wrong place at the wrong time all those years ago.

Liam Barrett is trying to prove he’s nothing like his deadbeat dad. He’s working hard, yet still failing. Adrenaline and adventure offer him a diversion, but maybe he can’t escape his genes. He’d like to make things right with Shea, but he’s unsure if she’ll forgive him. Meanwhile, he’s challenged to forgive his father. He’s also worried about Shea and all these episodes she won’t explain. Now that they’re back in close proximity, he’s falling for her again. But can anything heal the past?

~~~~~

Annette M. Irby*

Annette M. Irby has been writing since her teen years when she sat pounding out stories on a vintage typewriter just for fun. Since then, she’s joined Christian writing groups and launched blogs so she could share the joy of writing. She likes to say she’s addicted to color as flowers and seascapes inspire her. In her off hours, she enjoys gardening, photography, and music. She lives with her husband and family in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more here on her Seriously Write Page.





Laptop photo credit: Pixabay
Author photo credit: Sarah Irby; Irby Photography

Creating Magical Moments by Annette M. Irby

glass bell Christmas ornament*

On silent footfalls in the dim auditorium, the choir members made their way down the aisles to stand among the enraptured audience. 

Hark, how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

Throw cares away

I held my breath. Closed my eyes. Their a cappella voices resounded off the ceiling, the walls, surrounding the audience. I lost myself in their notes, trying to capture the moment to savor later. I’ll never forget that concert.

Have you experienced something like that in a movie or a book or a concert? Where art takes you someplace meaningful, personal, and magical?

We authors have a chance to create those moments for readers. I’m guessing that like me, you can immerse yourself in the story world you’re writing. When you get into the zone, your senses are affected.

Recently, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—November). I lost myself in the story world at Christmastime and deeply experienced the emotions and setting where my characters lived. The snowstorm, the injury, the fudge. 😉 As I left my writing desk to tackle other tasks, I relived the scenes. I couldn’t wait to get back to that story. That’s how readers will feel, we hope. But when I returned to my computer, and read back through, I didn’t feel the same emotions. As the reader this time around, I needed help getting immersed (the author’s job) and found the scenes lacking. What happened? Obviously what was playing through my mind as I wrote it, wasn’t fully translated on the page. Probably, in my hurry to get the words down, I left out phrases that would tug my readers under water with me. So, I layered those in during the edits.

Here are some tips for layering in magical elements so that your readers will also experience them:

* Use the five senses. Let us taste the gingerbread, smell the sugar cookies baking, see the sparkling Christmas lights, hear the carols, and feel the hero or heroine’s hand in ours.

* Include a relatable, emotional tie-in. I’m writing a Christmas story, and almost everyone can feel nostalgic at Christmas. If I include a phrase or two that taps into that relatable element, readers may experience it with me. When readers relate, they bond with the story, with the author, and with the memory. Your story becomes memorable.

* Don’t expect the first draft to capture all that you’re feeling as you write it. In the first draft, let yourself fast draft—just get the words out. Include as many layers as you can, but don’t miss those phrases of dialogue that flow into your mind in favor of layers. Save the layering until the next read through, if there’s no time to do it immediately.

* Give yourself some distance. Once the rush of writing those scenes relents, give yourself some time off. Take a walk. Wash the car. Sleep on it. Then, come back and approach from a reader’s POV, rather than your writerly one. That’s when you’ll be objective enough to know what’s needed.

* Let crit partners in. Have someone you trust read it. This can be either a reader or a fellow writer (who is, of course, also a reader). Let them share how it impacted them. Tell them what you were going for. You are hoping it’s magical; they’ll let you know if it is.

* Read novels by other writers. And when you do, ask yourself if any of the scenes take your breath away, make you want to savor the moment. Those are magical scenes. Then, ask: what about this scene—or what led up to it—makes this a memorable and powerful scene? How did this author do that? How can I do it in my own writing? We writers are always learning the craft through study.

* Not every scene has to be magical. So much of what we write is ground work for those magical moments. The rest of the concert has faded from my memory, except that golden carol. That’s okay. As in life, not all story moments are magical.

Here’s to creating those magical moments that capture our readers, making our books memorable, encouraging people, showing light and hope.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must relive a choir concert in my imagination. Feel free to join me. The lights are dim, and the audience holds their breath. The choir forms a semi-circle within the audience, lifting their perfectly blended voices in an a cappella version of Carol of the Bells. 

Hark how the bells,

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

Throw cares away

Christmas is here

Bringing good cheer

To young and old

Meek and the bold

Write on, friends!

~~~~~

FL on Bainbridge Island, Washington

Finding Love on Bainbridge Island, Washington by Annette M. Irby

Neither of them is ready for a relationship, but love may not give them an out.

Jenna-Shea Brown considers herself a broken therapist. Years ago, she witnessed something that caused PTSD. She can’t let her boss or her patients know about her battle. Who would want to trust her to help them, when she can’t help herself? She’s finally able to find a fresh start in her family’s beach cabin, but the renovations aren’t complete. Her parents have hired her ex-boyfriend to finalize them, but his negligence led to her being in the wrong place at the wrong time all those years ago. 

Liam Barrett is trying to prove he’s nothing like his deadbeat dad. He’s working hard, yet still failing. Adrenaline and adventure offer him a diversion, but maybe he can’t escape his genes. He’d like to make things right with Shea, but he’s unsure if she’ll forgive him. Meanwhile, he’s challenged to forgive his father. He’s also worried about Shea and all these episodes she won’t explain. Now that they’re back in close proximity, he’s falling for her again. But can anything heal the past?

~~~~~

Annette M. Irby**

Annette M. Irby has been writing since her teen years when she sat pounding out stories on a vintage typewriter just for fun. Since then, she’s joined Christian writing groups and launched blogs so she could share the joy of writing. She likes to say she’s addicted to color as flowers and seascapes inspire her. In her off hours, she enjoys gardening, photography, and music. She lives with her husband and family in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more here on her Seriously Write Page

* Photo of Christmas bell ornament: Pixabay

** Author Photo credit: Sarah Irby at Irby Photos