Skip Setting and Write Storyworld

Tari Faris

Skip setting? Yes, you heard me correctly. But don’t worry—we won’t leave your readers lost—because in setting’s place we will add Storyworld. Aren’t they the same?

No, setting is just the facts.



The red barn sliding-door stood halfway open. The grass had been worn away in front of the door, as well as along a small path to the tree a few feet away where she had once built a tree house. Emily stepped closer to the remains of the treehouse and picked up a weather board that still contained the letters J+E. She tossed it aside and walked toward the house.



This works to help us see where she is but we don’t feel any emotional attachment to any of it. Storyworld takes the external and connects it to the internal of the observing character. Remember, if they are seeing it and we are in their deep POV, then there needs to be a reason they are noticing it.



Emily stepped out of her car, each step heavier than the last. The red barn still remained after all these years, although the paint had faded with time. The sliding door stood halfway open, as if her father were just inside finishing up his chores. But he wasn’t here—and he’d never be here again. She turned away as her throat began to tighten. Her gaze traveled along the well worn path to the treehouse. What was left of it, anyway. Jonny had convinced her that he’d known what he was doing but they had been lucky that neither had gotten hurt. She took a few steps closer and picked up one of the boards running her fingers over the roughly scratched letters “J+E” then tossed it back in the pile. She needed to sign the papers and go. There was nothing left for her here.



This is rough, but hopefully it will help you see how connecting the internal to the external setting can strengthen the emotion of the scene and help create the Storyworld. Look at one of your scenes: are there areas that you can connect the external setting to what is going on internally?

Tari Faris is the author of You Belong with Me and Until I Met You. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers and My Book Therapy, she is the projects
manager for My Book Therapy, writes for learnhowtowriteanovel.com, and is a
2017 Genesis Award winner. She has an MDiv from Asbury Theological Seminary and lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area with her husband and their three children.

Although she lives in the Southwest now, she lived in a small town in Michigan for 25 years. Learn more at TariFaris.com.

The Story Spark ~ Part 2

Tari Faris

Part 2

. . .What was the reason Libby came to town?

I live in the Phoenix area now, but I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and I make it a priority to visit my hometown every summer. Part of it is because I love to escape the summer heat, and part of it is because I love the pace and rhythm of small-town life.

 

When I was considering what Heritage needed in town, my mind traveled back to some of my favorite memories as a child when I would go to reading hour at the local library. Back then, the local library of our small town was actually in the town hall, just like in Heritage—although it wasn’t in the basement. However, years ago, it was moved from the town hall to the old firehouse that had been updated to a larger location.

 

I hadn’t mentioned a library in Heritage in You Belong with Me but adding a library with part of the grant money made sense so that gave me a reason for Libby to come to town to be the Librarian.

 

As I was beginning to write Until I Met You, I attended a community picnic in my town park where  they have situated an old one room schoolhouse in one corner. It is picturesque and as I stood there, taking in the park and schoolhouse, I knew it was exactly what Heritage needed. A library in the one-room schoolhouse. And if I dropped the one-room schoolhouse in the middle of the square that Austin was supposed to design, we would have instant conflict.

 

There is the long and the short of how I got the story spark for Until I Met You. So, dive in and see how all these pieces come together in a little town named Heritage.

Tari Faris is the author of You Belong with Me. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers and My Book Therapy, she is the projects manager for My Book Therapy, writes for learnhowtowriteanovel.com, and is a 2017 Genesis Award winner. She has an MDiv from Asbury Theological Seminary and lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area with her husband and their three children. Although she lives in the Southwest now, she lived in a small town in Michigan for twenty-five years..

 

 

The Story Spark

Tari Faris

After meeting Nate in my first novel, You Belong with Me, I knew there was a story to tell there, and I couldn’t wait to tell it. But as I interviewed Nate, I began to ask not just what his wild past had cost him, but also what had it cost those around him. It was then that I realized that the real story lay with the older brother, Austin. Just like in the biblical narrative of The Prodigal Son, Nate had moved on from his past, but the older brother had not.

 

In fact, just like the “older brother” in the Bible, I needed Austin’s livelihood to have been affected. And since the town was in the market to landscape the new square with the newly acquired grant money, his vocation was born. He could come to town to landscape the new square.

 

As I took the time to get to know Austin, I couldn’t help but love him and hurt with him. But that became a huge challenge in writing it. How do I write two characters I love who are in such conflict? And that is when I remembered that it was the love of their father that united them.

 

I hadn’t originally planned for the father to be suffering with early onset Alzheimer’s, but when I started writing this, both my parents and my in-laws were dealing with ageing parents, one of whom had Alzheimer’s and it just seemed to come out of my experience.

 

So, after I had the hero figured out, I had to decide who would be the perfect fit with him and why. I fell in love with Libby in the first book as well, so she was the logical choice, but I just needed a reason to move her to town.

. . . see what Tari does in Part 2 tomorrow, the 17th.

 

Tari Faris is the author of You Belong with Me. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers and My Book Therapy, she is the projects manager for My Book Therapy, writes for learnhowtowriteanovel.com, and is a 2017 Genesis Award winner. She has an MDiv from Asbury Theological Seminary and lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area with her husband and their three children. Although she lives in the Southwest now, she lived in a small town in Michigan for twenty-five years.