 | “I believe passion is available to every writer, every time she sits down to write. Every novel can be inspired. Every scene can have a white-hot center…The passion that inspires great fiction can be a writing technique…handy and easy to use.” So says literary agent Donald Maass in The Fire in Fiction. His definition of passion: “The underlying conviction that makes the words matter. It is the burning drive to urgently get down something specific, something that the reader has to see...Passionate writing makes every word a shaft of light, every sentence a crack of thunder, every scene a tectonic shift.” |
Maass advises writers to “embrace passion as a daily practice.” He offers practical tools to infuse passion into characterization, scene structure, worldbuilding, voice, theme and by applying microtension to every aspect of the manuscript.
 | Maass on characterization: Characters should reveal strengths such as compassion for others, a burning desire, a powerful skill set. Yet they also need to be fallible and human. Readers often enjoy characters who are aware of their flaws and can laugh at themselves. Expressing a character’s opinions, beliefs, and pet peeves helps establish character voice. To heighten voice, Maass advises sharpening and magnifying character opinions, and conveying them in ways unique to each character. |
Crafting exciting scenes:
Every scene ideally has a turning point when something changes. Scene turning points have two dimensions: outward change in circumstances and inner change within the point-of-view character or within multiple characters. “At the end of a scene, we want to feel that something important occurred…The fortunes of the character and the path of the story have shifted.”
If the reader understands the character’s goals and desires, they can then track how “every element in every scene in some way makes the goal more likely or more remote.” And whether or not the scene goal is met, delayed, or ended.
Every scene ideally has a turning point when something changes. Scene turning points have two dimensions: outward change in circumstances and inner change within the point-of-view character or within multiple characters. “At the end of a scene, we want to feel that something important occurred…The fortunes of the character and the path of the story have shifted.”
If the reader understands the character’s goals and desires, they can then track how “every element in every scene in some way makes the goal more likely or more remote.” And whether or not the scene goal is met, delayed, or ended.
 | For evocatove worldbuilding: “discover in your setting what is unique for your characters… You must go beyond description, beyond dialect, beyond local foods to bring setting into the story in a way that integrates it into the very fabric of your characters’ experience.” Fuse the soul of a place within a character's heart by combining setting details with character emotions. As Maass says, “Only through the eyes and hearts of a character does place come truly alive.” |
The Fire in Fiction concludes with words of inspiration:
“Your take on the world is not only valid, it is necessary. Your story is not any old story, it is a story that only you can tell and only in your own way… Embrace the importance of what you have to share with the rest of us and you have the beginning of what makes novels great… Do not be afraid of what’s burning in your heart."
“Your take on the world is not only valid, it is necessary. Your story is not any old story, it is a story that only you can tell and only in your own way… Embrace the importance of what you have to share with the rest of us and you have the beginning of what makes novels great… Do not be afraid of what’s burning in your heart."
More advice from Donald Maass: Microtension, Crafting Emotional Resonance, The Emotional Craft of Fiction,
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