SCRATCHING THE TENSION-JUNKIE ITCH: GIVING THE READER A REASON TO TURN PAGES Why do people read? What makes someone stay up late, turning pages? The easy answer is curiosity. But all writers wrestle with how to create it. All writers toil to make it look effortless. Humans are tension junkies. We’ve survived through the […]
Category Archives: Writing Tips
Thirst: On Writing, Harry, & Flying Jumbo Jets by Jo Nesbø (Excerpts)
What am I thinking when I set out to write a book? First of all, I think it’s impossible. It’s impossible to transform my thoughts and feelings into letters that can convey them to a reader without losing most of—and the most important parts of—their meaning. And it’s definitely impossible for these vague, sound-mimicking symbols to […]
What Can Sherlock Holmes Teach you about Writing? It’s all in the Clues…
What makes a Great Clue? Writing Lessons from Masters of Mystery Before I turned ten, I devoured The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes I read by myself but often I read out loud with my father, who loved Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and recited passages from memory with great dramatic flair. His favorite, and mine, was […]
The Long Shadow of Raymond Chandler…
The Long Shadow of Raymond Chandler… Raymond Chandler changed my life. I was assigned to read The Long Goodbye for class, and although only five chapters were assigned, I devoured the whole book in one night. As a young writer, I wasn’t sure what sort of stories I wanted to write, but Chandler’s prose, […]
Tweet This: Social Media Has a big impact on Nonfiction
Tweet This: Social Media Has a big impact on Nonfiction The benefit of writing a nonfiction mystery story this way is that you can transport the reader into the narrative so they get lost in its pages. One of the best techniques to draw the reader in is to paint a picture of what […]
The Balancing Act: Keeping Your Series Fresh for New and Existing Readers
The Balancing Act: Keeping Your Series Fresh for New and Existing Readers I have a photograph of myself taken years ago inside a hotel room in York, England, where I’m reading Peter Robinson’s novel In a Dry Season. To this day, it’s one of my all-time favorite mysteries. Peter had already written several Inspector Banks […]
Six Reasons You’re Not as Creative as You Could Be
Six Reasons You’re Not as Creative as You Could Be Years ago, I attended a writers’ conference. After my speech was over, I sat in on a talk given by a writing professor, and what she said has stayed with me ever since. A woman in the audience lamented that she wanted to write, […]
Creating Compelling Plots
Your Mission: Creating Compelling Plots Sheesh! Give me a more difficult question, please! I’ve been writing novels for over 30 years, and I can tell you how to be a soccer referee or fly an ILS approach to minimums, but explaining and taking apart plot requires some thought. But as all of us authors should […]
The Perverse Life of a Novelist
The Perverse Life of a Novelist The first time you get to experience something is so sweet. You feel exalted the first time you see a movie you love, like Groundhog Day, you see a play you love, like Hamilton, you see a show you love, like Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas, you read […]
Seven Rules for Writing Science-Based Fiction
Seven Rules for Writing Science-Based Fiction Fiction with a scientific angle has seen a major renaissance in recent years, from The Martian to The Circle to apocalyptic novels like Wool. Movies such as Interstellar, Life, Avatar, and Arrival have captured the public’s imagination with their science-heavy themes. What’s going on here? Isn’t this the age […]
TEN TIPS FOR WRITING CRIME FICTION
TEN TIPS FOR WRITING CRIME FICTION (SOME MORE SERIOUS THAN OTHERS) 1. READ! I know this sounds blindingly obvious, but I’m constantly amazed by the number of people I meet who tell me they are writing something, then stare at me blankly when I ask them what kind of stuff they enjoy reading. Every […]
The Key to Creating Great Characters
The Key to Creating Great Characters Among the great strokes of good fortune — and there were many junctures where I could have gone awry — was the decision to write about, via fiction, my small marina family at Tarpon Bay, Sanibel Island, Florida, where I was a fishing guide from 1974 to 1987. This […]
