One of my writers’ groups had a recent discussion about how easy it is to make a novel too complicated. This is a challenge I encounter a lot.
I love worldbuilding and complex ideas. When I attended Julie Cohen’s writing retreat in France, she called me out for it: “Keep it simple, stupid!” I need to be able to describe what I’m writing in a straightforward way. Once I’ve gotten to the essence of it, I can complexify from there!
I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year, and I’m starting something new. My first idea was one I’ve dreamed about since the pandemic, set in a beautiful, complicated world. I’ve tried to begin it a few times, but I haven’t been able to make a plot work with these characters and setting.
I hope to write that story someday. It might be one of those ideas that isn’t quite ready yet, one that I will someday gain the skills to bring to life.
But I had a second idea while brainstorming. This one’s simpler and more straightforward. I know how to describe it and make it sound interesting to listeners. I know how to structure it.
That’s the one I’m writing.
Do you tend to overcomplicate your writing, too? What do you do to keep things clear?
Here are a few principles that have helped me take my narratives back to basics.
Know what the point of your story is.
Be able to describe it in a sentence.
Know what the stakes are – and feel emotionally invested, not confused.
Pitch your story to others. See if it a) makes sense to them and b) sounds interesting.
Make sure you want to write this story. A novel is a commitment!
My first novel, Chasing Harmony, has been out for a year now! It’s now available in ebook format as well as in paperback, which I’m excited about because it means more people can read it. It took 10 years for this strange, literary, bisexual YA coming-of-age story to find a publisher, and I’m grateful it has a good home.
My publisher, Read Furiously, has been wonderful to work with. One reason I chose them is that they donate a portion of royalties to charity, primarily literacy charities. Some of you might remember that my first foray into publication was self-publishing two poetry books as a teenager to raise money for charities… back in the pre-digital era of the early 2000s, when self-publishing meant applying for a grant, giving your files to the printer, and having them print the books out! I got extra “imperfect” copies of my first book, Tears for the World, to sell, because a hair got stuck in the printing press.
Tears for the World raised money for Farmers Helping Farmers, a Prince Edward Island-based organization which helps farmers in Kenya, while Fire in the Sky raised money for a local literacy organization. With Chasing Harmony helping a similar cause, I feel like things have come full circle.
It always makes me happy when I hear from someone who’s read Chasing Harmony, especially if they connected with the characters. I poured my heart into this story.
Read Furiously has scheduled a virtual book tour to celebrate Chasing Harmony’s anniversary, and if you’d like a review copy to feature a review, guest post, or interview on your blog, you can request one from Goddess Fish Promotions here. There will also be gift card giveaways! Stay tuned for more on the tour which is happening from August 28 – September 22!
Here are Read Furiously’s kind words on my book’s anniversary:
“Last July we introduced a wonderful young adult novel filled with music, vulnerability, and lost love. One year later, we are still haunted and inspired by Anna Stern’s search for her authentic self.
Happy one year anniversary to CHASING HARMONY by Melanie Bell. If you haven’t experienced the magic of Anna’s musical talent, or haven’t fallen in love with Liss, or danced with Ay-a in a forest kingdom, we recommend making CHASING HARMONY a must read this summer.
We have big plans to celebrate one year – stay tuned!
CHASING HARMONY is available wherever books are sold.”
Laura Keating, a fellow student from the University of New Brunswick’s Renaissance College program, is both a lovely person and a stellar writer. I read some of her work during our student days, and both of us have since been doing our best in the literary trenches. She’s carved out a niche and a name for herself in horror, and her debut novella, Agony’s Lodestone, came out in April. I couldn’t have been more excited to read it, and the book more than delivered on its premise.
To quote the publisher’s description:
Laura Keating‘s debut novella, AGONY’S LODESTONE, wraps you in its Weird, cold embrace, blending elements of Found Footage horror, fraught family drama, and a creepy-ass Canadian wilderness where time and space just won’t sit still.
-Tenebrous Press
Like me, Keating is from Atlantic Canada – more specifically, she hails from St. Andrews, New Brunswick. The region’s landscape plays a key feature in her haunting novella, with New Brunswick’s renowned “highest tides in the world” echoing through the caves in Cannon Park with a sound like cannon fire. The uncanny setting adds just the right amount of creepiness to the narrative. More on this later.
Agony’s Lodestone begins with a not entirely welcome sibling reunion. Survivalist loner Aggie has been toughing it on her own since the disappearance of her older sister, Joanne, a star swimmer. Her younger brother, Bailey, has capitalized on this disappearance with a flashy social media presence and a TV show seeking to solve its mystery. Their older brother, Alex, has devoted himself to raising a family. The three remaining siblings are all obviously grieving in their own ways, and their coping techniques rub against each other uncomfortably.
Bailey barges back into his siblings’ lives with a revelation: he’s found a videotape of Joanne. The VHS comes from security footage filmed at Cannon Park on the day Joanne left to walk their dog. The dog returned; the sister didn’t. On the tape, Joanne appears to flicker in and out of existence. And upon repeated viewing, the tape changes in terrifying ways.
The siblings, of course, must go to the park to see if they can uncover the truth behind their sister’s disappearance. Not one of them will emerge unscathed.
Keating crafts both character and setting with a deft touch. The siblings’ wounds feel fresh, and the New Brunswick wilderness is portrayed in unnerving detail, from the booming of unseen waves to the snapping of wood. The three characters find themselves trapped in the same uncanny reality that took their sister from them years ago, a place where time and space repeat themselves. They must use their wits to navigate this landscape that is never fully explained. The novella never loses sight of its emotional core, as much of the time, the siblings’ bruised hearts make their decisions for them. Creepy illustrations accentuate the story.
I’m looking forward to Laura Keating’s next book. For now, Agony’s Lodestone comes highly recommended!
“I don’t want to be an offering, she thought with a new and sharp urgency. I never have, nor a prayer, either. I will be a knife in the dark or nothing, no matter the cost.”
What would you do if a god killed your sister? For Anya Astraea, the answer is clear: set out to murder him in retaliation.
I’ve enjoyed Laura E. Weymouth’s books since I read the first one, a unique portal fantasy called The Light Between Worlds. Weymouth writes historical fantasy for young adults. Her debut novel is a poignant take on Narnia and the devastating emotional consequences of growing up in another world, then being sent back to this one.
She has four books out now. Her latest is A Consuming Fire, and she was kind enough to share an ARC with me.
Reader, I loved it. There’s a consistent theme of anger across her last two novels. Women’s anger. Righteous anger. The anger of people who are overlooked, underestimated, and trampled underfoot by oppressive structures and figures who hold excess power. The anger of the small in a big world who stand up one day and declare, “Enough.”
In A Consuming Fire, a town called Weatherell is expected to periodically send a girl as a living sacrifice to appease a hostile god. These “Weatherell girls,” as they are called, must offer up what the mountain god demands, whether it’s a valued body part or a core personality trait. Protagonist Anya is intimately familiar with the lives of these sacrificial women: her mother was one of them, giving up her hands, and now her bold and adventurous twin sister, Ilva, is determined to make the journey up the mountain.
Ilva returns from the mountaintop drained of life force, and Anya watches her die. Another sacrifice is needed. But Ilva has made one last request of her sister: “Don’t let anyone else go.” And Anya, who’s long been incensed at the injustice of the system, is determined to follow that request. She sets off toward the mountain, not to offer herself to the god but to kill him.
Along the way, Anya falls in with a changeling thief and a group of others, including charming wanderers and a lovable dog, while playing a cat-and-mouse game with religious officials called the Elect who want to use her for their own ends. Everyone is hiding secrets of their own that, when revealed, will expand Anya’s understanding of her world. Ilva’s ghost remains a frequent visitor, urging her on and reminding her of her mission’s stakes. If she fails, countless girls will suffer; if she succeeds, she might spare others from suffering as her mother and sister did ever again.
A Consuming Fire carries a foreboding undertone, with deft touches such as bone charms made from dead Weatherell girls adding to the atmosphere and sense that this world is askew. Psychological insight blends with lyrical phrasing and keenly felt emotion throughout.
There are religious themes and features in this book that won’t be for everyone. After all, it is not set in a fantasy world but in an altered variant of the historical UK. But if you enjoy or don’t mind those aspects, you’ll find a lot to appreciate in the novel when it comes to the nature of power and agency.
Come join Anya on her vengeful climb up the mountain and witness how powerful a woman wronged can become!
I started NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this November as an incentive to finish my fantasy novel, the one I’d been working on for a year and a half. At 55,000 words in, it was rolling along toward a conclusion, but it hadn’t gotten there yet. When I applied last year for a grant I didn’t receive, I listed November as a planned deadline for completing my novel draft. Without funding, I shelved some of my other project ideas, but I thought – hoped – the novel would prove doable, at least.
I’d found renewed energy for the project on my writing retreat in France this September. Our facilitator, best-selling novelist Julie Cohen, had told me the structure wasn’t working and encouraged me to restructure the whole thing. Which I did, one memorable day, with three colors of post-it notes sprawled across a bed. Those post-its now live in a notebook of mine, but it was an interesting experience to have them all over the furniture, and to think deeply about how my story needed to move forward.
Then, in October, I moved home, so not a lot of writing happened for a month. A lot of furniture shopping and adjustment happened instead. By the time November rolled around, my flat was furnished and felt more like an abode than an empty space. I was ready to come back to the novel.
Much like the writing retreat, so vivid in recent memory, I wasn’t sure how much I’d get done during NaNoWriMo. I’d done a version of it once, finishing a novella during lockdown in 2020. As proud as I felt of the novella at the time, that was 25,000 words, not 50,000 (as per the NaNo goal), and not all of them were written in November. (Although given the challenges of lockdown, I would give myself an A+ that year!) I even blogged about different ways of getting inspired for the monthly challenge, before attempting to tackle it myself.
But 50,000 words is a lot. I’d always side-eyed the challenge or thought it best suited to speedier writers than myself. I like to line edit as I go. Some writers speak of silencing the inner editor and writing a messy first draft. After doing multiple editing jobs, my “inner editor” is a professional with 10+ years of experience, so I usually find that her input makes my drafts better. Thus, I let her do her thing. But I came into this challenge believing that I wasn’t fast.
Here’s the great thing about self-awareness: it helps you navigate the world and find the right contexts. The downside is that the self you’ve invested in being aware of can change, and your understanding has to alter accordingly to keep up. Sometimes knowing your limits is a form of self-care, and sometimes it’s simply fear.
I had a relatively quiet schedule in November, allowing me to try the challenge. “I’ll finish my novel by the end of the month,” I thought, somewhat apprehensively. I suspected it would take less than the 50K to get to the end of my allotted plot.
In fact, it did. It only took 32K. I finished it on the 15th of the month.
My past self would probably read that line with goggle-eyes and ask, “How?!” The first thing I did was join the regional NaNo group. They had an online community where participants chatted and held events regularly. People seemed friendly, and it was exciting to be involved in something so intense with a whole bunch of other people, cheering each other on. There were two in-person events as well. I couldn’t make the first one, but the second, at the end of the month, was packed full of people typing furiously. The Municipal Liaisons brought stickers, an analog spreadsheet, a jar full of writing prompts, and a plastic dragon to place atop the laptop of whoever won the latest word war.
Most of our events centered around “word wars,” virtual sprints (using a tool called Sprinto on a Discord forum) where people join and compete to write the most words. I often enjoy writing in longer periods where I can focus and lose track of time, but the sprints proved useful and motivating. They provided accountability and a social aspect to the often solitary activity of writing.
Taking part in a few long writing days with the NaNo group resulted in a lot of writing. Once I finished my novel, I still had words – and half a month of time – to spare. Before NaNo, I’d planned a short story set in the same fantasy world as my novel but hadn’t had time to write it. I drafted that story – another 7,000 words. I still had more words left. I’d had a few ideas in mind for what to work on next, but I ended up starting something different and am now drafting a science fiction novel.
My highlights of the NaNo experience were meeting a group of supportive and fascinating people on the Discord (and in person), finishing my novel draft (!), hitting 50K words on the 21st, and the intrinsic reward of devoting more time and energy to writing. It’s so easy to sideline personal projects. NaNoWriMo affords recognition to the act of committing to one. It felt really nice to “win” something, even if in practice, it means that I got… a virtual badge. It’s not every day that adults have a chance to get a prize, let alone one that validates doing something you want to do.
For November Me, writing facilitated mental health. I write a little most days, and of course I write for my job, but November operated on another level. There was one day this month when I didn’t write, and it felt like a slump. I noticed that and wrote all the other days, even if the time was short and the word count was low. I also appreciated allowing myself long focus days when I didn’t push myself to get anything “more important” done. The bills and cleaning could wait until the next day.
Maybe I don’t always work as slowly as I’d believed. Maybe I really can be as productive as I imagined being… at least sometimes. My inner editor slowed down, but remained in place. I made more typos as I sped up, and then fixed them, for instance. And my hyper-focused month felt great!
I had a freelance project in late November, which pushed me to meet the word count goal more quickly once I realized it was feasible for me to meet it. I also attended opening night for my short play, which was part of a December showcase at the Tower Theatre. I kept writing small amounts of words and adding to the science fiction story as well as writing other things. I got feedback on the short story and was pleasantly surprised by how well others thought it worked despite the speed of its drafting. I also enjoyed meeting new people and hope to stay involved with the online community throughout the year.
So, I’d say NaNoWriMo was a success. I hope to do it again next year, and to maintain some of the writing habits I acquired in my daily life. I guess this old dog could learn new tricks after all!
I’m delighted to have an author interview on Autostraddle this month! Darcy read my YA novel, Chasing Harmony, and asked thoughtful questions about it. I got to talk about music, the messiness of growing up queer, where I got my ideas, and what songs might be on Anna’s playlist right now if she were a real person.
“When I was younger, successes and failures felt huge, and this is the case for Anna.”
-Author Melanie Bell on her YA Novel “Chasing Harmony” and the Messy Process of Growing Up Queer
I’m writing this from an old house in Castillon, in the South of France. I’ve been saying for ages that I’d go on a writing retreat someday, and I’ve finally made it out to one. I first learned about Chez Castillon at a conference five years ago. It’s an 18th century house that hosts creative retreats.
For a week, I’ve been learning from bestselling author Julie Cohen and working with a great group of fellow writers. We’ve had one-on-one sessions, a tutorial about plotting with post-it notes, and lots of time to work on whatever we’re working on. That, or lounge by the pool and iron out the kinks in our stories by getting input from brilliant peers.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, though I figured that time in France would be brilliant even if I got no writing done! And it is. Great food, great wine, a gorgeous setting, summer-like weather, lovely people, charming animals, and a market this morning. I’ve been running by the river, strolling around the shops, and swimming in the pool. The house is full of books, and it’s nice to have a context where I’m speaking and reading in French, even as I’m writing in English. The hosts, Mickey and Janie Millman, are generous, and Janie’s a wonderful author in her own right.
But I’ve also gotten things done. I’ve restructured the manuscript I’m working on and added some chapters. I’ve refined summaries and queries in an effort to get to the point. “Keep it simple, stupid!” says Julie. (I blushed a little, as I used to teach my university students this. Guilty as charged!) So, would I recommend trying out a writing retreat if you have the time and resources? I’d certainly recommend this one!
Many thanks to Julie, Mickey, Janie, and my cohort of writers! I’ve learned something from everyone here. And now I’m off to soak in more sun before my plane takes off tomorrow!
Chasing Harmony, my YA novel about a musical prodigy, is now out in paperback! Here I am with my box of author copies.
My publisher, Read Furiously, did a wonderful job putting the book together, including little music-related details in the design. They are also donating a portion of proceeds to literacy organizations.
It was a pleasant and delightful shock to open a book and read lines I’ve pored over on screen for years, available in a new context for readers to enjoy.
My book has a Spotify playlist! If you want to listen to many of the songs mentioned in Chasing Harmony, from the characters’ classical performance pieces to 90s tunes they hear on the radio, it’s all here (sadly, the imaginary songs from imaginary bands couldn’t be included).
There’s also a book trailer where I talk about the inspiration behind the title. You can check it out below.
Chasing Harmony is available wherever books are sold. Here are some up-to-date purchase links:
In less happy news, Dream Signs’ publisher is no longer in business and the book is currently out of stock. I am waiting on the files and hope to republish it down the line.
As with Anna’s story in Chasing Harmony, writing and publishing is full of successes and failures, and one often goes along with the other. Anna discovers that it’s one thing to love an art form, but the real challenge comes from being human and living your life.
In 2009, I started writing a novel while traveling across Canada. I was thinking about art and failure and how life seldom meets our expectations. I finished the manuscript while studying Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal, went through several drafts, and over a decade later, I’m delighted that the book found a home.
My YA novel, Chasing Harmony, is available for pre-order now and releases on July 19! The publisher is Read Furiously, a small press which donates a substantial portion of proceeds to literacy charities. They have shown a wonderful level of care for my book. Take a look at the cover and layout and you’ll see what I mean.
I’m honored that Reads Rainbow has featured Chasing Harmony on their list of Contemporary LGBTQ+ releases this July. (The main character is bisexual.)
Here’s what the book is about.
“What happens when the music stops?
Since she was a child, piano prodigy Anna Stern has always stood out. As she becomes a teenager, Anna struggles to find her identity without the soundtrack of sonatas and concertos. There’s also the worry that comes with the crushing expectations of her musical gift and her parents’ imploding marriage.
Anna finds refuge in her best friend Liss, who is full of magic and escape plans, and the mysterious new boy at school… which becomes more complicated when she develops feelings for both of them. Most importantly, Anna has concerts to perform that will determine the course of her future as the haunting spectre of burnout lurks close by. As everything builds to a crescendo, what follows is an authentic life in the making.
Melanie Bell has created a compelling coming-of-age story for those that can relate to the search for untapped potential. Told in alternating timelines, Chasing Harmony reminds us of the exhilarating feeling that comes with hearing your heart’s song.”
And here are some places it’s available for pre-order:
You can find Chasing Harmony wherever books are sold. Soon the physical copies will be in bookstores too!
In other publishing news this month, I have a poem in the Spoon Knife 6: Rest Stop anthology, and a story (about a woman who inherits a family home in England – but it comes with a chilling catch) in Cossmass Infinities, Issue 9.
I can’t wait for readers to pick up Chasing Harmony, and I hope some of you will see yourselves reflected in Anna’s journey!
Before you sit down at your computer or with your notebook to start writing, a story swirls around in your head. It’s the story you want to write, the story you need to write. And the story in your head is fabulous.
The story in your head is as twisty and passionate as the latest bestseller. It makes readers laugh and cry. It’s all about love and power and the world and contains every feeling that’s ever swept through your body. (When you start to put the story on the page, it’s probably about a kitten.)
The story in your head outlasts Western civilization. It’s the classic of all classics. People on far-off future planets get assigned your text in class and groan. You have attained the immortality of homework.
The story in your head has gaps. And it isn’t necessarily your job to fill these gaps, when the story lives only in your head. You can simply hop elsewhere, to another part of it, and entertain yourself. Your story can be all lavish descriptions of sylvan forests and ball gowns, and that will be fine. No reader’s going to complain about a story that isn’t written down.
But without writing any of it down, there will be no story, not really. No one else can read it. No one will connect with it. And if there’s any truth to your hunch that the story in your head is worth telling, then your own rattling mind is a lonely place to keep that story, isn’t it?
If you want the story in your head to come to life, you’ve got to write it down. (Or share or tell it in some other form; there are many valid choices.) However, it will change in the telling. It might veer off in a different direction than intended. Maybe it’ll even be a better direction, but it will take work to get there.
In your head, a story can write itself in moments. In practice, if the story is long and complex, it takes hours, days, maybe even years. It may take several revisions. Parts will fall off of the story in your head as it assumes material form, and new pieces will attach themselves to it.
The story in your head was exciting, maybe even perfect. The story on the page is imperfect. But you aren’t going to have a story if you don’t write it down. And good stories deserve to be told.
If you write both long and short fiction, you’ve probably experienced differences between these two lengths of storytelling. As I’ve worked on two books, each focused on fiction of a different length, I’ve been thinking about the contracts between these forms and how to choose the best length for a given project.
I had a short story collection, Dream Signs, published by Lost Fox Publishing in December. I also have a novel, Chasing Harmony, forthcoming this summer. The publisher, Read Furiously, is lovely to work with and has recently shared my author bio on their website.
Both long and short fiction are ways to tell a story. The scope and focus of the story can (some would say must) change depending on the length. And let’s not forget about intermediate length forms like novellas, which have elements of both. I’ve enjoyed writing in these forms, and my novella “The Cliffman” is published in both Hard for Hope to Flourish and Dream Signs.
If you have a story you want to tell, here are some things to consider when deciding if it would work best as a shorter or longer piece.
How big is the story?
The more complex the tale you want to write, the more easily it will lend itself to a longer form. If you have a sprawling world or several points of view in mind, for instance, a novel might be a better storytelling vehicle than a short story.
What pace works best for your story?
Sometimes I have a brief idea or concept that I want to explore and not much of a plot. Sometimes the plot I have in mind is a simple one that can play out over a few pages. In these cases, I keep the writing process brief with a short story. When I want room to sprawl out and develop a longer story, I start a novel, a form where I can describe minutiae and include digressions without wasting page space. The idea and characters have to be compelling enough for me to spend lots of time with them, but when they are, I want to spend that time with them.
Is this a new idea you want to test out?
Sometimes a short story is a good testing ground for an idea that you might want to experiment with but aren’t sure you want to invest in. You can try out new characters, settings, and concepts in short form to see if they work and get a sense of who or what they are.
Which length do you prefer?
If you’re pressed for time right now, maybe you’d rather work on a short story. But if you read mostly novels and love crafting cliffhangers, for instance, maybe you’d rather write a novel. Some writers find one length suits them much better than another. Others enjoy the challenge of both.
There are many questions you can ask yourself when deciding whether to write a short story or a novel. (Of course, you could write both, but you probably want to get started with one project.) The ones above are what I tend to think about. What about you? Do you have a length preference when writing fiction?
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