Improve Your Novel Writing With a Strong Story Backbone

Start with a Genre

What kind of a book is it? A romance? A mystery? A mainstream novel? Women’s fiction? Why do you need to know that? Because agents and editors want to know. They, in turn, need to know because booksellers need to know. They set up their bookstores by genre because customers, in turn, want to know where to find their favorite kind of book.

Most of the manuscripts my agency rejects do not fall into any specific genre, but instead straddle two or more. This is because the authors haven’t given any thought to genre; they just wrote what they felt like writing. That’s fine—creativity is, of course, important—but the time to get creative is after you’ve decided exactly what kind of book you’re writing. What kind of book should you write?

Write what you love to read. Why?

Passion. The excitement you get when you read a certain kind of book will carry over into the writing of that kind of book.

Knowledge. You have a head start—you know pretty much what story lines have been done—and, more importantly, which ones haven't. So this knowledge of your favorite genre helps you be more fresh and creative with your story idea.

Throughout my career as an editor, literary agent, and book packager, I have met many writers who, desperate to get something published, jump around from genre to genre, trying to find what works.

But this scattershot approach never works as well as staying focused and targeted. Once you've targeted a genre, stick with it—know that this is what you write—and keep working to be better and better in that genre.

The Story Idea

The most important aspect of creating a novel is the story idea. It’s far more important than the quality of the writing. A beautifully written novel with stale old story idea won’t sell. A so-so written novel with a startlingly new idea probably will.

Go for an idea with a “hook�—a special something that makes it attention-grabbing and easy to describe. Like Hollywood, that’s what publishing is always looking for. A good story hook makes for good word of mouth, strong jacket or cover copy . . . and higher chances of a movie or TV sale.

How to Shape a Story Idea

Start with crisis. What is a crisis? A development, event, or piece of news that turns someone's life upside down in a negative way. This someone will be your book's protagonist, or lead. People love bad news. Gossip. Fighting. People dying. Give your lead a crisis people would want to hear about if this were real life.

But what constitutes a crisis for me may not constitute a crisis for you, or your lead. So . . . who is your lead? You can’t come up with an effective crisis for your lead until you know who your lead is.

To start with, is your lead an adult or a teen, a male or a female? How do you know? Sometimes the genre dictates this. Romance leads are women. Thriller leads are often men. Young-adult novel leads are teenagers. Leads in cozy mysteries are often women. Sometimes a specific lead gender and age are called for; other times it’s up to you. It’s your job to figure this out, and you can do this easily because you’ve already been reading for years in your target genre and know the answer to this question.

Developing a Crisis

Now that you know who your lead is, you know what kind of crisis to throw at him or her.

First, as I said above, the crisis must be a crisis to your lead.

Second, it must be genre appropriate, the kind of crisis you’re likely to find in books within this genre. Note: Not a crisis just like the ones you’ve read in books; the KIND of crisis. There’s a big difference.

The crisis must capture your imagination. Is it an idea that turns you on, gets you excited and eager to start writing? It had better be, because if you’re not excited, we’re not going to be. Moreover, you’re going to be living with this crisis and its effects over the long course of plotting and writing your novel. If you’re not excited, you’ll run out of steam pretty quickly.

Getting Crisis Ideas

Where do these crisis ideas come from?

Your own life Your family Your friends Your co-workers The media--newspapers, magazines, TV, radio Places you've been Your dreams--keep a dream notebook

Tip: Don’t accept the first idea that comes to you. In almost all cases, better ideas come along. At the very least, that first idea can be developed into something better.

Ask yourself: Can you make the idea better? Fresher? There are several ways to play with a story idea.

Make it worse. Change certain elements. Change the locale. Combine two or several ideas.

What you get when you're done with brainstorming and have come up with a lead and a crisis is what I call the Suppose. Suppose A MAN, A WOMAN, A TEEN, A CHILD...

Setting Things Right

Now that you’ve got your lead and your crisis, you need to decide what your lead is going to do about it. What will your lead do to turn his or her life right side up again? This quest to "fix things" is what your novel will be about, the story's backbone.

And with a strong backbone, there’s no limit to how good your story can be.

About The Author Evan Marshall, president of The Evan Marshall Agency, is a former book editor and packager. Recently he and coauthor Martha Jewett released The Marshall Plan® Novel Writing Software, based on his bestselling The Marshall Plan For Novel Writers™ guides. Evan is also the author a number of popular mystery novels; recently released are Death is Disposable and Evil Justice. Evan's articles have appeared in Writer's Digest and many other magazines. Visit http://www.writeanovelfast.com to download a free Fiction Makeover Guide.