An inspirational trip to the island of Anguilla (more on that soon!) has led me to the realization that The Kitchen Mistress needs some adjustments.
I’ve been unable to finish it for months, knowing something was wrong but not being able to pinpoint the problem. Though nearly every single scene is in place for Katherine’s story, I came to see that the voice is slightly off, it lacks that engaging hook that readers need in order to love it. In this case, the novel needs to be rewritten in first person.
This realization got me back to thinking about setting and character development as I think a story told in first person changes the way the setting comes to life. I wrote this article for Writer’s Digest last summer and thought it might be good to pull it out and re-educate myself. Have you been thinking about all the ways setting can change the way a character moves through a story? Well, I’ve included the opening paragraph (the link is at the end o the paragraph, too) of the article to help you think more…
Five authors can be given the same basic plot elements and through each author’s use of time and place the characters will develop differently and each story will unfold in utterly unique ways. For example—boy meets girl, hot romance ensues, parents intervene, boy and girl separate, they get new jobs, some how boy and girl end up together, happily. Set in New York City, 2015 each element of this “story” will be unrecognizable in the face of the same events plotted out in 1905 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attention to setting as a means of character development gives the author the chance to write an original story that leaves readers attached to the characters long after the book is finished. Here are some ways to infuse your manuscript with meaningful and unexpected details that keep the reader turning pages…