Here are just a few notes from
Angie Fox's wonderful class. If you have a chance to take a class with Angie or hear her speak, grab it--it will be very valuable!
- To sell a paranormal in a crowded market, you must find your twist--the thing that makes your world unique.
- Characters must be in conflict with the world and themselves
- Pinpoint the conflict between a character's personality and their situation
- Readers (including agents and publishers) won't care about plot until you make them care about the characters.
- To build sexual tension, give the characters a big conflict--a reason why they can't get together. When they do get together, don't let it be smooth sailing--give them more problems to overcome.
- The weather, people brooding about their families, people brooding about being lonely--these are NOT good openers.
- Open with interesting conflict, not back story.
- The opening action must pay off.
- Write strong threads into your opening to give yourself something to build on.
- Figure out what your character dreads--and do it to them.
7 comments:
Excellent stuff!! Thanks a bunch for the tips. Really puts things in perspective for me ;)
Those are great tips! And thanks for commenting on my blog! I love the t-shirt on your blog. Cool. :)
This is great advice, thanks so much for sharing, Ruth! My favorites are the last two--I need to incorporate them more in my rewrites.
Thanks for sharing!
Great advice! I really like the last one - it sounds cruel to do to your characters, but the story become so much more interesting!
These are great tips! Thanks for sharing. :)
Great tips! Thanks so much for sharing. I have several I am going to go use right now!
These are all excellent, especially the last one and the one about caring about characters first, then plot.
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