With this post we begin looking at the key conditions that build reader suspense. Stories are made up of four main ingredients: character, setting, problem, and plot. All of these are important, but problem is the engine that makes suspense go.
Sometimes it feels like there are a thousand things to remember when writing a story. New writers who make lists of these things soon begin to drown in them. But I’ve come to realize that many of these “rules” don’t matter.
Key PROBLEM conditions for reader suspense Part 1 – It’s all about the reader Part 2 – The 3 Problem Types Part 3 – It’s gotta be difficult Part 4 – Uncertainty Key CHARACTER conditions for reader suspense Part 5 – Character troubles Part 6 – Character deservingness Part 7 – Character draws 1-4 Part […]
Sometimes we forget to breathe when it comes to our creativity. By which I mean we are so busy creating and interacting with the world that we forget to pause, to be silent, to be alone. The imagination, the spark of all creativity, is a renewable resource, but it is not an inexhaustible resource.
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.
This old saw applies to writers as much as to musicians. In today’s guest blog post, author and writing teacher Barbara Baig explores the impo…
Sometimes, no matter your best efforts, you’ll find yourself stuck in a rut, bored with your work and yourself. At such times, here are a few techniques that may nudge or jolt you out of that mood.
A frequent question, especially among self- and small press-published authors, is how books get into libraries, and what authors can do to help. Today, guest blogger and public librarian Abigail Goben explains how libraries choose the books they purchase–and what authors should (and shouldn’t) do to play a part in that process.
Dr. Grasshopper explains the medical improbabilities and impossibilities in Dollhouse. The concern isn’t just bad science, it’s also that real people might become afraid of medical procedures due to the misinformation.
I’m happy to announce a new feature on the SFWA blog, “How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends: A writer’s guide to diseases and injuries, and how to use them effectively in fiction” written by Dr. Grasshopper.
Literature is all about metaphors–analogies. One thing is like another. Much of literature works by saying, “This thing is like this other thing.” In secondary world stories, how do you handle metaphors?
For the Nameless Restaurant, once a discreet hole-in-the-wall meant for a cast of supernatural regulars, the increasing levels of background magic has brought with it that most dreadful of locusts – new customers.
Michelle Knudsen is the New York Times bestselling author of 50 books for kids & teens, including the Trelian (MG) and Evil Librarian (YA) trilogies and the picture book Library Lion (one of Time magazine’s 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time).
