When writing a novel leaning heavily on suspense, nothing is more important than structure. At the most basic level for a reader, tension is developed by the desire to learn something new about a main character or the plot. Good structure can aid the author in releasing details gradually to leave readers satisfied by the end of a story. Think of structure like cropping a photograph. While on vacation you snap a massive landscape shot, but when publishing it on … Read More »

More than once, I’ve read a book that I considered pretty good, but the villain was so cartoonish and two dimensional that it ruined it for me. Disclaimer: books are only as good as their characters for this reader. Nothing, but nothing, can make up for shallow characters. And a cardboard villain is a deal-breaker. The principle is always that fictional characters, no matter how quirky or exceptional, should be true to life. You should be able to recognize them … Read More »

You and I are not the same. Maybe our skin color doesn’t match. Maybe you are male, while I am female. Perhaps it is our political philosophy that differs, or our level of physical ability. Maybe our sexual orientations run along separate paths. None of this makes one of us better, or worse, than the other. In fact, our differences give us variety, individuality, uniqueness. Our differences make the world better. As writers it is vital that we not only … Read More »

If you’ve ever been blown away by the work of Gillian Flynn, Ian McEwan or Kazuo Ishiguro, then you’re familiar with the unreliable narrator. This is an elusive technique many writers emulate, but it’s not as easy as they make it seem. A narrator’s unreliability can stem from insanity, addiction, perversion, greed, or plain ignorance, and more often than not a combination of each. Take Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This book continues to be highly controversial (for … Read More »

Like most writers and avid readers, I’ve got bookshelves straining under the weight of my happiness. Being a hunter-gatherer, I hunt and gather books. I rarely get rid of them. Under great duress I might loan one out, but I’ll require bank account information and a chip implanted in the borrower’s skull. I will track you down. But let’s zero in on those books about the act of writing. I’ve got thirty-something. Books on the art and craft. Style manuals. … Read More »

We all know that it’s better to show your protagonist’s (or any other personage’s) character than to tell the reader about it. That way, we’re “watching the movie,” not having someone review it for us. The main way to do this, of course, is to build the character’s personality into his or her actions. If they’re shy, show them hesitating to speak out. If they’re super-emotional, show them weeping at something touching. But because any one character is imbedded in … Read More »