Fi Phillips

Working on my second novel, something strange happened that I hadn't accounted for in my chapter plan. The villain insisted on being seen (well, one of the villains). I initially had planned to hint at him and his cohorts but no, he wasn't happy with that. Steven Pressfield's post, The Second Act Belongs to the Villain is about just this topic, keeping "the antagonist front-and-center in the middle of your story". Have a look.

In my children's novel, Steve Haven plods along (miserably). He thinks he knows what to expect in the life that has been plotted out for him. It isn't until all of that certainty is thrown into disarray that his real life begins In The Inciting Event , Janice Hardy discusses just such a point in plotting your novel. She says, "The inciting event is the moment when things change for the protagonist and she's [he's] drawn into the main problem of the novel, or problems that will eventually lead to that core conflict". Have a look. It's well worth a read.