I do not have an MFA, and I’ve barely taken any writing classes. Oh, there were a few in high school and undergrad — my book is actually dedicated to my high school creative writing teacher — but when I think about my development as a writer, those aren’t the experiences I think about. No. Instead, I think about what might be the writers’ equivalent to the school of hard…
How do I hate writing first lines? Let me count the ways! Actually, I even hated coming up with the first line of this very post. But as the other Debs have noted, I know first lines are super important. Critical, in fact. They immediately reveal so much about your characters and their worldview. Which is why, while working on TINY PRETTY THINGS, we had to think four times as…
(This discussion assumes you’re writing in first or close-in third points of views. That is, you’re filtering the story though one or more characters’ worldviews.) I’ve been thinking about how description gets a bum rap in many corners of the fiction world, especially in my world of crime, thriller and suspense writing. Even my mom wants nothing to do with description. My mom! (By the way, she’ll never read Kilmoon….
We all know what suspense is, right? Suspense is that thing, you know, that causes you to turn the pages because you want to know what happens next. Uh-huh, and I’m sure you’ve heard well-meaning instructors say things like, The secret to writing a thriller (or any genre) is suspense. You’ve got to have suspense on every page. And you’re agreeing, nodding your head and thinking, Totally makes sense. I’m…
Welcome to Craft Week at the Debutante Ball! This week, each Deb will post about a writing craft topic near and dear to her heart. John Dufresne, the author of The Lie that Tells a Truth, a really great writing book if you’re in the market for one, often uses the word convince as the goal of a fiction writer. Who are we convincing? What are we convincing them of?…
