Sitting here in front of the fire (no, I’m not in Florida!) makes me think of fire-like concepts. Like intensity, burning fiercely. Emotional intensity that leaves you physically limp. Intense suspense, so gripping you can’t put the book down. Hilarity that has you holding your sides while tears roll down your cheeks. These are the virtuous extremes that make a book unforgettable, unputdownable. They melt us onto them like a hot pan set down on a plastic lid. Now, it … Read More »

I’ve reflected before on the power of surprise in novels. But I’d like to share a few thoughts now about a certain kind of surprise—perhaps the most heart-wrenching kind, because it’s so relatable. That is, the “good” character who turns out to be bad, or the “bad” one who finally shows himself to be good(ish). The Good Are Bad It’s true, of course, that no human being is fully good or bad, and our fictional personages should reflect that. But … Read More »

You don’t have to have read too many books to realize that breadth of vocabulary is a great attribute for a writer. It goes back to Flaubert’s idea of the mot juste—using just the right word. The mot juste We tend to think of adjectives here because they’re descriptors. To describe the house precisely, we need the right adjectives, correct? A cozy little house. An impressive house. A dirty, sagging house. But adjectives are only one of many parts of … Read More »

The time has finally come to write the dedication page to the story you’ve sweat blood and tears over. Should be easy enough, right? Sometimes it seems that these little blurbs are harder to write than the book itself. Let’s toss around some ideas to help you get this important part of your book written. Who? Who should you dedicate your book to? Well, there are many answers, and they can be a lot of creative fun. You can dedicate … Read More »

One usually approaches this topic as “filling scenes with emotion” although, if you think about it, it’s people who experience emotion. If your characters are feeling it, then they’ll embue the whole scene with it. And, because of the wonderful faculty of compassion, readers will start to twang with the same emotional resonance. Where do you stand? The exact way we, the authors, will go about this depends on what point of view we’ve chosen. Is it omniscient third person? … Read More »

As humans we read signals all the time. If someone flips us the finger, we know that person is angry. If someone throws their arms wide and does a little dance, we know that the person is happy about something. We communicate every day without words. Gestures reveal so much about a character, and about a situation. Reveal is the important term here—reveal/show. It speaks to that old writing adage “show, don’t tell.” When we see certain gestures by characters … Read More »