How do authors write their novels? I’ve included some examples. Who are plotters and who are pantsers? Katherine Anne Porter said, “If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin…I always write my last line, my last paragraphs, my last page first.” “I start at the beginning, go on to the […]
The Protagonist’s Role in the Climax
The beginning of a novel establishes a question. For example in Norman in the Painting, the question is, will Jill be able to help Norman remain in 3D? More questions follow, since it’s a romance, will Jill and Norman develop a relationship? The story involves mystery as well. Who is committing the murders in town? […]
Cause and Effect in Writing
Novels today are tighter than Nineteenth-century novels, for example. With busy lifestyles readers now want the writer to stick to the point instead of going off on tangents and filling pages with descriptions and conversations that may be well-written but aren’t relevant to the plot. Writers are expected to use every item, every conversation, every […]
How Do Other Characters in your Story View the Progagonist?
If we imagine other characters in our story seeing the protagonist through a keyhole view, what would they say or write? If the story is written with a single point of view, the thoughts of the other characters can’t be used or we’d be head hopping. Their judgements can be revealed in dialog, directly in […]
Writers Quote by Henry James
Henry James said, “What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?” James was born in New York City on April 15, 1834. He wrote short stories, plays, and novels. He focused on the consciousness of his characters and his stories were seen as psychological thought-experiments. He often […]
What We Learn From Writing Our Novels
Julianna Baggott said, “…each novel teaches me how to write it.” I agree with her. I have three novels in my computer files. From the first one, I learned the characters limited my reading audience and how to write emotions into scenes. The second one, I learned to love rewriting and polishing it that I […]
Ransom Stephen’s Novel The Sensory Deception
Ransom Stephens, author of The God Patent, wrote a guest post for Jane Friedman’s blog on August 6, 2013. He talks about the publishing journeys of his first novel and his newest, The Sensory Deception. The title of his post is “How to Increase Your Odds at Getting Lucky”. One of my writer friends, Haihong […]