This is one of the areas that I struggle with the most. I love to read thrillers and I’m in awe of people that can create compelling plot-driven stories. How do you even begin to create something that is a page-turner while also weaving in all the other strands such as the great characters, setting and prose?

I’m still learning and it remains challenging for me (except for dialogue – I hate that with a vengeance and even typing this is making me annoyed LOL). However, one of the key things that’s helped with my plot and structure is my first book recommendation.

Into the Woods by John Yorke
This book breaks down story into acts and goes through the different act structures that a story can have – most commonly three acts or five acts. It’s primarily about film and television there are lots of interesting and useful techniques that can be applied to novels and even short story. Into the Woods talks you through the different elements of a story from inciting incident right through to resolution. Some of the films used include Thelma and Louise and the Godfather but he also uses examples such as Romeo and Juliet. Yorke shows that no matter how distinctively different two stories seem to be from each other on the surface, they all have similar structures. And this structure applies to chapters (or episodes in the case of TV) as well as scenes. There’s lots more including how to create cliff-hangers and how to avoid sounding too expositional when you’re trying to convey information to a reader through dialogue, which was particularly useful for Kololo Hill. It’s still my favourite book ever on writing, I’ve re-read it with each new novel as I write a zero draft.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Now on to a book that is brilliant in many regards, but in particular, it’s clever structure. This is also one of my favourite novels (OK I know I say that a lot). There’s only one main character point of view but there are lots of factors at play because the story is all about would happen if we could go back in time and change the past. There is far more to it than time-travel but the thing I like most is the way interesting way that Atkinson tells the story.

Plotting timelines
This tip will be particularly useful for those of us who have complicated plots with numerous characters and timelines. I read that an author (I’m really sorry because I’ve forgotten who it was now) writes their key plot points out on a long piece of paper. I take it one step further because my stories tend to be quite complex. You can basically plot the points of key moments in the novel. You can start by plotting out the key moments for your characters for example when the inciting incident, then mid-point and so on. Then you can overlay that with other factors such as the timeline of key political events or other things external to the characters that need to happen at particular moments. I added these along the bottom of the chart. The reason that this approach worked particularly for me was that it enables me to see the story arcs for more than one character at a time. It’s also more interesting for the story where the story arcs of two characters aren’t in symmetry. In fact, the most interesting stories will be those where the characters vary so where one character is down on their luck while the other’s fortunes are rising. You could also try it with your main plot versus your subplot.

If you want even more book recommendations take a look at my latest YouTube video.

The post How to plot your story – novel writing tips appeared first on Neema Shah Author.

When I first began writing, I thought that characters had to be larger than life and jump off the page. Despite the fact that some of the books that I’ve loved most have featured characters who are unusually quiet or have interesting inner lives, I felt that in order to capture the attention of a reader, agent or publisher, my own characters needed to be the life of the party, show-stopper, grab-the-limelight types.

The post How to create compelling characters – novel writing tips from author Neema Shah appeared first on Neema Shah Author.

1. The Third Magpie is accessible literature but when querying, at a little over 500 pages long (137K words) it is too long for many publishers to consider as a debut novel. They take on a book assessing the financial risks as well as the literary merits. It is expensive to print and market books, so I had a choice, reduce the word count by a third or self-publish.
2. Self-publishing isn’t an easy options and it isn’t the natural territory for literary novels. Most successful self-publishers are based in one or two particular genres. But once I found out how hard it is to sell literary through the traditional publishing, I thought, ‘What have I got to lose?’ I knew I had both the time and the support to deal with all the other aspects of self-publishing that is usually handled by an agent and/or publisher.
3. Most of the early days were spent on research, what needs to be done and in what order. Things like, buying and registering an ISBN, comparing printing options and costs, learning how to typeset both for digital and physical copies, employing an editor and a cover designer; only once this had been done, did we set about producing the book.
4. When you traditionally publish you hand over control and some of the rewards to the publisher and they take on the promotion of your novel. It is in their interests to sell as many as possible as quickly as possible, in order to cover the outlay. In self-publishing, it is all down to you. You keep control and the rewards, but, you finance it all and bear all the risks.
5. Unlike the traditional publishers, who need to see a quick return on an investment, when you self-publish you may not see any profits for a long time. Go in with your eyes open and understand, this is a marathon not a sprint. Allow yourself the right to make some mistakes, learn from them. Take advice from those who have gone before you but be wary of those who offer you instant success, at a price. Reviews may be limited, you may even face some hostility for self-publishing, but keep in mind the concept of self-publishing – or at least taking on board the financial risk of your novel – was commonplace before the 20th century.
6. As things stand, a traditional publishing deal can offer many advantages, but given the technologies available to all, the coming century will inevitably see changes on how people read and most of all, how writers publish. Kindle Direct Publishing has been a game changer, but there are other options appearing too; raise funds for a print run via a Kickstarter event, publish chapters at a time on WattPad or become an Instagram writers/poets and gather a fan base, By it’s very nature, self-publishing opens doors to those for whom the traditional option is a difficult option to crack. A computer has no interest in the colour of your skin, your educational background, you age or sexual orientation. It can be a freeing experience to know you get to publish exactly what you imagined when sitting at a desk for the first time. Maybe not everyone will read it, but it will always be your book baby.

About The Third Magpie

Caring teacher and loving husband, Finn tolerates daily humiliation to be with Sophie, the woman he loves. Fragile & naturally compliant he must summon all his courage to survive the system. Despite the injustice, they dream of a normal life, where liberty and identity are not subverted by ever tightening restrictions.When a powerful politician requests that Finn tutor his daughter, it seems like a change of fortune, but in New Albany, every opportunity comes at price.

How far must Sophie go to save the man she loves?

For fans of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, ‘VOX’, ‘1984’, and other speculative fiction, ‘The Third Magpie takes the reader into a terrifyingly plausible world where a wristband identifies you as different, restricting your job opportunities, your movement, and even who you can marry. It is a society where propaganda masks extremism that threatens your very existence.

About M.S. Clements

Of Anglo-Spanish heritage, M.S. Clements grew up in Exeter, Devon. After gaining a degree in Economics and Spanish, Clements moved to London and trained for a PGCE at The Institute of Education.  She continues to run a Spanish club for primary aged girls at a local school and tutors privately. M.S. Clements has published short stories and poetry both online and in print, and is a founding member of @Virtwriting, an online writers’ group. Her debut novel The Third Magpie was published in 2020.

Thank you so much for sharing your tips M!

To get my latest blog posts straight to your inbox, you can subscribe to my blog to get the latest.

The post M.S. Clements on her self-publishing journey appeared first on Neema Shah Author.

Here’s a guest post from Virtual Writing Group with a collection of highlights.

Self-doubt affects us all

There were a few questions about how to deal with ‘imposter syndrome’ and the worry that we’re not good enough as writers. Judging by the responses from the authors, this is completely normal and never really goes away. Although this might sound a bit demoralising, Suzanne Ewart has a great way of dealing with it:

Ha! I’m a bit obsessed with finding out famous authors’ stories about their road to publication. It helps so much to know that even successful writers face rejection after rejection and it’s just part of the process. Makes you think, if they’ve done it…

— Suzanne Ewart (@SuzanneEwart1) June 9, 2019

Juggling writing and life stuff is key

The Q&A authors have clearly put a lot of work into writing and continue to do so on their path to publication. They all carve out time between other things including childcare, physical challenges and work commitments. But they were also clear that you have to be kind yourself because guilt will just use up valuable energy that you could be using on writing.

There is no ‘single’ route to publishing

The authors have all taken different journeys on their path to publication. M.S. Clements carefully weighed up the pros and cons of traditional versus self-publishing before deciding to branch out. As she says about self-publishing:

It isn’t the ‘Cheats way out’. You have to look at it as a business. Be pragmatic and understand to do it properly means research, facts and figures. Not at all glamarous. @IndieAuthorALLI have masses of advice. I strongly suggest you start there.

— M S Clements (@MSClementsbook) June 9, 2019

Finding an agent doesn’t have to rely on ‘insider’ connections

Some of the authors were signed up by their agents through the slush pile, though a few had taken opportunities through courses and writing festivals to meet agents (and of course, other writers) when they could. However, Anita Frank’s experience shows that none of that essential:

I was slush pile. Never done comps or courses or 1-2-1s. I subbed to 12 in April and had offers by July. I had officially gone beyond ‘if you don’t hear within 2 months it’s a no’ for my agent when I had the full request, so don’t give up hope!

— Anita Frank (@Ajes74) June 9, 2019

Learning the craft of writing can come from unexpected sources

Although the authors made some book recommendations on the craft of writing, including The Emotion Thesaurus and Reading Like a Writer, they learn from all sorts of sources. As Sally Doherty said:

YES!! Everything I have learnt about writing so far has been through twitter advice, blog posts and through feedback. This is what works for me. Although I do feel ‘naughty’ for not reading craft books.

— Sally Doherty writes 👩‍💻 (@Sally_writes) June 9, 2019

Finding the right kind of beta readers can be a great help

Many of the authors had beta readers during their writing process and found it helped them hone their drafts. They said it was important as a writer to learn to understand what feedback to take on and when to follow your gut. And as Nikki Smith says, you have to find the right kind of beta reader:

I think if no one has read it yet ask someone, preferably published or an avid reader & perhaps start with the first 3 chapters. Ask them for what they think isn’t working & what is – no point if you just get positive feedback as it won’t help in the long term!

— Nikki Smith (@Mrssmithmunday) June 9, 2019

Learning to find the balance between research and story is crucial

The authors who needed to do lots of research talked about the importance of accuracy whilst always remembering that it’s the story that needs to come first. As historical fiction author Carolyn O’Brien put it:

Read, read, read keep a note of what you’ve read, try and verify from another source, repeat! And, eventually, when you feel you’ve repeated enough times, remind yourself you’re writing fiction! (Wow, why is it so much easier to give advice??!!)

— Carolyn O’Brien (@CarolynManc) June 9, 2019

This is just a snapshot of the Twitter Q&A, too see the full conversation, check out the Virtual Writing Group’s thread.

Thanks to Virtual Writing Group for this great blog post and for asking me on the Q&A. There were lots more questions about finding an agent in particular and I’ll be kicking off a series of blog posts about this soon, so sign up to the feed if you want to stay in the loop.

The post Writing and publishing a novel tips on the VWG author Q&A appeared first on Neema Shah Author.