New in crime fiction: A guide to the latest mysteries and thrillers
Trick of the DarkBy Val McDermid, Bywater Books, 397 pages, $24.95 Twenty-five books into a career, and Val McDermid seems to be just reaching her stride. Trick of the Dark is so smart, so witty and so devious, it’s difficult to find adequate praise. Just say that its the best of her already excellent run of novels. Charlie Flint is in a funk. Just in time to save herself, Charlie is summoned by her early mentor to her old college. TrackersBy Deon Meyer, translated by K.L. Deon Meyer kept readers page-bound with the thrills and suspense in his previous novel, Thirteen Hours. There are several plotlines going, and to give them heft, Meyer brings back two of his finest hunters, the bodyguard Lemmer from Blood Safari and Mat Joubert, now retired from the police force and facing his first case as a private investigator. The Hangman’s DaughterBy Oliver Pötzsch, translated by Lee Chadeayne, Houghton, Mifflin, 435 pages, $21.95 “October 12 was a good day for a killing.”
Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers
A Simple Novel Outline - 9 questions for 25 chapters & H.E. Roulo - StumbleUpon
Just as every tree is different but still recognizably a tree, every story is different but contains elements that make it a story. By defining those before you begin you clarify the scope of your work, identify your themes, and create the story you meant to write. At Norwescon 2011 I sat in on a session called Outline Your Novel in 90-minutes led by Mark Teppo. I’ll give you the brief, readable, synthesized version. Answer 9 questions and create 25 chapter titles and you’re there. Here are the 9 questions to create a novel: 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) 9.) Now, with those 9 questions answered to your satisfaction, try to fill in a 25 chapter, 75,000 word outline. Chapters 7-18 are the middle of your book. Chapters 19-25 depict the heroic act to victory. Wasn’t that easy? Okay, sure, the work isn’t done yet. Using the idea that there are 25 chapters, I outlined my current work in progress. I hope that was helpful. Tell me what works for you. Related 6 Steps to Masterful Writing Critiques
How to Write a Book Now -- Tools for Emerging Authors
The Thing About Sub-Plots
Certain storytelling questions keep popping up. One of them, and a goodie, is this: does a sub-plot follow the same principles of linear structure as the main plotline? In other words, does the sub-plot also – like your main plotline – unfold over four contextually different parts, each separated by a succinctly defined milestone story-point? This can be tough to wrap one’s head around. Which is why this is considered art. Setting Up Your Sub-Plot Great stories give us deep and compelling heroes. The opening act of your story – Part 1 –exists for the purpose of introducing and defining that life as it exists prior to the arrival of the First Plot Point. Which, by the way, is only foreshadowed and set-up – and, at best, only partially defined – in Part 1. Then comes the First Plot Point, and it changes everything. Sometimes the First Plot Point defines a completely new life for your hero. How you string out your sub-plot, then, depends on which of those cases it is.
Cracking the code of writing
What’s the secret to good prose? What makes it work—not just on the aesthetic level of vivid and poetic word choices, but on the deeper and ultimately more important level of functionality? In short, is there a method authors can learn to create clear and powerful prose—or is it all luck and gut instinct? All prose—whether it’s the elaborate poetry of William Faulkner or the straightforward sentences of Cormac McCarthy—will always be instinctive on some level. Our word choices and sometimes the direction the sentences themselves end up taking can surprise even us sometimes. What’s a motivation-reaction unit? Dwight V. For all that it sounds like part of an airplane engine,motivation-reaction units are an insanely simple concept. What’s a motivation? The motivating factor is an outside stimulus that affects your character. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The possibilities, of course, are as varied as your story’s needs. What’s a reaction? The reaction happens in response to the motivating factor. 1. 2.
10 ways not to be a travel writer – Lonely Planet blog
It’s the dream: travelling around the world and getting paid for it. Every day, thousands of aspiring travel journalists start up blogs, pitch pieces to editors and put pen to paper (at least metaphorically) in the hopes of making travel a full-time job. Image by swimparallel, Flickr The good news is that it’s achievable. While only a select few attain the high life of sipping margaritas by the pool while churning out leisurely prose on their Macbooks, travel writing for a living is a real possibility for those who have the talent and are willing to put in some really, really hard work. However, we’ve noticed that there is a subclass of potential travel writers, photographers and video journalists who don’t really seem to have their heart in it. 10. Whether you’re pitching a 500-word essay to the New Yorker or dashing off a quick blog entry, you’re presenting your professional face to the world. 9. Use Facebook or personal blogs to reassure your mother and make your friends jealous. 8.
25 Things Every Writer Should Know
An alternate title for this post might be, “Things I Think About Writing,” which is to say, these are random snidbits (snippets + tidbits) of beliefs I hold about what it takes to be a writer. I hesitate to say that any of this is exactly Zen (oh how often we as a culture misuse the term “Zen” — like, “Whoa, that tapestry is so cool, it’s really Zen“), but it certainly favors a sharper, shorter style than the blathering wordsplosions I tend to rely on in my day-to-day writing posts. Anyway. Peruse these. Absorb them into your body. Feel free to disagree with any of these; these are not immutable laws. Buckle up. 1. The Internet is 55% porn, and 45% writers. 2. A lot of writers try to skip over the basics and leap fully-formed out of their own head-wombs. 3. 4. I have been writing professionally for a lucky-despite-the-number 13 years. 5. Luck matters. 6. Nobody becomes a writer overnight. 7. Your journey to becoming a writer is all your own. 8. 9. 10. Value is a tricky word. 11. 12.
Top 10 Sentence Slip-Ups
Good writing comes down to two totally different factors: solid prose and “it.” The latter is that special something that brings stories to life, infuses vibrancy into characters and themes, and just basically makes stories work. But an author who has been blessed with all the “it” in the world still won’t make it if he isn’t also able to convey the essence of his genius in well-ordered, properly structured sentences and paragraphs. Creating correct sentences is a technical process that offers set guidelines for getting the structure right. 1. What is it? Example: Grabbing her pet flying monkey, Jana jumped onto its back. What’s wrong with it? How to fix it: Usually, all you have to do is rework the sentence with the events properly ordered: “Jana grabbed her pet flying monkey and jumped onto its back.” 2. What is it? Example: Jana grabbed her pet flying monkey, she jumped onto its back. What’s wrong with it? 3. What is it? Example: Jana grabbed her pet flying monkey. 4. What is it? 5. 6.
