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How do you create tension in a story? I’ve been talking with a friend and his gut instinct is to withhold certain information, for example, the exact location of the scene. Story Tension In How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card says that tension is created by withholding “what happens next.” You [...]
What do you expect from your first readers of your novel or picture book? Rules for First Readers Encouragement. First and foremost, I want my first reader to encourage me to keep on working. That means the first reader needs to be aware that first drafts can be really, really, really bad. And they need [...]
Have you heard the new craze about cell phone novels? They are spreading worldwide. Is the writing any different? Cellphone Novels in Japan, Finland, Italy, Switzerland and China Cell phone novels across the world: Japan: Switzerland Finland, where there is the highest per capita use of cell phones Italy China Cell phone novels for special [...]
I’m out the next two days speaking to teachers and writers. I’ve had a couple people ask, so I’ll post my schedule for the next year or so: 2008 June 5 Pine Bluff, AR, Delta Institute, teacher’s in-service June 6 Arkansas Writing Conference, Little Rock, AR. June 16 Western Arkansas Education Cooperative September 19-21 AR-SCBWI [...]
When we invent characters, we need to know all about them, including where they grew up, childhood fears & dreams and more. Where does this information go? Where do you put all this backstory? Backstory’s Emotional Weight Two friends, writing vastly different stories, are struggling with backstory. One is adding backstory to enrich the story [...]
This is part of a year-long series about those intrepid newcomers, The Class of 2k8. To help marketing efforts for debut novelists, these 28 novelists have banded together to create a group marketing effort. Daphne Grab Alive and Well in Prague, New York Each time I start a rough draft I have this fantasy that [...]
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