Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Jane Austen Writing Lessons. With an image of the original cover page of Pride and Prejudice; a color image of Jane Austen; an image of tea and pastries with an open book, and an early cover of Sense and Sensiblity.

One of the best ways to learn to write well is to learn from the examples of great writers. Jane Austen Writing Lessons is a series of blog posts about creative writing principles from plot structure to character development to dialogue. This blog was selected by “The Write Life” as one of the 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2021.

New Posts 2x a Month

New Jane Austen Writing Lessons will be posted 2 times a month. Sign up for the newsletter to get a notification in your inbox anytime there’s a new lesson. Links to the previous lessons can be found below.

Examples from Jane Austen

Each lesson looks to Jane Austen’s novels and her other works for examples of excellent writing. Quotes from her six published novels and an analysis of her craft–and how we can apply it to our own writing–is included in each lesson.

Writing Exercises

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Each lesson includes 2-3 writing exercises that will help you practice the creative writing principle and apply it to your own writing.

Most Recent Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Jane Austen Writing Lessons #68: Establishing Relationships and Character Connections in Fiction
Jane Austen Writing Lessons 67. Creating an Emotional Map: Making Interconnected Emotions
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #66: Evoking Emotions through Objective Correlative (External Objects)
Mary Bennet and Mr. Collins. Why didn't they marry? Would they have made a good match?
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #65: Different Character Approaches to Dealing with and Expressing Emotions
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #64: The Size or Degree of Character Emotions
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #63: Four More Internal Emotion Techniques
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #62: Conveying Emotion Through Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #61: How to Convey Emotion. Planting Clues to What Characters Feel

Jane Austen Writing Lessons by Category

Overarching Principles - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

#1: Make Your Character Want Something
#2: Combine Multiple Elements to Create an Engaging Premise
#3: Use an Inciting Incident to Set the Plot in Motion
#4: Create an External Journey for your Character
#5: Make Things Hard for Your Character
#6: Use a Character Arc to Make Your Character Change and Grow
#7: Create Multiple Relationship Arcs to Show Your Character’s Journey in Relation to Those Around Them
#8: Use Setting to Influence Plot and Character
#9: Use Dialogue to Create Dynamic Interactions Between Characters
#10: Use the Reader-Writer Contract to Create a Satisfying Resolution for Your Readers

Recognition for Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Jane Austen Writing Lessons: one of the

Jane Austen Writing Lessons was selected by The Write Life as one of the “100 Best Websites for Writers in 2021.” They wrote:

“[Jane Austen Writing Lessons] is filled with blog posts about creative writing that use Jane Austen’s novels and other related stories to share what good writing looks and sounds like. Whether you’re interested in plot structure or character development to dialogue, each Jane Austen writing lesson focuses on one principle of writing at a time.”

About the Author

In addition to writing Jane Austen Writing Lessons, Katherine Cowley is the author of the novels The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, The True Confessions of a London Spy, and The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception. She teaches writing classes at Western Michigan University.

Don’t Miss a Lesson: Subscribe to Updates and Giveaways from katherinecowley.com

* indicates required



Which newsletter(s) would you like to receive?

Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #10: Use a Reader-Writer Contract to Create a Satisfying Resolution

#10: Use a Reader-Writer Contract to Create a Satisfying Resolution

/0 Comments/in /by
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #10: Use a Reader-Writer Contract to Create a Satisfying Resolution

Andrew Davies’ Sanditon, a recent TV adaptation of Jane Austen’s uncompleted novel, aired in 2019 in the UK and 2020 in the US. It has been rather polarizing for viewers (the Twitter and Facebook arguments have been heated!). Among those who finished the series, there have been two major reactions: the first group is disappointed by the final episode, and the second group is ravenous for a second season. (Personally, I would love a second season—#SaveSandition.)

Dancing in Sanditon

What unites both groups is a sense that the promises made at the beginning of the show have not yet been fulfilled. Whether that leads to disappointment or a desire for more so that the promises can be fulfilled (a Jane Austen heroine always gets her man!), it teaches an important principle of writing:

Audiences have expectations about what makes a satisfying conclusion or resolution for any given story, and these expectations are based on implied promises made by the writers of stories.

Note: many of these expectations are based on the standard plot structure discussed in Jane Austen Writing Lesson #4.

The Reader-Writer Contract

I first learned about the reader-writer contract in an introduction to film class that I took my freshman year of college. The principles, though, apply just as well to literature as to film.

The reader-writer contract is an agreement between the reader and the writer of a text.

The reader promises to suspend disbelief and invest their time and attention in the story. (Sometimes, the reader also makes a financial investment.)

The writer promises to weave an engaging, entertaining story that delivers on commitments made at the beginning of the story, including, but not limited to:

  • Genre
  • Plot
  • Character
  • Style
  • Point of View

The Reader-Writer Contract of Jane Austen’s “A History of England”

When Jane Austen was sixteen years old, she wrote a short nonfiction text called “The History of England from the reign of Henry the 4th to the Death of Charles the 1st.” You can read it online or in book form. She did not write it with the intent of publishing it: like much of her juvenilia (her works written as a child/teen), the intent was to share and perform it with her family. “The History of England” was written in November 1791, when she was not quite sixteen years old.

We’ll examine the beginning of “The History of England,” consider how the reader-writer contract sets up its promises, and then look at how these promises are fulfilled to create a satisfying resolution.

The Title and Byline

Jane Austen Writing Lessons: Title Page to Jane Austen's The History of England

The title page Jane Austen wrote by hand for “The History of England” (she copied this into her second notebook of writings from her youth, which can be viewed online at The British Library).

The full title of the piece is “The History of England from the reign of Henry the 4th to the death of Charles the 1st.” This is a very standard title for a serious history written in the 1790s. Of course, immediately after the title comes the byline:

By a partial, prejudiced, and ignorant Historian.

Before the piece begins, we also receive this note:

N.B. There will be very few dates in this history.

Already, Austen has established genre expectations and tone: this is a parody of standard histories. This is not a text we should turn if we truly want to learn about British history. The admission that the historian author is “partial, prejudiced, and ignorant” is clever and immediately attracts us to the speaker—despite her alleged ignorance, we immediately want to know what she has to say.

The First Paragraph

Jane Austen's Handwritten Text -- Henry the 4th

Another handwritten page by Jane Austen, from The British Library.

Jane Austen continues to establish the reader-writer contract in the first paragraph:

Henry the 4th ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399, after having prevailed on his cousin & predecessor Richard the 2d to resign it to him, & to retire for the rest of his Life to Pomfret Castle, where he happened to be murdered. It is to be supposed that Henry was married, since he had certainly four sons, but it is not in my power to inform the Reader who was his wife. Be this as it may, he did not live for ever, but falling ill, his son the Prince of Wales came and took away the crown; whereupon, the King made a long speech, for which I must refer the Reader to Shakespeare’s Plays, & the Prince made a still longer. Things being thus settled between them the King died, & was succeeded by his son Henry who had previously beat Sir William Gascoigne.

This firmly establishes the point of view of the speaker, her (intentionally) biased relationship with the subject matter, and the humor created as a result.

Promises Made and Kept

Swiftly, in the beginning of the piece, our expectations have been set, and the reader-writer contract has been forged. Here are a few of the promises that have been made:

  • Genre: Parody/satire, with the effect of creating humor and commentary, both on these figures in history, and on the persona of a historian
  • Plot: marriages, deaths, killings, and random details about a series of rulers from Henry the 4th to Charles the 1st.
  • Character: the characters of the past are set forth, but the narrator herself seems to be a character
  • Style: playful, amusing
  • Point of view: first person, ignorant “historian” (not simply a reader, but someone making a claim that despite their ignorance, they still deserve the title “historian”)

These promises, having been made at the start, are kept and built upon throughout the piece.

A few of my favorite lines demonstrate this quite well:

“This unfortunate Prince lived so little a while that nobody had time to draw his picture.”

“Tho’ inferior to her lovely Cousin the Queen of Scots, [she] was yet an amiable young woman & famous for reading Greek while other people were hunting.”

“He was beheaded, of which he might with reason have been proud, had he known that such was the death of Mary Queen of Scotland; but as it was impossible that he should be conscious of what had never happened, it does not appear that he felt particularly delighted with the manner of it.”

The Satisfying Conclusion relies on these initial promises

In order for the conclusion of a story to be satisfying, it must fulfill the promises that it has made.

The following is the final paragraph of Jane Austen’s “History”:

The Events of this Monarch’s reign are too numerous for my pen, and indeed the recital of any Events (except what I make myself) is uninteresting to me; my principal reason for undertaking the History of England being to prove the innocence of the Queen of Scotland, which I flatter myself with having effectually done, and to abuse Elizabeth, tho’ I am rather fearful of having fallen short in the latter part of my Scheme. —. As therefore it is not my intention to give any particular account of the distresses into which this King was involved through the misconduct & Cruelty of his Parliament, I shall satisfy myself with vindicating him from the Reproach of arbitrary & tyrannical Government with which he has often been charged. This, I feel, is not difficult to be done, for with one argument I am certain of satisfying every sensible & well disposed person whose opinions have been properly guided by a good Education — & this argument is that he was a Stuart.

Austen maintains the genre, tone, point of view, etc., but she goes further: she takes the parody to its satisfying conclusion by throwing aside the cloak of a historian’s supposed neutrality, directly stating her skewed intentions, and closing with an unsupported, fallacious argument.

In Conclusion

Typically, the Reader-Writer contract should be established within the first 10-20% of a story. We need buy-in and commitment from our readers.

If you went to the movie theater to watch a romantic comedy and half-way through it transformed into a zombie film, you would probably walk out, unless there had been clues planted at the beginning of the film that a zombie film was coming.

Notice that the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies begins to establish the contract of a not-so-traditional Jane Austen story through the cover and the opening line:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

While the contract should be established quickly, this doesn’t mean you have to give everything away at the beginning of the story. There can be plenty of twists and turns, grand reveals and surprises, new characters and subplots—in fact, readers expect these. But if there is a large shift, hints of it must be sprinkled near the beginning. And most importantly, to create a satisfying resolution at the end of the story, the resolution must fulfill the promises set up at the beginning of the story.

It’s like ordering at a restaurant. If you order a vegetarian meal, the meal better not have chicken in it. It’s fine to defy expectations, push genre limits, experiment and break rules, but you must be aware of the contract you are establishing with the reader, and if you want a satisfying conclusion, you must find a way to keep that contract.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Choose a book, film, or TV show that you have never read or watched before—this should be new for you. Now read or watch the first 10% of the book/film/first episode.

Before you read or watch more, try to figure out the reader-writer contract for this story.

  • What promises has the writer made?
  • What is the genre, and how does the story treat the genre? (firmly in genre, parodying the genre, mix of two genres, etc.)
  • What expectations do you have for plot and character?
  • What is the point of view? What is the writer’s style?

Read or watch the rest of the story, and then evaluate how it met your expectations. Was the reader-writer contract kept? Was the story effective for you as a reader/viewer? Did anything defy what was established in the reader-writer contract, and if so, was it effective?

Exercise 2: Create a template Reader-Writer Contract that works for an entire category, genre, or subgenre of writing. Make sure that this category, genre, or subgenre is one that you write or would like to write.

Sample categories:

  • Literary
  • Genre fiction
  • Poetry
  • Creative nonfiction

Sample genres:

  • Romance
  • Science fiction
  • Mystery
  • Thriller
  • Cooking
  • Biography

Sample subgenres:

  • Regency romance
  • Urban fantasy
  • Bildungsroman
  • Popular history
  • True crime

Once you have chosen a category, genre, or subgenre, make a reader-writer’s contract. Consider standard characteristics, plot expectations (some categories/genres have very fixed expectations for plot events, while the expectations are more loose for others), character, style, point of view, and anything else that might make up part of a standard reader-writer contract for this category/genre/subgenre.

Exercise 3: We expect large promises to be fulfilled—if the story is a romance, the main couple should be together by the end of the story. As readers and viewers, we also love it when small promises are fulfilled. If the character is searching for a good taco several times throughout the story, it’s going to be really satisfying if they get that good taco by the end of the story.

Consider one of your own stories, that you have either drafted or are currently planning.

What are tiny promises that either have been made or could be made near the beginning of the novel? (Think “good taco” level promises—this could be something related to the main character, a minor character, etc.)

How and where could these promises be fulfilled?

Don’t Miss a Lesson: Subscribe to Updates and Giveaways from katherinecowley.com

* indicates required



Which newsletter(s) would you like to receive?

Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #9: Use Dialogue to Create Dynamic Interactions Between Characters

#9: Use Dialogue to Create Dynamic Interactions Between Characters

/2 Comments/in /by
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #9: Use Dialogue to Create Dynamic Interactions Between Characters

Dialogue is communication. connection. conversation. conflict. character.

Many of the most quoted Jane Austen quotes come from her characters’ dialogue. Personally, I find that the dialogue between her characters is always engaging and dynamic. She never uses it simply for one character to give information to another character (or to the reader): her dialogue always has a deep impact on the plot, on the characters, and on the subtext.

Consider this scene from her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility. The two sisters, Marianne and Elinor, are in London. Marianne is pining for a man named Mr. Willoughby. Many people assume that Marianne is engaged to Willoughby, but Elinor is unsure, and for chapters has not known how to ask her sister for the truth.

A note was just then brought in, and laid on the table.

“For me?” cried Marianne, stepping hastily forward.

“No, ma’am, for my mistress.”

But Marianne, not convinced, took it instantly up.

“It is indeed for Mrs. Jennings; how provoking!”

“You are expecting a letter then?” said Elinor, unable to be longer silent.

“Yes, a little—not much.”

After a short pause, “you have no confidence in me, Marianne.”

“Nay, Elinor, this reproach from you—you who have confidence in no one!”

“Me!” returned Elinor in some confusion; “indeed, Marianne, I have nothing to tell.”

“Nor I,” answered Marianne with energy, “our situations then are alike. We have neither of us any thing to tell; you, because you do not communicate, and I, because I conceal nothing.”

Elinor, distressed by this charge of reserve in herself, which she was not at liberty to do away, knew not how, under such circumstances, to press for greater openness in Marianne.

There are four core components that make this dialogue effective:

  • What the characters say

  • How the characters say it

  • What the characters don’t say

  • What the characters do

Dialogue Component #1: What the characters say

What the characters say

Sometimes two characters will have the same goal or objective for a conversation, but often, characters have different goals.

In this scene, Elinor’s primary goal is to discover the truth from Marianne so she can better help her sister. She takes the opportunity to question Marianne, inviting her to open herself up and confide in her. However, telling Marianne “you have no confidence in me” does not have the intended effect and puts Marianne on the offensive.

Marianne’s original goal is to conceal her anxieties about her relationship with Willoughby: she does not want her older sister’s judgment or advice. To this is added the goal of pointing out Elinor’s hypocrisy. She knows that Elinor, too, is keeping things from her, and while stating this does not lead to Elinor opening up to Marianne, it does achieve Marianne’s ultimate goal of ending the conversation quickly.

When characters have different goals for a conversation, it creates organic and compelling dialogue with forward movement and momentum. (This is true even if the characters have similar goals: character’s goals will never entirely overlap, and this will be reflected in what they say.)

How the characters say it

Most of how the characters are talking, such as their tone and their volume, is implied by the dialogue itself. For instance, the exclamation mark and the sentence structure indicate the way in which Marianne speaks the following line:

“It is indeed for Mrs. Jennings; how provoking!”

Skilled writers like Austen reveal most of how the characters speak by the speech itself, without relying heavily on description. Jane Austen does give several additional descriptions, such as cried Marianne, but if these sorts of qualifiers were used on every line, it would clutter and distract.

In this passage, Austen gives two more brief descriptions of how the characters are speaking: “returned Elinor in some confusion” and “answered Marianne with energy.” These descriptions occur in brief succession, and this contrasting pair paints a portrait of the two sisters, demonstrating even in this short moment how the sisters acts as foils to each other.

What the characters don’t say

In any conversation, there are a multitude of things left unsaid: motivations and emotions, backstory and baggage. Very few people are entirely open in conversation, even to those who are closest to them. (When characters are finally open with each other, it can create huge emotional resonance for readers.)

What the characters choose not to say has a huge impact on the dialogue. In this scene from Sense and Sensibility, the very subject of the conversation is what they refuse to tell each other. In addition to not talking about their secrets, they do not talk about how irritated they are with each other. This is fueled by their frustration with their situations, and a latent sense of hopelessness, especially for Marianne, but also for Elinor.

Often we see characters’ biggest desires and anxieties in what the characters choose not to say, or find themselves unable to say, and this can help create dynamic interactions.

What the characters do

Generally, actions are peppered throughout dialogue scenes, and are just as important as the words that people say.

In this scene, Marianne’s actions betray how much she is hoping for a letter from Willoughby. Her haste in stepping forward underlines her impatience and longing, and she cannot trust the word of the servant—she must pick the letter up herself to see that it is truly not for her.

Inaction can be as important as inaction. Note the power in Elinor’s pause before she makes her accusation:

“You are expecting a letter then?” said Elinor, unable to be longer silent.

“Yes, a little—not much.”

After a short pause, “you have no confidence in me, Marianne.”

This pause provides a space for Elinor to decide to push the subject, and it provides a space for the reader as we watch the characters struggle through this interaction. A different sort of pause comes at the end of the scene when Elinor does not know what to say and we glimpse her internal thoughts.

Dialogue should be used to create dynamic interactions between characters.

In dialogue, writers weave together the said, the unsaid, and action to create character interactions which should be dynamic, or in other words, should possess energy and life. This sort of dialogue is kinetic, in that it creates change and progress (though this be negative progress, moving the characters away from their goals).

Conflict and tension are created by dialogue when the character’s various wants and goals rub up against each other. Connection is created when the dialogue changes the characters’ relationship in a positive way. Ultimately, dialogue is communication, but it is also so much more: it moves the plot forward and provides characters with a way to manifest their personalities and move toward their goals.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Take a book off your shelf and open it to a random page. Find the first sentence of dialogue on the page and use it as the first line of a conversation you write for brand new characters. Make sure to consider what the characters say, what the characters don’t say, and the actions of the characters.

(There is also a random dialogue generator online that can be used for this exercise.)

Exercise 2:

Write a short passage of dialogue (approximately 3-5 lines/paragraphs), featuring two characters, a girl who wants to buy a lollipop from a candy shop, and a guardian who is trying to save money and wants to get home and rest after a long day.

You will write this passage three different times:

For the first version of the dialogue, have both characters say exactly what they want.

For the second version of the dialogue, have one of the characters say exactly what they want, while the other character does not say what they want, but nevertheless tries to achieve what they want.

For the third version of the dialogue, neither character should say exactly what they want, yet both are trying to achieve their own goals.

In each version of the dialogue, consider how the character is speaking, and what actions they might take, as well as if any pauses would occur.

Exercise 3:

It’s easy to overwrite dialogue and include more than is necessary. Take a scene of dialogue that you have drafted and cut out at least 25% of the spoken sentences (you can cut out individual words too, but as you do so, make sure that you don’t lose your characters’ distinct voices).

Don’t Miss a Lesson: Subscribe to Updates and Giveaways from katherinecowley.com

* indicates required



Which newsletter(s) would you like to receive?

Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #8: Use Setting to Influence Plot and Character

#8: Use Setting to Influence Plot and Character

/0 Comments/in /by
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #8: Use Setting to Influence Plot and Character

One of the most famous scenes from the book Emma occurs at Box Hill, a hill popular as a sightseeing attraction both in Jane Austen’s time and today. (Sadly, visiting Box Hill is an uncompleted item on my bucket list.)

Box Hill

A view from Box Hill by Benjamin Rusholme (Creative Commons license).

In this scene, Emma’s flaws are brought to the forefront: in an attempt to be clever and keep attention on herself, Emma is cruel to Miss Bates.

“Ladies and gentlemen—I am ordered by Miss Woodhouse to say…that she requires something very entertaining of each of you….[she] demands from each of you either one thing very clever…two things moderately clever[,] or three things very dull indeed, and she engages to laugh heartily at them all.”

“Oh, very well,” exclaimed Miss Bates, “then I need not be uneasy. ‘Three things very dull indeed.’ That will just do for me, you know. I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, shan’t I—(looking round with the most good-humoured dependence on everybody’s assent)—Do not you all think I shall?”

Emma could not resist.

“Ah! ma’am, but there may be difficulty. Pardon me—but you will be limited as to number—only three at once.”

Miss Bates, deceived by the mock ceremony of her manner, did not immediately catch her meaning; but, when it burst on her, it could not anger, though a slight brush showed that it could pain her.

“Ah!—well—to be sure. Yes, I see what she means, (turning to Mr. Knightley,) and I will try to hold my tongue. I must make myself very disagreeable, or she would not have said such a thing to an old friend.”

This scene’s effectiveness is dependent on its setting for two reasons:

  1. This setting has brought all of these characters together.
  2. The setting has created a set of trying circumstances for the characters.

In fiction, the setting of a scene should always be an intentional choice.

In Emma, many of the scenes do occur in Emma’s home, Hartfield. This is very deliberate: in many ways, Emma is trapped by having a hypochondriac as a father (the narrator calls him a “valetudinarian”). Yet there is still a large amount of variability in the settings, even if many of them happen at home or close to home. At seven miles away, Box Hill is the farthest Emma goes from home over the course of the novel, and this is a significant event for the characters, a day planned well in advance.

Setting influences plot. characters.

The choice of the setting should influence both the plot and the characters.

The narrator describes it as a “very fine day for Box Hill,” and everyone commences the seven-mile journey there in good spirits:

Seven miles were travelled in expectation of enjoyment, and every body had a burst of admiration on first arriving; but in the general amount of the day there was deficiency. There was a languor, a want of spirits, a want of union, which could not be got over.

Much of the tension of the scene is caused by contrast between the high expectations for Box Hill and the lack of enjoyment and feeling. Two hours are spent walking around the hill and seeing the sights, yet throughout the entire time, they are plagued by division and separation. In Emma’s opinion, people are behaving in a manner that is “dull” and “insufferable.”

Perhaps it is this struggle with the setting that brings Emma to an internal lowness that invites her to act in an outwardly low manner. (When I am tired, hungry, or overheated, I definitely lose some of my charming personality.)

After her rudeness, the group continues the conversation for a few more minutes but soon breaks apart:

Even Emma grew tired at last of flattery and merriment, and wished herself rather walking quietly about with any of the others, or sitting almost alone, and quite unattended to, in tranquil observation of the beautiful views beneath her.

Yet she does not have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty: in the next sentence, the carriages arrive. In a moment where they are alone, Mr. Knightley reproaches Emma for her behavior.

"How Could You Be So Unfeeling?" -Mr. Knightley

“How Could You Be So Unfeeling?” Knightley reproaches Emma in the 2020 film Emma. (Gif from Tenor.)

After this confrontation by Knightley, which once again occurs in stark contrast to the beautiful surroundings, Emma feels the full weight of guilt. The chapter ends with the following line:

Emma felt the tears running down her cheeks almost all the way home, without being at any trouble to check them, extraordinary as they were.

A well-chosen setting can have a huge influence on the plot and the characters, and the way in which the setting is described provides a lens into the viewpoint character’s thoughts and emotions.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1:

Read the following dialogue, which will become part of a short break-up scene:

“I just don’t think it’s going to work out between us,” said Amisha.

“I’m not worried,” said Jesse. “We always get through things.”

“Yes, we could get through this,” said Amisha. “But that’s not what I want. I’m done. Done with this, done with us.”

Now choose two different settings and write two versions of this short scene (two to three paragraphs each). Make sure to not only add description, but also movement and action. Consider what they might be doing in the setting (i.e. cooking dinner in Amisha’s kitchen), how the characters would describe the setting, and how the setting will impact how both the characters and the reader.

Example settings:

  • A kitchen
  • The beach
  • A freeway
  • A museum
  • A soccer game

Exercise 2:

Choose one of your favorite books or movies, and without rereading or rewatching it, make a list of as many settings as you can from the story. These can be broad settings (i.e. England, the town of Highbury, etc.) or more specific settings (i.e. Mr. Elton’s house, the strawberry patch, etc.).

Once your list is complete, consider the following question: How does the setting impact the plot and the characters in this story?

Exercise 3:

Option 1: Use a scene that you plan to write in a book or short story. Come up with three possible settings that could work well at fulfilling the purposes of the scene. For each setting, list the key attributes of the setting, the advantages of using the setting, and the disadvantages of using the setting.

Settings Exercise -- Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Option 2: Take a scene that you have already written and rewrite it using a new setting. Which do you prefer? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?

Don’t Miss a Lesson: Subscribe to Updates and Giveaways from katherinecowley.com

* indicates required



Which newsletter(s) would you like to receive?

#7: Create Multiple Relationship Arcs to Show Your Character’s Journey in Relation to Those Around Them

/0 Comments/in /by
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #7: Create Multiple Relationship Arcs to Show Your Character’s Journey in Relation to Those Around Them

Theatrical adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels often eliminate characters in order to shorten, to focus, and/or to interpret the story. Simon Reade’s play Pride and Prejudice eliminates Colonel Fitzwilliam. Kate Hamill’s play Pride and Prejudice eliminates not only Colonel Fitzwilliam, but also Kitty and the Gardiners. Isobel McArthur’s play Pride and Prejudice (sort of) eliminates Colonel Fitzwilliam, but adds a group of named servants: Anne, Clara, Effie, Flo, Maisie, and Tillie. Melissa Leilani Larsen’s adaptation keeps Colonel Fitzwilliam (so if you’re a Colonel fan, this is the one for you); Mrs. Gardiner is maintained as a referenced character but is never seen on stage.

When characters are eliminated in an adaptation, either plot elements must be eliminated or something or someone else must step in to serve the missing role. For instance, in the adaptations that eliminate Colonel Fitzwilliam, Elizabeth must find out through other means that Mr. Darcy separated Jane and Mr. Bingley. (In one adaptation, Darcy himself tells her.)

The chosen cast of characters heavily influences the plot of any novel. Yet characters do more than that:

Each character can help illuminate the main character and their journey for the reader.

In Pride and Prejudice, the main character is Elizabeth Bennet, and the core relationship of the story is with Mr. Darcy, because it is through their relationship that we see most of Elizabeth’s change and growth through the story. Their relationship arc is a definitive component of Elizabeth’s journey.

Elizabeth also experiences relationship arcs with a number of other characters: her relationships with these people progress, develop, change, shift, deepen, weaken, experience betrayal, are challenged, etc.

Characters who have relationship arcs with Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice:

  • Jane
  • Lydia
  • Charlotte Lucas
  • Wickham
  • Bennet
  • Bennet
  • Collins
  • Lady Catherine de Bourgh
  • The Gardiners

There are a number of other characters in the novel whose relationships with Elizabeth don’t change or have an arc over the course of the novel, including:

  • Mary
  • Kitty
  • Phillips
  • Anne de Bourgh
  • Sir William Lucas
  • Lady Lucas

While not all characters need to have a relationship arc with the main character, incorporating multiple relationship arcs in a story makes a richer world and makes the main character seem more complex and nuanced. Relationship arcs show your main character’s journey in relation to those around them.

(Note: There are books with a single character, or just two or three characters, but most books include more. For those books with only a few characters, these relationship arcs tend to be especially important. In short stories it is typically better to only include a handful of characters.)

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1:

Make a list of people with whom you have interacted with in the last week, either in person or otherwise (phone call, letter, digitally, etc.). Put these people into categories (friends, family, work, school, mortal enemies, acquaintances, salespeople, etc.).

Draw a star next to the three people whose relationships with you have changed or developed the most within the last month or year.

Exercise 2:

Create a list of your favorite supporting characters from books or movies. These should not be main characters, but rather small or medium characters that play a part in the story. For each character you have listed, write down a few attributes that you like about them, as well as details about their relationship with the main character. If you’re willing, share one of these characters in the comments.

Exercise 3:

Option 1: If you are planning out a story, make a chart of character relationships that are important to your main character. This is a standard chart but can be adapted for the type of story you are telling (for example, a mystery novel should have a column titled “suspects”). Some categories may only include one person, while some categories may include a number of individuals.

It is likely that not all of these characters will be in your story, or at least not all of them will play crucial roles in the story. Some of these characters will be main characters, while others will be supporting. Underline the characters who will be most instrumental to the plot, and highlight the characters who will have the most important relationship arcs with the main character.

Option 2: If you are revising a story, use Excel, Google Spreadsheets, or paper and pen to chart your characters over the course of your novel. One way to do this is to put an “X” for every time they are seen in a chapter and an “x” for every time they are mentioned. Another way to do this is to write a brief description of the role each character plays in each chapter. Here’s a sample of what it might look like if I was tracking characters in the first few chapters of Pride and Prejudice.

Pride and Prejudice Character Tracking: Jane Austen Writing Lessons #7

Once you’ve completed your chart, you can use it to self-diagnose areas where you can improve. For example, if one of your characters is supposed to have an important relationship arc but they are not present for a six-chapter segment, that could be an important thing to incorporate in your revisions.

Don’t Miss a Lesson: Subscribe to Updates and Giveaways from katherinecowley.com

* indicates required



Which newsletter(s) would you like to receive?

#6: Use a Character Arc to Make Your Character Change and Grow

/0 Comments/in /by
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #6: Use a Character Arc to Make Your Character Change and Grow

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner is a beautiful new novel about how our favorite authors can save us. It made me cry approximately three times—fine, exactly three times—and is a fabulous read. In the novel, the first character we meet is the farmer Adam Berwick, a man broken by loss of family and dreams. The book begins with him in a death-like pose next to the Chawton cemetery, yet over the course of the first chapter he changes and grows.

Adam is challenged by a visitor to the town to read Jane Austen, and he reluctantly agrees. As he reads Pride and Prejudice, he begins to change:

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

Reading Jane Austen was making him identify with Darcy….It was helping him understand how even someone without much means or agency might demand to be treated. How we can act the fool and no one around us will necessarily clue us in.

He would surely never see the American woman again. But maybe reading Jane Austen could help him gain even a small degree of her contented state.

Maybe reading Austen could give him the key.

The external plot of the story is Adam and others coming together to save Jane Austen’s Chawton home. But each of the characters, including Adam, undergoes internal change and transformation over the course of the novel.

In a novel, the internal journey, or character arc, constantly intersects with the external journey. A character arc is not a straight line of progress. It includes failures and successes, embracing and resisting change. Ultimately though, our characters should learn and grow. (I have the same hope for my children. So far it’s working, except for the fact that my youngest has been coloring on walls for years.)

As you create a character arc, consider how this arc is influenced by:

  • What happens to the character

  • The choices and decisions made by the character

  • Moments of resisting change and moments of progress

  • Who the character needs to become by the end of the novel

All of Jane Austen’s completed novels contain excellently crafted character arcs: all of her main characters change, develop, and transform over the course of their stories.

One example of this is Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey. In the introduction to the Broadview edition of Northanger Abbey, the scholar Claire Grogran writes about Catherine’s transformation: “Catherine becomes an adept reader not only of texts but also of people and of situations.”

Illustration of Catherine Morland reading

An illustration of Catherine Morland reading.
This illustration, by an unknown artist, was included in the 1833 Bentley Edition of Jane Austen’s Novels.

At first, Catherine is innocent and naïve, which allows her to be manipulated by others, including her friend, Isabella Thorpe, and Isabella’s brother, John Thorpe. Even though John consistently interferes with her desires and other friendships, she does not see him for who she is.

The first time Catherine meets John Thorpe, she is “fearful of hazarding an opinion of [her] own in opposition to that of a self-assured man.” She finds herself constantly frustrated by Thorpe’s speech and behavior, yet she distrusts her own judgment, and does not read anything truly wrong into his character:

These manners did not please Catherine; but he was James’ friend and Isabella’s brother; and her judgment was further brought off by Isabella’s assuring her, when they withdrew to see the new hat, that John thought her the most charming girl in the world.

As their relationship progresses, Catherine consciously makes the decision to not read into his character, to ignore his flaws, and to allow him to override her plans. In this, she is resisting change and development. (Characters often resist change because change is hard.)

Little as Catherine was in the habit of judging for herself, and unfixed as her general notions of what men ought to be, she could not entirely repress a doubt, while she bore with the effusions of his endless conceit, of his being altogether completely agreeable.

Yet because of this, she misses the opportunity to spend time with her friend Miss Tilney, and her brother, Mr. Tilney, who she is romantically interested in. This leads her to conclude that “John Thorpe himself was quite disagreeable.”

A few chapters later, Catherine plans a walk with Miss Tilney, but it happens to be at the same time as an outing that John Thorpe wants Catherine to attend. Jealous and vindictive, Thorpe ignores Catherine’s wishes, goes to Miss Tilney, and cancels Catherine’s walk.

When Catherine learns of this, she takes action in a way that begins her path towards transformation and growth:  she decides to trust her own judgement of the people and the situation, and to act decisively. Disregarding all of Isabella’s and John’s entreaties, she declares,

“This will not do. I cannot submit to this. I must run after Miss Tilney directly and set her right.”

Catherine then proceeds to do so. Throughout the rest of the novel, she gains more practice reading people and situations. Sometimes her judgment leads her false (as when Henry finds Catherine in his mother’s room, looking for clues of her supposed murder), but over the course of the novel she does improve in her ability to read situations and she allows this reading to inform and change her behavior.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1:

Pick a name for a character, any name.

Now choose one of the following attributes:

  • Courage
  • Willingness to sacrifice for others
  • Ambition
  • Persistence
  • Resourcefulness
  • Thriftiness
  • Ability to forgive others

Set a timer for ten minutes, and in that time make a list of the following four events which would create a basic character arc for this character:

  1. An event which shows that the character does not yet possess this attribute
  2. An event which shows the character learning this attribute
  3. An event which shows the character resisting or failing at the implementation of this attribute
  4. An event which shows that the character has learned to incorporate this attribute into their lives

Exercise 2:

Read a book or watch as movie, and as you do so, take notes on the main character. How do they change over the course of the story? What do they learn and how do they develop? How do they resist change? On a piece of paper, plot out the main points of their character arc. Visually, what type of line or arc would you draw to show their development?

Exercise 3:

Take a story of your own that you are currently writing or revising. Write a 2-3 sentence description of who the character must become by the end of the story. Then write a 2-3 sentence description of who the character is at the start of the story.

Now evaluate your character. A few things to consider:

  • There needs to be enough distance between who the character is at the beginning of the story and who the character is at the end. In a novel, this distance will need to be much greater than in a short story.
  • The character may have multiple things they need to learn.
  • If your story is part of a series, the character needs to change or develop in new ways in each book.
  • As the character develops and grows, the goal is not to make them a “perfect” character or eliminate all of the negative attributes that are a core part of their character.
  • Often, more than one character has a character arc, and these arcs can intersect with each other, parallel each other, or interfere with each other.

Don’t Miss a Lesson: Subscribe to Updates and Giveaways from katherinecowley.com

* indicates required



Which newsletter(s) would you like to receive?