Guest Posting today is Jennifer Slattery Every first draft I write seems to be crammed with cliché characters. The Sunday school teacher with silver hair pulled back in a bun. The buff and burly loan shark. The alcoholic husband who burps and slurps and does all sorts of other crude things unfit to share in…
As writers we all have a purpose for writing. We want to entertain, inform, persuade, or inspire. The passions in our own lives drive what we write. You care about the environment so you may include a character in your book that feels the same. You are politically minded so perhaps you write political thrillers….
How much thought do you give to point of view (POV) as you begin a new story? The best POV for your story is not always the protagonist or even the antagonist. Consider how different the book To Kill a Mockingbird would have been if told from Atticus’ POV. Or Gone with the Wind from…
As discussed in “6 Steps to Story Development,” a story needs conflict. In fact, without it you have no story. So let’s take a closer look and see how you can make sure you’re developing the conflict in your story. James Scott Bell, in his book Conflict & Suspense, defines conflict this way: “a clash between…
You want to write a best seller. What writer doesn’t? First you’ve got to come up with a good story idea. Then you’ve got to get that idea from Point A to Point Z and figure out everything in between. (That’s my hardest struggle — plotting.) You’ve got to hook your reader — and keep…
Have you ever started reading a book thinking it was contemporary fiction and then 2 … or 3 … or 4 chapters later realized it was historical? Or maybe you’ve spent the first several pages trying to figure out where the story takes place — big or small city, where you live or in a…
As writers we know we have to hook our reader at the onset — no matter what it is we’re writing. But as novelists, the opening act of our story needs to accomplish six tasks to keep our readers interested and wanting to know what’s just around the bend. For the next several Tuesday Writing…
Today’s interview involves a variety of writers, each involved in creating one book, A Dozen Apologies, the creative work of Write Integrity Press. Write Integrity has published several novella collaborations. I read my first of these novellas, A Ruby Christmas, late last year. Like many readers, I skipped the table of contents and went straight to…