Author and workshop leader Rosanna Ley offers ten sure-fire ways to create a sense of variation in your writing to keep readers invested all the way from start to finish
Don’t lose your reader’s attention. Keep things moving by making things different. This advice will help you to bring variation into your novel.
1. Vary your scene setting…
We all know that setting adds mood and atmosphere and enables your reader to visualise the place you are writing about. Adding sensory description such as sounds, textures, and tastes improves the experience still further and will transport your reader into your fictional world. If you go one step further by describing your setting through a character’s perspective then you will connect your character with the environment and the setting will be more authentic and rooted.
Varying your settings will enable you to do the above many times over and will keep your sense of place interesting. Depending on your plot, try using interior settings such as a room in a house that has personal, emotive associations or maybe a church or a garden shed… and use exterior settings such as a beach, a playground or a garden. Each setting will have a different part to play.
• Example: Your main protagonist is called Marisa. You are writing about what happens when someone from Marisa’s past turns up unexpectedly.
Scene 1: where will Marisa be when this happens? If you place her somewhere interesting then your setting could add richness / interest / humour to the scene. Does she simply open her front door to see them standing there? Is she in the supermarket deliberating over which type of baked beans to buy? Or is she in a sunflower field in the arms of another man?
2. Vary your times of day…
Depending on your timeline, try varying the times of day and even the time of year in different scenes. Perceptions change at night-time to the way things are perceived in the light of day – and characters will react differently. There will be a differing quality of light at various times of the day and this too can add atmosphere and mood.
• Example: If Marisa’s unexpected visitor confronts her at night, this might bring in an element of tension and danger. It could also introduce an opportunity for sexual tension (if appropriate… ). Marisa might be feeling more vulnerable at certain times of day, or she might have already had a few drinks… She could be in a hurry and on her way to work or she might be already in bed.
3. Vary your weather…
Wherever your novel is set, using diverse weather conditions will enable you to make the most of differen
