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Category: writing technique
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Nonfiction openings #001: “You Owe Me,” by Miah Arnold
I’ll begin this week’s look at nonfiction openings with a tear-jerker from Miah Arnold: YOU OWE ME, by Miah, Arnold, from Michigan Quarterly Review The children I write with die, no matter how much I love them, no matter how creative they are, no matter how many poems they have written or how much they…
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Horror week #004: VOICES make your horror fiction unsettling…
As writers, we all have those little voices in our heads; they’re called characters. But voices in the head of your character can be downright creepy. Look at how Ronald Kelly makes it even worse by making an INTERNAL voice EXTERNAL in his novel, Blood Kin: Dudley Craven stared at the piece of wood…
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Horror week #003: Exaggerate in your writing to grab your readers!
Exaggeration (hyperbole and understatement) is a tool often used in horror fiction. Stating that things are the absolute worst (hyperbole) sends a clear message to the reader: this character doesn’t want to be here right now–and neither would YOU! Look at how Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie use it immediately…
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Horror writing #002: Miss you…!
If you want to create some mystery, right out of the gate, then have something missing that really ought to be there. Look at how horror writer Patricia Windsor manages that in The Blooding: They were found in the woods, curiously and awkwardly lying in the first leaves of autumn. The girl had fallen…
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Horror week #001: For a creepy effect in horror fiction, ZOOM IN!
It’s cinematic, really. To add power to your descriptions and even create a bit of suspense through them, ZOOM IN! Here’s how horror writer Stephen Dobyns does it in his novel, The Church of Dead Girls: Three dead girls in three straight chairs, collapsed against the ropes, heads tilted, their skin papery, their…
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Opening paragraphs #005: SUPER CHALLENGE!
Let’s do a quick review of our look at beginnings in the past four days: Day one: sharp contrast: tough, tough soft Day two: a bit of mystery Day three: 3-line description that ends with a powerful short line Day four: help NOT wanted; hesitation at interaction And now, on day five, we’re…
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Opening paragraphs #004: Help NOT wanted!
Have you ever been in a situation where you want to help someone, but they don’t want to be helped? Take a look at this opening by Jess Row in “The Call of Blood“: Mornings he finds Mrs. Kang upright in bed, peeling invisible ginger with an invisible knife. She watches her hands with…
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Opening paragraphs #003: Shake it up!
For day three of our investigation of openings, I thought I’d show you one that is powerful, sarcastic, hilarious, and tragic–all at the same time! Check out the beginning to “Property,” by Elizabeth McCracken: The ad should have said, For rent, six-room hovel. Quarter-filled Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle in living room, sandy sheets throughout, lingering…
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Opening paragraphs #002: Add a bit of mystery!
Let’s jump right into today’s opening paragraph by taking a look at the start of Allegra Goodman’s “La Vita Nuova”: The day her fiance left, Amanda went walking in the Colonial cemetery off Garden Street. The gravestones were so worn that she could hardly read them. They were melting away into the weedy grass.…
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Opening paragraphs #001: Strength AND vulnerability, at the same time!
For today’s starting paragraph, I decided to go with one that packs quite a punch. First, read how Megan Mayhew Bergman begins “Housewifely Arts”: I am my own housewife, my own breadwinner. I make lunches and change light bulbs. I kiss bruises and kill copperheads from the backyard creek with a steel hoe. I change…