Prepare Ahead

Read Joshua 1-3

Joshua 1:11 "Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it."

Story challenges hit our characters unexpectedly. That’s part of the tension that keeps readers going.

But our characters meet those challenges by preparing for what they believe is ahead of them. They make a plan and gather their resources ready to fight to get their lives back and free themselves from danger.

Other times, the writer will need to foreshadow anything that the characters might come up with to gird their loins for the rest of the story. Sometimes it will be a need to explain a special skill or knowledge.

Strong Seniors

Read Deuteronomy 31-34

Deuteronomy 34:7 "And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated."

Strong senior characters come in several varieties. The protagonist’s mentor, wise and patient, is one.

She might be someone who is an example of gracious and vital aging to the other characters, for another. She might be someone the younger characters want to be like at that age.

Or he could be the protagonist. He could be the hero of the story, using his years of experience and observations to fight his way out of the story’s problem.

Unlucky

Read Deuteronomy 28-30

Deuteronomy 28:19 "Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out."

Our protagonist might start out as an unlucky person. Everything he tries, fails.

Or she might start out normally, but the start of the story is the day when she seemingly became unlucky. Now, she fails more than she succeeds.

In either case, the plot will be how the character rises above the bad luck. The reader will see that even an unlucky person can win in the end.

Name Calling

Read Deuteronomy 25-27

Deuteronomy 25:10 "And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed."

That doesn’t sound so horrible. It wouldn’t hurt our feelings to be called that.

When we want to put our characters in a position where they are called names, we have to keep that in mind. Something might not look like a terrible problem on the surface.

So we have to not only put the name calling in context, we have to show how hurt our character is. It has to be painful, not only for the character, but for the reader as well.

Allies

Read Deuteronomy 22-24

Deuteronomy 23:7 "Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land."

Both of these nations were people that could have been considered enemies of Israel, but God’s commandment was not to hate them. Given the backgrounds—Edom coming from Esau and Egypt being the nation who enslaved them—the acceptance of these people was surprising.

Our characters might have similar experiences. They would be expected to form alliances with friends and family members, expanding the circle to include community members.

But it would be an interesting plot twist to have our protagonist join forces with a former enemy. Or to surprise the reader with a character who seeks help with a near stranger with a bad reputation.

The Odds

Read Deuteronomy 19-21

Deuteronomy 20:1 "When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

If we want to write an exciting story, the odds have to be stacked against our protagonist. He has to be outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and outsmarted.

Our protagonist has to win her victory the hard way. If things come too easily, our readers will become bored with the story.

It’s a tough way to live—in our lives, we look for things to be peaceful and easy. But real life cannot keep us from putting out characters in impossible situations and then stacking the odds of success against them.

Remember

Read Deuteronomy 16-18

Deuteronomy 16:12 " And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes."

When we write a scene where a character has to remember something, we have a lot of choices. Remembering has to do with the past, but it can be distant past or recent past.

A character might remember something from his childhood or something he read. This could bring up a new solution to his problem or set him on a new adventure.

A character might remember something more recent. A woman might suddenly remember she has food cooking on the stove and remembering in that case could prevent disaster or meet a need.

Wrong Dreams

Read Deuteronomy 13-15

Deuteronomy 13:3 "Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

Characters should show growth by the end of the story. They need to have gone through a change.

One of the ways is for them to start off with the wrong dream. They want something and spend the story trying to get it, only to find that something else was better.

The wrong dream could also be something like wanting revenge. The character might even get the revenge—accomplish the goal—and not be satisfied until they learn forgiveness.

Cause and Effect

Read Deuteronomy 10-12

Deuteronomy 11:13 "And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,"

Actions have consequences. That truth needs to be reflected in our fiction as well.

Our characters’ actions will have effects in the story world. It might only affect one character, or it might affect the community.

The cause and effect sequence forms the basis of the plot. When we keep the results negative, it will get the characters into deeper and deeper trouble, keeping the story going and the reader fascinated.

Prosperous

Read Deuteronomy 7-9

Deuteronomy 8:13 "And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;"

We can write about prosperity in several different ways. We can write about individuals or communities being or becoming prosperous.

We might write about a hard working character who ends up successful at the end of the story. We might write about a community that pulls together to invest in a project that benefits everybody

If a character starts out prosperous, the reader will expect something to happen to his wealth. The story can be about someone who lost wealth and then either regains it or finds something better than material goods by the story’s end.

Unreasonable

Read Deuteronomy 4-6

Deuteronomy 4:21 "Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:"

God’s punishment for Moses seems unreasonable for his offense, but after all, He is God. On the other hand, people are unreasonable all the time.

Sometimes it’s because they are too young, or too inexperienced. Sometimes, it’s pure stubbornness.

 

But even the most unreasonably behaving characters need to have good motives why they are acting irrationally. Their emotions might be overwhelming them or the incident might have brought up a painful past. But the reader will need the writer to let him in on the character’s inner drives.

Summary

Read Deuteronomy 1-3

Deuteronomy 1:3 "And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them;"

We use summary for both fiction and nonfiction pieces. Sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes more blatant.

In a nonfiction article, the summary might be the last paragraph—telling the reader what she has just learned. In a nonfiction book, each chapter might have its own summary or the last chapter of the book might be a grand summary.

Even in fiction, the characters might summarize what happened throughout the book to a newcomer character around the middle of the book. And often, there is a quick summary discussion among the characters at the end of the book, in order to make sure all loose ends are neatly tied up.

Places of Refuge

Read Numbers 34-36

Numbers 35:13 "And of these cities which ye shall give six cities shall ye have for refuge."

Our characters will need places of refuge, just like the Israelites did. They’ll need places where they can relax and places to feel safe.

Israel’s places of refuge were for people who unwittingly committed murder. Our story places of refuge may also be for a character on the run because of a crime he committed, but they don’t have to be.

Places of refuge can be for someone who is trying to escape the chaos in her life. Depending on who the character is, refuge could be for a child running away from arguing parents, a teacher escaping a rowdy classroom, or even an apartment dweller fleeing a noisy party next door.

Mortality

Read Numbers 31-33

Numbers 31:2 "Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people."

What if a character knows she is going to die? How might that affect her actions throughout the story?

If it’s a minor character, the subplot can still have an impact on what the other characters face. She might be driven to do things that either help or hinder the other characters.

If it’s the main character who is facing certain death, it will steer the whole plot. It might drive the character to act recklessly, since he is going to die soon, anyway, or it might be a story about that character trying to set right all his wrongs before he dies.

Unreliable Character

Read Numbers 28-30

Numbers 30:2 "If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth."

Some characters say what they mean and mean what they say. They are dependable.

Heroes and villains alike tend to be persons of their word. But sometimes we want to throw an untrustworthy character in the mix.

It could be a dishonest person who deceives others deliberately. But we could also have a character who is deceiving himself—someone who is unaware that he is an unreliable character.

Generational Story

Read Numbers 25-27

Numbers 26:59 "And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister."

Most stories, even novels, cover a short period of time and a small cast of characters. But what if you want to cover more?

If you want to write about generations of a family, you can try to squeeze it into one book, but that is difficult to do. Most writers tell the saga through a series of books.

 

Usually the books are written chronologically, but not always. Sometimes a writer will finish the series of the story she intended to write and then realize she wants to tell the story of what happened before her series began.

Comic Relief

Read Numbers 22-24

Numbers 22:30 "And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? and he said, Nay."

Balaam carrying on a casual conversation with his donkey is funny. It happened in the middle of heavy drama.

Most movies, television shows, and novels contain a touch of comedy in them. They don’t have to be comedies to benefit from a dash of whimsy.

A bit of comic relief helps rather than hinders. Even our most solemn stories may need a light touch at times to give the reader a break and keep the story from being too depressing.

As You Know, Bob

Read Numbers 19-21

Numbers 20:14 "And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:"

The “As you know, Bob” conversation is where one character tells the other character something they both know in order to share information with the reader. This conversation tends to be so dull that the reader stops reading and not only doesn’t get the information Bob and his pal were trying to convey, she doesn’t bother to read the rest of the story.

There are other ways to convey information the reader needs to know for the story to make sense. One is narration.  Another is summary.

And if you want your characters to pass on the information, there are more interesting ways to do it. They could argue about it, for instance. Or they could find telling ways to avoid talking about it so both the characters and the reader know what they are talking about without actually giving information up.

Blame

Read Numbers 16-18

Numbers 16:41 "But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord."

Spy Stories

Read Numbers 13-15

Numbers 13:17 "And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:"

Refusal of the Call

Read Numbers 10-12

Numbers 10:30 "And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred."

Restrictions

Read Numbers 7-9

Numbers 7:9 "But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders."

Duties

Read Numbers 4-6

Numbers 4:4 "This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things:"

Cast of Thousands

Read Numbers 1-3

Numbers 1:46 "Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty."

Down Time

Read Leviticus 25-27

Leviticus 25:5 "That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land."

Free Will

Read Leviticus 22-24

Leviticus 22:29 "And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will."

Reverence

Read Leviticus 19-21

Leviticus 19:3 " Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God."

Our story world will probably contain churches, courts, or other places that command respect. There may even be certain people that deserve deference like parents, pastors, or judges, even in a society that values equality.

Plotlines could include showing that a revered person doesn’t deserve it or a less-valued person should receive more honor. We could stir outrage in our readers by showing a place of worship being dishonored.

 

It’s a reflection of reality. Some places and people receive reverence through fear and others by earning it.

Clothing

Read Leviticus 16-18

Leviticus 16:4 "He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on."

Clothing tells so much about a person. It gives us clues to what he finds important and sometimes what he thinks about himself.

A character’s clothing needs to make a statement, too. Just like each character should talk distinctly, each should have individual clothing preferences.

 

We research clothing for accuracy when writing historical stories. Research for contemporary clothing may be easier, but is just as important.