What Writing This Novel Taught Me About Storytelling
(Day 28 of 30 – story crumbs from the world of Loveandpizza.it 🍕)
This post was originally published at the beginning of my 31-day Loveandpizza.it journey. The complete English series is now here for you to explore, one story crumb at a time. 🍕
Every novel teaches its writer something, whether the writer asked for the lesson or not. Here’s what Loveandpizza.it taught me, in no particular order except the order I learned it.
Plot is a servant, not a master
I used to think plot was the skeleton everything else hung off. I’ve since learned it’s closer to a servant of feeling than a master of it. The events in this book only matter because of what they cost or gave the people living through them. Get the feeling right, and readers will forgive a great deal of plot untidiness. Get the feeling wrong, and no amount of clever plotting saves it.
Character is built from contradiction, not consistency
Carolina taught me this one directly. She’s brave and frightened in the same breath, generous and self-protective within the same page. I used to think a well-written character needed to be consistent. Now I think a well-written character needs to be recognisably human, and humans are magnificently inconsistent. The contradiction is the character.
A place can carry as much weight as a person
Napoli isn’t scenery in this book. It behaves like another presence in every scene, shaping decisions, offering comfort, occasionally making everything harder. I learned that a setting doesn’t have to just sit there being described. Napoli taught me that a setting can act on the story the way a person does – if you let it.
Trust is the hardest lesson, and the last one
This is the lesson that took the longest, and the one I’m still learning. Trusting a reader to feel something without being told to feel it. Trusting a story to be finished eventually, even during the years it sat unfinished. Trusting myself enough to send a very personal book out into the world, knowing it will be read by people I’ll never meet.
I didn’t learn any of this by setting out to learn it. I learned it by finishing the book, which is, I think, the only way any of it is ever really learned.
And today I have a gift for you – yes, you, who has always felt you have a novel in you! I’ve created this Story Starter Interactive Planner, with 30 story sparks across 5 categories: letters, places, encounters, objects & returns. It’s yours! 💝 Just make sure you come back and tell me about this amazing story you got out of your beautiful mind and on to the paper (or screen! 😊)
And tomorrow… the new cover reveal!!! I can’t wait to show it to you! 🤩
Your turn: if you’ve ever finished something you weren’t sure you would, what did it teach you that you didn’t expect to learn? 👇
Dani. x
New to the Loveandpizza.it world? Start here: https://danielapescuma.com/category/loveandpizza-it/
P.S. Loveandpizza.it is coming back in English, Italian and Portuguese. Save your slice and you’ll be first to know the moment your edition’s ready.
Tough question, Dani. I’d probably say it taught me that progress is usually so gradual you don’t notice it until you look back. I tend to underestimate my own persistence.
Awesome lessons learned! I find that even when I am doing something I have done many times, I can still learn something from the process. Or, I cna always try to improve it each time.
Thanks for sharing!
I think, more than anything, I’ve learned patience. The journey often changes us more than reaching the finished line does.
When I create a podcast, write a book, or engage in any other labor of love without knowing if anyone will listen or care, it teaches me a few things that I might not have anticipated. For example, completing work when few people notice teaches me that genuine value is found in deep connection and personal development rather than crowd size. I do things because the message needs to exist, not just because an audience is waiting to applaud it.
I finished a Christmas novel once. It taught me that I really shouldn’t write again without some kind of training (LOLOL!). So I have signed up for your story starter planner. 🙂 That’s interesting that you say that the character is in the contradictions. I see your point as soon as you say it, but I wouldn’t have thought so.