USE PERSONAL STAKES! Last week in Prescriptions we talked about finding the Public Stakes for your story to build a hook for your reader. But, what if my story doesn’t have Public Stakes? What if Ben Affleck isn’t saving the world from a terrorist’s bomb, but is just about a prairie girl who wants to win a horse race? There’s no public stakes there… Who remembers the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder where she rides her horse Bunny in a race against evil Nellie? Why does this story matter? Well, of course, evil Nellie hates that Laura has a horse, and persuades her mother to buy her a fancy horse from Mankato. Laura doesn’t have a chance. What’s worse, Mrs. Olsen mocks Caroline for being poor, and refuses to sell […]
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Doctor’s Notes: Passive Writing
I’m reading a book by Francine Prose called, “Reading Like a Writer.” While her focus is large literary and academic, Prose caught my eye with many of the excerpts she chose from renown writers like Hemingway, Virginia Wolf and Rebecca West, among others. What stood out to me? Passive writing. Here’s a snippet from Rebecca West: He could not see her. She was sitting on the bottom of the step, and she was content that it should be so, as otherwise he would have told her either to sit up straight or not so straight. His criticism was not so urgent as other people’s was apt to be, but it was continuous. This short piece is from the middle of a longer paragraph with much of the same phrasing: it […]
Read the RestAsk the Doc: How to tighten the suspense noose!
Q: My most vexing issue is figuring out how to tighten the noose (build the suspense) toward the end of the novel leading up to the climax scene. A: Don’t you just love movies where you’re on the edge of your seat, eyes glued to the screen, thinking, how could this get any worse? We think of classics like Die Hard, and Hunt for Red October, and Frequency, and one of my newest favorites, the Cell. But really, all dramas, and even comedies operate on this principle. Of course, instead of risking the life of a character, a comedy risks their reputation and status quo. Still, the structure is similar…each situation brings the character further and further from their goal. Some of my favorite television shows (and most stressful!) are […]
Read the RestPrescriptions: How to Hook your reader Wk 2
This week we’re going to continue with: How to hook your reader on the first page! To review, two weeks ago we talked about the HOOK, and how the hook needs to be SHARP. This week, let’s take a closer look at that first element of crafting your HOOK. S = Stakes – Making them big, scary and intimate Why does it matter? This is the question every reader is going to ask themselves, if not verbally, then underneath it all, as they’re reading. Why, indeed, should I spend my time reading this book? Stakes don’t have to be as epic as Red October (saving the world from a cold war weapon), or Independence Day (saving the world from an alien invasion), or even a cultural level (Erin Brockovich – […]
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