Posts Tagged ‘writing how to’
Friday, July 30th, 2010
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit! How to Write Mysteries. .
Don’t forget to slip in the Sly Bits:
- As mentioned earlier, a good mystery must follow the Rule of Fair Play. This means the audience should receive the same information as the Protagonist, thus giving the reader a chance to solve the crime by the end of the story
(more…)
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, ebook, Electronic / Digital Publishing, fiction, genre fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, self-promotion, self-publishing, writing how to, writing skills
Posted in Ebooks, Electronic / Digital Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
Youdunit Whodunit!
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit: How to Write Mysteries.
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 6 Continued)
LOOSE THE HOUNDS INTO THE MIDDLE:
Other mid-story development tidbits:
- Increase the tension and confusion by adding sub-plot entanglements, clues, red herrings, mistakes and misunderstandings. Find these distractions by playing around with answers to this question: what could reasonably and believably go wrong?
- Explore your characters’ motivations; remember the theme or the point of the story or what the Protagonist learns, about him or her or the world, foreshadows the solution
(more…)
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, ebook, genre fiction, mystery novel, mystery writing, writing how to
Posted in Ebooks, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
Cover for mystery writing primer, Youdunit Whodunit!
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called
Youdunit Whodunit: How to Write Mysteries.
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 5 Continued)
LOOSE THE HOUNDS INTO THE MIDDLE:
Other mid-story development tidbits:
- Never introduce the guilty party late in the book; that’s betraying the rule of fair game
- Generate more complications resulting from the criminal’s efforts at concealment or escape; these often result in a really big problem: a second murder or crime
- Remember that the strongest stories are intertwined, so construct your main and sub-plots to resonate or reflect one another. Perhaps your main mystery is a missing child; then a strong sub-plot would be to have one of your character’s searching for their birth family.
- Make it personal: have someone the reader likes be affected by the first murder or crime: maybe as a suspect? Or is in love with the suspect? Or their life’s changed by the crime?
Remember how MURDER SHE WROTE’S Jessica Fletcher always had some relationship with the victim or the suspect? So much so that no one would ever really want to be close to her!
- Develop and show strong motives for at least three characters and you’re off and running
…MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next post!
Find out more information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, ebook, Electronic / Digital Publishing, fiction, genre fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, self-publishing, writing how to, writing skills
Posted in Ebooks, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Monday, July 5th, 2010
Recently, I was fortunate enough to listen to an excellent free webinar, offered by Enhanced E-Book University, on enhanced e-books.
Three interesting guests:
- Jessica Goodman, Wiley and Sons, explained their “How to Cook Everything” app
- Theodore Gray, Touch Press, on creating his wildly popular app, “The Elements, and
- Rhys Cazenove, Enhanced Editions, about producing the very popular, “Death of Bunny Munro”.
The trio offered excellent information and advice.
UnnaturalStates: John & Harry Battling
It was so cool to learn that others are embracing the multimedia enhanced book platform. Though different from our UnnaturalStates Quillr® concept, they were all hip to offering stories and information in a whole new way.
Text alone storytelling and reading is just so five minutes ago!
Read more and see some video of the webinar here.
Tags: Electronic / Digital Publishing, enhanced e-book, ereaders, multimedia storytelling, Publishing, quillr, writing how to
Posted in Ebooks, Electronic / Digital Publishing, Multimedia Storytelling, Self-Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
I’m delighted to announce the electronic publication of my latest how-to primer. This time, I tackled electronic self-publishing with Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes!.
I jumped on the digital wagon last year by re-publishing my mysteries as e-books. Soon, I began instructing others—many had failed with traditional publishers or were wary of costly Print on Demand—at a Victoria, B.C., college.
Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes
I immediately found the demand far exceeded my eager students and concluded that a practical, simple and affordable how-to primer on electronic publishing was needed.
Thus, Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes! was born.
It’s brief, practical and succinctly covers all the essentials of electronic publication, like formatting, uploading and marketing, and is available online at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for $0.99.
Tags: Electronic / Digital Publishing, ereaders, iPad, iPhone, kindle, kobo, non-fiction, Publishing, smashwords, writing how to
Posted in Ebooks, Electronic / Digital Publishing, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Podcast: Play in new window
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The Novel Experience®: the podcast dedicated to the craft and art of fiction writing.
The Novel Experience Podcast
Mystery author Nicola Furlong interviews writers, publishers, agents and booksellers to discover tips and techniques that will help authors improve their writing skills and get their fiction published.
Episode 1: Footprints in the Butter
My guest is my good friend and funny gal Denise Dietz, best-selling mystery and historical romance author.
Discover some key elements to mystery writing, learn a terrific tip to improve your fiction writing and find out what happened to Deni at The Dallas/Fort Worth Airport…it’s every author’s dream! (Duration: ~14 minutes)
The Novel Experience Podcast Episode 1
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-36ee8632873275dbd640afbf42b05186}
Tags: author interview, crime fiction, detective fiction, fiction, genre fiction, literature, mystery, mystery novel, writing how to, writing skills, youdunit whodunit
Posted in Podcast, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit: How to Write Mysteries.
Cover for mystery writing primer, Youdunit Whodunit!
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 4)
LOOSE THE HOUNDS INTO THE MIDDLE
Writing riveting fiction is pretty simple if you remember one critical tenet: make sure one damn thing happens after another. This adds and increases suspense.
By quickly beginning the investigation, you unleash your characters and shift your plot into motion. The crime raises crucial questions about the main characters’ motivations.
Answering these will lead you into the middle ground of your book:
- Who was killed? What terrible crime was committed?
- Why does the murderer murder or commit serious crime?
- Who was affected by this death / crime?
- Who wants to solve it and why?
If you found this of interest, you may wish to read the previous posts.
…MORE how to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next post!
Find out more information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, genre fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, Publishing, writing how to
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Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Was recently interviewing my good friend and mystery writing colleague, Denise Dietz, for my new podcast called The Novel Experience.
The podcast’s goal is to provide tips, tricks and techniques for fiction writers. Deni offered a terrific idea to improve your fiction writing. After completing the first draft, temporarily change the name of your main character by doing a search and replace.
Re-read your manuscript. You’ll be amazed at how often the new name jumps out at you and could/should be changed to ‘him or her’ or ‘he or she’. Much less intrusive to the reader resulting in a better book.
Thanks, Deni!
More great tips like this coming soon in the premier podcast of The Novel Experience.
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, fiction, fiction writing tips, genre fiction, mystery novel, mystery writing, podcasting, writing how to
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Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
As part of my ongoing quest to improve my writing abilities and (let’s face it) my own marketing opps, I’m about to launch my first podcast devoted to the craft and art of writing fiction.
Old-fashioned Mic (Photo CM Seter)
It’s called The Novel Experience and I’ve just finished my inaugural interview with my good friend and multi-published mystery and historical romance author,
Denise Dietz.
So, hang in there while I edit and put it all together. Hope to go live in a coupla weeks!
Tags: author, crime fiction, detective fiction, fiction, genre fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, podcasting, Publishing, self-promotion, writing how to
Posted in Marketing, Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit: How to Write Mysteries.
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 3)
HIT ‘EM EARLY; HIT ‘EM HARD (continued from Part 2):
- Hook and shock your audience by rocketing straight to the main crime or another crime so something important is happening, has just happened or will just happen. Set up the central plot problem (e.g., kidnapping or murder) or a major plot problem (like a stolen artefact or a missing person). This forces your villain forward; there’s no turning back
(more…)
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, ebook, fiction, genre fiction, mystery, mystery novel, mystery writing, Publishing, writing how to
Posted in Ebooks, Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
