You’ll learn the four keys to impacting readers on an emotional level

You’ll gain:

-      Insight into what drives you as a writer

-      Clarity about what you really want to say through your story

-      A deeper understanding of your protagonist

-      A process for pairing plot with emotion

Why Write Emotionally Impactful SciFi

-      There is nothing wrong with writing a fun romp of a novel, but you want to do more

-      You know the power of story

-      You want to impact your reader

-      Emotionally impactful fiction doesn’t happen by accident – it happens on purpose

Four Keys to Emotionally Impactful SciFi

-      Acknowledged Purpose

-      Clear Point

-      Powerful Protagonist

-      Character-Driven Plot

Key One – An Acknowledged Purpose

Acknowledge who you are as a writer and what you bring to the page

How do you make a novel emotionally impactful?

-      By writing with courageous honesty

-      To be honest in our novel, you must be honest with yourself

-      Your novel starts with you

-      Your story is rooted in you

-      When you acknowledge who you are, you can use your gifts on purpose

The Story Tree

-      Leaves: Plot

-      Branches: Story Elements

-      Trunk: Point

-      Roots: You

The world needs YOUR story – Take Action

Action Guide

www.daniabernathy.com/prowritingaid

Acknowledge your purpose as an author

-      What are you passionate about?

-      Make a list of important events in your life. Do you notice any themes?

-      Look at your previous writing projects. Do you see any recurring plot, character, or theme elements?

-      Why do you write?

-      Write down your core writing themes, values or questions

-      Keep these nearby and remind yourself of your purpose

Key #2: A Clear Point

         Understand what you want to say about the world through your novel

What is a Story? – A story is how what happens affects someone who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result

-      Lisa Cron “Wired for Story”

The basic elements of story

-      a character – the person who experiences the story

-      a goal – what that person wants

-      an obstacle – the thing standing in the way of what they want

-      a change – how the person is changed by the obstacle

In an impactful novel, all of these elements work together

What is a point? What your novel says about the world and how to live in it

Find Your Novel’s Point

Every book is, at heart, an argument for something – for a belief, an argument, a vision of the future, a way to solve a problem, a way to make a friend, a way to lose your soul. The point is what the entire story drives to. It’s the thing your reader will come away from your book feeling.

_ Jennie Nash “Blueprint for a Book”

Examples:

-      Love conquers all

-      The earth is our most valuable possession

-      You can’t live well with a closed heart

-      We can only embrace our power after we have embraced ourselves

Story elements that grow from your point

-      Conflict

-      Protagonist

-      Antagonist

-      Cast

-      Setting

-      Worldbuilding

The Power of the Point in Science Fiction

Are You Resistant to Having a Point?

         Impactful fiction doesn’t happen by accident

When you know your point:

-      You can be purposeful about what goes into your story – and why

-      You have a metric for evaluating every element of your story

-      You don’t fall into story rabbit holes

Ways to re-frame the point

-      Message

-      Theme

-      Worldview

-      Central idea

-      Heart of the story

-      Book’s identity

-      Book’s statement

Identify a clear point

-      Why is the story important to you?

-      When your ideal reader finishes you book, how do you want them to feel?

-      What message or question do you want them to come away with?

-      Reflect on these answers for recurring themes and connections

-      Sum up your point in one or two sentences

-      Use it as a touchpoint for planning, writing, editing and pitching

Writing Tip: Let Your Point Grow

Key Three: A Powerful Protagonist

        Craft your character arc to support your point

When we’re lost in a story, we’re not passively reading about something that’s happening to someone else. We’re actively experiencing it at a neural level as if it were happening to us. We are – literally – making the protagonist’s experience our own.

Lisa Cron “Story Genius”

Your protagonist is the avenue through which the reader lives your story

A powerful impact = a powerful protagonist

What makes a powerful protagonist? A powerful character arc

A protagonist’s arc is the primary way you reader experiences your point

The character arc

         Begin: The protagonist believes the opposite of your point– misbelief

         Story: Events challenge the protagonist’s belief so much that it

becomes too painful to retain, so they change

End: Protagonist believes something new – a version of your point

final belief

Example:

         Point: The earth is our most valuable possession

         Misbelief: I can barely handle my own problems, let alone the

problems of the whole world. Someone else will fix the world’s problem

         Final Belief: I am part of this earth, so the earth’s problems are my

problems also. I need to take action

Example:

         Point: We can only embrace our power once we have embraced

ourselves

         Misbelief: At my core, I am broken, and I must do all I can to hide that

brokenness

         Final Belief: I do not need to hide my flaws. My brokenness is where

my power lies

Take Action: Build a Powerful Protagonist

-      Start at the end. What does your protagonist believe at the end of the novel? It should be some variation of your point.

-      Go to the beginning. What opposite belief should they have at the beginning of the novel. Brainstorm ideas, then pick the one that best supports the impact you want to have on your reader.

-      Write down your protagonist’s misbelief and final belief. Keep them handy.

Key 4: Character-Driven Plot

Create a connection between what’s happening in your protagonist and what’s going on around them

How do they live the point through the plot?

-      The protagonist uses their misbelief (which is based on your point) to make choices that influence the plot

-      The plot changes the protagonist’s misbelief, which leads them to their final belief (your point)

The Snowball of Misbelief:

Misbelief

ß                    – based on belief at that moment, they make a choice

Choice

    ß                 – choice creates a consequence

Consequence

    ß                 – consequence creates another conflict

Conflict 

    ß                 – protagonist experiences conflict

Misbelief           – reference their misbelief to make sense of the conflict

Repeat

Character + Plot = Story Magic

-      Narrative drive

-      An unputdownable novel

-      Emotional impact

How do you build a character-driven plot?

-      Create an outline that includes both the scene’s event and what’s happening inside the protagonist

The Inside Outline (a tool created by Jennie Nash)

● The events of the scent – what happens

● Internal – how the protagonist is interpreting the scene. Their thoughts,

beliefs and choices

A Cause-and-Effect Trajectory – the internal must cause the next external

Example

Point: We can only embrace our power once we have embraced ourselves

External: Velia is searching her room for a pretense after the recurring

nightmare (and memory) of her mother, the former queen,

abandoning the kingdom and Velia. Velia decided to go to the temple so she can stop the risk of manifesting a pretense

Internal: The dream always makes me feel, and feeling is dangerous. It

leads to pretenses. I swore that I would never be like my mother, who let her pretense get out of control. But I can never control my feelings. What if I am like my mother? I won’t let myself be.

Because of that …

External: Velia goes to the temple and touches the ritual stone, which draws out her power, dulls her emotions, and removes the temptation of summoning a pretense. Merrick, her fiancé and the High Priest, emerges from the basement where the pretense energy is stored. He says, “You were right to come. Your sin runs so deep.” He kisses her.

Internal: I can’t let anyone see me coming to the temple in the middle of the night, because they’ll think I’m a bad queen. No one else needs the ritual as much as I do, but I’m so weak that I can’t be a good queen without it. Merrick’s touch bothers me without the ritual, but with it, I want what I should.

Take Action: Create a character-driven plot.

-      Write the external portion pf the scene – the actions, events, what’s happening

-      Write the internal portions of the scene – the thoughts, feelings and beliefs

-      Given what the protagonist believes in the moment, what choice would  they make?

-      What consequences would that choice have? This consequence causes the next scene

Repeat for every scene on your novel

Writing Tip: Use a plot structure (Beat Sheet)

-      Hero’s Journey – Four Act Structure – Save the Cat Writes a Novel

Take Action: Assess Your Keys

-      Agency: Is your protagonist making choices based on their beliefs?

-      Cause-and-Effect Trajectory: Do the protagonist’s choices have consequences that cause the next thing to happen?

-      Character Arc: Is the protagonist’s beliefs changing as the story progresses?

-      Resolution: Does the change in the protagonist enable the story problem to be solved?

-      Meaning: Does the story illustrate your point?

Congratulations! Now you can use the four keys to build an impactful SciFi

novel.