Last night I had a discussion with a member of my writing group about Focus and Conflict in fiction. It reminded me of a man I met when I was a missionary in the Philippines.

Orlando Salcedo worked for some time as a writer for comics. Now, the comics in the Philippines are less the superhero kind and more on a subtle, relationship level. He gave me a stack of photocopies of the comics that he wrote before I left to return to the States. The stories ranged from “What should the family do for Christmas?” to “I think my girlfriend loves another man.”

Regardless of whether these types of stories have any interest to you, the principle these stories presented can be applied to all types of fiction.

One day Orlando pulled me aside. “You want to be a writer?” he asked. “Then there is one thing you should always remember. A story starts with a problem and ends when that problem is resolved.”

This fits right in with how to fix a sagging middle in a book. Most times when this happens, the author has forgotten to keep the conflict–the problems–coming in. When the problems stop but the story keeps going, the story slows down because the reader unconsciously thinks the story should be over.

I discussed this concept with Janci from my writing group, and she shared a little about what she’s learning from revising her latest novel.

Every writer has a different modus operandi when it comes to writing books. Some focus on plot, others on character, etc. Janci focuses on character and has felt in the past that her stories lacked plot.

But this latest story has a plot! she says. And she didn’t even have to “plot” the story. The reason this works for her is that she keeps the conflict coming, the problems rolling. If one problem is about to be solved, she makes sure that there’s another problem that arises. This keeps up the tension–and the reader’s interest.

I’m going to try this method of “plotting” as I write one of the viewpoints in Nethermore and see how well it goes. I figure it can’t turn out all that bad. Afterall, this is the same way that Stephen King describes his writing process in his book On Writing.

In other news, I came across an interesting website called Write a Novel. It looks like it’s basically tutorials on how to write. Seems like it might be a great writing resource. I’m still in the process of perusing it and seeing what I think.