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Thank you Raimey!

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Looking for that perfect resource book with both exercise application and examples of successful work?

90 Days to Your Novel, A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book, by Sarah Domet is my favorite thing these days. I’m currently Day 6 into the writing exercises. I’ve already defined 10 characters, four of them pivotal, threaded in background scenes, favorite places and personality quirks to include as I write. I can honestly admit though, I won’t make the 90-day mark. My timeline is a little longer. Sometimes I use one exercise to span two to three days.

Favorite Points on Scene Development

“Scenes are modules, a single unit of your novel … a reader should have learned something about the characters involved or about the unraveling plot,” (page 36, Domet).

• Write for the reader and not the writer. As a writer, I love to get lost in detail and scenery. But a reader wants to know the who and the what, and not just the wow.
• Include the main character as early as possible in any scene. Domet suggests as early as paragraph two and no later than paragraph three.
• The middle of any scene should be heavy with conflict pushing against the main character’s nearest and dearest wish.
• The end of a scene should show the reader a new character insight, a metaphor, or leave a question that makes it impossible to not turn the page and want more.

Points on Character

• Need some writing prompts to get into your main character’s head and body, and all of the minor ones too? I LOVE the Biography worksheets in this book.
• The “I Care Factor” is the connection to aim for which moves your reader through the book.
• Emotion is conveyed in many different ways, and it’s different for each character both in public and private settings.
• Write for the senses and express what they feel through word choice and physical characteristics.

A thought to ponder: Think of a moment in your life when you and someone else experienced the same emotional event. How did you handle it in public vs. private? How did they handle it? Would you blush? Would they? Would you tremble? Would you burst out in a slew of regrettable words? Maybe this someone you knew stormed off.  The worksheets in this book helped me figure out these reactions in all of my characters. I wrote three short scenes; first, one character who experienced intense emotion in a comfortable location; next, I wrote the same character freaking out in a public place; and finally,  I wrote a combined scene with two of more of my main characters. The best part is how everything I wrote can be used down the road in the book.

I hope my thoughts today helped. Heard of the book? Got a favorite tool you use to flush out a new manuscript? I’d love to hear it.