My finished novel is with my editor. Yes, I know I’m an editor, but I have this firm belief that you should never edit your own work because you can’t see your own shortcomings. Meanwhile, it’s time to begin working on the next book in the series. I thought I might blog periodically about my … Read more
Writing Pensive Scenes This week we are continuing our exploration into writing scenes by looking at pensive scenes, or those scenes that explore the thoughts and feelings of our characters. These are not action scenes by any means. In fact pensive scenes slow the pacing of the story significantly, so they are used sparingly. … Read more
Writing Suspenseful Scenes As we continue our exploration of using scenes to write our novels, let’s keep in mind that our scenes should be entertaining, dynamic, and purposeful. Your story will benefit from well-written scenes that keep the reader’s interest. Note that not each and every scene should be a suspense scene because the amount … Read more
What elements do you need in your opening scene? We talk about that this week.
Set your intentions when you write your scenes.
Setting Intentions We are continuing our exploration of writing scenes, which includes all the elements that should be in a scene for it to be a successful piece of writing. The ultimate goal of outlining and writing your novel using scenes is that you will complete it with a minimum of wasted time and effort. … Read more
Tension Happy New Year! For the last few months, I’ve been talking about writing your novel using scenes. Writing your novel one scene at a time will make you a more productive writer and a better writer. So let’s jump into it. We want our stories to have enough conflict and tension to keep the … Read more
Happy Holidays to all! I shall return in 2017!
Theme Happy Holidays everyone! I’ve taken a few weeks to ensure that I met my editorial deadlines, so I apologize for my sporadic posts. Having caught up this week I’m back to continue our conversation about the use of scenes as a way of writing your novel. Focusing your writing and outlining at the scene … Read more
It’s all about bits of information. Authors write scenes in order to make the events in the fictional world seem real to the reader. You want your readers to be emotionally engaged in the drama. You want your readers to feel as if your characters are real. You want your readers to applaud your character’s … Read more