The Ins and Outs of a Sexy Book Cover
No pun intended. Promise. If you’ve been following along, you know I’ve been busy re-publishing my previously released novels from Penguin-Putnam (via Onyx and Signet paperback imprints). as ebooks. They tossed the rights under the bus with me, and I’m happily taking them forward into the brave new world of digital publishing to see what happens. […]
5 Creative Flaws That Will Expose Your Lack of Storytelling Experience
There are a million ways to cripple a story. Here are five of them. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being inexperienced (we’ve all been there). Unless it shows up in your story in a way that detracts from it. Or kills it. Pop quiz: which is the more unforgiving audience: agents, editors, or readers? Used […]
“The Help” — A Guest Post About Subtext
Please welcome Donna Lodge, who contributes this challenging and rewarding take on the value and use of subtext in our stories. I recently finished reading Linda Seger’s book, “Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath.” It’s a good res0urce, devoted to a often neglected aspect of our craft. Seger discusses how to find subtext, how to write it […]
Ten Reasons You Might Really Like the Best Novel I Ever Wrote
(APOLOGIES for the mis-directed links in the prior edition of this post. Should be fixed now. Thanks for your patience. L.) No, I’m not Barbara Ehrenreich, who wrote a bestseller by the same name. While we are often confused, we look nothing alike and quickly return each other’s mail. My fourth novel, “Bait and […]
“The Help” – A Happy Ending… ?
Great endings are hard to craft. Fun to read… easy to take for granted when we do. Unless it bombs. My favorite author, Nelson Demille, totally tanked the ending of “Night Fall” when he concluded the story with a deus ex machina of preposterous proportions. After hundreds of pages of rooting for the hero as […]
Sunday Side Notes
Just possibly the worst SEO headline in the history of blogging. But that’s what I have for you today. A couple of side note ditties. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll help yourself to the ongoing series on “The Help,” which should wrap this week. Meanwhile.. The Small World of Writers Early on – June 19, 2009, […]
“The Help”: Recognizing the Screaming Power of Narrative Sub-Text
We all know what sub-plot means. It’s what’s going on in a story that isn’t – yet – directly connected to, or dependent upon, the main plotline. Like a guy getting newly married to a younger woman who gets kidnapped by his not-so-young ex-wife. Escaping the kidnapping is the primary dramatic plotline. The evolution of his pending marriage […]
“The Help” — Seeing the Structure in Living Color. Literally.
By Shane Arthur of Writing Prompts I could write until I’m blue in the face (dressed in black while wearing cool sunglasses) about how the principles of story engineering have helped me see books and storytelling like Neo sees zeros and ones in the movie The Matrix. My previous Storyfix guest post attests to this eye-opening analogy. […]
Just Possibly the Best Novel You’ve Never Read… for 99 Cents
UPDATE: the book is now ALSO available via Smashwords and all linked digital sources (Nook, iPad, etc), for this promotional price. Still smoothing out some formatting stuff, but the book is up and ready to read now. Thanks, Kate, for the nudge.) That headline makes me nervous. Not because I’m stretching credibility or celebrating […]
“The Help” – Isolating and Understanding the First “Pinch Point”
It has been pointed out that I tend to linger over my set-ups, both here on Storyfix and in my new book. To pre-sell the point, ad nauseum. So let me get right to it today: The First Pinch Point in “The Help” occurs on page 184 (of the trade paperback), which is the 35th […]