Life of Pi Author Explores the 5 Ps of Good Writing

While every story is unique to the person who is telling it, there are key elements that are essential to making it a success. Don’t worry, you know them already. You’ve been telling and sharing stories your whole life, without even thinking about them. 

But now that you are thinking about turning your winning story idea into a novel, we’re going to break down the key elements, which we’re calling the Five Ps.

• Person
• Problem
• Place
• Plot
• Prose

To help us dig into this, we asked one of the judges for our writing contest, The Next Big Story, to share his thoughts on the Five Ps of writing.

In this article, Yann Martel, the Booker Prize-winning author of Life of Pi, shares his advice to strengthen your story and, if you’re entering our writing contest, how to improve your opening three pages for The Next Big Story prize. That’s right—just three pages! No more than 1,500 words from the start of a novel. Remember: the closing date for submissions is July 31. Happy writing!

Person

Bring the main character energy

Stories are always, ultimately, about people. You need to be invested in them.
—Yann Martel

We know that in fiction, the story begins with our main character, the person we are going on a journey with. Even stories that are invested in settings or historical events are centered around people. 

‘The main character is called that for a reason. It is the main character. Everything comes around to that main character, because ultimately everything is seen through the eyes of that character or has impact on that character. So yeah, it’s pretty central.’—Yann Martel

Yann notes that our main characters can be complex, prickly, or even unlikable. But there needs to be something about them that we are curious about. We need to care about them and their situation; we need to be invested.

‘You just have to make the character alluring in some way.’—Yann Martel

Problem

Get them in a tight spot

There has to be a problem to start with.
—Yann Martel

Every story has a problem, something the main character is dealing with. Maybe it’s a problem of their own making, or maybe it’s a problem that finds them. Just as there are all kinds of people, there are all kinds of problems. Does Yann think it’s important to share that problem early on?

‘It’d be surprising to read a novel that goes on for 150 pages in a very subtle mode and suddenly have, you know, explosions and mass murder and zombies.’—Yann Martel

Yann says a novel is all about dealing with and resolving that problem, whether successfully or not. 

‘There has to be a challenge, something that needs accomplishing... So it’s not a question of high action or high stake necessarily. It’s just how it resonates with the reader.’—Yann Martel

To illustrate this point, Yann uses the childhood classic Little Red Riding Hood as an example:

‘She just has to deliver a basket of food to her grandmother. It’s a completely trivial, mundane task, but rich in adventure nonetheless. There are wolves out there. There’s also heroes out there, wood cutters, and it’s also highly symbolic.’—Yann Martel

Problems don’t have to be life or death, but they do need to have stakes!

Place

Just add atmosphere

The setting and the place gave me problems to resolve.
—Yann Martel on writing Life of Pi

A place can be anywhere, it can add atmosphere, and it can create all kinds of problems.

The setting or place of your story can add beauty and emotion, raise the stakes, and bring the drama. It can present emotional and physical challenges for your main character. 

As Yann points out, some stories are definitely set in a place with a capital P. It all depends on what kind of place you’re talking about. Consider Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It’s set in Scotland and is Scottish through and through. Every part of the country and its culture informs the story and the characters that inhabit it. 

When discussing his own book Life of Pi, Yann elaborates on how important place was to his novel. The story starts in India, but most of it takes place on a lifeboat surrounded by water, in the middle of the ocean.

‘The place was important because it was an ocean. And that plays a role in the sense that it’s a restriction on Pi. He cannot escape that ocean. He’s stuck on a lifeboat and he has to survive. So, place was important for me. I spent a lot of time doing research on ocean currents, ocean life, ocean weather. I spent a lot of time researching survival at sea. How do you survive in a very inhospitable environment, as you would in a desert or a high mountain? That nourished the story because it, in a sense, gave me challenges. How will Pi survive?’—Yann Martel

Plot

Make things harder

Something has to happen in a story. You also have to have some kind of story.
—Yann Martel

Plot is what the reader is reading to find out. The plot comes from things getting harder before they get better. While it’s great to create problems for your characters to overcome, it’s important to remember that plot isn’t just an obstacle course or an action montage where one car chase leads to another. It can be a life-changing journey for your main character, a series of obstacles they need to overcome, or a new understanding of themselves and their place in the world. 

‘Plot and story are sort of somewhat synonymous, but there’s a problem with too much plot. And you’ll see that in any number of Netflix series, let’s say, where the production is great and the plot is really appealing, but at the end of it, somehow you forget it. A week later, you’ve completely forgotten what it was about.’—Yann Martel

And that often happens when a story is too plot-driven. Don’t forget your main character. A story starts with what the main character wants, but it ends with what they need. 

‘The most satisfying kind of story is one where, yes, obviously there has to be some sort of plot, but you also have to have something that feeds your mind.’—Yann Martel

Prose

Keep it simple

Prose is about communicating your story, communicating that heartbeat in you that you want to transmit to the other.
—Yann Martel

At The Novelry, we like to say, be yourself, only more so. Your story and your way of telling it is unique to you. Let your prose reflect your voice.

We asked Yann if he has any tips for writing good, clean prose, and here’s what he had to say:

‘Yes. Rewrite it 40 times. If you like writing, it’s because you like words, which means you will endlessly like reworking a sentence.’—Yann Martel

Yann cautions against the overuse of adjectives and adverbs as a way to signal too much to the reader about how they should feel. We love the way Yann compares punctuation to the mechanics of a car, and the crafting of sentences to the way a toddler learns to walk:

‘Punctuation is really cool. It’s like the brake and the accelerator in your car. You know, a full stop is like braking. A comma is like accelerating and slowing down. Start playing around exactly like a kid who’s learning how to walk. Eventually, you just crawl off your bum and you stand, and you’re kind of terrified. That’s the short sentence.

‘When you start walking a bit on your own, that’s a mid-length sentence. But when you start learning how to run as a toddler, it’s so exciting. That’s like writing a longer sentence, you know, playing with that. It’s playing in language that will make you more proficient.’—Yann Martel

Playing and finding joy in the writing is such an important part of the process, so don’t forget to make a little mischief and have some fun!

There are so many possible premises and solutions. That’s what’s wonderful about stories, is they are literally infinite. There are more stories than there are people on this planet.
—Yann Martel

Don’t forget to enter The Next Big Story

We want you to bring your wildest dreams to life by entering our prize competition to find The Next Big Story.

All you need to do is submit the first three pages (no more than 1,500 words) of a work of fiction for an entry fee of $15. Eight shortlisted entries—chosen by our judging panel, which includes Yann as well as Tayari Jones, Emma Roberts, and Julia Quinn—will win the full support of The Novelry with access to The Finished Novel Course. Plus, one winner will take home a life-changing $100,000 (£75,000 for U.K. entrants)! Find out more at the prize page. Entries close on July 31!

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