Yesterday, on this blog, we talked about the difference between mysteries, suspense and thrillers. Inside each larger category, of course we have sub categories. Just inside suspense novels, we might find espionage/spy novels, conspiracy, medical, legal, political, military, techno, paranormal, women in jeopardy novels, psychological, survival suspense, one of my favorite – treasure hunters, and last but not at all least – romantic suspense. I’ve written a number of these sub genres – military, women in jep, survival, conspiracy, political, espionage, and of course romantic suspense – but although each has their quirks, they all have the same overall structure. Let’s start with a Definition: An everyday hero or heroine confronts a believable, compelling, immediate and terrifying threat, and using their unique abilities, learning more, confronting their […]
Read the RestArchive | January, 2011
Spend a year On the Edge with My Book Therapy!
It’s time to put a little Thriller into My Book Therapy. No, we’re not going to dance (yet!) but it’s time we catered to the NON-romance author/readers of this blog. Yes, we know you’re out there, and you’ve been ever so patient last year as we talked about Romance. Hopefully, however, you learned a few applicable romantic secrets anyway. This year, oh suspense writers, is for you. This year, on MBT we’re going to spend a year On the Edge, examining the craft of Suspense. As fair warning, we will veer into how to weave romance into yoru suspense for a week or two, should we have those out there who want to straddle the fence. Still, the focus this year will be on the framework, suspense […]
Read the RestTutorial on Showing verses Telling
Showing verses telling is a common topic in writing circles, especially among new writers. It can get kind of confusing after awhile because there are soooo many thoughts on how to show and not tell, variations on definitions, etc. It’s crazy. Will you do some telling? Yes! If you write, “His brown hair curled over his forehead,” that’s “telling.” You just told me what his hair was doing. Telling in the arena of doing, action, (she walked across the room) description is… wait for it… PROSE. Books are compiled for prose and dialog. So yes, describe things, tell the reader things, except… For how the characters are feeling. SHOW me emotion. SHOW me action that applied to the emotion. SHOW me the heroine or heros actions. Imagine you’re sitting in […]
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