Welcome

How to write suspense.

BETRAYED

BETRAYED
COMING JANUARY 2015

Sunday, September 25, 2011

A Page-Turning List

I can't tell you how many times I've read "my-book-must-have" lists written by established authors. All have been helpful, but I LOVE the one I've chosen to share here today. I especially love Hallie Ephron's advice on opening scenes. Here's a taste:


"Hallie Ephron, the author of Come and Find Me, Never Tell a Lie and Writing and Selling your Mystery Novel: How to Knock ‘Em Dead with Style, amongst others, knows how to write a page-turner. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, she is one of the well-known Ephron family of writers.)

"Mystery and psychological suspense are her specialty, but the writing tools she offered at the Willamette Writer’s Conference spell great writing advice – whether you write mystery/suspense, other fiction forms or memoir, too. Here are a list of 20 writing tips to use as a checklist for your writing.

"Openings:

* Open the book in action. Read books you love and see how those authors open their books.
* Even when you start in action, readers still need to care about your characters (or about you, if it’s a memoir). Even character-driven authors, like Janet Evanovich, draw you in through the power of their quirky characters actions and those characters’ strong voices.
* A common opening mistake is to include too much backstory. Get moving. Then, layer in backstory in bits as the story gets going."



Have I caught your attention? It's a good list, isn't it? To read more, including her point that suspense novels must contain secrets, click here.

By the way, Bonnie won my blog hop prize. Congratulations!

2 comments:

  1. One other issue I'll see with backstory is when an author starts with a really exciting moment--and THEN plunges into backstory. It's STILL not necessary at that point--as Ephron says, layer it in in bits.

    ReplyDelete