With this post we begin looking at the key conditions that build reader suspense. Stories are made up of four main ingredients: character, setting, problem, and plot. All of these are important, but problem is the engine that makes suspense go.
Because even watchdogs have to rest sometimes, the Writer Beware blog will be taking a break over the holiday season. Unless there’s a really juicy publishing story, this blog will be on hiatus until the new year.
Picture this–it’s the 1870’s. An African American pharmacist in knee-breeches and a frock coat has just made a startling invention–a refrigeration device. Okay, it’s an improved model designed for corpses, which makes me wonder what other mad scientist stuff was going on in the background, but Thomas Elkins was a REAL GUY. And totally, thoroughly steampunk.
Member News for Jennifer Jackson, Scott Dalrymple, Kameron Hurley, Michael Sullivan, Vonda N. McIntyre, and Cat Rambo.
Since I so often get questions about the legitimacy of literary contests (see, for instance, my posts of December 16 and December 7), I thought it would be helpful to post some suggestions for evaluating any contests you may be thinking of entering.
I had no idea what that book was actually about, or any notion of characters beyond September and the Green Wind. But the book as it exists in the world of Palimpsest presented certain rules, and I always find it wonderful to write confined to a set of rules.
Sometimes it feels like there are a thousand things to remember when writing a story. New writers who make lists of these things soon begin to drown in them. But I’ve come to realize that many of these “rules” don’t matter.
Industry News and Member News for Jennifer Brozek, Matthew Johnson, David Levine, and Paul S. Kemp.
Every fall, I teach my students Walter Pater’s Conclusion to Studies in the Renaissance. What I’m talking about here is not so different from what Pater is talking about: he says that we need to experience each moment fully, to live with a certain passionate intensity that involves continual curiosity, observation.
Blogger JM contacted one hundred literary agents with the following question: What is the single biggest mistake writers make when querying you? More than 50 responded. Here are the problems mentioned most frequently:
Blogger JM contacted one hundred literary age…
This anthology contains issues eight through ten of the preeminent e-zine for fantastic furry fiction. Edited by Mary E. Lowd, it features stories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Tim Susman, and Michael H. Payne.
Andrew Najberg is the author of the novel The Mobius Door (Wicked House Publishing, 2023), Gollitok (Wicked House Publishing, 2023), The Neverborn Thief (Olive-Ridley Press, 2024), and In Those Fading Stars (Crystal Lake Publishing, 2024).
Register now for the 2024 SFWA Nebula Conference--A weekend of professional development, panels, and networking for ALL genre writers!
