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Act 2: Jumping back into the suspense!

By on November 15, 2011 in Chapter 7, How to WordPaint, How to write a Suspense, Limelight – Sample Novel, Managing the Muddle (keeping your story moving!), Story Crafting, Susan May Warren, Suspense, Want to see a book in Action? Read the Blog-a-Book Series, Writing, Writing Life, Writing your Suspense Chapters

Yesterday, I addressed Scene Flow, and how in a romance scene, you might decide to develop it a bit more, making it longer.  In a suspense, sometimes it’s nice to develop that before you jumpstart the action again. Today, we’re going to jump back into the suspense, drawing that element forward.   Just to make sure I’m on the right track, I want to go back to my synopsis.  It’s still my roadmap, even though I’ve been taking a few day trips… Luke wants his sister, who is a giant MacKenzie Grace fan to meet her, and the dinner out at the roadhouse seemed to go without a hitch…maybe no one will recognize her.  But what Luke doesn’t know is that someone has recognized Kenzie – the reporter from the […]

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Act 2: Scene Flow..Suspense and Romance, what’s the difference?

By on November 14, 2011 in Action and ReAction Scenes, b. Building a Scene, Chapter 7, How to write a Suspense, Limelight – Sample Novel, Managing the Muddle (keeping your story moving!), Susan May Warren, Suspense, Want to see a book in Action? Read the Blog-a-Book Series, Writing High Action Scenes, Writing your Suspense Chapters

Sceneflow:  the difference between a suspense scene and  a romance scene? If you read the last two weeks of posts and chapters about Limelight, you’ll notice that I took a bit more time in those chapters to develop the romance. (Read Chapter 5 & 6 Here Chapter 5 Luke  Chapter 6 Kenzie)  I could have split those chapters into shorter scenes/segments, but I wanted to really cement the romance between them before I launched more into the suspense.  Note they were longer chapters– as the book starts to move faster, I’ll have shorter chapters, or perhaps two or three shorter scenes in a chapter. So, now that I’ve given them their first kiss, we’re about half-way through the story. (For the purposes of teaching, I’m keeping this novella at 12 chapters – […]

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Act 2: Let’s build the Romance!

By on November 7, 2011 in Chapter 6, How to write a Suspense, Limelight – Sample Novel, Managing the Muddle (keeping your story moving!), Susan May Warren, Suspense, Want to see a book in Action? Read the Blog-a-Book Series, Writing your Suspense Chapters

In the last  chapter I posted, I dipped into a developed, romantic scene with Luke. [Chapter 4 Makenzie scene.] I’m  going to turn my attention to Kenzie.  Although we’re focusing on suspense this year on the blog, this is a romantic suspense, so occasionally during the story I need to slow it down and  allow the romance to take over ever so briefly. During these forays into the romance, I need to make sure I’m utilizing  my opportunity, because I don’t have a lot of time – I’ll need to cut back to the suspense soon. Therefore, I’ll  be looking toward building in some of those essential elements of a romance,  building like values, physical attraction, and the sense that they either  complete each other or make each other into better […]

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Ten Common Author Mistakes. #9

By on October 13, 2011 in Author Mistakes, Editing Basics, Hero, Heroine, Heroism, The Hero's Journey Simplified

Forgetting to weave in the story elements and symbolism. Definition: If you want to use a metaphor, like a world event or a family trait or tradition to show a contrast in the hero or heroine’s life, you must layer it in.   If the heroine’s life if falling a part, coming down around her like 9-11, don’t tell the reader, “her life was just like the twin towers…coming down around her.”   Weave it.   The scene opens. It’s 9-11, the heroine is preparing breakfast. She calls her husband down to breakfast but he doesn’t show up. When she goes to see what’s taking him so long, she finds him collapsed on the bathroom floor, dead.   As she’s calling 911, her best friend buzzes in. The twin towers […]

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