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Module 1 Q&A – 10th Oct 7pm (UK time)
Hi everyone, this is where the first Q&A will be happening. Craig and I will both be online to answer your questions. They will all be saved here in this forum for you to refer back to throughout the course. When you type your questions in, please specify which of us you’re asking it of. If you can’t be online during the Q&A you can post your questions in advance and we will answer those for you too. I am also going to email the link to get to the forum directly.
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95 Replies
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We can prepost a question right here?
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That’s right, Mary Kathleen. If you can’t come along on Thursday while we’re live post your questions here in advance and we’ll answer them for you.
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Hi! I will be in and out during the Q&A time, so I want to be sure to ask this one early on – I have several POV characters in my book, and I have mapped out their own character/plot arcs. For the 10-point plot, though, should I try to synthesize them all into an overarching plot for the book at large? Thank you!!
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Hello Nicci. Yes, you should have a lead character within the POVs you have so that there is an overarching plot and character arc that pulls the reader through the story.
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Another question I have is whether an institution could be the “lead” in terms of how the story is structured? Like, there’s a secret society, and that society faces an existential threat, etc. Hopefully that is clear.
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It will likely be difficult for a reader to connect enough emotionally to care about an institution so try to use a character – someone within the institution – to hang the story of the threat on. It’s the impact of the society failing on a person that will resonate with readers.
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Tough to pull off. Unusual things can be ‘as characters’ – like Jaws in Jaws, like the planet in The Martian. But without access to a principle character’s feelings empathy is reduced. Can you not have one person who embodies the institution?
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I’ll be busy working for The Man during the Q&A. So I’ll post a question now. How long should each ‘point’ be in the 10-point plot? I’ve… struggled… to condense my points down to 2 or 3 sentences. I’m assuming this exercise is meant to help us boil our plot down to just the 10 essential elements.
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Yes, but at this stage do not get hung up about it. It’s just to get you thinking about structure and plot.
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Hello Billy, there’s no specific length. It all depends really on how much of a plotter you are. Mine are quite short as I am naturally a pantser but going into more detail for each point is absolutely fine if that works for you. These tools we’re sharing in the course can be adapted to suit how you write so you can find the right way for you.
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Somewhere in the videos I thought it was said that a first chapter should be no longer than 3,000 words. Is this true? If so, Is it true for all chapters?
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There’s no rule about chapter lengths. Whatever works for the story. In my first novel some of the chapters were just one paragraph long. Others were several thousand words. One of the novels on the Booker shortlist this year is all one long sentence!
But with your first chapter you need to be setting up questions that need to be answered in your reader’s mind and ending at a point that leaves them hanging so they have to read on.
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My question is also about length of chapters – should they roughly be the same(ish) length or is it better to vary the length? I suppose it also depends on the genre and writing style? Is there a rough guide regarding readers’ attention span?
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Chapters can be as long or as short as you want them to be. There’s no guide I’m afraid about reader’s attention spans. Also see my answer above to Mary Kathleen’s question about chapter lengths.
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No need to worry about this at all Rita. Long or short – they can alternate / change. Just write. You can introduce divisions later.
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I hope i make the chat tomorrow but if i don’t my question is about language. My book is half in the past in Italy where the main characters would speak in Italian, but obviously I am writing that in fluent English as they would be fluent in their own language. Then the second half is in the current day when they are in England and the US as foreigners speaking English. How do I put the accent in without making it heavy? How much of the Italian do I put in, Harry recently did a post on this but I am still not sure how I am going to handle this, particularly for the main character who never has the chance to master English.
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Hi Toni! I’m also mixing my languages. Most of my characters speak only Spanish but I’m writing in English. I’ve been sprinkling Spanish words in the dialogue in places where their meaning is obvious or easily explained. For instance, a character might say “Muy bien,” when something goes well. I don’t have to explain what it means and the reader is reminded that everyone is speaking Spanish. When I’ve had beta readers read it, they liked the approach. I’ve also read books where non-English speakers use nothing but English the entire book. It didn’t bother me at all.
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Hello Toni, as Billy has said – just drop in a few words now and then to remind the reader that the narrator in the past would be speaking in Italian. In the present day you can occasionally use the sentence structure in dialogue to show they are speaking English as a foreign language.
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Good question Toni. How do we show dialect without making it intrusive? I would adopt one or two patterns of speech which are typical but not convert all of the speech into authentic dialect as people go tired of that. If you use a couple of phrases then people will hear the rest.
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Another question, I think because I have two stories within the story I need to do two 10 point plots? Past and present or I am just focusing on the first part?
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Yes you need to have a narrative drive and story arc in both elements. I’d focus on just writing one part for now though and then write the other and weave them together.
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Hi Amanda,
Do you have any advice on using real or fictional names for the locations in a story? For example, if the action is based in the North of England, should there be reference to a real town or proximity to places like Manchester, Bolton or Wigan? Or is it acceptable to make up the name of a town or village and still situate it close to real geographical places. My feeling is that you go one way or the other, rather than mix things up…?
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Hello Julie, yes you can use a fictional name for the village your story is set in and use real names for other places. Lots of books do this. The author Julie Cohen set one of her novels in Reading but called it something else and still referred to surrounding places by their real names.
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Yes, I think not mix things up. Either all real or all fictional is the easiest.
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Hello everyone, I’m here ready to answer all your burning questions!
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Also on place, Amanda, I have been hung up on the idea of identifying the specific city where my story takes place, but the exact location doesn’t really have much significance to the story – it could be any big city, particularly in the US. I sprinkle in details like subway rides etc, but never name the city or the nearby river, etc. I’m beginning to think, especially after watching Harry’s “Sense of Place” video, that it’s okay not to reference the exact location as long as I create a sense of place within that, in the places the characters frequent. Am I on the right track here?
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Hello Nicci, you are indeed on the right track. You don’t have to name the place at all if you don’t want to – a sense of place is more about bringing the setting alive for the reader so they feel like they are walking through it with the narrator. Lots of novels never name the place they are set in.
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Thank you – that’s really helpful 😀
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In the first homework assignment, you ask for our hopes for the novel and career as an author. What do you mean here by ‘your career as an author’? This question is for Amanda or Craig.
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To piggyback on this, is there any particular content you’re looking for in the extract? The first 500 words of the book, or anything that we’d like feedback on?
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Something you think gives a good flavour of the novel and your main character would be good. Or if there is something in particular you feel you need to work on an example of that.
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Hello Celine, just a rough overview of where you hope to go with your writing – is it just for pleasure? Do you hope to get an agent and a book deal? Or self-publish?That sort of thing.
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Hi Celine. The course encourages you to think about your ambitions long term and to learn tools that do not just apply to the one novel you are writing but can be taken away and applied by you to the next. We hope not to enable books but writers
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I’m curious how many times you have offered this program in the past.
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We ran a pilot of it that started last October and has just finished. We ran this through my company, Retreat West, with 9 writers. This is the first one of the full course with Jericho and they helped us develop the final 3 months of the content about routes to publishing.
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