Suspense

Written by Jeff Heisler


Continued from page 1
The second essential element is story question. What doesrepparttar reader want to know? Why should they read this scene? Why shouldn’t they putrepparttar 129514 book down? This is crucial so listen closely. From page one torepparttar 129515 finish,repparttar 129516 reader must never read a single word without a strong question in mind. Never. I mean it. The moment you write something likerepparttar 129517 first example of Helen’s evening- your readers have no reason to continue and they putrepparttar 129518 book down, sometimes for good. That doesn’t mean that there has to be great mystery in each scene. It does mean every scene should be read while a question hangs inrepparttar 129519 air. Do you notice howrepparttar 129520 great suspense authors braid their novels? In one scene we seerepparttar 129521 hero attacked. The last thing our protagonist sees isrepparttar 129522 butt of a gun bearing down on him. The scene or chapter ends, and now we’re taken somewhere else. We visitrepparttar 129523 perspective of another character, a character with their own set of problems. The reader is firmly hooked now. They are interested inrepparttar 129524 events surroundingrepparttar 129525 second character because it raises more unanswered questions. More than that, they are dying to find out what’s happened to our protagonist fromrepparttar 129526 previous scene. Braiding is a powerful technique for creating suspense. Use it whenever you can. Those of you writing more literary or character based works may not feel these techniques are relevant, but they are. Every good author in every genre uses suspense in some way shape or fashion. There’s no story without it.

Jeff Heisler is a freelance writer and novelist. You can see more of his writing tips at www.heislerink.com/writeaway.htm.


Character Creation

Written by Jeff Heisler


Continued from page 1
When you finish your dossier you may want to get creative with it. I've spent time leafing through old magazines until I find a picture of someone who reminds me of my character. I cutrepparttar picture out and paste it torepparttar 129513 dossier. Somehow this makesrepparttar 129514 person seem real in my mind. I can think of them as a human rather than a construction when I see an actual face. Step 3- Interview your character. Don't let your family see you do this or they'll callrepparttar 129515 guys withrepparttar 129516 butterfly nets. You need to sit down atrepparttar 129517 keyboard or with your notepad and interview these characters. Ask them all kinds of questions aboutrepparttar 129518 story and their lives. Why do you need to do this? Because it helps you iron outrepparttar 129519 wrinkles in your character's construction. If you interview your character and they reveal a motivation that just seems weak to you- great. Now you have a chance to fix it before writing hundreds of pages. Step 4- Introducing you character. When you finally sit down to write you'll wonder how you go about introducing your character. A few points to consider: • Introduce them at a moment of change in their lives. Don't show how your character was born and raised in intricate detail- jump into their lives atrepparttar 129520 moment something dramatic happens. Instead of beginning your story "He was born at 2:34am in Lakeview hospital," you can begin like this- "Marvin had never killed anyone before. Looking down atrepparttar 129521 body at his feet he wondered if it would berepparttar 129522 last time." Whoa! Much more interesting, eh? • "Show, don't tell," still applies. Try to show your character's nature rather than tell about it. The exception is minor characters. You can use some short exposition to explain your minor characters just to get them moving fast. You don't want to spend a large chunk of text describingrepparttar 129523 Boy Scout who helps Granny walk acrossrepparttar 129524 street- and your reader doesn't either. Just give enough information aboutrepparttar 129525 kid to get Granny acrossrepparttar 129526 street- then go back to Granny's life. • Some authors go forrepparttar 129527 bullet approach. Decide if it's right for you. The bullet approach works like this- when a character is introducedrepparttar 129528 story stops briefly andrepparttar 129529 author spends some time writing expository information that givesrepparttar 129530 reader everything they need to know aboutrepparttar 129531 character. This works for some writers- but I don't recommend it. For one thing fiction has to be hyper-realistic. In real life we don't get to know people all at once like that. It's a gradual discovery. Consider your story and consider what other authors in your genre are doing and decide for yourself. That'srepparttar 129532 basic recipe for character creation. I hope it helps you get your characters offrepparttar 129533 ground and running. Remember- characters arerepparttar 129534 building blocks of story- don't forget to spend time on them before you dive into your first draft. You’ll be glad you did.



Jeff Heisler is a freelance writer and novelist. You can read more of his tips at http:www.heislerink.comwriteaway.htm


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