Every successful novel is made up of several pillars—character development, conflict and plot, setting, pacing, and so on—and these elements work together to create an engaging, hard-to-put-down book. Each of the pillars relies on the other, just like a building. The same is true about your book: If you don’t have these pillars well developed and well balanced, your book won’t be as successful as you should be.
The better balance you have on the pillars, the better book you’ll have. Here’s how to find this delicate balance for a successful novel.
As you grow as an author, you’ll see how each of these pillars are interdependent on each other. If you don’t have a central source of conflict, for example, your book’s plot won’t really be obvious. If you don’t have good tension, your book’s pacing will be slow. If you don’t have good character development (or don’t have likable or relatable characters), reader engagement will be low.
While there is a lot that goes into creating a great book, there are five constants—five pillars—that hold up any work of fiction. These are the major things that, no matter what the story is about or its genre, you absolutely MUST HAVE them in your novel for it to succeed. And the better grasp you have on each of these pillars, the better your book will be.
The 5 Pillars of Fiction Writing
- Conflict
- Plot & Story Structure
- Pacing
- Tension
- Character Development
PILLAR #1: CONFLICT
The conflict is the engine that drives your book. Without a central source of conflict (or several), many aspects of the book will suffer: No conflict, no good pacing, no good tension, no good reader engagement.
Essentially, if you don’t have a clear source of conflict, everything else falls apart.
In fiction books, the conflict:
- Must be immediately noticeable
- Must become clear early on in the book
- During the course of the novel, the protagonist must face a series of obstacles, each worse than the last, on the course of solving the conflict
There are different types of conflict in fiction books: external conflict and internal conflict. Most fiction books have an external source of conflict, and the best books also incorporate a source of internal conflict.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
- Does your story begin with some sort of conflict—either internal or external?
- Does the beginning set up the bigger “conflict” of the entire novel, the issue that drives your protagonist toward his/her end goal?
PILLAR #2: PLOT & STORY STRUCTURE
The story’s plot reflects how to solve the problem of the central source of conflict. The plot goal is laid out at the start of the book alongside the conflict. Your book’s plot should become clear at 25% of the way into the novel.
Every scene in your book needs to show some forward progression, whether it’s character development or moving the plot forward.
It’s critical to get the overall plot goal and the series goal if you’re writing a series. In other words, you must lay out the plot goal for that one book, and the series goal for books 1-3 (or however many are in the series).
Subplots keep things moving to add sophistication, intrigue. Character arcs, where a character changes by the end of the book, are a good way to add in a subplot.
Most fiction books follow a similar story structure. The beginning and end chapters are most important.
- Beginning: A regular day in the life of your protagonist
- Inciting event: Changes everything. There’s a problem that the protagonist must resolve. The plot goal will start to take shape. The protagonist acknowledges the issue (conflict).
- Middle: Things start going now. Typically there are several incidents where the character needs to overcome obstacles in order to reach the plot goal. Obstacle 1, Obstacle 2, book’s climax. Tension keeps building.
- Climax: Typically at the 75-80% mark. This is where all the plot’s excitement reaches its peak.
- Resolution: Where the characters are at, what lessons they learned. Your book’s resolution must be satisfying.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
- Is the plot goal for the book laid out from the start and does it resolve at the end of the book satisfactorily?
- Are the setting, locale, time of year, date, etc., clearly and consistently developed?
- Are there scenes in the book that do not serve the plot and don’t seem to have a point?
PILLAR #3: PACING
In today’s market, readers prefer plot-driven fiction, in which the book’s main character overcomes an obstacle (the overall conflict), thereby reaching the plot goal by the end of the book. Each scene must contribute to heightening tension to keep the book’s pacing moving quickly.
Slow pacing is a common issue I see as a book editor, usually caused by an unclear source of conflict, a slow plot, or unlikeable characters (see how the pillars are interdependent?). So if you don’t have a good grasp on these other pillars, your book’s pacing will suffer.
Other issues that cause slow pacing are showing vs. telling issues: Be descriptive and specific. Use sensory details: 5 senses. Keep in mind that your do not need to “show” everything in the novel. Show a setback, crisis, turning point.
On the other side of the coin is too-fast pacing, like when the character is in an exciting scene, but the action is glossed over too quickly, leading to the scene feeling rushed and underwritten. Slow down the scene and milk it for all its worth.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
- Does the book drag in spots due to excessive narration or from uninteresting scenes?
- Is the writing over-wordy or vague, slowing down the pace of the scenes?
PILLAR #4: TENSION
Tension is the high stakes feeling readers get when reading your book. Tension—wondering what’s gong to happen on the next page, in the next chapter—encourages the reader to continue through the book.
There are hundreds of ways your book can play out. As the author, it’s your job to make sure the characters aware of the stakes.
Tension will arise naturally in your book with fully developed sources of conflict and well-developed characters. If your book is lacking tension, spend time further developing the sources of conflict. Make sure that your overall plot is clear. What will the characters get from defeating the obstacles, and what’s at stake if they fail? Ensure your characters are likable and relatable.
Add more tension by leaving scenes hanging and incorporating more than one character perspective in your book. End one chapter in a high-stakes moment—like one character is driving through an intersection and is suddenly T-boned—and start the next chapter with a different character’s perspective in a different scene. This narrative style creates tension. In romance books, one character doesn’t always know what another character is thinking, leading to tension between the characters. Will they end up getting their happily-ever-after if they misread each other’s signals?
You can use two different character perspectives to play off each other to create the story and to create tension.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
- What are the stakes?
- Is tension created at the outset of the book?
- Is the protagonist compelling enough to heighten tension by the reader caring about him/her?
- Are scenes adeptly left hanging in order to create tension?
- Are elements/clues/details needed to propel the story presented in a way as to invoke tension (make the reader keep reading)?
PILLAR #5: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Characters’ level of development is the key thing that will make or break your book. Integrating human emotion is a critical step to getting your readers to connect with your story. Character emotion is particularly important—it’s why I’m constantly asking authors “What is she feeling right now, after X just happened?” when doing a manuscript critique.
To be well developed, characters must have a past, a need, a fear, a dream, through action, narration, and dialogue. Characters can have conversations with each other, have flashbacks, remember things, or encounter a situation that reminds them of their past.
Don’t go on and on about a character’s history or backstory, otherwise you’ll potentially write an infodump. Incorporate character development wherever you can.
The protagonist needs to have the most character development. Secondary characters don’t need to be AS developed, but they do need to contribute to the protagonist’s story in some way. Even bad guys need character development. Everyone is multifaceted, complex person. Your book’s characters need to reflect that.
Character arcs are always fun, and add another layer to your character development. A character arc is, essentially, where a character becomes a different person by the end of the book, based on what happens to them in the plot. Your character should have small realizations throughout the book to make their character change at the end make sense.
Integrate human emotion to get your readers to connect with your story. Most memorable characters are those who feel things, get angry about things.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
- Is the protagonist sympathetic from the start?
- Are the characters rich and developed or flat and stereotypic?
- Are there characters of different races? Are Black characters stereotypical (i.e., bums, criminals) while white characters serve the roles as leaders, professionals, etc.?
- Do the secondary characters enhance and enrich the protagonist’s story?
- Does the protagonist have a clear character arc that shows growth/change/decision/resolution to the end of the book?
Book editor Kristen Hamilton is the owner and sole employee of Kristen Corrects, Inc., where she provides manuscript editing services for traditionally and self-publishing authors. Several authors whose books she has edited have won awards and have topped Amazon’s best sellers lists.
Reading is Kristen’s passion, so when the workday is over, she can usually be found curled up with a good book alongside her four cats. She loves watching cat videos and scary movies, eating pizza, teaching herself French, and traveling, and she is likely planning her next vacation. She lives outside of Boise, ID.