syn·aes·the·sia – a subjective sensation that occurs in one sense modality when another modality is stimulated…. syn·aes·thet'ic – involving more than one sense
Plotting to create ‘narrative traction’, the page turning quality that drives readers through a book (and keeps them up until 3am) Aims: To learn new way of thinking about both writing and reading that raises your awareness of how page turning quality is created To learn techniques and strategies for writing narrative traction
Graham Simsion is the author of The Rosie Project, background is in script writing He is the only person who could have written The Rosie Project, but everyone has the ability to write their own story. Male protagonist (Don) was easy to write, Rosie was the hardest – was originally called Clara but she was […]
CS Pacat is the author of the ‘Captive Prince’ trilogy. Captive Prince and Prince’s Gambit are currently available, and Kings Rising will be available in February 2016. “In order to write romance we must allow ourselves to be seen, really seen, and that is an act of great courage.” – CS Pacat
Kate Cuthbert (Escape digital imprint) and Sue Brockhoff (Harlequin Single Title) Pitching is way to get attention, get to know editor or publishing house Good way of getting manuscript in front of editor Before you pitch: Are you ready? Who Who are you pitching to? What are they looking for? What are they […]
Describing emotion: balancing show and tell Body language and action Thoughts Internal sensations Dialogue Body language In active storytelling, action is king 93% of all communication is non verbal Primal instinct is at work (constantly aware of our environment) We are all adept body language readers (and so are our story readers) Use body […]
Sharing characterisations & emotions without telling or info dumps Do more with less If you are describing appearance, also include emotional description Learn to convey information with powerful word structure rather than writing it all out What does ‘Show, don’t tell’ really mean? It is the drop in your stomach when you jump […]
And the flipside is using flaws / negative traits Hobble your character with flaws A flaw is a negative quality that emerges in a character’s personality as a result of an emotionally hurtful experience Just as we have a survival response for physical dangers (fight or flight), we instinctively protect our emotions from harm as […]
Building a hero / heroine from the ground up – What makes a reader fall in love with a character? – How can we create these types of characters ourselves? – How to create deep compelling characters that stick with a reader. Elements: Reader fascination: Offer a view into the characters and his world […]