I just finished the first draft of a very plot based novel. In the build up to the main conflict my MC has to discover a lot of corruption and under the table deals. So far I have most of the discoveries through online research. To be perfectly honest, it's boring. I've tried incorporating a few situations in which someone casually mentions a piece of important information, but he always looks it up online to really delve into it.

Any suggestions on better and more interesting methods of discovery?

The quick and glib answer here is to make it harder to get the information. Which of these is more interesting?

'I looked it up online'

or

'I had to break into a law office to get this. Fun fact: some guards like doing math in their spare time. It took me forever to work out the answer to his password clue.'

By the sounds of it, the information your character's looking up isn't to hard to get (otherwise you'd have a series of epic hacking scenes), so I'd also look at ripping out a lot of these scenes. If it's something as crude and simple as looking up an address or a relationship, there's no particular reason you need to go into this. Just skip to the next scene and note where the info turned up.

You're making a basic mistake. People do not read to learn the details of the story. Presenting details and chronicles is how we write reports.

Readers do not come to us to be informed. That's boring because there's no emotion and no uncertainty. Readers come to us to be entertained.

 The problem is that in our primary schooling they make is believe three things that are untrue. The first is that writing is writing, and that once we get that out of the way it's just a means of putting our stories on the page.

The second is that the compositional skills we learn apply to pretty much any type of writing we might do.

The third is the myth of story. We believe that people read for the story. They don't. They read for the writing, and the minute-to-minute pleasure is brings us. No one is willing to plow through boring prose to get to a "twist."

In the first case, the knowledge we gain in our primary schooling is general, and designed to give adults the basic skills that future employers require. So, we're pretty good at writing reports, essays, and letters/blog pages. Our writing technique is author-centric and fact-based. In other words dispassionate reporting—nonfiction.

But writing fiction for the printed page is emotion-based and character-centric, because no matter what you have happen, and no matter how carefully you describe it, it doesn't become a story until your protagonist and the reader react to it, emotionally.

Assume you're living at home with your parents. A friend comes in and says, "Someone got hit by a car down at the corner." Compare your reaction to that to someone saying, "Your mother just got hit by a car down at the corner." See the difference? That's what we want to do to the reader, because we either involve the reader emotionally, and make them not only care, but feel what the protagonist is feeling, or they're not going to turn even the first page when they come to the bottom. Story lives in the struggle, not the facts. It lives in the desires, the plans and schemes of the characters. It lives in the heart.

Take the time to gather a few of the techniques the pros take for granted. It might be nice if we can acquire the skills to be a pro at fiction for the printed word by attending grade school and reading for enjoyment, but that's a fantasy. A bit of time digging through the writing technique of the local free library system is a wise investment of time. My personal suggestion is to look for Jack Bickham's name on the spine of the book.

Hey Hannah,

First of all, welcome to the board! Secondly, I have to echo Jay and reinforce that if your important stuff is boring, then it can't be the important stuff. It may seem important to you right now, but it will never be important to your reader. The important stuff is the stuff that's going to have an emotional impact on your reader. Period. The entire purpose of writing a book is to have an emotional impact on your reader. Books that get published are the ones publishers think are going to have an emotional impact on the reader.

You say "my MC has to discover a lot of corruption and under the table deals." That sounds excellent, exciting--until you tell us that he looks it all up online! And having some secondary character MENTION information is not a solution.The MC of a book in which the MC discovers a lot of corruption and under the table deals has to GET INVOLVED with that corruption and dirty dealing FIRST HAND or he just can't be your MC.

It sounds to me as if you need to rethink this book. The story has to be ABOUT the MC and what HE does. If it's not, then find out who the story IS about and make that person your MC. I hope that helps.

-Kevin

Hi Hannah!

Welcome to Book Country! So glad to have you here, and you bring up some really interesting topics.

Congrats on finishing your first draft. That right there is an enormous accomplishment, and the fact that you are already ready to go back and figure out how to make this book more engaging for the reader shows real commitment to writing your best book.

I had a writing teacher a few years back who said that sometimes--often, in fact--our first drafts are just "thinking on the page." I was thinking about this as I was doing my NaNoWriMo writing yesterday. Something happened in my book that I didn't know was going to happen. I didn't plan for it, and I might not stick with it. But I never would have started the process of problem solving this particular plot development and how to make it happen if I hadn't just sat down and started typing.That's why writing is hard and takes a long time--because you often have to write to figure out what you are even trying to write about.

So I wouldn't be discouraged--you did an important thing--you started problem solving. You tried something, and you're seeing it doesn't work as well as you want it to, and now you'll try something new, and you'll revise and tweak until you like it.

I do like Timothy's advice for thinking about how to make up some obstacles for your MC to find the info he/she is looking for. Now that you know what information the MC needs to find, this is a great next step in your revision.

Lucy

Book Country Community and Engagement Manager