Alcorn - How To Fix Your Novel

How to Fix
Your Novel

by

Steve Alcorn

Also by Steve Alcorn

A Matter of Justice (a Dani Deucer mystery)

Everything in its Path (historical fiction)

Ring of Diamonds (writing as Sharon Stevens)

Travel Kid (a pictorial journal)

Building a Better Mouse: The Story of the Electronic Imagineers Who Built Epcot

Theme Park Design: Behind the Scenes with an Engineer

e-mail the author at:

steve@alcorn.com

Copyright 2012 by Steve Alcorn

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

First Edition

Theme Perks Press

themeperks.com

Table of Contents

How This Book Can Help

What Do I Write About?

Passion

Theme

Book

Theme

Character Flaw

Premise

Sex

Age

The Goal

The Flaw

Backstory

Physical Description

Names

Stereotypes

Show, Dont Tell

Comprehensive Character Attribute Form

One Protagonist to a Story

Introduce Your Protagonist From the Very Beginning

Make Your Protagonist Active

Give Your Protagonist a Cause Greater Than Herself

Create Conflict Within Your Protagonist

Make Your Protagonist Complex

Keep Your Protagonist in Character

Draw Your Protagonist From Yourself

Tools for Creating Sympathy

The Antagonist Mirrors the Protagonist

Make the Antagonist Active

The Antagonist Has a Tragic Flaw

The Antagonist Is Often Disguised

Tools for Creating Antipathy

The Protagonists Allies

Pawns of the Antagonist

The NemesisBad or Good?

Who Else is There?

Your Character Notebook

Character Pyramiding

Hook

Backstory

Trigger

Crisis

Struggle

Epiphany

Plan

Climax

Ending

Action and Reaction

Making the Scene

Making the Sequel

Scene and Sequel Tips

Transitions

Breaks

Scene and Sequel vs. the Checkpoints of Story Structure

Scene and Sequel Using Dialogue

Using Scene and Sequel to Control Pacing

Conflict in the Scene and Sequel

Conflict as Action

Conflict From Context

Conflict in Dialogue

But First, a Word From Our Sponsor...

Foreshadowing

Using a Clock

Story Questions

Omitted Information

Misdirection

Keep Us in the Dark

Escalation

Compounding Events

Expanding and Collapsing Time

Omniscient

Third Person Limited

First Person

Mood

Sharpening Your Descriptions

Building a Setting, Step by Step

Create Conflict

Convey Emotion

Advance the Plot

Set the Scene

Develop Character

Replace Exposition

Break Up the Narrative

Dialogue Techniques

Beats and Stage Actions

Broken Dialogue

Dialect

Interior Monologue

Nonverbal Dialogue

Dos and Donts of Dialogue

Rules for Great Dialogue

In Medias Res

Give Away the Ending

That Has a Ring to It

Ending with a Twist

Themes and Other Echoes

Before and After

The Power of Suggestion

Show, Dont Tell

Put it in Dialogue

Metaphors

Clichs

Dead Metaphors

Symbols

Make it Real

Be Active, Not Passive

Adjectives are Tools, Not Decorations

Adverbs

What You Dont Need

Preliminary Notes

Checkpoint Outline

The Story Idea

The Scene List

The Synopsis

Your Manuscript

Protagonist

Story

Plot

Writing Big and Writing Well

Traditional Publishing

The New World of Self-Publishing

Marketing

Becoming an Author

Acknowledgements

I am deeply indebted to three individuals who made this book possible:

Hollywood screenwriter Doran William Cannon, my mentor, who introduced me to his story structure theories and then talked me into perfecting and teaching them;

Wendy Peterson, whose careful editing and thoughtful contributions helped me introduce more than 10,000 students to the wonders of story structure;

and Loren Barrows, whose enthusiasm and creativity resulted in both my best online course and this book, which owes much to her thoughtful collaboration.

First Aid for Your Novel

Chapter