I finally finished Donald Maass' book, Writing the Breakout Novel, and I thought that the best way for me to organize my thoughts about it would be to do a quick journal entry on it. So -- read on it if you're interested in writing novels... If not, well there's new stuff over at The Onion.

The biggest nugget of wisdom I pulled from this book was to make the scope of your novel BIGGER. Don't just make the story about a guy whose wife has left him as he struggles to deal with the return of his brother and save the family farm (um, wait, why does that sound familiar?). Make it bigger, make the conflicts more universal. Take more chances. Expand the scope.

I like what he says about premises -- they should have plausibility, inherent conflict, originality, and gut emotional appeal. The germ of your novel idea should be so surprising yet credible that other writers smack their foreheads and say "Why didn't I think of that!??!" Another good tip is to always ask "What if...?" followed by "What next?"

He also has good things to say about making your characters larger than life, having them do and say the things that we always WISH we would've said, ten minutes after the fact. In your novel, you get to have your characters be smarter, wittier, sexier than you are in real life. You also make them suffer much more than you do in real life, so I guess it's a fair trade-off.

The best bit of advice in the book was for me the stuff earlier on (some of the later stuff about plotting and description and voice I sort of know and have read about elsewhere). It's probably because I'm gathering ideas for a new novel and revising some other novels, but he nailed it for me when he said to "raise the stakes." Don't flinch about killing off a character or making them act in a way that's surprising, or taking chances with your plot.

He uses "Silences of the Lambs" as a great example of raising the stakes -- it's not just about a serial killer, but it's about Clarice Starling, the detective, dealing with her past as she tries to solve a series of murders while Hannibal Lector plays mind games with her. Each character has his or her own internal agenda that works with and against the external agenda of the storyline, creating wonderful, sometimes PAINFUL conflict.

And that's the key to raising the stakes -- every scene has to be filled with conflict. Not shoot-em-ups or car chases, but moments of discomfort for the characters, tension. I'd fall asleep if I read a novel where everyone got along. Remember that. If your scene or chapter has no tension, either chop it out or rewrite it so the reader can feel the conflict. Because that's why we read -- to learn about how other people deal with conflict, and to resolve that mystery inherent in dealing with the conflict.

Okay, I'm losing myself in theory here, so I'll leave it at that. Just raise the stakes in your writing, take chances, and keep pushing yourself. That's what I'm trying to do. Later!