With almost a dozen published novels and novellas under my belt, I thought I’d figured it all out by now so far as writing a series–you know, how to write a sequel. In my adult romances, a “sequel” usually featured a secondary character from a previous novel, promoted to the role of protagonist. Occasionally, a … [Read more…]
Since I spent the summer teaching writing workshops for both adult and teen writers, I’ve been thinking more about the basics than I usually do. I’ve been thinking about plotting and structuring a young adult novel. So I thought I’d talk today about the most basic of the basics–the structure of a novel, and specifically, … [Read more…]
So you want to plot a book… Not every writer is a plotter; I realize that, but I’m also a strong believer that your writing will be more efficient if you have at least some idea where your story is going. So, if the idea of writing out a hundred scene cards or even following … [Read more…]
Anyone a fan of The Maltese Falcon? How important is the Maltese Falcon in the story? Well, it’s ALL important and in the end, not important at all. The item itself turns out to have no real value to anyone—but what makes it important is it gets the characters and thus the plot moving! The … [Read more…]
Foreshadowing pays off if you do it right (and really falls flat if you don’t.) Think of foreshadowing as planting subtle clues for the reader of something that is going to happen later in the story—that something being of major importance.