I went to a meeting of the local chapter of SCBWI the other day, and we workshopped a number of pieces different people had brought. One was a chapter from the middle of a longer work, ending with the protagonist forming a plan of action. I mentioned that, for the next chapter, the author would want to remember: only explain the plan to the ( Read more... )

I just read a book that was billed as a companion to another book I'd read, but which turned out to be sort of a prequel. That is, it includes the origin of the villain who's villainizing around in Book I'd Already Read.

(Just for the sake of simplicity, let's go ahead and call the first book I read "Graceling by Kristin Cashore" and the prequel ( Read more... )

I'm on a book discussion listserv for the Young Adult Library Services Association. Recently, we had a thread going about how common heterochromia is in works of fiction - and man, it's all over the place. This got me thinking about unusual conditions and how they're often more common in fiction than in real life. (Considering that a major ( Read more... )

You know what bothersome thing I've frequently seen in fiction? Characters who apparently have unnoted psychic lie-detecting abilities.

Looking into his eyes, she knew he spoke the truth.

Or,

"She's lying," I said with certainty.

Or,

He clearly believed what he was saying.Righty-ho. Maybe our hero saw the suspect leaving the scene, so he ( Read more... )

I recently came across an explanation of an interesting writing technique. One ubiquitous but practically invisible until you're thinking about it, at which point you see it everywhere. Especially in mystery-type stories/movies/TV shows ( Read more... )

I don't think it's going out on a limb to say that people are annoyed when protagonists, despite having the same information, fail to understand things that are obvious to readers. However, there's a seeming exception to this that I've encountered frequently.

Protagonist: Gosh, Doc, I feel like I'm going crazy here. There's this nice, ( Read more... )