Novel Writer's Toolkit: Revised Edition

Theme and Intent/The Conflict Box

Idea

Intent

Characters

If you know and, more importantly, have a good feel for each of these three before you begin writing, you increase the quality of your work. We will talk more about character when we get to TOOL 5: People the World.

Unity

Unity is tightening down the story, but it’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of unity when you begin writing because unity revolves around emotion. What is the feel of the book? What do you want readers to walk away with? And that goes hand in hand with Intent. The key with unity is to get it our of your subconscious and into your conscious and then deliberately line up all the elements of the story to support those things.

The things in your story that make up the spine of the book must all relate to each other for the book to have UNITY, a sense of wholeness.  That spine then reflects the Kernel Idea or theme of the book. See how it all comes back to the Kernel Idea?

Motifs & Symbols

Motifs and symbols can help create unity in your book. While they won’t be at the forefront of your mind when you begin writing, it is important to pull them from your subconscious and become aware of them so you can use them effectively in your writing.

Ask yourselves what could be the motifs in your book, the repeating images, sounds, words, phrases, events, etc. that build a pattern in the reader’s mind? Sometimes your Kernel Idea, your intent and theme, will lend itself to these patterns. But if you’re not looking for them, you might miss a great opportunity to connect on a deep emotional level.

Are there any things in your book that might become motifs if you repeated them?  They must be repeated at least three times in order to sink into the readers mind.

What are your symbols, the concrete representations of abstract ideas?  This is where show, don’t tell, comes in.  You use objects to represent the emotions and ideas you want the reader to experience.

Do your motifs or symbols shift to reinforce plot and character arcs?  The same object can be used differently or treated differently so the reader can pick up the arcs in character and plot.

Why did you choose the opening image in your book?  In movies, the first ‘shot’ often sets the tone.  What’s the first thing you see on-screen?  I always show the opening shot of Patton in my workshops and people immediately know what movie it is when they see that huge American flag at the back of the stage.  What is your book’s opening shot?

Why did you choose the motifs and symbols you used?  Everything in your book serves a purpose.  Your subconscious will sometimes insert things into your book that don’t seem to do much.  At first.  That’s why you don’t edit them out too soon.  Leave them.  Because those things could end up being critical later on and used another way.

Tone

What tone do I want to achieve in my story? 

This is a question not many people think about.  For my book Bodyguard of Lies, one of the few comments my agent came back with was that the tone of the book was inconsistent.  He didn’t say where, he just said it was.  As the author, it was my job to figure out where and why.  

What I found was that in my dark, fast-paced thriller, I had a scene that was slow and lighthearted.  There’s nothing wrong with changing up the pace of a story.  In fact, you need to or you will numb the reader out.  The problem here was that the change was so abrupt it jarred the reader.  You’ve all read books or watched movies that put you in a certain mood, then suddenly shifted tone, jarring you out of the story.  Once in while this actually works as a technique, but only if done for a specific purpose and consciously.