Pacing a Story: What’s the Rush?
Pacing a story appropriately will keep readers engaged. Unfortunately, many mistakenly think this means the story needs to be rushed. I see a lot of trends in today’s literature. Perhaps the biggest one is that every writer seems to be in a rush. Many new writers try to keep the pacing blazing hot. They’ve heard […]
Writing Great Action Scenes
At a conference some time ago I was on a panel with some fellow thriller writers. During the Q & A, we got this question from the floor: How can I learn to write a good action scene? I answered first. I told the questioner that it’s what happens inside the character that’s the key, […]
Less is More
At times you will want your prose to be as sparse as possible. For example, when you’re writing a fight scene, it’s no time to slow down your pacing with long descriptions, or to ramble on about the vicissitudes of life. Can you imagine how that might read? “Trayvor’s sword flicked forward with a burst, […]
Bringing Your Scene to Life through Action
Have you ever read a story that starts with a character sitting in a still forest, just thinking? They’re almost always dull. I’ve read, and rejected, thousands of them for publication. Why? Because the whole darned story is just sitting there, doing nothing, too. So we’re trained as writers to avoid such scenes, to start […]
