Novel Writing Workshop

Lesson 1.3
Crisis Continued

Now that you have a list of ideas for your crisis, it is time to pick one in particular for your story.

Pick the idea that appeals to you the most for whatever reason.

We are going to subject your idea to three question that will test whether it will be an effective crisis.



1) Is This Crisis Appropriate for My Novel's Target Genre?

According to your knowledge of the genre, you should be aware if your idea would really be a crisis that would be presented to your lead. You should tweek your idea to fit your genre, or you should choose another idea.

For example, your genre is serial-killer thriller. Would "Suppose a woman arrives home one night to find that her house has burned down" work? On the surface, this doesn't really work, but with a few changes it fits the genre quite a bit better: "Suppose a woman arrives hom to find that her house has burned down, killing her young son and his baby-sitter. The police discover evidence that points to the fire's having been started by a serial killer whose murder method is arson."



2) Would This Crisis Upset Your Lead's Life in Such a Way That He or She Would Have No Choice But to Try to Set Things Right Again?

The crisis must be something that absolutely destroys your lead's entire world. This goal not only needs to be bad enough that the lead will have to do something about it that will take the whole course of the novel and when achieved will set things right again.

Consider: "A twelve-year-old girl is teased by her classmates about her pink T-shirt." This is quite obviously not enough for a good story. It's unbelievable that this event would turn the girl's life upside down. If the teasing really bothered her, she could stop wearing the T-shirt, speak to a teacher or a principal. This is not enough to keep interest in a whole story.

Something more like "A twelve-year-old girl is ridiculed by her classmates because her mother, an alcoholic, arrived inebriated at a school play and made a terrible and highly visible scene" would work because it clearly destroys the girl's world and is not easily solved.



3) Is the Idea Interesting?

Possibly the most important question. While we all have different things that interest us. One of the biggest keys is does it interest you? If you aren't interested in it, you will not write with as much convinction and your readers will see that and won't be as interested. Also this another good time to check and make sure that your idea is interesting to the readers of your genre. Is this idea that works in your genre and is of the same kind that appears in the genre? By same kind I don't mean identical, your idea should be as unique and fresh as you can make it, but it should fit in with youor genre.



Keep going through these three questions until you find an idea that meets all of these criteria that you could write.

Once you have your idea, add it to your Statement Sheet.



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