The Rooftop Party, Part 1
Or: "Actually Starting Your Novel Boils Down to Character, Really"
Some Quick Housekeeping, Because I Can’t Help Myself
If you’re not one for fine print or disclosures, no worries. I’ve bundled some information up as footnotes, so you can click to read them, or you can scroll on down for the good stuff! It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure!
Disclosure #1: Who is this for?1
Disclosure #2: On “writing advice”2
All right. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with getting started. As in, the intentional act of moving our fingers over the keyboard to turn that blank screen with its blinking cursor into…something else.
Something amazing.
To do that, we’re going to head out to an incredible party on a fancy rooftop overlooking the city. It’s going to be an absolute blast, and we’re going to learn some really important stuff up there. But first, let’s dig into a few important ideas to lay a foundation.
We need to talk about what it means to start writing a novel. Like, really really start.
Let’s do it!
We Love a Good Vibe, But…
I’ll just come out and say it: getting started can really suck sometimes. It’s one thing to have vivid dreams about a new story idea, to hastily scrawl ideas into a notebook, or sit around and daydream all kinds of scenes you think would feel at home in your story world. Most writers have no issue dreaming up a space where their stories can take place, no issue filling that space with rough sketches of the people and items that belong in it, no issue concocting visceral moments that begin to feel as real to them as their waking life.
The trouble comes with the reality of physical novels—the tangible, consumable products you hope your adoring readers will someday hold in their hands. Those novels are not just loose collections of scenes with nebulous characters living out dreamy fantasies and vibing along with your imagination, out there somewhere in the ether. Novels have structure and purpose and design. They contain your intent, as an author, to carry a reader who is unfamiliar with the specific content of your imagination from one place to the next, then the next, and so on, until they arrive at a satisfying conclusion that leaves them thinking to themselves, “Wow! That was really something. I’m ready to read that person’s entire backlist and set my credit card to auto-buy for all future books.”3
But to get there, we have to get started. We have to take the first step on the long road from “vibes in my head” to “fulfilling connection between readers and my story world.” We have to understand, as writers, that it’s our responsibility to take that wistful collection of sensory data that lives in our brains and translate it to the page in a way that our readers can understand, consume, and enjoy. And I have sort of a hot take here. You may agree, or you may vehemently, categorically disagree, but bear with me either way. Here it is…
…It All Starts with Character
I’ve talked with hundreds of authors at every level of the publishing game over the last two decades. In those conversations, it’s become clear that there are lots of different camps when it comes to how story ideas and concepts are born. Some authors begin with a setting—someplace they go in their minds that feels real and visceral, a place where they’d like to spend some serious time, where they’d like to explore and bring their readers along for the journey. Other writers begin with a premise—a basic cause-and-effect thought line they know they want to explore. Some authors, like Adrienne Young, one of my favorite writers, begin with a specific scene—a moment that sparks a chain reaction of ideas that will ultimately congeal into an effective, driving story that readers can’t help but devour.4
There’s no wrong way to come up with a story. But at the end of the day, the element that you absolutely must get right from the start is character. Character is the bridge between your reader and literally every conceivable element of your story world. Character is the touchstone that gives a reader access to what you’re trying to say, what you’re trying to show, what you’re trying to translate out of your mind and into the reader’s own imagination. Character is what allows a reader to actually live on the page as they read. Without character, there can be no meaningful setting, no actionable premise, no unforgettable scenes. Someone has to inhabit these other elements.
So if you’re stuck between the daydreaming stage and the putting-words-on-paper stage, I am adamantly convinced that you can get un-stuck by filtering out all of the other elements of your story world and spending some serious time focusing on character. Specifically your main character. Your protagonist. The person in your story who has the most to offer your reader in terms of page time. It’s the person we’ll be most invested in, that we’ll be spending hours and hours with. It’s no wonder this nebulous figure that lives at the heart of your tantalizing plot is so important to the way you actually get started. It’s because, at the end of the day, where that character ends up is crucially important to the entire experience of building your story from the ground up.
Finding Connection through “Self”
I know what you’re thinking: I’m dying to get to this rooftop party you mentioned! Fear not: we’re getting so close to it. Just a couple quick things first, to make sure we’re all on the same page.
As writers, we use words like “character” every single day, and we obviously have a notion of what the word means. But do we really understand it at the functional level? Do we understand it in a way that actually helps improve the way we write and communicate story to our readers?
One of the greatest revelations I ever had about the function of character in storytelling, as well as its great importance in holding all other story elements together, is that character in fiction is an expression of the self. And it’s such a simple concept, really. So simple that I think it’s actually pretty easy to overlook when we’re doing the hard work of crafting fiction, finding a place to really dig in and get started with the heavy lifting of painting our made-up world, with all its made-up elements, onto the canvas of our book.
“Self” is a word we use to describe the way our identity, or even our humanity, is expressed at the individual level. In real life, our sense of self carries us from one action or reaction to the next, grants us agency to make decisions or have opinions about things, opens up our capacity to love or to hate or to empathize with others. If we were to try to capture portraits of each “self” that exists on Earth at a given time, there would be as many unique, individual portraits as there are human beings.
Obviously, when we’re inserting fictional characters into plots and settings we’ve concocted in our minds, we’re borrowing different pieces of “self” from people we know or have read about or researched as we create complex, compelling portraits of people who only exist in our story worlds—but who will nonetheless become important fixtures in the minds of our readers as they consume our work.
So, what is it we need to remember as we’re seemingly playing God in our own fictional worlds, crafting these “selves” from our daydreams and translating them to the page? Two words: universal connection. In Chapter 4 of one of the greatest craft books out there—The Anatomy of Story—story consultant (and all-around genius) John Truby writes:
A character is a fictional self, created to show simultaneously how each human being is totally unique in an unlimited number of ways but at the same time always and forever human, with features we all share. This fictional self is then shown in action, in space and over time, and compared to others, to show how a person can live well or badly and how a person can grow over [their] lifetime.
The magic of this quote is that it gives us a functional definition of character in the fictional space. We know what it is (a fictional self), we know why it’s present (to help readers find meaningful universal connections), and we know how that gets accomplished (by showing action in space over time in order to reflect growth and change).
And that, my friends, is what character really boils down to:
Self
Connections
Growth and change
Without these, your character will remain a nebulous blob in your mind’s eye, walking through blurry scenes, speaking in dialogue that doesn’t connect to anything meaningful, wandering aimlessly until, perhaps, your whole idea just fades away and you’re left with nothing but the blank page you started with.
All Right, Let’s Hit That Rooftop!
We made it! Finally! You’ve been super patient, and, at last, it’s time to head out to our fancy rooftop gathering, where we’re going to be meeting someone very special that I know you’re going to want to talk to.
One more thing before we head upstairs: Grab a pen and pad, or a notebook or journal, or even the notes app on your phone or tablet, because you’re about to learn some really important information that can transform a blank first page in Chapter 1 of your novel into something with substance and direction and—you guessed it—character!
Now, just for a moment, let your mind wander with me. You head up four flights of stairs and find yourself on the last landing, and you let yourself through the door. You walk out into the warm, summer night. There are people milling about all over, having all kinds of conversations, laughing and talking and catching up. There’s some chill, vibe-y music playing from the speakers. The sound of city traffic filters up from below.
And then you see them. Sitting off in the far corner of the rooftop, all by themselves, looking out over the urban landscape, deep in thought. They don’t seem happy to be here, the closer you look. In fact, something seems to be troubling them deeply, and you wonder what it could be. You’re concerned. Why?
Because you’re looking right at the primary protagonist of the new idea you’re trying to get on paper. The main character. The one person in your story that not only you should care about, but so should your readers.
Now It’s Time to Connect, Connect, Connect!
Remember the three components of fictional characters? Self. Connections. Growth and change.
We’ve laid eyes on a fictional self, sitting all alone at this made-up rooftop party in our mind’s eye. Now it’s time to hit the second component. It’s time to connect with that fictional self in some meaningful way, and by doing that, we’ll be setting ourselves up for the third component, but we’ll get into that later.
Here’s an exercise I want you to try while we’re up on this imaginary rooftop:
EXERCISE: TWO QUESTIONS
Imagine you walk up to your main protagonist where they sit. Maybe you’ve given them a name already, maybe not. Maybe you know some things about them, maybe not. Maybe you can see what they’re wearing, what color their hair is, their eyes—or maybe not. Fortunately for you, none of that matters right now. Right now, for the purpose of this exercise, there are two, and only two, pieces of information you need to get out of this character before you leave this rooftop:
What’s been going wrong with you lately?
How are you coping with it?
That’s it. Nothing fancy. Just these two questions. And since we’re within the safety of your imagination, you can just walk right up to your character and ask them directly. There’s no need for introductions or small talk. If your main character thinks you’re a little weird, so be it! If they stick around for your full novel, they’re really going to think you’re weird, so you might as well set their expectations early!
Let me challenge you to complete this exercise by typing out your protagonist’s response to these two questions right in your blank document, free-writing style. Just write down whatever comes to mind, but remember to keep it focused on those two questions.
Why type it out in your main draft document, you ask? Sometimes, I think putting notes in a separate book or document can train our brains to over-compartmentalize. We organize useful thoughts and ideas away into a special, secret file, and at some point they end up out of sight, out of mind. In the worst of cases, they may end up lost altogether. So put them right there in your chapter—a place where you can’t ignore them if you hope to finish your book.
And you will finish. I have faith in you!
For now, that it’s. Get an answer to those all-important questions. It doesn’t matter how you get it, it doesn’t matter if your character has a lot to say or a little (though, more could be better for what we have to do in the next issue). But there really are no rules here. It’s your imaginary party, your imaginary conversation, with your imaginary protagonist. Take from it what you can. Maybe you write this interaction out as a scene between yourself and your character. Or maybe it’s just your character’s stream-of-consciousness, babbling on and on until your own brain runs out of things for them to say. Maybe your character has eyes on the person or thing causing them problems, and it’s right there on that rooftop with them.
Just remember—and I can’t stress this enough—you need to know what’s going wrong with them lately, and you need to know how they’re coping with it. No right or wrong answers here. Just answers.
Looking Ahead
Okay, you made it to the end! First of all, congratulations! Second of all, thank you for joining me on the first leg of this brand-new journey. I can’t wait to hear from you about your successes and challenges, and about all of the great things that are bound to happen along your writing journey. Whether you’re just starting out on your first novel, or you’re right in the middle of your tenth one, or somewhere in between, I am looking forward to connecting with you and sharing in your creative success!
In the next issue, we’re going to take what we discussed here and expand it a little bit, so that we have an even clearer picture of the main character that you’re going to be spending a lot of time with as you plot through a larger story world and take them through a universe of change and setbacks and growth.
Until next time. Happy writing!
Recently Read
I found this book by accident as my partner and I were browsing through a Barnes & Noble while on vacation. I had never read a mainstream horror novel set so close to where I live. Gregory’s prose is urgent and gripping, and the protagonist is someone you absolutely need to root for as you turn each page. This one kept me up at night…a few times!
Currently Reading
I’m absolutely loving this historical novel with Leigh’s signature touch of magic thrown in. I was a little unsure if it would be my cup of tea before it released, but I’m happy to say that I’m devouring this one! The characters are richly drawn and compelling, and the setting absolutely shines!
In case you’re here from the world of technical or academic writing: This party is mostly for those among us writing fiction or narrative nonfiction. The longer you read, the more you’ll realize that what I’m about to go over really only works in a world where the writer is populating a space with characters and actions and rules that are designed to move a plot and engage readers in a shared storytelling experience. But, hey. Maybe you can still learn something here, so feel free to stick around!
As a general rule, I hate calling what I’m about to do “writing advice.” For me personally, the term feels a little trite and carries something of a negative connotation. There’s no shortage of folks out there claiming to give “writing advice.” What I have found that I need as a writer and creative is “writing exploration.” That’s what I like to think of this as. We’re all writers. We’re all creating something. Sometimes we get stuck. And when that happens, it helps when we can meet each other where we are and share what we know. Maybe it will help, maybe it won’t. But by not calling this “writing advice,” I hope to lift the pressure off of both myself and you, my fellow writer. At the end of the day, worst-case scenario, maybe you spend a few minutes reading through something that does absolutely nothing for your creativity. But on the flip side, maybe, just maybe, you walk away with a spark that carries you over whatever hill is blocking your progress. I hope it’s the latter!
I do feel the need to point out here that not all writers write books with the solitary goal of selling those books as products and deriving an income from their art. Some writers write as a hobby, for enjoyment, to hone their craft, or for a variety of other reasons that may have nothing to do with selling a product to a consumer. Those are all perfectly valid reasons to write, and no one should be shamed for them.
Adrienne frequently tells the story of how her debut novel Sky in the Deep was inspired by a vision of a girl standing on a battlefield, covered in blood. That image became the key opening moment of the book, which went on to launch a very successful career for Adrienne, who continues to write bestsellers and positively impact the writing community with resources, workshops, and connections for growing creatives.