Highlighting The Heart of Your Story with Motifs

By Kathryn Evans

Motifs, metaphors, whatever you want to call them, those little beats in your story help highlight the heart of what you're trying to say. First though....


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Why Does A Story Need A Heart?

A heart sets rhythm and it pulses life.  It's also why your story matters.   If you're writing for children, it will matter so much that it's probably the thing you'll talk about when you take your book into schools. It's what you hope your reader will take away from your story. Your story needs a heart, because without it,  the experience of reading is ultimately empty.

Take Wonder by R. J Palacio. On the surface, that's a story about a little boy with a badly disfigured face - but the heart of the story is actually about how other people respond to him. It's about society's acceptance, or not, of what's normal.



Or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.  The surface story is about a woman who doesn't know how to make friends so lives a very structured life to 'just get through'. But the heart of that story is about loneliness, about how most of us are afraid of it and stay away,  fearing it may be contagious, without ever asking why someone behaves the way they do. The heart of the story is about the danger of isolation and the joy of friendship.



In Wonder, we care about August, not because he has a damaged face, but because of the way he interacts with people, because of they way they respond to him.  We care about Eleanor because we begin to  understand why she is the way she is and how that feels. Both of these books will change the way the reader looks at the world, will make the reader think about the heart of the story - acceptance and loneliness.

Using Themes and Motifs.

In Wonder, Auggie has a space helmet that he loves to wear.   It's about hiding his face but it's also about showing his adventurous spirit, the image he wants to project to the world - if it was a balaclava it would give an entirely different message. It was given to him by his sister's friend, a friend the sister thinks has betrayed her, but the connection of the helmet shows us this is not that case. His Dad gets rid of it, not because wearing the helmet looks weird, but because he wants to see Auggies face, a face he loves no matter what.  That helmet crops up  frequently, highlighting, explaining,  connecting. It's a perfect example of a motif used to demonstrate a theme,  its regular appearance pulses though the book

In Eleanor Oliphant,  there are a number of motifs. Alcohol is one - 2 bottles of vodka every weekend and then, when things get really dire, more. But it's also there as an offering to take to a party - a half drunk bottle , a bridge between Eleanor's old life and the new one that is beginning to flourish. Eleanor hasn't quite made it across the divide at that stage, so the bottle is only half full.

Clothing is also a motif, an appropriate one in some ways, it's the mask we use to represent us.  Not just the clothes we wear, but the clothes we dress our surroundings in - as Eleanor moves in confidence to a more connected human being, she changes what she wears and also changes the decor in her flat.

 The motif  that really effected me in Eleanor Oliphant, was physical contact - no one touches Eleanor. When she first goes to the hairdresser, a step into the new world, it's very sensual. When she has a bikini wax, the intimate contact is painful but welcome.  The lack of touch in her life is significant and highlighted by her developing relationship with Raymond,  who gently breaks through the boundaries with hugs. Real life hugs. Hugs are the antidote to loneliness. This is a scientific fact. It changed the way I behave, I now make sure I give my father-in-law a big old hug every time I see him.

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Finding the Heart of Your Story.

Motifs are a technical way of highlighting the heart of your story, but what if you don't know what it is? It isn't always obvious, often we think we're writing a story about one thing, and it turns out there's something else going on altogether - you know, like when your characters do something entirely unexpected, when your subconcious takes hold and flips the story in a different direction - it's the same magic at work.

For ages, I thought  my new book was  about  how we build a family around us after we lose our own - and it is kind of about that, but it's a story set in two time zones and I didn't understand why I'd done that, why it mattered. It was only in editing the story that I realised having a story across decades, allows me to explore our perceptions of things like beauty and what's considered to be acceptable behaviour and how that effects people.

If you are struggling to find the heart of your story, take a look at the turning point in a significant character's emotional arc. There'll be something there that they change their mind about that leads to the satisfying conclusion of the story.

In Wonder,  Auggie and Jack get attacked on camp but Amos and other school children, who've previously been horrible to them, defend them, they see Auggie as one of them, not just a weird looking kid.  This moment is about acceptance. There's another  heartbeat when Auggie wins a medal at school and accepts it in front of everyone, no longer hiding, but fully emerged.

In Eleanor Oliphant, Eleanor admits to herself that the mother that dominates her life is only alive in her imagination. This is a point where she accepts the past has made her life a misery but that she can let it go and and have a better life, that she deserves a better life. There is no physical connection with the mother, but there is with Raymond, her friend, and her newly acquired cat.

Look at your story with different eyes, where are the turning points, what do they mean? Are they reflected through the story? Identify the heart of your story and then keep it in mind all the way through- have a whole editorial pass, just for this. It'll be worth it, I promise.


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 Kathryn Evans is the award winning author of More of Me: A gripping thriller with a sinister sci-fi edge, exploring family, identity and sacrifice. She loves faffing about on social media: find her  on Facebook and Instagram @kathrynevansauthor and tweeting @KathrynEvansInk.  

My Year of Launching Prodigiously

By Candy Gourlay

I am in Book Launch Mode. Here's a gratuitous picture of my two new books.

I have written in the past about how to organise a book launch party. This article is not about that, although book launch parties are integral parts of the book launch and I have actually just spent the past month attending the launch parties of friends.

This particular book launch piece is about bringing a book into the world – in my case TWO books, in one year. My first picture book Is It a Mermaid? was published in the UK in April, then in the US in May. And my third novel Bone Talk is going to be published in the UK in August.

Launching a book is a mind trick for us authors.

I mean writing a book takes time – my novels can be in progress for five to six years! – and during that time writing THE END is the only goal. And once the book is finished, what do authors want to do? We want to write the next book ... not faff around with marketing!

In an ideal world, of course, authors can stay in their caves accumulating word count and cholesterol.

But the world has not been ideal since it turned global.

Publishers have shed that fusty old practice of nurturing an author then publishing to the small, appreciative audience who could be relied upon to buy books anyway. It was a smaller space with author and books at its centre - not bottom lines and market shares.

And then of course came the internet, which may at first have appeared to be the procrastinating author's blessing, but has now put the task of promotion squarely in the author's cave.

You need a plan on how you're going to engage with people before your book is available, and then motivate them to buy your book once it's published.

Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book by Tim Grahl

Yes, I have read book launch guru Tim Grahl's guide. And yes, I've also read Grahl's Book Launch Blueprint – which by the way is currently available as a free download. It's full of great tips and Grahl's personal experiences helping turn his author clients into success stories.

But will reading the book sell you're first 1000 copies? Nah. Reading is not doing. And most people would rather read ... then complain that it's all too hard. So my first launching tip is this:

Do it. 

Which is going to be tough.

You will need to be as motivated to market as you are to write the book. It's a full time job in itself – you can't do it unless you understand how it all works. You can't do it unless you have time away from work, new book, family, pet, etc. You can't do it without skills, like Luke couldn't rescue Princess Leia right away because he was only a moisture farmer.

When I give talks on book marketing, it's hard to watch the eager faces of the audience crumple one by one as people realise the enormity of the task.

But guys, you are authors. Remember how hard it was to start writing your book? How you had  this great idea and hesitated for weeks, thinking, should I or shouldn't I? Thinking, it will take forever to write it! Then deciding, yes, you want it. Yes, you will write it. And then spending five bloody years working on it.

This is actually a wee bit easier.

You just need to do that thing you did. Say yes. And then get on with it.


Who are you marketing to? 
Unlike authors who write for grown ups, we kidlit authors know that the sales of our book are curated by the forces that circle young people like Dementors circling Hogwarts – parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, Zoella ... these are the forces that influence the actual buying of your books (since our readers don't tend to buy books themselves).

Most of you guys probably already get the idea of marketing to influencers.

One of the new ideas I stumbled upon while procrastinating was the idea of the Purchase Funnel –actually to the marketing profession it's an old idea ... but, hey, it's new to me. I was trying to understand Facebook advertising (Argh!) so I clicked on a podcast on how to build a Facebook Ad Funnel.

Before your eyes glaze over, the podcast was actually fascinating – and my takeaway was invaluable:

It's not just about knowing who your target audience is, it's knowing how enthusiastic he or she is about you and your books.

The idea is you have to market in a different way to different levels of enthusiasm.

Hot is the person who is always going to buy your book (Diehard fans, if you're lucky to have those. Mom ... Dad ... Grandma).

Well .. maybe Grandma

Warm is the person who is likely but not guaranteed to buy your book (Friends, sadly. People who have read your previous books. People who have not read your previous book but are interested in your themes, etc.)


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Cold is the person who has had no contact with you and has no interest in your themes (The Dad in the bookshop who was staring at the shelf with your book on it but probably not at your book. Zoella. The BBC. Benedict Cumberbatch...).


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The takeaway is: each of these groups need a different approach.

Otherwise you will find yourself engaging some and repelling others in equal measure.

When I say 'marketing to' I really mean 'building a relationship with'. 

If you're in for the long haul – as in, planning a career in book writing – then you need to build an audience that is in it for the long haul too.

Yes our readers are children who will outgrow our books. But every child who is captivated by your book will grow up to be an adult who will put that book into another child's hand.

Most of us authors became writers because of some adult in our life – usually a librarian – who said, 'I think you will love reading this.' Now that's a relationship.

Is there such a thing as a loving relationship that begins with an email saying 'Buy my book'?

Food for thought.


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Marshall Your Troops. 

Luke Skywalker needed Obi Wan Kenobi to learn how to use the force. It's okay to be a padawan (non-Star Wars fans: a padawan is an apprentice).


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In fact, with this marketing gig, you will probably be a padawan all your life because though you do marketing it is not your job. You are an author and if you are out online marketing away and not writing books then you are in serious danger of not having anything to sell.

It is easy to think, sitting in the writer's cave, that one is all alone in the world.

You are not alone.

There are people out there willing to help you. And a lot of them will do it for free. You may not have skills but some of your friends do. I'm sure they will all be clamouring to help, you've been such a fantastic giving friend. Have you?

And if you're lucky enough to be traditionally published, your publisher will have a publicist and a sales team. Talk to them. Ply them with alcohol. Make them like you.

There is so much information on the internet about marketing. Get good at Googling. Google knows lots of things you need. How to do a Book Launch Party. How to Set up a Mailing List. How to Market My Book.

There are live spaces (as in not online) where you can be discovered. Libraries. Bookshops. Schools. Courses. Workshops. Fairs. Festivals. Though you may prefer to lurk in your cave, for the reader (or influencer), meeting you in person might be the  most compelling incentive to buy your book.

Comb your hair. Brush your teeth. Leave the pyjamas at home.


Do an audit of what you already have. 

In the fog of despair, it's easy to forget that you're a pretty cool person with lots of talents you can deploy to this impossible task.

You might not have noticed that you already have an asset in you had not previously identified as a marketing tool in your armoury.

Have you got a blog packed with useful articles that you can repackage as free resources?

Do you have a circle of friends, of people who are passionate about the same interests? It could be a Parent's Association, a hobby club, an online forum. Perhaps your book has a theme that could be of use/help to an interest group.

My new book stars the dugong, an animal who is endangered because its sea grass habitat is under threat. I am trying to hook up with seagrass organisations and use the book as a platform to raise awareness about this lovely beast.

If you are sure you haven't got one, join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators – make friends, attend events, help people.

Do you have a creative skill that you can deploy - are you an artist? A poet? A knitter? A teacher?

In your audit consider not just the skill that can help you do the marketing, but what you can make so that the readers will come.


Make things. 

So many authors are taking courses in Twitter and Facebook and hoping that social media is going to be the way, the truth and the light of their book launch.

It's important to consider two things:

1. Much as we would like promotion to be all about Twitter (admit it, O social media addicted fellow authors!) – tweeting has not been shown to boost book sales. It is one tool, but probably not the best tool because people are not usually persuaded by shouting through a megaphone. People need more than words to buy a book.

2. Ask not who will buy your book ... ask what you can give away to get people to pay attention to your book.

Since I raised my bleary eyes from the 24/7 job of writing my books, I've been making things. Well, sometimes it's not me making it – I persuaded my baby brother who happens to be an animator to make a book trailer for Is It a Mermaid:



I wanted to do something fun at the launch of Is It a Mermaid and while spending a short holiday with my best friend, Frankie, we found ourselves giggling uncontrollably in a Portuguese train while making up lyrics to the tune of I Feel Pretty from West Side Story. I recruited my talented singing neighbour, Andrew, and the result is a rather hilarious performance at the launch (with friends Heather and Perraine singing backup):



I realised that my author website was beginning to look old fashioned so I have been redesigning it, with custom pages for each book. I haven't got money for a web designer so I am using a free Wix website. Check it out.

I've been working closely with the publicists of my publishers, Otter-Barry Books and David Fickling Books, asking them to pitch me for festivals, saying yes to most requests. The other day, I presented a three minute spiel (there were ten other authors) to independent bookshops and the sales team at Faber (who take DFB books to bookshops). I had never done such a thing before and it woke me up to the need for more information about my forthcoming novel in advance of its publication. So I took my three minute spiel and turned it into this video.



(Can you tell that I like making videos?)

I have so much more to do. I am working on a new presentation to bring to school visits on the themes of my new books. I am creating free bonus materials for schools and readers to download from my website. And with Bone Talk out in August, I have another book launch party to plan!

It's a full time job.

But you shouldn't allow it to be.

Because you already have a job.  So my final tip is one that will make sure you will continue to  launch books for some time to come.


Write. 

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Did I mention that my first picture book is out gorgeously illustrated by Francesca Chessa? Available at all good book stores.

Don’t Look Down!

By Nick Cross

Photo by Quinn Dombrowski

I’m a month and a half away from my (self-imposed) deadline to complete the first full draft of my novel. This isn’t a finish-it-and-put-it-in-a-drawer situation, because people are lined up and apparently eager to read it. As a result, I feel like I’m up on a high wire, inching my way through the book and desperately trying not to look down!

The novel is not the only high wire situation, because I’m trying to write this blog post at the same time. Normally, I’d take several days out of my usual schedule to write and format a Slushpile blog post, but there simply isn’t time. So if I randomly start typing dialogue, I’m sure you’ll forgive me.

I like and need deadlines - they’re the only reason I ever get anything finished. But they’re also a source of significant stress. When I set this deadline - back in early January - it seemed like plenty of time to get the job done. And I have worked steadily since then - researching, replotting and writing. The thing I really, really want to do is illustrate and lay out the story, but I have to keep telling myself it’s no good doing that until I have a story to illustrate!

So, I edge along the high wire, day by day, word by word, focusing my attention just in front of my feet. But as much as I try to keep everything on schedule, unexpected stuff happens. Sometimes, I’ll get to a certain point in the story and discover the next few metres of wire are missing because I haven’t planned in enough detail. Other times, I’ll think “Gee, wouldn’t it be cool if...” and weigh up whether it’s worth stepping across to a different tightrope entirely. Occasionally, I stretch a metaphor so far past breaking point that I wonder if my reader will notice...

Photo by Tom A La Rue

Hemingway famously said that all first drafts are shit. Mine aren’t. I’d love to say that’s because I’m the most amazing genius writer the world has ever seen, but it’s mostly because they aren’t first drafts at all. Where other writers splurge with their words, mine are delicately placed. Where other writers start with simple characterisations that they deepen in later drafts, I find my characters as I go, often looping back to add detail to previous scenes or even altering earlier plot to better shape their arc. Frequently, I will scrap a whole draft that isn’t working and go back to the start (I am technically on version 5 of my current novel).

Is this a good way to work, or madness? Would I be happier taking the NaNoWriMo approach of blitzing my first draft and fixing it in the edit? I certainly see myself as less productive than other writers and get frustrated often, but I’m pleased with the quality of what I eventually produce. I felt a little less crazy recently when I read Kelly McCaughrain’s blog post - her technique, which I will sum up as “Don’t panic and fix problems early” spoke to my own way of working.

Experience is definitely a factor - I’ve written enough novels now that I know the kinds of problems I’m likely to have and how to head them off. Conversely, I also know that every novel throws up its own unique issues, and I’ll have to develop coping techniques for that. Writing is a bit like life in that respect!

Photo by Fred Marie

I guess I'll just keep tiptoeing along the wire, balancing as best I can and trying not to think of the yawning chasm beneath me. Because, it’s only a book, right? What could possibly go wrong?

Nick.

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Nick Cross is a children's writer/illustrator and Undiscovered Voices winner. He received a SCBWI Magazine Merit Award, for his short story The Last Typewriter.
Nick is also the Blog Network Editor for SCBWI Words & Pictures magazine. His Blog Break column appears fortnightly on W&P.