Guest Post – Creating The Setting: The 5 Ws – Deanna Proach

Creating The Setting: The 5 W’s Characters give a story life, the plot gives it body, but the setting is the centerpiece of the story. It is what sets the tone and the atmosphere. It can even determine the outcome of events in a story. Before the tips, a quip: “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” ~ Tom Clancy Clancy is right. Fiction must make sense to the reader. Therefore, it must contain a setting that is realistic. So, before you begin the writing of your novel, you need to know the setting. When creating the perfect setting for your novel, you must think like a news journalist. There are five components to the setting: who, what, when, where and why.

Who - You need to know who the major players are going to be in your novel. Will there be one main character or will you have multiple characters that dominate the story? That will be entirely up to you to decide, but that will also depend on the nature of the book you’re going to write.

What – Your characters will need a center goal to work towards in the course of the story. That goal could be acceptance, or it could be as dramatic as your main character forming an escape plan from a predator.

When – Time is very important to a story. It is what determines whether your novel is historical or contemporary. The ‘when’ factor in the setting could take place as far back as the year 1190 A.D. or far into the future. Regardless, the date in which your novel is set will determine how much research you conduct and how your characters interact with each other.

Where – The ‘where’ factor is much like the ‘when’ factor in that it determines how much research you do. Every city, region and country has its own unique laws, customs and rituals. If you have the time and the money, you can travel to the place of your novel’s setting. The more you know about your novel’s physical setting the more authentic your novel will be. However, if you are unable to travel, you can either research the region via Google maps or you can even fictionalize the city or town.

Why – The ‘why’ factor is the most intellectual part of the setting in that it gets you to think about your characters and your story on a deeper level. For example: why are you writing this novel? What is the central message you want to convey to readers? Why do your characters behave the way they do? These are a few questions you should be able to answer before you begin the writing of your novel. Once you have established the five w’s of the setting, everything else will fall into place.

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Deanna Proach has written a young adult book titled To be Maria. You can visit her at her blog, De’s Stories. (John’s addition: you may also like her author website here.)

Morbid Mondays: Free eBook of the Week – Dust

Blurb:

A hungry alien substance has traveled to Earth following a doomed Lunar mission. No life form stands a chance, but Clyde Jackson is tougher than most. He’s seen war and he’s been in plenty of foxholes. Now he’s living through the end of the world one day at a time in a panic room that has become his only refuge.
Originally featured in The Absent Willow Review, “Dust” is the haunting meditation of a man recalling the final days of a once mighty and hopeful planet now quickly eroding to nothing under drifts of gray.

Why I Chose It:

First off, this book was a recommendation from an author friend of mine, Vincent Hobbes, an extremely talented horror author. If you don’t know him, I should tell you that if he likes something, it’s usually pretty darn good. And he loves this book. This book looks really intriguing – blurb and cover – and I am a fan of the horror genre so it’s right up my alley. In addition, it seems to have an interesting spin on things with the unique premise, and it has great reviews. Plus, it’s FREE! (I’ll be reading it ASAP.)

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On an unrelated note, my poem told from the POV of a young boy during the Great Depression, “Crash”, has just gone live at Raphael’s Village! Plus, the editor (a multi-published author) gave me and my writing prowess high praise! Check it out if you have time and I’d love comment here about what you thought to further inflate my ego (just kidding, well, sorta.) Here it is!

Interview With Published Teen Author, Vahini Naidoo

Who says teens can’t write?

Today we have a VERY special guest. And yes, this title doesn’t lie, she’s a published teen. Please welcome Vahini Naidoo, author of “Fall To Pieces” which is expected to be published by Marshall Cavendish in the fall of 2012.As a teen, Vahini already has an agent AND a commercial publisher so – despite the sheer jealousy that courses through me at the moment - it is an honor to interview her today as a teen myself. Vahini is living proof of what I’m trying to show the world – teens can write. Before we jump into the interview – which is full of awesomeness – I’ll give you an overview of her book (I’d post a cover but I don’t think there is one yet):

“Seventeen-year-old Ella Logan knows that Mark and Petal are lying about the night their friend, Amy killed herself. But Ella won’t let them bury the truth along with Amy’s body – she’ll do anything to unearth what they’re so desperate to keep secret. Even if it means a fake friendship with a new boy, who reeks of gunpowder and treachery. Even if it means throwing herself off bridges and into the face of deadly questions. Was Amy’s death really a suicide?”

Sounds cool doesn’t it? I’m working on getting an ARC to read and review, but we’ll see what happens.

Be sure to:

Visit Vahini’s blog

And

Add her book on Goodreads

1. Where’d you get the idea for this story? How did it develop over time?

The idea for Fall to Pieces came to me, weirdly enough, as a response to one of Nathan Bransford’s contest prompts and was partially inspired by the presence of a garden gnome in my bedroom at the time. Nathan was running a contest on teen diary entries, and I wrote an entry that featured a girl jumping off a roof at a party, and landing in front of a garden gnome. The idea developed from there – over time it became a fully fleshed out novel, with a mystery at its core. The garden gnome still features in the manuscript!

2. How long did it take to write your manuscript? How many rewrites did you do?

It took me about a month to write the manuscript. I actually wrote most of it during two weeks of examinations, as some sort of down-time from studying. So it was a fairly quick process. I did about three or four rounds of revision on it before it went on submission, and I’ve done another two since, with more still to come. There have definitely been a lot of major changes along the way!

3. Is it difficult to balance writing, school and other daily commitments?

Yes, of course. I think everyone has a tough time balancing writing with their other commitments – finding a work/life balance is one of the hardest things to do in anyone’s life. My strategy is fairly simple, though. I just try to write every day. Even if it’s just a sentence or two – and some days it really is impossible to do more – that’s still some kind of progress, and it’s still keeping my skills sharp.

4. What was it like leading up to “The Call”? Were you so nervous that you couldn’t focus on anything? Explain what was going through your mind while it took place, step by step beginning with when the phone rang.

I didn’t actually have very much notice leading up to the call! I’d just given my agent my phone number, and she called me ten minutes later. I was nervous, yes, but I was also pretty much euphoric in those ten minutes leading up to the call. I’d been querying my manuscript for three months, had done a lot of revision requests and received a fair few rejections. So I was understandably excited that someone had loved my book.

When the phone rang, I didn’t actually think it would be an agent. And I didn’t pick up the phone. My Dad did. He told me it was someone from America, and when I actually got onto the phone and it turned out to be my agent I did internally freak out a bit! Mostly, during the call I was asking some questions, thinking that the agency sounded really cool, and giggling like a little school girl (I was nervous, but too interested in what my agent was saying to really pay too much attention to how idiotic I must have sounded).

5. Was this the first agent to show interest in your work? Give us your stats (partials, fulls, rejections)!

No, it wasn’t. I’d actually received an email from another agent offering representation about twenty minutes prior to the phone call. I sort of just woke up one morning and there were two offers (well, one offer to talk that looked very much like an offer of rep and one concrete offer of representation) in my inbox.

The book I’d been querying had done fairly well. I think it had about a 30-40% request rate? I don’t know, I never really kept track of these things, because I have a tendency to get obsessive that I didn’t want to encourage! I do know that I had 17 requests for fulls, in total, and 14 requests for partials. I had a fair few revise and resubmits, two of which turned into offers, and I had another offer on the original manuscript.

6. How does it feel to know that your own book is going to be published? Is it a burden off your chest?

I actually don’t think about it all that often. Mostly, I forget that I’m going to be published until someone brings it up, or I’m working on Fall to Pieces or something. When I am thinking about it, it’s simultaneously exciting and terrifying!

It doesn’t really feel like a burden off my chest, or like a weight has been lifted, or anything. Mostly because being unpublished wasn’t really a weight to me, if that makes sense? It was definitely hard, experiencing rejection and being patient (that’s still hard for me!) waiting for editor and agent responses, but as long as I was writing I didn’t feel burdened in any way by that process. I mean writing and creating stories is what I really love to do, getting published and getting to share those stories is just the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae.

7. What would you say to any skeptics of teen writing? Did you ever let their cynism influence you?

I’d say that they have every right to be skeptical, but that there are plenty of amazing teen authors (and twenty-something authors) out there that prove this skepticism somewhat unnecessary. Veronica Roth, Hannah Moskowitz, Kat Zhang, Steph Bowe etc.

I actually did let people’s cynicism influence me in certain ways. For instance, I chose to hide my age when querying (largely because I think it’s irrelevant – and I strongly advise aspiring teen writers to not mention their ages for this reason –  but also because I was worried I’d be judged by that number rather than by my writing). There was also a point, when I was fourteen or so, when I thought I’d hold off querying until I was in my twenties, just because everyone seemed to be saying that teenagers couldn’t write decent novels. I obviously didn’t wind up doing that, and I’m happy with my decision.

8. What advice would you give to us burgeoning teen writers?

The same advice that I’d give to any writer! Keep writing, keep putting your work out there. The only way to really know whether or not something is good, is to throw it out into the world and see what feedback you get. If it’s nothing but white noise and static, you go back and write something new, and throw that out there and see what happens. Often, though, the feedback that you get while querying, or on submission will improve your craft exponentially. I know this was the case for me, and it’s why I’m so glad that I didn’t wait out on querying until I was in my twenties. I’m sure that reviews and other responses to my work once it’s published, will also help me grow as a writer.

9. What is like to work with an editor on critiquing your book? Is this done on paper, MS Word, Google Docs, etc.?

Working with an editor is fantastic! Mine is so insightful, her comments are always really astute and detailed. There are no two ways about the fact that feedback from Marilyn (my editor) has hugely improved Fall to Pieces, and taken it to a whole new level. I’m actually still working on edits – I think I’ll have one or two more rounds to go before the manuscript is ‘done’ – so it will be nice for me to see the evolution of my novel continue.

My editor prints off my manuscript, and makes comments throughout on the hardcopy. She also writes up an editorial letter, which is usually a couple of pages long, about overall changes that I should implement. She mails me the hardcopy, and then I work on the manuscript in Word (although I’m sure other writers use different programs, I think Word is fairly standard), and email it back to her. Rinse and repeat for the next round of edits, and the round after that.

10. What is your favorite aspect of your book?

I will always have a soft spot for the garden gnome that makes several appearances in Fall to Pieces, but my favorite aspect is probably the way that the mystery unravels at the end, with all the twists and reveals.

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Wow. That was awesome wasn’t it? I certainly thought so! Any thoughts, questions, musings? Please comment and let me know what you thought!

Thanks to Vahini for this! It will be archived so – when she’s rich and famous – I can brag about how I interviewed her before her book was even officially published.