Some writers seem to have no trouble conveying the emotions of their characters. But it’s hard to do. We’re tempted to just out-and-out tell our reader what the character is feeling. “Fear strangled her.” “Love poured through her.” And so on. What’s wrong with that? Here’s what’s wrong: The reader feels held at a distance. […]
What’s wrong with writing from many points of view?
I know we’ve all read them, stories where the author is telling a story from the protagonist’s point of view. But in the next scene, the story moves into the mind a bystander to allow the reader to witness a disastrous event. Maybe this bystander gets wiped out. Next chapter, same thing. Protagonist is struggling […]
Writers, how to generate sympathy in your readers
Stringed instruments have a little-known special ability: sympathetic vibration. Each string is tuned to a particular pitch, and when something nearby generates a sound exactly on that pitch, the string will hum along. For example, you can get a violin, a harp, or a piano to do this. Some unusual instruments have special strings that […]
Five ways to rivet your readers with a first-rate first chapter
Some books draw the reader right in, like a host at an open doorway, and quickly become very hard to put down. Others, not so much. I analyzed two books I find riveting. (While both books had romance stories embedded, neither of these books is in the typical romance genre.) What did the openings of […]
Describing Emotions with Action
Often we are tempted to simply tell readers what a character feels. We have many words to describe emotions, so why not use them? The problem is that naming an emotion tells the readers something rather than showing it. Just think about real life. How often does someone just come out and say, “I’m angry […]