Quiet Time: Handling Non-Action Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

We all know we’re supposed to keep our stakes escalating and our scene moving forward, but too much too fast can wear our readers out. How do you handle the quieter, in-between scenes where the world isn’t coming to an end and things have slowed down?

Whoa, There
Structurally speaking, the scenes between the scenes are called sequels. The time for the protagonist to reflect, absorb, decide, and react to what has just happened in a scene. Sometimes they’re a single line, sometimes they’re pages long. They help control pacing (and more on that tomorrow), but they also give you a chance to remind the reader why everything that’s going on is important.

Trouble is long sequels usually equal a bored reader, because nothing is happening.

Standing in Be’tween: Writing for a Younger Market

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy


When I first wrote The Shifter, I wasn’t sure what market it was going to be for. My protagonist, Nya, was 17, so it could have been an adult or a YA novel. By chapter three I knew it was YA. The voice, the tone, the story, all pointed in that direction. It was actually the story that made me realize this was my writing niche.

When my agent was submitting it, editors kept calling it a middle grade book. This surprised me, because in my mind, I’d written YA. After I sold it, it was called an upper middle grade novel, intended for ages 10 to 14. The ’tween years.

Writing for Your Reader: A Follow Up

Yesterday’s article inspired some interesting questions and discussion about writing for your reader. Trusting your reader is not the same as writing for your reader, and while they're connected and tough to talk about one without the other, they accomplish different things. Those subtleties and ideas are worth further discussion.

Trusting your reader is about not over-explaining things and conveying information in a way that your reader will understand.

Writing for your reader is about targeting your work so it appeals to a certain reader.

“Your reader” is up to you.

Trust Me, I’m a Reader: Writing for Your Audience

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
 

“Trust your reader.” You hear it all the time, but what exactly does that mean? Do you just assume they’ll figure out what you mean? That can lead to confusion, which you certainly don’t want, so what’s a writer to do? Who do they really trust?

Believe in Yourself

Trusting your reader is all about believing that they can and will pick up on the things you leave as clues in your story. Not just mystery-type clues, but hints about backstory, world building, characterization, etc. The things you write and then wonder, “Will my reader get this or do I need to explain more?”

As someone who writes for teens, I face this every time I sit down to write. My youngest readers are ten years old, my oldest are adults. While I want every age to be able to sit down and enjoy my books, if I write for the adult audience, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll leave my younger readers behind. What each of those readers pick up on is different.

Foreshadowing -- Don't You Love it?

 By Cathy Clamp

JH: We launch this year's "How They Do It" column with an article on foreshadowing from author Cathy Clamp. Cathy is one half of Cat Adams, the pseudonym for writing team C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp. Their urban fantasy Demon Song releases this week. This pair has a long history of writing urban fantasies that thrill.

C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp began writing as a team in 1997. They quickly learned that their individual talents in writing created a dynamite combination in historical and paranormal novels!

Cathy resides in the Texas Hill Country with her husband, dogs, cats and 24 Boer/Spanish cross goats!

Take it away Cathy...