Writing Tips

How to Use Backstory to Keep Readers Reading

August 25, 2014August 23, 2014Uncategorized, Writing Tips

by K.M. Weiland, @KMWeiland

Backstory is a weapon. And just like any weapon, it can end up doing more harm than good to those who wield it without proper experience and care. But in the hands of a writer who knows exactly what it’s capable of and how to wield it to advantage, backstory can take even ordinary stories to extraordinary places.

Arguably, the most important function of backstory is its ability to hook readers’ curiosity. Forget explaining the protagonist’s past and what motivates him. Try not explaining it. When we let readers know there’s something delicious and dark in a character’s past, without telling them what that something is, we’ll hook their curiosity so deeply they’ll keep reading just to solve the mystery.

Charlotte Brontë understood how to wield the weapon of backstory as well any author. In her beloved Gothic romance Jane Eyre (which I analyze in-depth in my book Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic), she creates almost her entire plot out of the tantalizing hunt for the backstory. What can you learn from her and how can you apply it to your own novel? Start by answering the following questions.Continue reading

Plot and Character Motivation

August 22, 2014August 22, 2014Writing Tips

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Sometimes I wonder why I outline at all. I never seem to stick to them.

In the book that I’m currently writing (already covered, right, since it’s so tricky to reserve cover designers closer to release), I decided a few days ago to change the killer. If I’d continued on the path I was going with my outline, I thought there would be a good percentage of people who would figure out the murderer before the end of the book. The suspect that I decided to use instead would be a real surprise and would get me that twisty ending that I wanted.

The problem was…there was no motive at all for this person to have murdered the victim—that’s why the reader was going to be so surprised.Continue reading

Write What You DON’T Know (Part One)

August 11, 2014August 10, 2014Uncategorized, Writing Tips

by Virginia King, @selkiemoonbooks

All new writers are advised to “write what you know” because sticking to your own experience is a recipe for authenticity, for not getting lost in unchartered territory. It goes hand in hand with character profiles and plot maps – nailing your story down so the writing is an exercise in fleshing out the bones. But are great stories pre-formed in the minds of their authors? And is this process fun?

Miles Davis told his musicians, “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” He wanted them to lose themselves, to let the music take them beyond the notes on the score, carrying their audience with them. Sounds like the same place we want to take our readers.

The Journey of a Thousand Steps

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story,” Beatrix Potter said. “You never quite know where they’ll take you.”Continue reading

Making the Leap from Historical Author to Mystery Author

August 4, 2014August 3, 2014Uncategorized, Writing Tips

by Heather Day Gilbert, @heatherdgilbert

Many people wonder why my second book is a contemporary Appalachian mystery (Miranda Warning), when my debut novel was a Viking historical (God’s Daughter). Although both books are starts to a series, (A Murder in the Mountains and Vikings of the New World Saga, respectively), I realize there is quite a disparity between the two genres.

When I decided to publish my mystery before the second Viking novel, it flew in the face of the advice of many successful indie authors. You’re supposed to pick a genre and stick with it long enough to build a following for that series. My Viking historical was doing well and I knew readers were anxious for book two in that series.Continue reading

Setting: Context & Picture

July 28, 2014July 28, 2014Writing Tips

Guest Post by Jack Smith

When we think of a novel, we think of a story. We think of characters moving through time, growing due to conflict, coming ultimately to some sort of realization, undergoing some sort of change—maturing in some way. We think of plot. We think of theme.

We also think of setting. One thing that makes some novels memorable is a richly developed sense of setting.

A novel must have some sort of setting, or physical environs, where characters move and have their being. Two questions come up. 1.) How important is setting in a given novel? 2) How do you go about creating setting? The second question is related to the first because in some novels, if setting is not a major force, you shouldn’t do very much at all. But if setting is really important, and if it’s important to create strong visual pictures of place, you have a choice of depicting it with a few brush strokes or really describing it in vivid detail. Continue reading