Tag Archives: suspense

Story as striptease

Posted on March 5, 2017 by

Despite being opposites–stories are additive; striptease is subtractive–one can still draw parallels. An ecdysiast (look it up) teases her (or his) audience by making them wonder how much farther she/he will go. Successful genre fiction does much the same thing, … Continue reading →

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Ya gotta have heart

Posted on January 2, 2017 by

Though clichéd, it’s true that the building blocks of a good novel are the scenes. I imagine if one looked hard enough it would be possible to find a novel with neither scene nor chapter breaks, but it would definitely … Continue reading →

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Tension: We’ll be right back, after this…

Posted on May 23, 2015 by

Tension is (or should be) a writer’s stock in trade. It’s what causes readers to stay up late to “finish just one more” page, scene, chapter, part, or volume of your epic–be it fiction or something else. Tension is shorthand for … Continue reading →

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Stop! Don’t answer that. How to write a novel–part 29

Posted on January 11, 2015 by

I care deeply about my audience. I really do. I want everyone to live long lives, read all my titles, and tell their friends about them. The irony is that in order to develop such ties, I have to treat my … Continue reading →

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