Sea Saga

When Homer wrote the Odyssey, a tale of a ten year adventure, it kick-started a genre full of adventures on sea, fighting gods, monsters and one’s own crew. 

From Treasure Island to Moby Dick, these stories aren’t simply about digging up buried treasure or hunting sea monsters (although that’s awesome, too!). These stories tackle the dilemma between playing it safe and diving headfirst into the unknown. The ocean doesn’t care about your five-year plan or your comfort zone. It’ll either forge you into something stronger or swallow you whole. And honestly, both options make for incredible storytelling.

Today’s sea stories are less about repeating the old tales and more about remixing them. They blend genres, challenge old perspectives, and explore the deep, dark corners of the human heart in fresh ways. 

We dug up some pearls of the ocean to consider:

• What role does the sea play? She is a character: Unpredictable, and a source of both tranquillity and terrifying destruction. How do your characters relate to the sea?
• How does months of isolation on a vessel impact your characters? If there’s a fight, they’re all sleeping in the same room that night! If there’s an illicit romance, how do the characters get privacy?
• What quest are your protagonists on? Sea adventures are propelled by specific goals. Are they hunting for treasure? Exploring uncharted waters? Pursuing a rival ship? Desperately trying to reach home?
• What genres can you crash together? What does a sea adventure look like with elements of gothic romance? A political thriller? A space opera? Let that story be told.

What do pirate treasure maps and foreshadowing have in common? Both guide the reader on an epic journey, full of twists and turns, and end in satisfaction.

In our new plot devices lesson, we’re taking a deep dive (pun intended) into foreshadowing: the art of rewarding readers by letting them connect the dots before your characters get there!

We will learn how foreshadowing:

1. Is planting information early on in the story that later becomes relevant, often in major story moments.
2. Allows us to guide the reader through the story, and give a logical and satisfying conclusion.
3. Exists on a spectrum; some genres use the lightest of touches, whereas others (e.g. horror) will take a sledgehammer approach.
4. Uses the three P’s (plant, patience, and payoff) to hook readers until the very end.

Remember Chekov’s gun? As writers, we need to keep the promises we make to our beloved readers. So let that gun (or this month, cannon) go off!

Dive into foreshadowing techniques

With most social media, the key to growth is engagement. If your readers aren’t liking or commenting or sharing your posts, then the algorithm doesn’t know that it should share your beautiful images/reels/TikToks.

But in an age of oversaturation, how can we stand out from the crowd? How can we grab the scroller’s attention and get a little of their most precious commodity: Their time?

One way is to hide clues to your writing in your posts. Imagine cryptic captions, emojis with no context, or a “shelfie” in a mysterious order…

Challenge yourself: For your next promotional post, try to add some hidden ‘easter eggs’ to your current WIP, and ask your followers to find it. These might include:

• Story Polls/Quizzes with hidden meanings
• Time released clues that when seen on your homepage make a full image.
• Daily posts that seem like general updates but contain escalating hints about upcoming events
• Book cover or design iterations that gradually reveal more elements from your story.
• Share your story playlist (head back to our edition for more info) to bring your readers into your world.

You don’t need to be sailing the Seven Seas, or be a real-life siren to hook your readers!