Story telling has been part of my life since I went on “adventures” with an ‘imaginary” friend. Over the years, I’ve written lots of fiction in many genres, but I usually gave up on most writing projects about a third through. Writing was like an unscratched itch for me, so, I decided to study the…
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Launching Your Book—What Works and What Doesn’t?
I’m about six months out from the launch of my next book and am working on plans for the launch. Call it a publicity plan or a marketing plan or a launch plan…it pretty much boils down to the same thing. The tough part is that I don’t have any true data indicating what works…
The End: Bringing Your Novel to a Close
There’s a lot of emphasis put on story beginnings as well as its muddy middle, but what about the end? I think the topic deserves more consideration. Every book has a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning must be engaging enough to hook the reader, and the middle has to hold your audience’s…
Adventures in Genre Writing: Lesson Eight–Suspense
By Jeanne C. Stein How do you keep a reader engaged? Creating and Maintaining Suspense Our goal as a writer is to entertain, and make the reader care about your story. How do you do this? By creating and maintaining an emotional bond with the reader, by manipulating their emotions, by creating and maintaining suspense….
The Real Deal Isn’t
A couple of weeks ago an ex-MFA (Master of Fine Arts) teacher published a – I’m calling it a bitter rant – about how he can tell the “truth,” now that he’s no longer teaching. I think that’s a fair representation, given that the article is titled “Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs…