How to Write a Brilliant Novel: The Easy Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Story (Go! Write Something Brilliant) (17 page)

So
she
stood
without
fear
on
the
bluff
overlooking
the
Klondike
Ravine
framing
in her
viewfinder
the
five
hotshots,
with
their
green
fire-retardant
pants
and
yellow Nomex
shirts,
their
red
helmets,
faces
gritty
and
black
with
reverse
raccoon
eyes.
She didn’t
think
twice
about
the
way
the
wind
reached
down
and
nipped
her
neck,
a surprisingly
cool
bite
after
the
scorching
afternoon.

Her
father
always
said
that
one
should
never
get
too
close
to
a
sleeping
dragon.

But
she
had
the
perfect
photo
op,
didn’t
she?
Right
here,
on
top
of
the
Klondike
Ravine, overlooking
the
scorched
moonscape
of
the
Lake
Clark
preserve,
a
2.6
million
acre swath
of
once
lush
hills,
vibrant
with
color
–
green
spruce,
and
purple
lupine,
red crowberries
and
white
dwarf
dogwoods
--
now
charred
gray,
skeletal
trees
stripped and
fallen,
the
fallout
of
an
late
summer
wildfire. And
in
front
of
it
all,
five hearty
hotshots,
their
faces
gritty,
red
helmets
layered
in
ash,
grinned
up
at
her, leaning
on
their
pulaskis.

“One
more
picture,
guys!”
She
centered
them
in
the
viewfinder,
ignoring
the
whip of
wind
that
ran
through
her
jacket.

It
was
then
the
dragon
awakened.

The
last
snapshot
Kacie
Billings
ever
took
was
of
Jeb
Ransom,
face
sooty,
eyes reddened
with
smoke,
his
blue
handkerchief
over
his
nose
and
mouth,
his
yellow
shirt whipping
into
the
wind
as
he
deployed
his
fire
shelter.
Over
her.

While
fire
crested
down
on
them
in
a
tsunami
of
scorching
death.

Kacie
Billings
didn’t
fear
fire.
She
figured
that
pe
r
haps
once
had
been
enough
to satiate
its
ethereal
hunger
and
that
she
possessed
an
immunity
born
from
loss
and grief,
from
the
sacrifices
of
the
generation
before
her.
Fate,
and
fire,
wouldn’t
want her.

Which
was
why,
on
the
south
side
of
the
Klondike
Ra
v
ine,
as
the
wall
of
fire
rolled toward
her,
she
stood
frozen.

Her
Nikon
dangling
from
her
neck. Watching.

On
a
cool
August
day,
on
the
south
slope
of
the
Klondike
ravine
in
southern
Alaska, Kacie
Billings
finally
got
her
glimpse
of
hell.

“One
more
picture,
guys!”
She
centered
her
viewfinder
on
the
five
raccoo
n
-eyed hotshots,
all
grinning
up
at
her
under
their
grimy
red
helmets,
their
fla
g
-yellow Nomex
shirts
blazing
through
the
haze.
They
leaned
on
their
pulaskis
as
if
they might
be
the
world’s
definition
of
heroes.

In
her
book,
they
were.
Behind
them,
the
scorched
moonscape
of
the
Lake
Clark preserve,
a
2.6
million
acre
swath
of
once
lush
hills,
vibrant
with
color
–
green spruce
and
purple
lupine,
red
crowberries
and
white
dwarf
dogwoods
--
now charred
gray,
skeletal
trees
stripped
and
fallen,
the
fallout
of
a
late
summer wildfire.

Perfect.
Even,
award-winning.
See,
with
a
little
patience…

She
captured
the
shot,
ignoring
the
whip
of
wind
that
ran
through
her
jacket. That’s
when
she
heard
the
growl.

And
right
behind
it,
the
scream
of
fire
boss
Jed
Ransom
from
along
the
rid
g
e.

Run.

Keep in mind that the SHARP hook examples were all from the
first paragraph
of a novel. But you also want to keep hooks in mind for the first paragraph of
every new scene
. You don’t want your reader to put your book down at the beginning of the next chapter, right? Just like the first paragraph, you need to consider how you will grab their attention at the beginning of each scene too.

Here are some quick ideas how to start those scenes:

• With dialogue.
  
• Describing a character who is new, yet essential, to the
  scene.
  
• Setting--especially to set mood.
  
• A narrative
  statement
  
• Action
  

Most importantly, start late, leave early! If your character is going somewhere, have them already pulling up, or inside the building. You can throw in a couple lines of narration to sum up what happened, but you want to focus the scenes on the action, not on the boring stuff of driving or getting dressed, or eating. (Unless, of course, that’s an important part of the scene!)

• Stakes
  
• Hero/Heroine Identification
  
• Anchoring
  
• Run
  
• Problem/Story Question
  

Why is point of view(POV) important, and how can it help or harm our work?

Point of View: What is it?
It's the view or perspective of the protagonist or secondary characters. Another way to explain it is: the “story view” of the hero or the heroine.

First let’s address overall POV choices. There are several types of POV writing:

• Limited Third Person
  
• Omniscient,
  
• Narrative
  
• First Person
  
• Second Person
  

Now, some POV choices are made because of the author’s strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes authors write in third person or first person because it's their best voice. Other times, it’s about the best voice for the story. For example, private investigator (PI) books or women’s fiction often have a first-person POV. No matter how the choice is made, however, there is always a POV character and it’s his/her voice we hear throughout the book.

Limited third person
is the most popular POV used today. This means the story is being told through the eyes, ears, and mouth of one character at a time. The writer may have multiple characters "telling" the story, but only one is on stage, speaking, at a time.

Let's look at a romance. The hero and heroine usually have a POV in the story. The author will break up the story into scenes, describing the plot and action from one or the other's POV.

Here's an example:

Tom stood to watch the boats docking in the moor. The wind pressed the hem of his shirt against his abdomen as he raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. How could he be like one of the boats, free and out on the open sea? His mouth watered at the idea. His heart beat as if he'd actually cut and run.

Behind him, Rachel waited, feeling alone and left out.

Now, what's wrong with this example? I told you what
both
Tom and Rachel were feeling. That's called "head hopping”—when something is observed that the POV character can’t think or experience. Want to convey someone else’s thoughts in the scene? One idea would be for the POV Character to
guess
the attitudes or thoughts of the character’s he’s talking to, based on that character’s body language , which then would affect the POV character’s responses.