WHAT ANNE PERRY DOES: SUCCESSFUL WRITING TECHNIQUES
I just started reading Anne Perry. Author of the William Monk and Thomas Pitt series –The face of a Stranger; The Cater Street Hangman—Perry is an authorial behemoth. She published her first book in 1979 (The Cater Street Hangman), introducing her series character, Thomas Pitt. Since then, she’s published dozens of novels, and is an international bestseller. At seventy-six years old, she still writes regularly, publishes often, and tours the world attending writers’ conferenc
SHOWING VERSUS TELLING IN NOVEL WRITING
As a book editor, the most common issue I encounter from newer writers is telling versus showing. Most of you—probably 95%—know exactly what I mean when I mention this common pitfall. And, ironically, I encountered it in my own novel about seven months ago and hired my own freelance book editor to point this out to me. So let’s address this potential hazard of the book writing realm. First off, what is “showing versus telling?” It’s simple. Or so it seems. Here’s the easiest
MAKING READERS CARE
“If the reader doesn’t care about your story people, he’ll never make it past the opening scene or the first chapter.” This quote is from Chapter 8, called ‘Characters and Emotion’ of the book ‘Writing with Emotion, Tension, & Conflict: Techniques for Crafting an Expressive and Compelling Novel,’ by Cheryl St. John. What I love about this is that, in writing, one of the most fundamental and difficult things to do is to create characters that people give a crap about. Specific
