The Fire in Fiction

1. Passion Fuels Great Fiction

The passion that inspires great fiction can be a writing technique as handy and easy to use as those with which all fiction writers are familiar.

Status seekers vs. storytellers. Novelists often fall into two camps: those driven by the desire for publication and status, and those fueled by a burning passion to tell stories. While both may express commitment, true storytellers prioritize making their work the best it can be, often spending years and multiple drafts refining their craft, rather than rushing to market.

Passion is conviction. Passion in writing is the underlying conviction that makes words matter, an urgent drive to convey something specific and essential to the reader. This could be a universal truth or a small, precise detail. Passionate writing feels effortless, crackles with energy, and avoids common pitfalls like flat characters or predictable plots.

Passion is a technique. Contrary to the myth of writing as unpredictable magic, passion can be a repeatable technique. It's not about conjuring external forces but about accessing and applying an internal drive. Embracing passion as a daily practice allows authors to control their success and make every scene vibrant and purposeful.

2. Make Readers Care Immediately

To create an immediate bond between reader and protagonist, it is necessary to show your reader a reason to care.

Beyond the ordinary. Readers aren't automatically drawn to average characters just because they are relatable. Just as in life, we are drawn to people who are exceptional or inspiring in some way. For protagonists, this means quickly demonstrating a quality that makes them worth spending time with, whether admirable or compellingly flawed.

Finding inner strength. Even for ordinary or dark protagonists (wounded, haunted, unpleasant), authors must reveal a hidden strength or a longing for positive change early on. This could be resilience, self-awareness, a capacity for great happiness, or a deep love for someone else. This "shaft of light" signals to the reader that the character is worth investing in.

Humanizing heroes. Conversely, overly perfect or heroic protagonists can feel cardboard and unrelatable. To make them human, quickly show their flaws, vulnerabilities, or internal struggles. This "cuts them down to size," making them real and creating room for change, which is essential for story progression.

3. Build Unforgettable Characters

Supporting players in manuscripts submitted to my agency are too often forgettable... secondary characters aren't born, they're built.

Making secondary characters special. Secondary characters, including sidekicks and antagonists, are crucial for a novel's strength. To make them memorable, build them deliberately. Give them stature, allure, or a significant history with the protagonist, often conveyed by showing their profound impact on the main character.

Ordinary characters, extraordinary depth. Even seemingly ordinary sidekicks can be compelling by playing against expectations and revealing human conflicts. They should provide contrast to the protagonist but also possess unexpected dimensions. Eccentric characters must be genuinely and deeply strange, with justified and detailed oddities to be believable.

Antagonists must be human. Cardboard villains driven by pure evil are unrealistic and uninteresting. Compelling antagonists have understandable motives, even if their actions are horrific. They can be active opponents or subtle forces of friction, but their unexpected sides, justifications, and even moments of being "right" add significant drama and complexity.

4. Scenes Must Drive Change

scenes work best when they have both outer and inner turning points.

Every scene has a purpose. Sagging middle scenes often lack purpose. Every scene should enact a change, moving the story forward. This change isn't just about getting characters from point A to point B or setting up future events; it's about transformation within the scene itself.

Outer turning points. A scene's outer turning point is the moment when external circumstances change for the protagonist. This could be a discovery, a setback, a success, or any event that alters the character's situation or the plot's direction. It provides the external shape and direction for the scene.

Inner turning points. Equally vital is the inner turning point, the precise moment within the scene when the point-of-view character changes as a result of the external events. This could be a realization, a shift in emotion, a change in resolve, or a new understanding. The interplay of outer and inner change makes a scene necessary and dynamic.

5. Dialogue Needs Tension

True tension in dialogue comes not from what is being said, but from inside those who are saying it.

Beyond information exchange. Much dialogue in manuscripts is dull because it focuses solely on conveying information or advancing the plot mechanically. Even disguised info dumps or exchanges of facts lack tension unless there's an underlying emotional charge.

Emotional friction is key. Tension in dialogue arises from the emotional friction between speakers. This could be disagreement, testing of facts, skepticism, hidden agendas, or conflicting desires. The reader is gripped not by the topic but by the dynamic between the characters, wondering how their emotional tug-of-war will resolve.

Inner conflict externalized. Dialogue can also create tension by externalizing a character's inner conflicts or pitting allies against each other through polite disagreement. The strain comes from the unspoken or underlying tensions, making even seemingly calm conversations riveting. Taut dialogue avoids unnecessary words and focuses on this emotional core.

6. Setting is Character

The trick is not to find a fresh setting or a unique way to portray a familiar place; rather, it is to discover in your setting what is unique for your characters, if not for you.

More than description. Setting comes alive not just through sensory details, but by integrating it into the characters' experience. It's the combination of specific details and the emotions attached to them that makes a place feel like a living thing, inseparable from the narrative fabric.

Measuring change over time. A powerful technique is to show how a place changes over time, not just physically, but in the characters' perception and feelings about it. This progression of feelings mirrors the characters' own evolution and adds a dynamic layer to the setting, making it feel alive through their eyes.

History is personal. Whether historical or contemporary, the "times" of a novel are best conveyed by filtering them through the characters' perspectives, opinions, and experiences. Specific details of the era, combined with a character's strong feelings or unique observations about them, create a sense of the period that is deeply personal and engaging.

7. Develop a Singular Voice

Above all, a singular voice is not a lucky accident; it comes from a storyteller's commitment not just to tell a terrific story but to tell it in a way that is wholly his own.

Voice is outlook. Voice is more than just prose style; it's the author's outlook, sensibility, and forcefulness coming across on the page. It's having something to say and a distinctive way of saying it, whether through the narrator or the characters.

Giving characters voice. Any character can stand out by having a unique take on things, expressed through their specific lingo, opinions, or manner of expression. This distinctiveness makes them more interesting and contributes to the overall voice of the novel.

Details and delivery. Voice can be built through the specific details a narrator chooses to convey, even in seemingly ordinary situations. It can also come through syntax, sentence structure, and the delivery of information or emotion, creating a unique rhythm and feel that is instantly recognizable.

8. Make the Impossible Believable

When novels work, they build a feeling of believability.

Overcoming skepticism. Readers are naturally skeptical of improbable premises like conspiracies, cloning, or supernatural beings. The author's first task is to pulverize this resistance and convince the reader that the unlikely is not only possible but happening within the story's world.

Make characters believe. A key technique is to make the story's characters believe the improbable scenario. By investing readers deeply in these characters and showing their fear, conviction, and struggle, the author can overcome the reader's rational resistance. We may not buy the premise, but we buy that the characters do.

Human villains and pseudo-facts. Focusing on human villains with compelling, understandable motives makes the threat feel real, even if the underlying scenario is outlandish. Additionally, overwhelming readers with detailed, research-backed pseudo-facts (verisimilitude) can lend an air of authenticity, making the improbable seem more plausible within the story's context.

9. Embrace Hyperreality

In a passionate story the particulars of life are magnified.

Exaggerate for impact. Effective storytelling doesn't just reflect reality; it exaggerates it. Characters are larger than life, events matter profoundly, and the world feels heightened. This hyperreality makes the story more vivid and engaging than the mundane.

Satire as a masterclass. Satire, by definition, uses exaggeration (hyperbole) to poke fun at the world. Studying satirists reveals techniques like wit, biting comment, ironic juxtaposition, escalation of the ridiculous, and funny voices. These methods of mirth can be applied to any genre to punch up description and emotion.

Applying hyperbole. Hyperbole is a universal tool for heightening reality. Describing something as merely "big" is less impactful than using an exaggerated, specific comparison. Pumping up emotions or situations to a ridiculous degree can create humor or intensity, making the novel feel bigger and more dynamic.

10. Master Micro-Tension

Keeping readers constantly in your grip comes from the steady application of something else altogether. Micro-tension.

Beyond plot conflict. While central conflict is essential, micro-tension is the moment-by-moment suspense that keeps readers glued to every line. It's not generated by high stakes or action alone, but by something deeper.

Conflicting emotions and ideas. The basis of micro-tension lies in conflicting emotions or ideas within the point-of-view character. This internal friction creates suspense, making the reader wonder how the character will reconcile these opposing forces.

Allows breaking rules. When micro-tension is present, authors can successfully employ techniques often considered low-tension traps, such as description, backstory, or exposition. The tension comes from the character's internal state, not the external circumstance, making even quiet moments riveting.

11. Transform Low-Tension Moments

Tension in aftermath comes not from contemplation but from inner conflict.

Identifying the traps. Certain elements like weather openings, landscape descriptions, backstory dumps, aftermath passages, and travel scenes are often low-tension traps that cause readers to skim. They lack inherent drama.

Infusing inner conflict. To make these moments work, infuse them with tension by linking external details to the character's internal conflict. A weather description becomes tense when tied to a character's anxiety; a landscape description gains power when filtered through an observer's sadness or anger.

Past creates present conflict. Backstory should not just be information; it should be used to create present conflict for the character. Aftermath isn't just mulling; it's the character wrestling with conflicting emotions or ideas about what just happened, creating suspense about their next move.

Last updated: May 19, 2025