When my agent suggested reading Charles Martin, I bought “The Dead Don’t Dance” right away. I devoured this book. Personally, I think it’s his best. But I haven’t read the sequal, “Maggie” yet. What Martin does well is paint on the page. He’s lyrical and magical in his phrasing. He takes the time, (sometimes too much) to put emotion on the page. In “Dance” I felt the emotion and love of the hero for his wife and the pain of their devastation. In a season where fiction writing seems to be all about “tension” on every page, Martin creates a story of tension that evokes emotion on every page. In love stories or relationship stories, true emotion is just as much a drive to the story as tension or conflict. […]
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About Rachel Hauck
Author Archive | Rachel Hauck
Perscriptions: Writing Lits III
This is our last week to discuss writing lits. I hope it’s been helpful, even if you don’t write lits. Maybe you found a nuggest of truth for you writing. Today we’ll talk about dialog, setting and research. Dialog is part of voice, and very important to lits. While some genres like women’s fiction or romance can get away with long passages of narrative, Lits can’t. Why? Because it becomes too introspective, especially if writing in first person. Dialg shows the voice of your character. Dialog is great to create tension. Dialog must ring true. Be authentic. Don’t be nice, say the hard words. Dialog puts the reader in the scene. Sol Stein says dialog is invented. Every word counts. One great dialog tip is to watch trailing conversation pieces […]
Read the RestSelf-therapy:Finding the Power of Scene
Rachel Here: Yesterday while working on book next, “Love Begins with Elle,” I was working on a scene where I needed Elle, my heroine, to discover she could not open a new art gallery in her home town of Beaufort, SC. She’d sold her gallery months before because she thought she was moving away to do something exciting. But… I don’t want to give away the whole story. I also have the hero’s POV in this book. Feeling like Heath McCord’s point of view hadn’t been on the pages in a while, I decided to write the scene from his eyes. Here’s the scene from Heath’s point of view. By the way, he’s gorgeous, single and the father of a four-year-old girl, Haley-Love. Setting: A Sunday afternoon lunch at Elle’s […]
Read the RestReading Up: Jodi Picoult
New York Times Best Selling author Jodi Picoult is gaining a reputation for great writing, wonderful stories and the boldness to address hard core social issues. In The Tenth Circle, Picoult paralells the lives of 14 yr old Trixie Stone, her Dad, Daniel and mother, Laura. with the different levels of Dante’s Inferno. Including comics drawn by the Dad, a DC Comic artist. What I love about Picoult is her ability to attack social issues like suicide, cutting and “rainbow” parties. The Stone family is far from perfect and when Trixie claims she’s raped by her ex-boyfriend, Jason, the secrets of their lives begin to surface. I classify Picoult as a “reading up” author for her smooth prose and clever addressing of social issues. In The Tenth Circle, she deftly […]
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