What was your character like before this event?

In order to properly execute your plot points by showing rather than telling, you need to start by examining how the event will change your character. It could be as simple as changing their mind, perhaps they had a certain plan set in their mind but this event shows them that it’s a bad idea. It could be something big that changes their perception of the world, perhaps a loved one betrays them or they find out a dark secret. Or maybe it changes their perception of themselves, maybe the event shows them that they’re braver or more capable than they previously thought. Either way, a plot point should visibly affect your protagonist in a major way.

How did this event change your character or their trajectory in the story?

There are two ways a plot point can change the trajectory of a story. The first is by fundamentally changing the protagonist themselves, thereby changing any decisions they will make after this point in the story. It could also simply change the trajectory by giving them new information or direction that affects what happens next and the decisions being made.

A plot point doesn’t involve every conversation and scene throughout your book, but rather purely those that lead the protagonist where they need to go to get to your novel’s climax. When you’re writing a scene that can be considered a plot point, make it more obvious to the reader by clearly telegraphing the drama involved. Write in-scene with short and quick sentences so the pacing feels faster. Have your protagonist react to the information or events of the scene through action, mannerisms, changes in dialogue, etc.

What choice did your character make?

Major plot points should always be accompanied by character choice. Don’t make your readers follow a protagonist who lets the world kind of happen to them. Instead, allow your readers to follow someone who is an active participant in the world and in their own story (AKA someone who makes choices). Character choice is, therefore, an excellent way to telegraph to your readers that a major plot point is unfolding in your novel.

When writing a character choice into your plot, make sure to examine it thoroughly. Why is the protagonist making this choice? Does it make sense for them to make this choice? Just because you need your plot to lead a certain direction, doesn’t mean your characters can make choices they wouldn’t make.

How is your character or the events of the story different afterward?

What has changed based on this plot point? From your perspective, likely very little has changed, but you need to put yourself into the minds of your readers. Has their perception of the world you’ve created changed based on the information they’ve learned in this scene? Or was the protagonist about to head somewhere very dangerous when they learned of a different way to accomplish their goal, therefore totally changing the protagonist’s physical trajectory in the plot? Or perhaps a major life event occurs from which the protagonist will spend a significant amount of the book recovering? Think about what has changed for the protagonist based on the scene you’ve created and make sure those changes are telegraphed in the text. Showing, rather than telling, how the story or protagonist has changed will allow readers to see that a major plot point has occurred.

The post Show Don’t Tell: Plot Points appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

1) Exposition

The exposition portion of the story arc involves acclimating the reader into the context of the book with relevant details regarding story and character. The way to show rather than tell your readers the exposition of your novel is by interspersing the details within character action. Rather than beginning your novel with this long history of the world, your story is set in, begin with a scene where your character is in action in some way. They could be running late for work, dreading a first date, or even preparing for a battle in more action-based novels.

These details help ground the story in the ‘present’ of the novel and they allow the reader to learn about the character in the ‘now’ as we’re hearing about the relevant parts of their past. For example, let’s say we’re getting exposition about how your character used to be more jaded but we’re seeing them helping an elderly person cross the street as they’re rushing to work. The reader can directly see that the character has changed over time and this poses a question of what has changed, which you can then answer in the exposition.

2) Inciting Incident

The next stage of your story arc is the inciting incident, or the event that sets your story in motion. This is the event that should answer the question ‘why does your story take place now? Why today?’ There has to be something major going on in the life of your protagonist in order for your story to start where it does. And if you’re thinking to yourself that a major event or character moment doesn’t happen in the beginning of your story, then you haven’t found your beginning yet.

When it comes to showing rather than telling your inciting incident, focus on describing the action and emotion of the scene. The event should be obvious enough to the reader for them to know it’s the inciting incident (again, if it’s not your story needs a rewrite). But to help them along, make sure you’re writing ‘in-scene’ and playing up the drama, emotion, dialogue, and action of the moment. This way your reader will know for sure that this is where the story arc that they’ll follow for the entire novel begins.

3) Rising Action

The rising action involves a series of events (connected to the original inciting incident) that continue to further the plot of the story towards the eventual climax. So, for example, if the inciting incident was an announcement that a tornado will hit the protagonist’s town, the rising action would involve trying to stock up on supplies, trying to create a bunker to hide in, and even the beginning effects of the tornado. And your protagonist will have obstacles along each plot point, so when they go to the store everything they need will be sold out.

In order to show your readers the rising action of your novel, focus on plotting out these points prior to writing them. Make sure your plot doesn’t go through too long of a lull without the rising action coming into play. And, when you’re writing a scene with a rising action plot point, make sure the stakes are high and clear to the reader. The most obvious stakes are life or death, but perhaps one of your rising action plot points is that a character overhears his best friend talking badly about him behind his back. Without even needing to state it, the reader can infer that it’s their friendship that is at stake in this moment.

4) Climax

The climax of the story should contain two elements: action and choice. The main plot of your story should eventually lead to a choice that your protagonist must make. Then, the climax and/or resolution of your story should be a direct result of the choice they end up making. You, therefore, must make sure that both the choice and action of your climax make sense for your character and the rest of the plot points in your story.

If you’ve done your job write, the choice should be obvious to the reader at this point. All of the plot points should build-up to this moment and, although the reader may not know what the protagonist will choose, they should know what the choice will be between. When it comes to the climax, however, the way to make it obvious to the reader is to write in-scene. Forgo using exposition, limit any internal monologues, and don’t use long scene descriptors. Instead, focus on using short sentences to increase the pace and urgency. Use lots of dialogue and action in this moment as well.

5) Resolution

Finally, the resolution involves wrapping up the plot of the story. This is a calm point after the high action of the climax of your story where things are falling into place (for better or worse). Focus on tying up any loose ends in your story here. Make sure any consequences of your protagonist’s choice are addressed.

Instead of directly telling your reader that things are being ‘resolved’, focus on dialogue here. Any important conversations that need to be had between characters with rising tension or characters with unresolved issues should be played out before the reader. You don’t need to wrap everything up in a bow for the reader to know this is the resolution of your story. You need only to make sure any leftover moments that need to happen, happen here.

The post Show Don’t Tell: Story Arc appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

1) Keep it short and sweet

No matter how enthusiastic your fans are, typical book-reading audiences will start to tune out after 8-10 minutes of uninterrupted speech. Try to keep your reading around that time length so that you don’t end up losing the interest of your audience. The goal is to leave the reading with your audience wanting more, not having them leave feeling like they got way too much. Plus, the longer you drone on after your audience has lost interest, the more you look like you just enjoy hearing yourself talk (and that doesn’t bode well for book sales).

2) Choose the right passage

In addition to timing your book reading correctly, you’ll need to select the perfect passage to read from. This could be the beginning of your book, but it could also take place somewhere in the middle as well. Choosing a portion of your book for a book reading is a very difficult art. You want to choose a part that is heavier in action than exposition because that will hold the listener’s interest more, but you also don’t want to choose any parts with major spoilers because that may dissuade the audience members from purchasing your book post-reading. While attempting to avoid that faux pas, try to choose a part that feels as though it has a beginning, middle, and end within your story. Something that has action, good prose, a little bit of a character arc, and perhaps ends on a juicy cliffhanger to leave your listeners wanting more.

3) Practice & Prepare

A lot of authors approach book readings without much prep work other than choosing a passage. They think ‘Well, I can read so…’ and then they don’t prepare whatsoever. But you’d be surprised at the unexpected nerves that set in and the stuttering that can come from simply being out of practice at reading in a public setting. It’s crucial that authors practice reading their passage repetitively, alone and in front of family/friends, to get their rhythm down and help eliminate some of the hiccups that can occur in a reading.

Not only should you practice though, you’ll also need to be fully prepared for the reading. Call the venue and have them walk you through the activities of the day- Are they doing a Q&A after the reading? Are they doing a signing or meet & greet after the reading? Obviously, in the case of the latter, you’d need to come prepared with books and pens to sign copies and/or sell copies.

4) Be positive & humble

Nothing will put an audience off quicker than you coming out on stage with an arrogant attitude, acting like your words are prophetic. No matter what level of success you’ve attained with your work, readers want their authors to be humble and kind. And, if you’re looking to build up success, having humility will allow you to build good relationships where readers are rooting for you to succeed. These are the kind of supportive readers that will pass along recommendations to their friends, post about you on their social platforms, etc. because they genuinely want to support you.

In addition, you must have a positive attitude. Even if you are a huge introvert and doing book readings are the bain of your existence, your audience doesn’t want to hear that (even if you say it as a joke). They’re excited to see you in this platform, they don’t want to hear you complain about how much you hate it- this will put a damper on the whole event.

5) Be concise when answering questions

Doing a Q&A can be a fun way for readers to get to know you on a more personal level. If every answer you give is super long-winded, however, they’ll wish they never did. Not only will readers become discouraged from asking questions if every answer is ten minutes long, but time may run out without you getting to every question. If you think you’ll struggle giving short concise answers to questions, do some research beforehand. Look up some common questions at book readings and watch some youtube videos as well. Write down some of the most repeated questions and come up with concise answers that you’re also satisfied with.

6) Network & Promote Yourself

As we stated previously, a book reading is an amazing opportunity to establish personal relationships with some of your readers. Don’t be afraid to mingle during the signing portion or even after the event is over. These types of relationships are the ones that really work hard to help build up your career.

If you’re attempting to establish a social media presence for yourself as an author, it would be helpful to bring along a friend or fellow author to take videos and photos of the event. Doing a book reading establishes legitimacy for you as an author and that is great content to help build up your author pages.

The post How to do a Book Reading appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.