You know what it’s like. You can’t wait for the fun and frenzy of getting ready to go back to school. First, you plot a course for the new clothing and the “must have” styles, then on to the pens, pencils and the perfect notebook. It wouldn’t be complete without that greasy lunch at the food court. Ahhh… back to school. You wouldn’t think of neglecting the back-to-school ritual. Neither should you disregard preparing for your new year of writing. You need to gear up for your success. Here’s why. Setting a definite start date makes it tangible. When you know exactly what date you will start, every part of you gears up for it. You learn how to prepare. It forces you to think about your writing year coming […]
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Featured Fiction Friday Presents: Irene Hannon
Well, the Frasier Winners have been announced. The hard work of the judges has decided the winners, and today we will take a look at the novel of another of our esteemed judges… Irene Hannon and her book Lethal Legacy Q: Irene can you tell us a little bit about your story? The police say her father’s death was suicide. Kelly Warren says it was murder—and she has new evidence to prove it. Detective Cole Taylor doesn’t put much credence in her claim, and nothing in his case review suggests foul play. But when he digs deeper and discovers startling information linking her to a long-buried secret, the danger escalates. Is history repeating itself? And who wants Kelly silenced? Q: What is one piece of writing advice you could give to the MBT […]
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Story Building through Scenes
I was reading a book on my way home from the Oregon Writers Conference and while the plot started out interesting, I quickly lost interest due to the slow down in scene development. This is a real struggle for writers. A struggle for me. I am tempted to stick so close to the conflict I forget to slow down and let the readers into the character’s world. When I do slow down to open up the character, I really slow down. Almost bog down, in my opinion. That’s why I love rewriting. But even on a rewrite, I can leave too much in the story. Working through a substantive edit of my next book, Once Upon A Prince, I realized I’d left too much character history and some tidbits of […]
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Brainstorm Strategy #5: Brainstorming Settings to Create Mood
Setting up the mood in a scene requires the right words, but it also requires a setting that can boost your mood impact. Think of all of the scary movies where the heroine is walking down the dark basement stairs and someone is waiting there. We are all screaming, ‘No! Don’t go down there!” Of course she doesn’t listen. Then there is the moan of old stairs. The electricity goes out. The music or noises send shivers up your spine. Is this by accident? Absolutely not. How about the moment when the hero is going to propose? The candle light, roses, and soft music. Warmth and light fill the scene with a building sense of joy. All of these tricks are used by movies every day. We should use these […]
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