Objects – All By My Shelf
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Let's talk about objects and how they can enhance your writing! Creating objects can help bring your characters off the page and help to create stories for them.
Look at the objects you have nearby. You probably have at least one of the following:
a family heirloom
photos of family, friends, holidays, festivals, and vacations
posters and or other images hanging on your walls
special clothes for special occasions
books
ornaments
everyday useful things like mugs or silverware
Every item has a history-including that plastic fork you have yet to throw out. They help paint a story of their surroundings. Wherever you can create an object in your writing, you build the world out a little more.
Here's a few ways to use objects in literature:
as a plot device: sometimes the plot can revolve around finding or destroying an object (see Lord of the Rings)
to represent a character: sometimes, personal items say more about the character than the character's actions. Think of the wands in Harry Potter and how crooked Bellatrix's is.
as a symbol representing something larger than itself: for this the most famous example I could think of is the green light in The Great Gatsby, and how it represents Gatsby's hopes, dreams, and his connection to Daisy.
as a clue: maybe you're writing a mystery or detective fiction. Objects can be used to reveal all sorts of significant things. Channel your inner Sherlock and consider how people use objects every day to really drive this home.
to foreshadow something: sometimes a gun hanging on the wall will come up later.
to trigger a memory or flashback: sometimes things just look too familiar and they spark something within us.
as a device connecting characters' separate stories: maybe your object, magical or otherwise, has been around for significant moments in history, sitting in the corner and lifelessly observing things as life happens around it.
Objects are useful because characters can find them, lose them, receive them, gift them, steal or have them stolen, search for them, treasure them, neglect them, lock them up, and even destroy them or toss them aside. And the symbolism of their actions can add to your story.
Now for the exercise:
Pick an object in your home that has some meaning for you. Study it for a moment and describe it in as much detail as you can.
Now construct a scene around it.
Was the object stolen or found?
Was it a gift?
Was it inherited?
Make sure the object triggers a significant event for your character (or you, if you're writing about yourself). Let the object help them make a decision, understand something that happened, or turn their life in a different direction.
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It doesn’t matter what age you write for, writers will always debate whether it’s better to be a plotter or a pantser. A plotter is someone who outlines their novel completely before beginning to write it (sometimes overly so); a pantser is someone who “writes by the seat of their pants,” completely winging their novel.
Personally, I like a bit of both. A general outline is a great place to start so that as I begin to write by the seat of my pants, I have some kind of direction.
I consider the following while I begin exploring a new work.
- What is the average day in the life of the main character? How can I make it busy?
- What does the main character want and what needs to happen for them to achieve their goal?
- What, according to the main character, is the worst possible outcome?
- What would keep them from answering the call to adventure?
- What or who will get in the way of their goal?
- How much time do they have?
- What does total loss look like and who or what remains afterwards?
After answering these questions, it’s easier to draft an outline of a story.
A great resource for outlining your novel, whether in depth or lightly, is the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet from Save The Cat!.
Project Title:
Logline/Simple Pitch:
Beats:
- Opening Image: Set the mood, tone, and scope of the story.
- Theme: a secondary character poses a question/statement that is the theme of the piece (can be a challenge to the main character)
- Set-Up: introduce characters who are involved with your main plot and character tics to be echoes later in the story.
- Catalyst: the life changing event that shatters the main characters average day.
- Debate: your main character makes a choice; the point of no return.
- Act II: the playing field has changed, the rules that the main character thought they were playing by are out the window and adjustments must be made.
- Secondary plot: something that distracts us from the main plot and eases tension.
- Fun & Games: the heart of the story.
- Midpoint: the threshold between the first and second half of the story. Fun and games are over now.
- Bad Guys Close In: the villains send in their worst and the main character’s plan and supports begin to unravel.
- All Is Lost: no hope can be found here, this is often a false defeat.
- Black Moment: the main character has lost everything and makes a second choice.
- Act III: The main and secondary plots collide to form the solution.
- Finale: The bad guys are defeated in ascending order until the last one is toppled.
- Final Image: the opposite of the opening image, showing how much has changed.
Originally published on July 8, 2021 @ 12:00 pm
