STRUCTURES OF A NOVEL BY RITA KARNOPP

What story structure dominates your novel?  The choice is yours, the writer.  Every novel contains four elements that determine structure; setting, idea, character, and event.  You decide which matters most to you and that structure will drive your story.

Setting – We know many stories that are setting driven.  How about Gulliver’s Travels or Into the West?  These stories always evolve around the setting.  Into the West is structured around Indian country and compared to the tame East and the people striving for a better life.  The focus or whole point of the story is for the reader to see the differences between the land and the people.  How do they handle these differences?  What conflicts and resolutions occur from beginning to end? How does this change or transform the characters?  The story begins with the arrival and ends when the character(s) decides to stay or leave.

Idea – This structure is simple; it begins by asking a question and ends when the question is answered.  We know this structure well.  Mysteries are a great example of the idea structure.  The story begins when a crime takes place.  Everyone wants to know who did it and why.  The story is over when we discover the killer and his/her motive.

Character – With character you need to focus on the internal growth of your character(s) throughout the story.  The story most likely isn’t about the growth, it’s about the plot, but character growth is important – it makes us care about him/her.  Character driven stories start the moment your main character(s) find themselves in a situation or crisis they aren’t sure how to deal with.  They are miserable or angry and know they need to make some changes in their life.  The story is about how they handle the situation and their process of change.  At the end either they make changes or settle into accepting their unhappy situation.

Structure – We all love ‘the sky is falling’ story.  You know the earthquake that can potentially destroy the world, or create enough havoc that it is apocalyptic.  Perhaps it’s the death of a king or queen, or even the Vikings conquering new lands.  In all cases the world our characters exist in is being disrupted or turned upside down.

The story begins when the character’s world is threatening chaos or has already begun.  Note that it’s the viewpoint character, not the narrator that guides the reader into the state of circumstance.  

At the beginning you don’t need a long, dragging-on prologue to describe the state of the world.  Why?  To be honest the reader isn’t emotionally invested in the characters at the beginning and they won’t care.  I hate prologues – and I never read them.  Personally, I think they’re useless.

Begin in the midst of action . . . and draw your reader in slowly . . . carefully . . . make them feel, make them care, make them pull for the character(s) – and you’ve got them until ‘the end.’

 Rita Karnopp
Author ~ Romancing the West

ritakarnopp@bresnan.net

http://ritakarnopp.com

http://mizging.blogspot.com

Celebrating Independent Bookstores by Karla Stover

  

In September 2013, author Sherman Alexi sat down with his agent, Nancy Stauffer, and Betsy Burton, co-owner of the King’s English Bookshop to have a little chat about the demise of so many bookstores.  Starting with the question, “What can authors do to help the Indies?” Alexie came up with the idea of sending letters to a small group of authors, whom he called on to “become superheroes for independent bookstores,” and the letters started a movement were writers worked at Indies for a day, drawing in customers and recommending books. Over 400 national and international bookstores participated in the inaugural, Indies First on November 30th, 2013. This year, in Washington State, alone, thirty-two bookstores participated, and I was one of the featured authors in Tacoma, at King’s books.

Tacoma has four main Indies but only King’s participated. King’s has a great reputation for hosting community events: featured poetry readings with open mike, a religion and spirituality book club, a YA Book Club for adult readers, a Banned Book Club, and the LGBTQ Book Club, to mention a few. The local vegan organization meets there as does the sword and laser group. And those are just the regularly-scheduled groups.

Anyway, on Indie day, authors worked in shifts, were asked to provide recommendations for customers, and given the opportunity to read from their own books. I was lucky enough to have two friends face a bitterly cold day and come out to support me, one of whom was visiting from New York, where he is an occasional soap opera actor and Broadway dancer. Now, at least one of my books is headed for the Big Apple. Yay!

Last year my closest writer friend died, and this year my critique group dissolved. Indie day was an opportunity to be with other writers as well as book buyers. Unfortunately for me, the writers were all men who knew each other, and I’m shy when it comes to breaking into groups. Also, I simply had nothing to say to the fellow who wrote about his girlfriend forgetting (maybe on purpose) to flush the toilet, and their urine comingling. I mean, who would have anything to offer, other than an uncomfortable laugh? And the story went one and one and on.

Though no one asked for my book recommendations, it was a good day and I hope I can participate again next year. I’d love to hang around all day and talk books. But if I don’t, it was fun and Indies deserve and need support.  

Christmas Sparkle by Cheryl Wright

Over the years I've accumulated a ton of Christmas stamps, which I regularly use to make cards. This year I vowed I would not, under any circumstances, buy any more Christmas stamps. I could make do with what I already had.

Yeah, sure. And pigs might fly.

I belong to a Facebook group where retired Stampin' Up products are sold. Some are new, some are  second-hand, it depends on how old they are, and who is doing the selling.

Most of us buying these sets are doing so because they became unavailable (due to limited quantities) when they were in the catalogue. Or because we didn't know they existed back then.

I managed to get an incredibly elegant set called "Special Season".  (If you would like to check it out, go to my Pinterest board featuring this set here.)

The greeting shown on this card is from that set. The wreath however, is not a Christmas stamp at all. It's from a set called Stippled Blossoms, which is a fabulous set, and I use it regularly for birthdays and thank you cards.

Again, you can check it out on Pinterest. This is another retired set, which I've had for several months now.

While I was in the process of making my Christmas cards recently, I found a video that uses the leaves from the Stippled Blossom set to produce a Christmas wreath.  (You can see the video here, or at the latter link.)

It was actually incredibly easy to do. Much easier than I'd anticipated.

While I've made a wreath using the technique shown in the video, the card itself is nothing like the orginal card shown.

To sparkle up my card I've added some glitter glue, some matching glitter paper, and some gold ribbon.

This close up gives you a bit more detail.

Til next time,

p.s. The winner of my last giveaway was Karen H. Congratulations Karen!!





Links:

My website:  www.cheryl-wright.com 
Blog:  www.cheryl-wright.com/blog
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cherylwrightauthor