How do you plot your novel? Is the 3-Act story structure the way to go, or are there other options out there? How do you decide which type of narrative organization is best for your book?
When authors ask me these questions, or if I see that their manuscript could use better organization, pacing, or transitions, there are 4 resources that I recommend most often and which inform my editing decisions. I always make sure to explain the reasoning behind my suggestions, but sometimes authors benefit from additional exercises and readings before they take on re-writes.
If you’ve been struggling with outlining your novel, feel like the middle of your story is dragging, or don’t know how to bring your plot and character arcs together in your finale, then I highly recommend you check out the articles, websites, and books below.
This book is based off of Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder, a work famous in the film industry for breaking down the organizational commonalities between the most successful movies. I studied both film and creative writing in college, and this book was foundational to me.
Snyder and Brody utilize a three act structure, broken down into 15 specific beats. Some of them will look familiar – the Catalyst is your Inciting Incident, the Midpoint is your Climax. I’ve found their method useful for outlining full novels and to serve as a “gut check” to make sure I’m including the elements of conflict and resolution that make for a compelling story.
Here’s their method at a glance:
The percentages listed above aren’t meant as hard and fast rules, but suggestions to help guide the pacing of your novel. For instance, you definitely don’t want a first act that stretches into 40% of your novel – readers will be bored. Similarly, if you don’t have a clear midpoint, the middle portion of your story may feel lackluster or you may have trouble even writing (what are you building toward?).
Every writer has their strengths and struggles – some people hate openings, middles, or endings. No matter which is the case for you, I’ve found the 15 beats a helpful diagnostic tool for determining what’s missing in a section – usually that’s what causes writer’s block.
I remember becoming frustrated when the above method didn’t work for one of my fantasy novels. It made so much sense to me, so I thought there must be a problem with my story. It took me a while to realize that while the basic framework could still work, I needed beats that focused on internal character conflict, not external plot points.
Fortunately, I’m not the first person who had this problem. The Novel Factory wrote up an excellent version of the 15 beat, 3-Act structure, based around character development.
In my experience, this outline is most effective as a brainstorming tool. Every character journey is different, so trying to fit yours into a template just won’t work. But it can still help you identify your themes, major and minor conflicts, and realize if you have too many or too few side characters to act as foils.
3. Nonwestern Story Structure
The 3-Act, conflict-driven story is a Western convention, based largely off of Aristotle’s Poetics and Joseph Campbell’s model of heroic journeys (Hero With a Thousand Faces).
But it’s hardly the only approach. In fact, in other parts of the world, stories are arranged in completely different ways. So if this method just does not appeal to you, or you’re interested in experimenting with your style, then I recommend these 2 blog posts which analyze other forms of story structure:
Scandinavian – 5-Act, multi-character narrative with 3 ritual-based truth endings
Indian – non-linear dendritic form which encompasses many differing perspectives
Central African – thematic narratives with spiritual truth emphasized over the individual
Indigenous – narratives where the actual interpretation of the ‘story’ is left entirely up to the reader
The writers of each post describe each form in detail, with helpful visual models as well, so check them out!
Here’s another one not mentioned in either of those posts – a Hebrew chiastic structure which sandwiches a core idea between 2 sets of mirror image concepts. The idea is to draw attention to the middle by repeating the themes on both sides.
I appreciated how in his article “Chiasm, Oral Peoples, and the Grand Biblical Story,” Brad Vaughn even compares this structure to Freytag’s Pyramid (rising action, climax, falling action). Except a chiasm focuses more on concepts than events.
The point is that there are so many ways to tell a story, depending on what you most want to convey to readers!
4. Nonlinear Narrative Structure
Even if you stick with with familiar storytelling methods (hero wants something, problem occurs, they try and fail to achieve their goal, they change for the better, and succeed) you don’t have to narrate events linearly (A>B>C>D>E).
Harvard completed a fascinating visual study of nonlinear narratives in iconic films. As a visual person, I found the examples helped me quickly grasp how each filmmaker was moving around their story pieces.
Here are some common narrative frameworks used to tell a story in a more complex way than chronological order:
Dual or multiple timelines – The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin or Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Interspersed flashbacks (The Way of Kings) or flashforwards (the movie Arrival)
In media res – D>A>B>C>E – This is common in thrillers. The opening scene shows someone rushing through a queue of bad guys to save their tied up loved ones, then it cuts to “24 hours earlier” or “2 weeks earlier.”
Circular timelines that start and end at the same point – Pulp Fiction is a good example of this, especially since on a first watch-through, we don’t realize that events are out of order and that the ending of the film is in fact the lead-up to the incidents from the beginning. Not to be confused with a time loop. The story happens linearly, but our experience of it through narration happens circularly.
Overwhelmed by the number of options? Still feeling stuck with a particular section of your story? I invite you to schedule a free 20-min consultation call through my Calendly, or reach out over email. I offer coaching at a rate of $40/hour and have helped numerous authors stop paining over their plot and get down a solid draft they actually like!
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing, Eschler Editing, and Havok Magazine. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
If you’ve never worked with a book editor before, you’re probably wondering what it’ll be like. What kind of feedback do editors give and how do they interact with your manuscript? Is all the time and money of a professional edit actually worth it?
Here I’ve included the first draft and two successive rounds of edits on a flash fiction story that I edited as part of Havok Magazine’s team. My hope is that you will see how editing can bring out the best in a manuscript, clarifying the language, character and plot, and emotional impact.
Havok is an online flash fiction magazine that publishes a 1000 word story each day of the week on the following schedule: Mystery Monday, Techno Tuesday (sci-fi), Wacky Wednesday (humor), Thriller Thursday, Fantasy Friday. I was an editor with the Mystery Monday team for a year.
I share this example of multiple rounds of editing with the permission of the author, Victoria Roberts, and Havok’s owners – Andrew Winch and Teddi Deppner.
First Draft
This is the first draft the author submitted to Havok. I, and my fellow editors, read all of the submitted stories for that month and chose which ones to acquire. There were a few reasons this story stood out to me for acceptance:
The character has a clear goal and transformation
High life and death stakes
The situation is emotionally and politically complex, but grounded in a simple scene and decision
Strong physical interactions between the characters, space, and the objects in it
Varied descriptions using multiple senses
A balanced mix of dialogue and internal reflection
Take a moment to read the original version before reviewing successive edits.
These are the edits I and my team submitted to the author for review. She then had a chance to make revisions and submit a second draft. In my comments, you’ll see a combination of the three major types of editing (proofreaders were a separate team).
Developmental feedback: questions about the character’s situation and motivations and suggestions for how to improve the opening and ending.
Line edits: improving sentence structure, clarifying descriptions, and offering suggestions to maintain conciseness.
This is the stage where collaboration and clarification come into play. You’ll see that the author accepted a number of my edits as they were. In other places, she left comments explaining what her vision was and asking for further input, or made the suggested edits in her own words.
That’s the sign of an effective editor-author collaboration. Editorial suggestions are just that – suggestions. A good editor will help shape a story into the best it can be according to each author’s style. A good writer will be willing to communicate openly with their editor, standing up for their own choices where it matters, asking questions, offering various revisions and asking the editor which one they think is the clearest and most compelling choice.
A third round of edits isn’t always necessary – here, you’ll see that the author fiddled with her word choice a little more and made sure her word count fell within parameters. And I assured her that she should be the one to finalize these details.
If you want to read the final version of this story, you can find it on Havok’s website! They publish a story every day of the week – each story of the day is free to read, and an annual subscription of $4.99 gains readers access to their entire catalogue.
If you’re interested in submitting a flash fiction story of 1000 words or less, you can find information about Havok’s monthly themes on their website. They are such a kind and joyful team to work with, and I highly recommend them! Thank you, Andrew and Teddi, for allowing me to share about Havok’s process!
A big thank you to the Victoria Roberts, the author of “To Break a Kingdom,” for letting me share her in-progress story on my website. Many authors hate for their early drafts to ever see the light of day! But that makes it hard for other writers to understand how stories can change during the process of editing. So thank you for sharing your work so others can see ! Please check out more of Victoria’s work through the links below.
Victoria Roberts writes uplifting stories that radiate light. As an acquisitions and freelance editor, she loves encouraging other writers to pursue their author dreams. When she’s not penning or devouring a new tale, she spends her time adventuring with her family, spoiling her poodle Beast, or creating book-themed cross-stitch patterns.
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing, Eschler Editing, and Havok Magazine. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
Do you know that feeling when you pick up a book and absolutely devour it, sucking it in like you’re feeding a gaping maw within your chest? And then you tear through the next few books trying to satisfy the same clawing yearning.
Then one day, your thoughts wander. You feel restless and when you open Kindle, forget that you had started the book staring at you. The words had slipped out of your mind. Scenes and dialogue fill your mind. A song catches your imagination and before you know it, it’s 2 am and you’re pacing, caught up in a battle or a scheme between characters. Before you know it, you have an entire new backstory, planet, or subplot that’s run away with you.
But then, as quickly as the flood of ideas came, they ebb away. You don’t feel like doing anything but watching TV or reading brain candy – your comfort fiction. That itch is back again that you need to satisfy, and the hunt is on for a book that will touch your heart or mind.
The Creative “Input-Output Cycle”
I call this the creative “input-output cycle.”
All creatives need a mix of input to stimulate their minds, imagination, and emotions. Without craft to emulate, ideas to inspire, and experiences to wake us, our creative well will remain dry.
Some authors can even name the story that “woke them” or tapped the buried flow of water, making it rush into and fill the well. For me, it was the chapter book series The Secrets of Droon by Tony Abbott (#myfirstedgelord) which my mother gifted to me for Christmas in 2nd grade. My parents had already cultivated a love of reading in me, but from that moment onward, I devoured books ravenously for 4 years: horse books, mystery, historical fiction, classics, and above all else, fantasy.
Then, the well overflowed, and stories started spawning in my brain. I couldn’t hold them in. They distracted me from my homework. I would spend hours daydreaming at my desk, incapable of reading because my brain had synthesized too much (no such thing), and now had to express itself.
Have you ever heard this quote?
Q: Why do you write? A: Because I have to.
It’s not a choice, it’s a compulsion. Just as reading becomes as necessary as breathing, as vital as food for the mind, heart, and soul, so too does creation.
As C.S. Lewis said in Till We Have Faces, “I was with book, as a woman is with child.”
Input Begets Output, Output Crowns the Soul
I’ve always been confused by writers who say they struggle to come up with ideas for their next book. I’ve always had the opposite problem. In fact, the plethora of ideas makes it hard to choose where to start my stories, which could fill dozens of books (according to my outlines).
I can’t read a book, listen to a piece of music, or watch a movie without new ideas blossoming in my mind. I remember the exact moment one of the main characters of my sci-fi universe popped into my head. I was sitting in my room in my senior year of high school, reading the first chapter of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. My main character positively exploded into my mind, thereafter occupying my every waking, and sometimes sleeping, thoughts.
It’s painfully obvious when a writer is unfamiliar with storytelling. When I review a sample that makes me suspect a reading deficit, I usually suggest this exercise – I ask them to pick a couple of their favorite books and rewrite a passage of their work in each style. The answer is usually, “oh… I’m not sure. I don’t really read much.”
Can an artist learn to paint even if they’ve never set foot in an art museum? Yes. Can a musician compose even if they hardly ever listen to music? Yes.
But they might as well be half blind and half deaf in their endeavors. Our brains need stimulation to form new networks, patterns, and understanding. If you are having trouble writing, then read! I know you’ve heard this. Reading is the most important form of input for a writer, but other creative inputs are also vital – art, music, dancing, religious experiences, travel, and so on.
But the opposite is also true. You could be in a reading slump, slightly irritated at everything you pick up, because nothing quite seems to touch that deepest place within your soul. These days, it’s actually easy for our brains to become oversaturated with input – that might be your problem.
If you’re having trouble writing, it might be because you’ve had too much input, and of the wrong type. Imagine again our well of creativity. If you’re constantly tapping into various underwater streams, you could end up with a geyser of Kool-Aid that turns your creative landscape into a nasty sludge of punch, rather than a full well of spring water that you can dip into and disperse with control.
It might be time for some quiet. Let your mind digest everything you’ve consumed and settle. Go back and savor one course a bit more deeply. Your original ideas might be fighting to emerge from the roiling stream of external ideas you keep cramming into yourself.
And what you add to the world’s body of stories will be your crowning achievement, standing atop all you’ve uniquely experienced.
Finding a Creative Balance
Finding the right balance of input and output takes time. In my experience, the right combination has also varied depending on my life circumstances. Sometimes poor mental health led to an abundance of my own stories as a form of emotional expression, while other times I drowned out my own thoughts with other peoples’ stories. New experiences sometimes compel me to add a new facet to my world, while other times curiosity inspires me to read and research a ton about that experience just for the sake of learning.
I’ve come to listen to myself and notice the type of restlessness and frustration I feel when my mind is ready to shift from one part of the creative cycle to the next. When I’ve spent several days reading the first few chapters of a dozen books, with none managing to capture my interest, I’ll start to poke at my own worldbuilding and outlines instead. When I start rewriting the same scene in my mind in every possible iteration till it feels like I’m beating a dead horse, I’ll return to my TBR list, often picking something completely different from the story I’d been working on to shake my brain loose.
I’ve spent months to years in an “output” cycle as my stories rapidly expanded, barely watching or reading anything in that time. But recently, I “cycle” more rapidly, reading multiple books in a few weeks, then switching back to scene development for a couple weeks, and so on.
Name Your Process… and Feel Less Insane
I come from a big family (7 kids!) and over half of us love to write. When we started to articulate our process like this, it helped us understand each other and ourselves so much better. It also helped our non-writer relatives and friends understand our “crazy” a bit better!
Sis: Hey, do you want to watch Stargate? Me: Nah, not tonight. Sis: Aww, you said that last weekend, come on! Me: I know! But I’ve been in output mode. I can’t get this scene out of my head. I just need to get it down!
Me: Hey, how are your stories going? What have you been working on recently? Sis 2: Ah, I felt kind of stuck on that one character. It was really annoying me so I stopped working on it for a while. I must’ve read at least 5 Mercedes Lackey books in the past week though! Me: Nice! I’ve been in input mode too. I picked up Nine Princes in Amber and now I’m trying to get my hands on everything Zelazny ever wrote.
Giving yourself permission to take a break and just enjoy stories can be hugely relieving! Not to mention practical for building both empathy and craft skills.
It can be harder to notice when you’re oversaturated and need to take a break to let your own ideas bubble to the surface, but this is also a practice that will greatly benefit your creative process in the long run.
There’s no right or wrong way to balance an “input-output cycle.” You could write in the morning and read in the evening, or vice versa. You could write all day on the weekends and read your comfort fics during the work week. Or if you’re chasing down a deadline, you could do nothing but bang out that draft for several months, and then go on a binge afterwards.
But naming where I am in my creative cycle and discovering what helps me transition between “input mode” and “output mode” has been hugely helpful to me in sustaining both the development of my stories and a well-read mind.
How well do you know yourself? Are you in control of your creative “input-output cycle?”
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
Books with multiple (3+) points of view (POV) have become increasingly popular in the past couple decades, especially in massive fantasy epics and sci-fi. But there are multiple problems with this style that I commonly encounter as a book editor.
The technique is not wrong in and of itself. Every method of storytelling comes with its own pitfalls. The practice of writing novels with multiple points of view in third person is still relatively new, so authors have had fewer exceptional, “classic” examples upon which to base their style.
Now that editors have a larger body of work to analyze, it’s our job to guide authors to improve the way they tell their stories. So I’ll explain these top 11 problems that I see in manuscripts (and published books) with multiple points of view, and offer suggestions for how to avoid them:
I’ll be expanding each point into a full article with more detailed advice on how to avoid each pitfall in your own writing. Part 1: Harder to Hook is already complete – stay tuned for the full series!
1. Difficulty Hooking Readers
With every major point of view character, authors must check off all the same boxes: establish the status quo, show the individual’s wants and needs, give readers a reason to root for them, and spark off their story with an inciting incident.
With only one POV, authors can achieve many of these benchmarks within the first few chapters. This period of time is vital to securing reader interest. If you can’t catch them within this time, most readers will stop reading.
But with each new POV, authors wipe the reader’s emotional slate clean and start all over again. Readers may be interested at the end of the first chapter, but suddenly they’re faced with another stranger that vies for their investment all over again. Then a third. God forbid 4 or more.
It could take an hour of reading to get back to the first character, at which point all the emotional tension has faded and readers have to restart in their efforts to connect with the character.
If a reader only has the mental energy to read 3 chapters, a book with 1 POV has an advantage. 3 chapters is enough time for a reader to build a solid emotional connection to one character. On the other hand, if each of the first 3 chapters is written from a different perspective, after the same amount of reading time, that reader will only have just met each character, not had enough time to get to know them much at all.
How to avoid this problem: As an editor, I find that it’s more effective to group multiple chapters from 1 POV together rather than switching every chapter. It lets readers more deeply immerse themselves in one character before moving on.
Read more about how multiple POVs affect the opening hook of a novel in my full article.
2. Skewed Story Pacing
This is THE biggest problem I encounter in books with multiple point-of-view characters – messed up pacing at the book-wide level.
Say you have 3 POV characters – you’re basically writing 3 books at once and combining them into the same package. This means you’re asking your readers to endure a first act that’s three times as long as usual.
Often, the first act is the least interesting part of a story. In sci-fi and fantasy in particular, there’s often a lot of travel and exposition about the world, races and species, magic system, etc.
Readers are waiting for the moment when something changes. But with three characters, they have to wade through 3 times as much “intro content” before they get to the “interesting stuff.”
A first act usually takes up about the first third of a book. So reading the first act of a book with 3 POVs can feel the same as reading the length of an entire book that only contains first act content.
This is especially problematic if all of the characters have extremely similar situations. For instance, one farm boy trekking across the country to live out his destiny can be repetitive enough, let alone if all your mc’s start out as average joes who undertake a long journey.
How to avoid this problem: Choose POV characters whose arcs complement and contrast one another, rather than being too repetitive or seemingly unrelated (e.x. on opposite sides of the world and won’t meet for several books). Don’t be afraid to introduce some POVs much later in the book or series.
3. Skewed Chapter Pacing
Pacing is most obviously affected at the larger story level, but also at the chapter level. Often, writers are advised to “start late and end early,” but I find that books with many POVs both start and end their chapters too early.
Every time an author switches POV there is a “reset” of sorts. They need to reestablish where the character is, what they’ve been doing since the last time the reader followed them, and how much time has passed.
As a result, the start of each chapter can feel slow and exposition heavy. It’s difficult to use en media res if it’s been 100 pages since your reader last saw this character. It can take a while to build back up to a higher level of energy or greater level of intellectual and emotional intimacy.
But then, because the pacing of these books can feel bloated, authors try to end their chapters on a “snappy” note to avoid boring their readers. So they choose to end a scene too early, sometimes in the middle of the conflict they spent an entire chapter building towards.
This can leave readers feeling like “things were just getting good again” when the POV changed, resetting everything all over again!
How to avoid this problem: If you’re worried that readers won’t push through the next 100 pages unless you end a beat too early every time, you need to face the larger problem – whether that content should actually be trimmed. Authors have learned effective tactics to keep people binge-reading. But that won’t keep readers from noticing – after they’ve put down the book – that they didn’t actually enjoy “getting through” a lot of the in-between content, even though they felt compelled to continue in the moment.
4. Ruined cliffhangers
But multi-POVs even ruin the effectiveness of these cliffhangers!
The more POVs you have, the longer it’ll take to cycle through them all, and the more the emotion and energy will have diminished by the time you get back to your original character.
If you end a chapter on a cliffhanger, and then switch to a second POV, then a third, then a fourth, by the time you return to the original characters, days or weeks could have passed!
Consider: Character A’s companion betrays them. Enemies surround them. CUT. …3 chapters later, we return to character A, sitting in a dungeon. We didn’t get to see their decision to surrender, the gloating of their enemies, their rage and hurt while the betrayal was most fresh, or the horror of their first few days of imprisonment.
In such situations, authors break an implicit promise to readers: “the wait will be worth it.” A cliffhanger draws readers along because they can’t wait to see what happens next. But when time skips are necessary to facilitate more POVs, readers often don’t get to see the content they most anticipated.
Readers can start to feel like authors are just stringing them along with sensational chapter endings – and if you lose reader trust, you’re one step away from losing them completely.
How to avoid this problem: Use cliffhangers sparingly and make sure the interim chapters don’t conflict with the energy you’ve built. If character A is facing a threat to their life, while characters B and C are sitting in meetings, readers will be tempted to just skip ahead to get back to character A (I’ve done this).
5. Diminished Mystery
Mystery is one of the most compelling storytelling techniques an author can use. Humans are curious! But when an author shows readers the perspectives of characters from many sides of a conflict, we don’t have to wonder at their motivations or plots anymore.
If we don’t know what’s happening on the other side of the world, in the mind of a love interest, or to a missing character, every attempt the POV character makes to uncover information is packed with greater stakes. Readers turn the pages eagerly, desperate to find out more. There are false trails, relationship blunders, and a growing pressure to discover the answer to our questions.
Imagine if Dumbledore also had POV in Harry Potter – a legitimate choice. After all, in Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card shows Ender’s superiors planning how best to manipulate him – readers see what’s happening before Ender does. But if Rowling had made this choice, her books would have lost a huge element of mystery!
Not every book needs to focus on this element. But fantasy readers love unlocking the secrets of massive worlds through the eyes of their favorite characters!
How to avoid this problem: Don’t sacrifice character realism to avoid redundancy. Is it “in character” for person A to spend a lot of time investigating x? Don’t reveal that information through person B if you will have to cut it from person A’s POV, thereby harming their plot and character arc.
6. Harmed Character Dynamics
This same problem affects character development. People talk about their experiences with each other – it’s necessary for relationships to grow. But if readers have already seen something happen to character B, the author might not bother to show character A asking about it.
This often results in a lack of important scenes that we really should see. We want to see one of our leads shocked by the other’s traumatic past, or laughing uproariously at their embarrassing mistakes. But if the reader has already seen these moments, they’re usually summarized in passing, since a joke isn’t as funny a second time around.
This can be even more problematic if a party of friends separates and then reconnects later, but never talks about their respective experiences. It’s just skipped over as though it doesn’t matter, when going over that kind of emotion is very important to relationships.
Example 1:
For instance, in the epilogue of Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance [character names redacted to avoid spoilers ahead], we discover that a character we thought died in book 1 is actually alive. It’s a tantalizing reveal for only the readers – none of the main cast knows yet. In book 3, this character makes it back to their family’s base. A servant runs ahead and announces the character’s return, everyone is shocked, then the scene cuts.
There is then a time skip! The actual reunion happens off-page!
Since the author already revealed the character’s survival to the readers, everyone else’s surprise has little emotional impact on the reader. What we have been waiting to see is everyone else’s messy emotions – joy, confusion, tears, asking about what happened.
We see none of that. Chapters later, Sanderson gives an exposition dump about how people responded and what they’re still feeling.
I find more and more that books with multiple POVs skip scenes like this. Too often, group scenes are used to move the plot ahead, and the author forgets to linger on the important emotional moments that lead to character development and deeper relationships.
Example 2:
That’s exactly what happened in the first Avengers movie. I’d been imagining for months what these characters might say to each other when they finally met – how they’d joke with each other, what questions they’d ask, if any would challenge each other to a friendly spar. Unfortunately, for the sake of time, the movie skipped right over such moments and went straight to a briefing room – the plot dump. It was as if the characters already knew each other or had nothing important to say to each other.
I wanted to see Tony and Captain America talk about his father, Thor look befuddled and amused that a human accidentally turned himself into a green monster, and their sidekicks eye each other with “thank god there’s another sane person in the room” looks. I remember being devastatingly disappointed when none of this came up. As if because viewers already know about Cap’s connection to Tony’s father, and because Tony must have read Steve’s file off-screen, that there would be no point in them discussing it. On the contrary, I think that would have been a far more emotionally rewarding moment than the terse conversations we did see between them.
How to avoid this problem: Is your story so long that you have to cut “heartfelt” scenes in favor of barreling the plot along? If the number of your POVs is forcing you to sacrifice character moments for time, you probably have too many. If your characters primarily come together for the sake of plot rather than dynamics that change their lives, then you may be forgetting what truly makes a story touch hearts.
7. Characters as Cameras
Using characters as cameras is a travesty. More and more, I see cutaway chapters that use the eyes of a random character as a way to dump plot info. We never see these characters again. They don’t matter. The author merely uses them as a lens through which to view an important event.
This tactic ignores one of the core tenants of storytelling! Events are important because of who they are about and who they affect, more so than because of what happens. You need to answer “why should we care?” I’d rather see the main character’s reaction to hearing that his King was assassinated than see the event through the eyes of one of the royal guards.
The adage “show don’t tell,” has been taught incompletely, leaving authors feeling like anything that happens must be shown on the page in the form of a scene. That’s not true. Exposition is a useful tool.
It’s easy to get caught in the allure of sensationalism. Authors might think readers will find it boring to hear about the event later, rather than seeing the death “on screen.” But the opposite can be true. Action for the sake of action isn’t necessarily compelling, but the emotional reaction of a character you care about is.
How to avoid this problem: Remember that just because you have imagined a scene, doesn’t mean that readers needs to see it that way. When you know the details, the readers will feel deep layers within the story. Don’t use characters as a vehicle for plot. Use plot as a vehicle to show who your characters are.
8. Likeability Wars
Readers will always have their favorites and least favorites. It’s frustrating to switch from an emotionally compelling character to a POV that feels comparatively flat or purposeless. The comparison can make readers begin to resent other parts of the book, as though they’re getting in the way of letting them enjoy the part of the story they’re actually invested in.
Personally, I often “check out” a little during POVs I don’t care for, essentially skimming through them to get back to “the good stuff.” I read just enough to get the gist of the plot so I can keep up with “the real story.”
Now, I’d never counsel an author not to include a character because some readers won’t like them – you should write the story you love and want to tell.
But the fact remains that readers will drop a book because of how annoying it is to wait a long time to cycle back to their favorite character. I sure have.
How to avoid this problem: Readers can tell the difference between characters you love, and ones you added because you felt like the plot or story needed them. I often see this with books that have a couple male mc’s and then throw in a female POV too. If you aren’t in love with your character, how can you expect readers to be?
9. Exhausting to Read
Reading books with multiple POVs, especially ones with 6 or more, can feel like a slog! It’s a lot of information to keep track of and can feel more like reading a travelogue or worldbuilding encyclopedia than a story.
In my experience, even people who love these kinds of books (Malazan, GOT, WOT) talk as though reading them is an exercise in perseverance. More readers seem to love these books despite their multiple POVs than because of them.
I’ve never heard a person say, “wow, it was groundbreaking for George R.R. Martin to write from 7 POVs. What a great way to tell the story – it just had to be done that way. It would have been way less enjoyable otherwise!” No. Fans commiserate with each other about how tough it was to get through them.
Some of Robert Jordan’s top fans (I regularly attend JordanCon) talk about how there are 3 WHOLE BOOKS in the middle of the series that you “just have to get through and then it gets good.” Do you want your readers to talk like that one day?
How to avoid this problem: Kurt Vonnegut famously said, “pity the reader.” Reading can already feel like hard work. We open up our minds and emotions to new experiences, often after a long day at work. So please, authors, will you pity us a little? Would you want to read a book that’s written like yours?
10. Lazy Writing
Sometimes a large number of POV characters feels like lazy writing on the part of authors.
They have such large worlds with so many characters, that’s it’s easiest to just plop them all in, like throwing every kid who wants to play into a soccer game, rather than picking the ones that make the best team and benching the rest. It’s true that sidelining characters you love doesn’t feel good, and it can be hard to determine which cast will result in the best version of your story.
But it is necessary – just because an idea or character “feels right,” doesn’t mean it should make the final cut.
Writing instructors have been known to say that nothing should be included in a story unless its exclusion would make the readers lose something. Does it have to be there? Would the story and character be lesser without it?
How to avoid this problem: Test various combinations of POVs. Offer different versions to beta readers. Cut, rewrite, repeat. A skilled carpenter will test out multiple types of wood, carving methods, and finishes before settling on a style for a major piece. Are you treating your writing this seriously?
11. More is Less
In books with many POVs, sometimes characters and plot arcs lose a little something with each added main character. Like trying to spread a small amount of butter over 10 pieces of bread rather than 2, the “energy” in a story can only disperse among so many characters.
This is especially true if you have written characters with similar archetypes or plots – their stories can start to feel repetitive. For instance, She Would be King follow 3 black young adults who escape slavery or abuse, see their mother die, and then go on a journey to Liberia. By the time I got to the third mother’s death, which occurred in almost identical circumstances as the second one’s, I was emotionally worn out. Each story on its own would have been powerful, but together, they impaired each other.
Books with multiple POVs are ambitious – the more characters you use, the harder it will be for you to connect them all together in a way that makes the total greater than the sum of its parts.
How to avoid this problem: Think of writing as like knitting a sweater. It’s easier to create a classy pattern with 2-3 colors, but when you try to combine 10 different colors, things can start to look like a kid’s crayon project. Be deliberate about your “pattern” from the start. Too often it’s obvious that the author got weary of trying to balance their POVs and left the story feeling like a tangled heap of yarn.
Tips for Writing Multi-POVs Well
Often, less is more. I encourage you to ask whether you have too many main characters and whether your story would be tighter and more compelling if you trimmed some of them. That is what some stories need.
Of course, not all books with multiple POVs have these issues.
And POV is also a matter of personal preference. Many readers and publishers seek out books with multiple point of view characters. If this is your chosen style, then your next step is to make your writing as strong as possible and avoid the most common pitfalls.
Here are some ways to test whether you have too many POV characters.
Questions to ask yourself:
Would character A’s journey be more interesting if the readers didn’t know what was happening with character B?
Are all of these characters emotionally compelling to me, or am I writing from their perspective because they are the logical choice for depicting plot in a certain part of the world/story?
Questions to ask your beta readers:
This is extremely important, but many authors are too hesitant to ask tough questions of their beta readers. Understandable – our books are our babies! But it’s better to know if one of your characters is boring or insufferable to readers before you publish, than to find out in your reviews.
Were you invested in all the POV characters?
Which ones were most and least compelling to you?
Are there any characters you thought were unnecessary or detracted from the story?
At any point, did it feel like a slog to get through the book?
Did these stories feel vitally intertwined or like separate books crammed into one?
Some beta reader feedback will be subjective, so it’s important to ask enough beta readers that you start to see commonalities in their responses. Then you will be able to approach rewrites with more confidence that your changes will improve your story for all readers, rather than for the preferences of a few.
Happy writing and stay tuned for the expanded version of each point – I know the tips I gave above are pretty vague, but I’ll expand them in future posts!
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
Princes and strategists, martial champions and war heroes, grit, sweat, brawls, and schemes. Since the beginning of time, we have told stories about the best and worst of men – from myths and epics, to action and adventure classics, to modern superheroes and fantasy rogues, such stories have touched hearts across language barriers and millennia.
So why are they hard to find on bookshelves today?
Let’s take a look at the modern publishing market, reader tastes, and my own perspective as a book editor (plus a few obligatory caveats):
These are 8 of my favorite books of all time. Notice any commonalities?
All of these stories are about men (and boys) – clever, dangerous, heroic, stalwart men. Some are written for general audiences, while others go all in on the “bro vibes.”
Each tale contains passion and violence, loyalty and steadfast friendships, promises broken and kept, strategic and psychological contests, and a mix of wit and heartbreak. The ones that have stood the test of centuries reveal great truths about the human condition.
There’s something else I’ll point out though. The most recently published of these 8, Virtuous Sons (read my review) and Theft of Swords, were both self-published first, and only picked up by publishers after finding great success. The same is true of the wildly popular Cradle series by Will Wight and the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman.
2 more of my favorites, The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (read my review) and Paranoid Mage by InadvisablyCompelled, have continued to gain momentum as self-published works.
It’s not like we have a net shortage of books about boys and men – that’s the majority of what’s been published for all of human history. But, naturally, modern readers gravitate toward books written in a modern voice – we want new ones.
If I, as a female reader, am irritated by the lack, I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for male readers, especially boys and young men who are developing their taste for reading!
Big publishers don’t want boy books – they’re wrong
But the Big 5 publishers don’t want to publish “boy books” anymore. Many will deny there’s even such a thing as a “boy” book, or that there shouldn’t be (“that’s not inclusive!!!”).
I strongly disagree with all 3 statements:
I want to see boy books published – I want to read them! And edit them. And market them to more readers who will love them.
There’s definitely such a thing as a book by, for, and about men/boys, that male readers enjoy more than female readers (not that girls can’t as well – I’m a woman and you just saw my favorites list). That doesn’t change the fact that at the core, they are bro books.
There should be boy books. Stories that feel like they were written just for you are incredibly powerful! Everyone should have the chance to read stories that delight and resonate with the deepest parts of our soul. If that means reading books about people that are like you… well, duh.
Modern publishing has a chicken and egg problem. They claim they don’t publish as many books about male main characters because male readers don’t buy books as much as female readers.
Male readers respond thusly: “We’ve stopped buying your books because you won’t publish the types we actually want to read.”
There are thriving indie publishers and reading communities online for action and adventure books that are just straight up fun – no identity politics, no need for sensitivity readers – just cool dudes running around with swords. Virtuous Sons, published initially as a web novel on Royal Road, received over 4 million views.
In the past, before the digital age and the advent of self-publishing, books published by the Big 5 were the only option. If you weren’t reading them, you weren’t reading. In their elitism, the Big 5 have refused to adjust their attitude. They blame their potential buyers rather than their own business model. But men are reading. They’re just taking their time and money elsewhere.
And why wouldn’t they, when their tastes are being insulted?
No, I have no interest in reading any of the “adventure fantasy” books on Amazon with grotesquely proportioned anime pinup girls spilling across the covers. No more than I want to read any of the romantasy featuring glowering, glistening, shirtless shifters.
But male readers (and female ones) are told they’re stupid or backward for wanting to read books about male heroes running around killing dragons, clearing dungeons, leveling up with ridiculously powerful magic, sitting around with their comrades swapping scar stories, and chasing (and getting) the girl at the end.
You’re not stupid. Those are great stories. Some are just good stories – that’s ok too.
What I’m NOT saying
Because everyone gets triggered so easily these days, let me tell you what I’m not saying.
I’m NOT saying that girl books are stupid, or that female authors shouldn’t write the stories they want to tell, or that female characters are worse than male characters, or that if a book can’t appeal to a male audience too, it shouldn’t be published, or that female characters can’t compel male readers etc. etc. etc.
I’m certainly not saying that for a book to be truly great, it needs to be by, for, or about men.
But the publishing industry needs to stop saying the opposite. Stop telling (white) male authors that it’s their duty to step aside and “stop taking up the limelight already so that others can have their turn.” Stop telling authors that their stories are “too male-centric” and that unless they have at least one female POV/main character, their book won’t even be considered. Stop telling male authors that strong, masculine, confident male protagonists are inherently problematic.
Write boy books!
I want to read your boy books! Even more so, I want to read your “men books” – with characters worthy of the tag “epic.” So please write them (whether you’re a male or female author)!
If you’re also on the hunt for modern bro books, you’re not alone. Guess what my most popular blog post is? By a massive margin.
There is demand. Don’t let people tell you otherwise.
And if you’re a male author looking for a book editor, but are feeling a bit querulous after discovering that almost all book editors are women, you don’t have to worry that I’m going to treat you like a tasteless jerk for “having the audacity to think a story deserves to be told about a male main character who starts out as kind of a jerk.”
Characters are supposed to have weaknesses. There wouldn’t be a story if your characters didn’t have to grow and change.
Neither does a male protagonist have to be the most profound, unique character ever written in order to make a good story that readers will buy. The female protagonists in most modern books sure aren’t.
I would be delighted to read your story, review it, and perhaps even work with you to edit it into the best it can be.
So keep writing about brave boys and mighty men!
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” – Psalm 39:7 (NKJV)
Father,
It’s so hard to wait. I confess my impatience and difficulty with waiting. We’re conditioned to have difficulty waiting seconds, let alone weeks, months, or years. But, as the old saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait.”
O Lord, You are more than worth the wait! There is no other hope found in the universe outside of You. You have indeed been my arm every morning and my salvation in the time of trouble. Help me not to miss all of the gems within the waiting. Though I would love to press the publish button today, help me see each and every lesson along this writing journey.
I long to wait patiently for what You have for me. Help me not to settle for the tempting shortcut. Give me the courage to stand strong in the face of a culture promoting instant gratification.
Finally, before I begin today’s writing session, I wait for the gift of Your Spirit to empower me and illuminate my mind. Give me the endurance I need to persevere and overcome every obstacle the enemy throws in front me. May this writing session be rewarded with the fruit of waiting.
It’s in the name of Jesus in whom we wait,
Amen.
“O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.” – Isaiah 33:2 (ESV)
“Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.” – Psalm 27:14
“On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” – Acts 1:4 (NIV)
PRAYING GOD’S WORD In your own journal or notepad, write out your own personal prayer regarding waiting. Feel free to incorporate the scriptures above or others of your choosing.
Since 2008, CJ and Shelley Hitz have written and published over 70 books through their independent publishing company, Body and Soul Publishing. They have mentored writers since 2010 and now help Kingdom writers, like you, take the courageous step of writing, self-publishing, and marketing your books inside their online membership, Christian Book Academy. Together they create a powerful team to help you accomplish the goals God has placed on your heart and have been called “pastors for writers.” Find out more and join their community of Kingdom writers here: christianbookacademy.com. Or find resources for authors at TrainingAuthors.com.
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
So, your editor has sent you the manuscript assessment for your story, and it’s a good 10+ pages long. It’s packed with useful feedback, some tough suggestions, and market advice you may never have thought of. You’re probably feeling excited, thoughts whirling, but also a little intimidated about where to start. It’s a lot to consider all at once.
The last thing I’d want is to complete a manuscript assessment for an author, only for them to sit and stare at their draft, with no idea what to edit first. And that’s not the author’s fault!
Think about it. You were taught (or learned through experience) how to write and how to accept and incorporate feedback from other writers or beta readers. If no one teaches you how to break down a long editorial report into steps you can implement in page-to-page editing, it’s little wonder you might feel stuck or overwhelmed.
So here are 8 tips for self-editing your book using the developmental feedback found in a manuscript assessment:
Note: if you haven’t received a manuscript assessment, but are reading this article to determine how helpful it might be to acquire one, I recommend you check out this sample manuscript assessment I completed for one of my author clients.
1. Reorganize Feedback into a Simple Checklist
I tend to organize my manuscript assessments by topic:
Character arcs
Plot
Structure and pacing
Opening, mid-point, ending
Writing style
Marketability
More
However, this might not be the most helpful form of organization for you to refer to quickly while editing. You could rearrange feedback into a chronological checklist.
For instance, in my section on characters, I may offer the following feedback: “I immediately related to the characters, but drifted emotionally from them in the middle of the story when they lost sight of their goals, but was moved by how they pulled through in the ending.” I might also say of writing style: “The first half of your story contained a heavy amount of passive voice and some awkward sentence structure, but your writing improved over the course of the manuscript.”
You could then pull out feedback suggestions and organize them into an editing checklist:
Act 1 Edits: – Active voice – utilize a thesaurus to vary verb choice – Sentence structure – sign up for a free trial for a grammar program (like ProWritingAid) to highlight my most common problems with sentence structure – Reexamine my turning point moving from Act 1 into Act 2 – compare it to what I did in the opening hook – how can I strengthen it to propel readers into the middle of the story with greater character clarity?
If another method of organization is more intuitive to you, then go for it! The idea is to pull out the common threads and compile them into a quick reference sheet that you can work through methodically.
2. “Pants” it!
Or, you could just throw organization to the wind and start where you’re most excited! If you’ve already rewritten your opening more times than you want to count and you dread editing it AGAIN, then skip to the part you WANT to write.
Don’t worry about the whole manuscript. Pick one scene that you have a ton of new ideas for, and start playing with it. It doesn’t have to be the chapter that needs the most work, or the scene that’s most important to the story as a whole.
I hope you can still have fun! Even if editing isn’t your favorite part of the writing process. It’s so important to remember why we even do this. Cling onto the joy of your story!
3. Make small edits that affect larger patterns
Complete a read-through with an eye out for small choices that contribute to consistent problems or patterns. For example, if I tell an author that their protagonist often comes across as whiny and disrespectful, I will mention several specific scenes where this problem was most apparent to demonstrate what I mean. But I won’t list every single instance.
That’s what a developmental edit is for – in a full edit I would highlight each time the character’s attitude appeared problematic and offer suggestions for improvement. But after an assessment, it’s up to you to read through your work again, watching for others ways such problems may appear.
The same is true for any issue your editor mentions was consistent throughout your story – the dialogue was drawn out, the descriptions were confusing, the action scenes felt clunky, etc.
This is where an editing checklist can come in handy again. If there are problems you know will come up consistently, write yourself a reminder.
In each chapter, check: – MC attitude and speech – Can I trim dialogue? – Read descriptions out loud to see if I stumble over them. Rewrite and trim for clarity.
4. Brainstorm with Friends
Get a second or third opinion from writer buddies and beta readers, especially regarding feedback that is hard for you to hear. It’s difficult to maintain emotional distance from a story that’s so close to your heart. So how will you know which editorial suggestions you should definitely implement, and where you can trust your own instinct as a writer?
That’s where additional feedback can help! Talk it out with a friend. Share the editorial advice you received and ask them what they think. Even if you can’t find a critique partner for your entire project, you could find people who are willing to look at a few chapters.
When you start hearing the same thing from different readers of your genre (that distinction is vital), you’ll gain more confidence and clarity about the necessary changes.
5. Decide What Feedback to Reject
Decide what feedback you want to accept and what you don’t. You’re not going to agree with everything your editor says, and that’s ok. There may be things your editor doesn’t know about later books in your series, or you could just love the way you have something and not want to change it. Editing is a collaborative process.
Of course, don’t reject professional suggestions out of hand. Some changes won’t feel fun, but really will strengthen your story.
But you might come up with alternate ways to address a problem your editor raises. Suggestions are just that. They’re meant to be helpful, not to pigeon-hole you or kill your creative spirit and voice.
Trust your instinct! Don’t pain over everything. If there are gut decisions you can make after going through the assessment, write them down on a “do” and “don’t” list, and move on.
This is one way that editing with a manuscript assessment can be more efficient than working from a developmental edit! All of your feedback is in one place, so you can read through it and make your “yes”/”no” list quickly, without first having to re-read through individual comments on your entire manuscript.
6. Ask Your Editor Questions
If you’re stuck, feel free to reach out to your editor again! I always invite authors to send me follow-up questions, and surprisingly few do. Perhaps they’re being considerate of my time, which I appreciate. After all, if I ended up offering writing coaching, I should bill for that time. But I consider follow-up questions to be part of the manuscript assessment service. It’s not hard to answer a few questions over email.
I also really enjoy talking about the stories I’ve worked on! Sometimes I’m actually disappointed when the author doesn’t have anything to say after I return my work, because I’m invested in their story and so curious and excited to see how they develop it further! You love talking about your book – so do I!
Of course, you could ask for a one-off coaching session. Or, if you feel like you need more detailed edits on a “problem section,” you could hire your editor to work on certain chapters. Not all editors will agree to edit “a-la-carte” like this, but some do, especially if they’ve already read your entire manuscript and understand the context.
One of my clients, for whom I completed a manuscript assessment, later hired me to edit his action scenes, as that was an area of weakness I had highlighted. He decided it wasn’t worth it to struggle over them – it wasn’t one of his strengths. So we worked on those portions together. It’s a great way to stay within budget, while still ensuring your work meets the standards you want.
7. Allow Yourself to Take Breaks
You might think, “but I’ve already been on a break, waiting to get my assessment back. I should jump back in now.” Not necessarily. You can allow some time for the ideas to percolate.
It’s hard to open yourself up to feedback on your story, which is your precious baby! It’s ok to take a breather, go read or write something purely for fun, and then come back to the assessment once your creative juices are flowing again.
Often, I offer reading suggestions to authors in my assessments – whether standout works in your genre, comparative titles I think could help you pitch your book, or writing resources.
It’s better to do something productive or uplifting than stress yourself out or do nothing at all!
8. Make a Plan Against Procrastination
The longer you put off getting started, the harder it’ll feel to go back and look at that editing list again. Try to set a schedule, set aside a consistent time to write, and make some personal deadlines.
This often works best when you have a writing buddy who can help hold you accountable! Try swapping each newly edited chapter with a critique partner once a week or biweekly. Your speed of editing isn’t important, but chipping away at your project little by little IS – or it’ll never happen.
This is general writing advice. If you had the self-discipline to finish and edit a draft, and send it to an editor, then you’ve learned some great habits over the years! Apply what you know of yourself as you use your manuscript assessment, even if the process feels different from how you’ve worked in the past.
If you’ve edited your novel using the feedback from a manuscript assessment, what worked best for you? What didn’t? Reach out – we’d love to add your advice as an author into this post!
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-20
Heavenly Father,
Bless me with confidence in the anointing You have given me to write.
You are the Author and Perfecter of our faith (see Hebrews 12:2), and I pray that You will help me as I author the words you have called me to share that will bring You honor and glory and breathe hope into the hearts of my readers.
Help me to not get distracted by worldly busyness and building my own platform, but to be busy building Your Kingdom and pursuing the calling You have given me, just as Jesus did (see Luke 2:49).
Protect me from the lies and deceit of the evil one. May I rest confidently in your truths and in my calling, rather than getting sidetracked by doubts, insecurities, and distractions. Equip me to write with courage, confidence, and faithful obedience.
Help me to focus on my readers, on their needs, on their struggles and desires. May every word, every message You want me to share flow into my writing.
Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. Strengthen and guide every word I write. Help align my motivations and desires with Yours.
Amen
*This is an edited excerpt from the anthology Prayers for Writers, to which Jenn contributed.
She also loves spending time with her husband and two sons, savoring coffee chats with friends, curling up with a good book, and enjoying a wonder walk through nature.
For additional resources to help you pray for your writing, check out her site Prayer Empowered Writer.
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
These days, authors are forced to do more and more of their own marketing – an incredibly daunting prospect. Marketing is an entirely different industry, and most authors are going in completely blind!
Before you get into trial and error, testing different social platforms, ads, or other strategies, it’s vitally important to start with the right perspective, which will act as a cornerstone to solidify the foundation of your author business, if you will.
So I’ll help you get started by sharing the top 3 things you need to keep in mind at all times when marketing your book:
Our books are our babies. When sharing about them, authors often strive above all else to accurately convey the world and characters that they so dearly love.
But you can’t think of your book from your own perspective – you must view it from the eyes of a buyer.
Who, when showing off their first baby, describes their child to suit what the other person is likely thinking and feeling? No one.
It’s hard, but you need to think of your book as a product that can solve a want or need.
Imagine what a reader feels when they’re deciding whether or not to pick up a book. What goes through your own mind?
For example, “I’m feeling down and lonely, I want a pick me up. Maybe I’ll read a feel-good romance.” Or, “I’m bored and wish I could travel. I miss the beach.” Your job is to make their next thought be: “A pirate fantasy is just the excitement I need!”
When you create your book blurb, or marketing copy, or Instagram reel, it doesn’t matter as much that you convey how amazing your worldbuilding is, how unique your writing style is, or how cool your character will be.
Will your story make readers feel what they want to feel?
What’s most important is to ensure that readers understand what they will get out of reading your story – specifically what your book will make them feel and think.
If your book is a cerebral sci-fi think-piece, but the cover makes it look like a thrilling space opera, you’ll have disgruntled readers dropping it after a few chapters, and your ideal readers will skip past it without realizing that it’s just what they want.
The best marketing is VERY simple. What does your reader want? How does your book meet that want?
EVERY piece of marketing material should answer that unconscious question.
If a reader scrolls through your Instagram and Amazon listing and doesn’t remember your main character’s name, or the plot, but takes away an accurate impression like, “this book will be a dark, emotion wrecker,” then you have succeeded!
Because even if they don’t buy your book immediately, they’ll remember their impression the next time they want a killer, gritty story.
It’s not about you and your book – it’s about your reader
Approach all your marketing efforts from a would-be buyer’s perspective, and you’ll see a transformation in how readers interact with your book. Put yourself in their shoes.
Everything about marketing might sound overwhelming, but THIS one element is where you are at an advantage. You’re a storyteller – imagining the feelings and internal journey of other people is one of your greatest strengths! Leverage it!
Just remember, that when pitching your book, it’s NOT actually about you or your book. It’s about your reader.
You are the wise old mentor stepping alongside a lost young hero who needs a word of wisdom, an eye-opening experience, or a comforting touch. Your book is the tool you use to help a reader reach THEIR goal.
If you can make a would-be reader feel seen and heard, whether you’re chatting with them at a book fair, or sharing a meme on your socials, they will start to trust that your book will also be able to impact them in the way that they want and need.
When selling your book, tell the reader’s story, and how your book will make it better.
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve learned how to effectively market books by working for Monster Ivy Publishing, Eschler Editing, and two marketing agencies – Perk Brands and Aloha Life Digital. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
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I recently picked up an epic fantasy book I had greatly anticipated reading – it promised unusual worldbuilding, an intricate plot, and a unique authorial voice. I didn’t make it through the first chapter.
In the opening, the main female character gets drunk, breaks into someone’s home to commit adultery, assaults the homeowner when he tries to stop her, and gets thrown in jail. When she wakes up, she bangs on the bars and yells at the guards to let her out, as though she’d done nothing wrong. A stranger, who greatly outranks her, bails her out and gets her acquitted because he wants to hire her. She struts out like she owns the place, doesn’t offer this man a single thank you, and instead mouths off at him, becoming offended that he expects her to work off her debt to him!
That’s when I stopped reading. I was astounded we were supposed to find this character likeable. Or even admire her defiant attitude and the gargantuan chip on her shoulder.
Unfortunately, this is the exact type of character readers can expect to see over and over again, advertised as a “strong female lead.”
I would use another word: cocksure. I’m sorry if you find that crass, but that’s the point – that’s exactly what these characters are.
The Double Standard
How is it that the word I’ve found to best describe these “strong female characters” has largely been used in the past to describe men being jerks? It’s pretty much the old word for “toxic masculinity!” If a male character acted the way these female characters do, that’s exactly what they’d be called! No, if they acted half so horribly, they would never have made it past a publisher’s slush pile. Instead, we would have seen acquisitions editors tweeting about how triggered they felt.
I’m glad that publishing has enacted a higher standard for male characters! So many male “heroes” in books do treat everyone around them terribly, break their word, kill and torture without remorse, look out only for themselves, emotionally abuse their friends, abandon their families, and drink, swear, and fight with impunity. It continues to horrify me that stories like Prince of Thorns were ever published, and I’m relieved that publishers would reject such books today.
But I don’t want to read about hubristic, “antihero” women any more than I want to read about sociopathic, egotistical men. So why is this behavior seen as not just acceptable, but “cool” when enacted by women?
It shouldn’t be, for two reasons. But before I get into why, let’s define our terms.
“Toxic” or “Sinful?”
I’m a Christian, and I’m fine with using the phrase “toxic masculinity” because men are sinners, and like all sinners, glorify their sin as right. The world’s version of a “strong man” is extremely different from God’s version, and yes, it’s often toxic. Greed, rape (jokes), idolatry, and violence are all sins that God condemns. In the Bible, the “men after his own heart,” are faithful, humble, selfless, obedient to his law, self-controlled, and gracious. This is “righteous masculinity,” nothing like the “locker room boasters” which our culture has seen as cool (in the past). And praise God for the men who seek to be made anew in such a way!
When women call out “toxic masculinity,” I feel a lot of compassion for people who are often coming from non-Christian households. They’ve never met a godly man in their life, and they don’t have the words to explain why their relationships feel so wrong. So they use terms given to them by mental health professionals.
However, I know that many modern* feminists also use the phrase “toxic masculinity” to assert that the idea of gender differences and the existence of masculinity are in themselves toxic. I reject that claim and do not use the phrase in such a way.
*Early feminists were wonderfully brave women who championed equal rights under the law and were almost all Christians, so please be careful if you’re tempted to make blanket denigrating statements about feminists. I encourage you to read about the different “waves” of feminism to understand how/when things went wrong.
Our culture also praises the sins of women, glorifying selfish, petty, greedy, cruel speech and actions as “subversive, bold, driven, audacious, or strong.” We could refer to this as “toxic femininity,” and indeed if we are going to call out sinful masculinity, then we should be willing to do the same for sinful versions of femininity.
Though perhaps it’d be much better if we dropped this phrase entirely, in favor of biblical language. The Bible uses different words than “toxic”:
Righteous or wicked Godly or ungodly Integrity or crookedness Alive in Christ or dead in sin The wise or the fools
What does Proverbs tell us about what it looks like to live a righteous life?
The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves. The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil. The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.
Proverbs 13:5, 15:28, 29:27
I yearn to read about main characters who are considered heroes because they are righteous, not because they are wicked!
How dare publishers act as though they’ve made a stand for morality, only to turn around and espouse those same evils when committed by people like themselves! And these new heroes aren’t even well written.
Most “Strong Female Characters” Are Badly Written
It wasn’t just a shift in culture that led to a decline in the “toxically masculine” character. Publishers just started pointing out that such characters are often badly written and make for flat stories. Which is true.
Contemporary female leads, like many stereotypical male leads in older books (prophesied farm boy), are often 2-dimensional, cut-and-pasted copies of each other. Handing a girl a sword doesn’t give her a personality, though apparently it gives the author an excuse not to develop one. The most noticeable things about them, aside from their superior talent and skills, are their entitlement, aggression, arrogance, and air of martyrdom. When the story starts, they are the universe’s gift to humanity, and when the story ends, they are the universe’s greater gift to humanity.
Readers see very little character development, with the exception of “healing” from whatever injustice the world has perpetrated against the main character. There are no personal flaws they need to face and overcome. Everything is someone else’s fault. This makes for extremely boring storytelling. It breaks the cardinal rule of character development.
Everyone who’s taken an intro to creative writing course knows the joke about “the frat boy who signed up to get an easy humanities credit”: The guy writes a story about a perfectly handsome, intelligent, desirable young man who breezes through all his problems and gets the girl who wrongly rejected him before. The professor has to explain that a good (and realistic) story needs flawed protagonists (not the same as morally grey) and problems that they can’t immediately overcome. This creates tension in the plot and spurs development in the character. Usually, the new writer resists, because their character is actually a self-insert and they feel personally attacked at the implication that they have flaws.
These points are no less true for female writers and female characters. In fact, these days male writers are much more likely to accept feedback when you tell them their character needs work – I know, I’ve worked with quite a few developing male writers. But female writers are likely to get up in arms if anyone criticizes how unrealistic or entitled their female characters are. Because these authors are often living out their dreams of being able to get away with literal crime, say whatever they want to the men in their life, and be respected and taken seriously for it.
And, predictably, the characters and plot of these stories suffer for it. Yet publishers will ignore these obvious problems when they’re seen in female characters, because they too are fantasizing about walking around like god and being worshiped for it – as all sinful humans do.
Which brings me to the second reason why we should reject “toxic femininity” – the glorification of unrighteous women – in books.
Bad Ideology, Bad Examples
The version of femininity which is portrayed in so many of these stories is not something I want to embody. I don’t find these women strong. They are not good role models. Most of them are angry, bitter, self-absorbed individuals who hate authority, are isolated from healthy community and family, and listen to no one but themselves. They are unrighteous and thoroughly broken.
These characters embody everything that women have called out as wrong in male behavior. At least modern feminists have gotten more honest. Their actual message is, “men shouldn’t play god, but women are god.” I suppose these books sell because fallen people do relate to this desire. I don’t know why anyone is shocked – this is the oldest sin there is.
“You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Yours truthlessly, Satan
That’s the message publishers are selling to girls: “you can be like god.” Girls down these books like cheap shots, craving temporary gratification in place of the answer that will truly quench their thirst. Such stories can never satisfy, because they run in direct opposition to the Great Story, which tells of a plain, humble, kind man doing what is right and vanquishing evil at great cost to himself, for the sake of others.
This doesn’t mean I only want to read stories about knights saving damsels in distress from dragons, though the trope is justifiably iconic (pun intended)! This is one major reason why I personally prefer reading about male mc’s.
But I do want Queens who save their kingdom from evil. Yes, give me heroines running around in capes and busting out martial arts moves. I need to read stories about female strategists, inventors, explorers, and more. AND I want to read stories about mothers, sisters, shy girls, bookworms, wives, and any other profession out there.
SO LONG as all these women first and foremost embody integrity, kindness, faithfulness, humility, goodness, and other signs of godly character. So long as her flaws and mistakes are actually portrayed as problematic and she actively wrestles to overcome them!
We have beautiful examples to guide us!
Noah’s wife cared for her family through the ending of the world, Abigail defied her wicked husband, Ruth braved the wilderness and poverty for love, Esther faced the emperor of the known world head on, Mary encountered an eldritch creature with who knows how many eyeballs and sang for joy. Jael and the woman of Thebez smashed open the heads of villains with household implements!
The woman of Thebez wields her deadly millstone
These are strong women, brave women, faithful women – women after God’s own heart.
Don’t believe the world’s picture of femininity. It is toxic. It is the way that leads to death. I urge you not to write self-absorbed, 2D, arrogant female OR male characters, but to look at the truth of God’s word and write stories that would please him and better teach us how to hear his story.
P.S. If anyone wants to make a biblical argument in favor of the descriptor “toxic,” I’m all ears (Matt 16:6). After all, a little Axe body spray goes a long way. 😉
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
Thanks for stopping by my website! I hope you’ve found some helpful resources about reading, writing, and publishing. If you liked this article, here’s some more free content…
