Those Important First Pages

Sometimes you set out to do a thing for one reason … only to find it was so much more than you ever imagined. More than you could have actually planned. In this case, I learned just how much value can be wrung out of focusing on the first chapter and how it relates to...

Short Saturday: Why I Stopped Reading Your Book

Like author Chuck Wendig, I’ve gotten a whole lot pickier about what I read and how much time I give it before I stop. “For one,” he says, “it’s time.” Work and time and personal responsibilities all intrude. But also, he says, “I’m like a stage magician where it’s...

Little Did She Know About Foreshadowing

Some months ago I read a manuscript that actually used this line: Little did I know I would come to regret those words. No kidding. Me too. I know, I know: you’re just trying to create a little mystery, a little portent. But when I see a line like this— I had no idea...

Short Saturday: Plotting and Pacing

I’ve written a lot about plot, trying over and over again to explain it in a way that will give you an a-ha moment. This excerpt—at Jane Friedman’s blog—from Paula Munier’s Writing with Quiet Hands gave me one of those moments. Narrative thrust is the taut building of...