Writing Tips

Your “Easy As Pie” Guide to Subplots + Giveaway (Part 2 of 3)

January 18, 2019January 23, 2019Writing Tips

by H.R. D’Costa, @scribesworld

Ah, subplots.

Once you get a handle on them, you’ll solve a huge problem.

You’ll be able to get your novel to the right length—without stretching your main plot too thin.

And while that’s a big benefit, it’s not the only one. Subplots can jazz up your story in multiple ways. We talked about that in Part 1 of this series.

Speaking of…

…here’s a quick overview of each part in this “easy as pie” guide to subplots.

In Part 1, we covered 5 uses for subplots.
In Part 2, we’ll cover how to structure your subplot—plus the golden rule to follow regarding subplots. (You’re reading Part 2 right now.)
In Part 3, we’ll cover how to weave subplots into your story as well as conduct a subplot “safety check.”

Note: These subplot tips have been adapted from my writing guide Sparkling Story Drafts , which will help you write cleaner rough drafts, reduce your revision time, and get a crazy-good story onto the marketplace—faster. To learn how you could win a paperback copy, see the end of this post.

And now—fresh from the oven; mmmm!—today’s batch of tips…Continue reading

Your “Easy As Pie” Guide to Subplots + Giveaway (Part 1 of 3)

January 14, 2019January 23, 2019Writing Tips

by H.R. D’Costa, @scribesworld

Have you ever tried to make a pie crust from scratch?

In my experience, when you press the dough into the pie pan, there’ll be areas where the dough is thick and knobby, almost like the hills of a tea plantation…

…and there’ll be areas where the dough is thin.

So, so thin.

Working with the main plot of your novel can be like that.

There’s only so much of it to go around.

After a certain point, if you try to extract more out of it, you’ll stretch it too thin. You’ll end up with plot points that are bland and repetitious.

Savvy writers recognize this.

They don’t try to extract more than their main plot can give.

Instead, they take a break from the main plot. Like bakers who take scraps of dough to fill in holes in a pie crust, these writers fill their pages with other material.

This is where subplots—secondary stories that are subordinate to the main plot—come in. (Sometimes, a subplot is referred to as the B-story, while the main plot is referred to as the A-story.)

Subplots are one of the best ways to get your novel to the right length, without stretching your main plot too thin.Continue reading

Writing the Small Town Setting

November 16, 2018November 16, 2018Writing Tips

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

As a mystery writer, I’m especially fond of small town settings. I have written larger cities (notably the Memphis Barbeque series), but to make it work, I basically created a small setting within a larger one (life surrounding a family-owned restaurant).

I think small town settings have a lot to offer writers of other genres, too. That’s because it offers ample opportunity for conflict…and we all know that conflict drives stories.

You may have a more idealistic view of small towns. That dichotomy is what makes it so interesting.

Here are the elements that I usually draw on in painting life in a small town: Continue reading

Delivering Scares in Cozies and Other Genres

November 2, 2018October 26, 2018Mystery Writing Tips, Writing Tips

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Hope everyone had a good Halloween. Apparently I still have scary stuff on the brain. :)

The subjective nature of fear:

I’m not usually a fan of being terrified when I read or watch something. And I think I have a very low-threshold in terms of what’s scary. I recommended the first “Halloween” movie to my father last month (he’d never seen it). He was glad he watched it because he now understands a lot of pop-culture references. But he didn’t think it was scary . . . and the film scared me to death. I think the scariest moment was at the very beginning of the movie when two girls were walking home from school in broad daylight and one of them, and the viewer, sees a creepy man wearing a mask by a row of bushes. It bothered me because it came out of nowhere: it wasn’t even nighttime. And it took place in a public (which I equate to safe) location.

My high school senior daughter had to watch “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” last week at a school film club for extra credit for a sociology class (I know, I was baffled, too, ha). Before she left, I warned her that it was very scary. She came back to tell me that it wasn’t scary . . . it was disturbing.

So I struck out twice on what was scary. To two different generations.

Knowing reader expectations for what’s scary in your genre:

I don’t think it matters too much that I’m such a chicken when it comes to scary books and movies. That’s because I understand that I’m on the same wavelength with my readers. Once when I was writing a book for the Memphis Barbeque series and scared myself in the process (the only time I’ve done this except when writing my zombie book). I immediately realized the scene was too dark and needed to be toned down.

For cozies, I think the expectation is more for tension than fear. Cozies are generally an escape. Tense moments are fine. But too much darkness and drawn-out scares are probably more fitting for other genres. Of course writers can write however they want…but to be more of a commercial match for the audience, it’s a good idea to keep reader expectations in mind.

The premise of cozies is “the killer among us.” That, to me, is scary enough. Unlike some genres, the cozy mystery presents the murderer as someone in our neighborhood, our family, our quilt guild, our church.

Maybe you write for a genre that has some latitude with its scares. For further reading on delivering fright, read:

“How to Tell Scary Stories, from the Co-Creator of ‘American Horror Story‘ : 8 tips from Brad Falchuk via Joe Berkowitz

“Writing Scary Scenes”: tips from writer Rayne Hall

“How to Write a Scary Scene“: by Susan Dennard

How tolerant are you of being scared? How scary are your books?

Delivering Genre-Appropriate Scares to Your Readers: Click To Tweet

Photo credit: Pensiero on Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

Research and (Plot) Development

October 12, 2018October 10, 2018Uncategorized, Writing Tips

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, @kaath09

Hello, my name is Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, and I’m a recovering research-aholic.

I know that research addiction is common among writers of speculative fiction (genres that begin with ”what if…?”). This doesn’t mean there aren’t writers who hate research with a passion, but whether you loathe research or love it, it is necessary to writing fiction. It stands to reason that the ideal is to strike a healthy balance between diving so deeply into the ocean of knowledge that you drown, or barely dipping a toe into the pool.

Perhaps the first thing I learned about research (besides that it tastes like chocolate) is that it’s not restricted to finding facts about reality that you need to know before or during the writing of your book.

I write a number of genres: science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, alternate history, steampunk and, most recently, mystery-detective fiction. This is not to say that my journey toward publishing my first detective novel (THE ANTIQUITIES HUNTER) began recently. Preparing to write this article, I dug up my earliest notes on my Japanese-American P.I., Gina Miyoko. They date from the late 90s. Long enough ago that while I know Gina was conceived in a dream—as is a lot of my fiction—I don’t remember the dream itself.Continue reading