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Avoid the Sagging Middle in Your Mystery Mystery writers have an advantage over many other genres when it comes to keeping the middle from sagging. Up to the middle the detective has delved into the evidence and suspects in the victim’s worldThe essence of keeping a reader turning pages is heightened tension. Rather than episodic…
The Detective In The Victim’s World Without A Map As you take your detective and your readers deeper into the story in the first half of Act II, your detective enters a new world, the victim’s world. As he wanders the victim’s world he gathers bits and pieces of information, meets suspects and in their…
From Murder to Trouble in Your Mystery In the first five chapters you introduce your detective, connect your detective with the murder, and start your detective off with a plan to find the murderer.Your main goal in those beginning chapters is to bring the reader into your story world, get them empathizing with your detective—even…
From Story Idea to Story Summary Once you create your one-sentence story idea, build out to a summary paragraph to include characters, main story points, and the climax. Expanding your story idea builds your story writing momentum. Years ago Randy Ingermanson proposed a way to summarize your story highlighting the important pivots: three disasters plus…
so you want to be a writer? Charles Bukowski so you want to be a writer? Charles Bukowski, 1920 - 1994 if it doesn’t come bursting out of youin spite of everything,don’t do it.unless it comes unasked out of yourheart and your mind and your mouthand your gut,don’t do it.if you have to sit for hoursstaring at your…
Hook Your Reader Now Image attribution eflon The first page of your book is that first impression that doesn’t get a second chance. Whether your reader is a bookstore browser or an agent, the first page is the introduction to the story. Key elements of that introduction tell the reader about the story. Tone –…
Playing with Writing A writer who wants to write good stuff needs to read great stuff. Ursula LeGuin says in her book Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story. The book is a guide for writers. Each exercise is prefaced by examples from writers followed by a writing exercise following…
