Janice Hardy's Blog, page 25

WIP Diagnostic: Is This Working? A Closer Look at Authorial Intrusion and Humor

Critique by Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

WIP Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

If you're interested in submitting to WIP Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines. 

Submissions currently in the queue: Three

Please Note: As of today, critique slots are booked through April 24.

This week’s question:

1. I'm hoping authorial intrusion right off the bat will help set a humorous tone. Unfortunately, that delays dialogue till the next page, which may be a bit late. Do you judge the authorial intrusion could allow the delayed introduction of dialogue?

Market/Genre: Adult Action Adventure

On to the diagnosis…

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Story Structure: How The Climax Works in a Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The climax resolves the plot problem and makes readers glad they picked up the novel.

There’s a popular series* with a climax that made me so furious I stopped reading that author. Until that moment, I’d devoured all eight books, loved them, and in that last 10% of the final book, the author had the protagonist make a decision that invalidated the entire series and made me go from “Yes, I want you to win!” to “You don’t deserve the victory what the heck were you thinking???”

I was livid. I had to stop reading and call my niece (we were reading the series together) and we hashed out how awful this ridiculous decision was. I gritted my teeth and dived back in to finish it, and then watched in horror as the story I’d loved dissolved into a pointless, deus ex machina ending.

This is not the climax you want for your novel.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

5 Ways to Layer Depth into Your Story

By Jodi Turchin, @jlturchin

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: Just because you write all the dialogue first doesn't mean you can't craft a layered story. Jodi Turchin shares tips on adding the depth after your first draft is done. 

Jodi Turchin is a Young Adult novelist represented by Dawn Frederick at Red Sofa Literary. She’s also a photographer, a high school English teacher, an adjunct college professor, and a former actress and director.

Website | Twitter

Take it away Jodi…

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

So, I’m Cutting Back on Blogging a Bit

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Sometimes, the right thing to do is to stop what you’re doing—even if you love doing it.

For a long time now, I’ve been burned out on blogging. I’ve kept it up because I do enjoy it, and I love helping writers, but it’s all gotten to be a bit too much to keep up with.

I started this blog back in March of 2008. I’ve written anywhere from three to seven posts a week for the past 13 years—and regular readers know I rarely write short posts (grin). There are over 3,000 articles on the site now, and I estimate I’ve written a good 2,000 of them. That’s about 3,000,000 words. Yes, you read that right—millions of words. For the math curious, that’s 37 80,000-word novels.

After so many words and so many years, it’s hard to come up with new things to write about that I haven’t done several times before. I’ve been updating old posts for a while now, but sometimes they take longer to edit than the new posts.Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

5 Ways to Use a Reading Journal to Improve Your Writing

By Roni Loren, @RoniLoren 

Part of The Writer's Life Series  

JH: I’ve always been a fan of studying novels you enjoyed to see how the authors did it. Roni Loren has taken it to a whole new level with a reading journal.

Roni wrote her first romance novel at age fifteen when she discovered writing about boys was way easier than actually talking to them. Since then, her flirting skills haven’t improved, but she likes to think her storytelling ability has. She holds a master’s degree in social work and spent years as a mental health counselor, but now she writes full time from her cozy office in Dallas, Texas where she puts her characters on the therapy couch instead. She is a two-time RITA Award winner and a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She also teaches online writing classes at her Fearless Romance Writing Academy.

Website | Newsletter | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Take it away Roni…

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

4 Ways to Create Emotional Peril in Your Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If you can’t get readers to emotionally connect with your novel, they won’t read your novel.

When you pick up a novel, what keeps you reading?

The desire to see what happens next? The fear that something horrible will happen to your favorite character? The need to see it all turn out for the best? The need to know what happens next or what it all means? Maybe all of these at different times in the book.

No matter what hooks a reader about a book, they’ve made an emotional connection with it. They care, and don't want to see the characters get hurt. But the wonderful thing is, once you've made that emotional connection, "hurt" takes on a much broader definition.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

WIP Diagnostic: Is This Working? A Closer Look at a Romantic Suspense Opening Page

Critique by Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

WIP Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

If you're interested in submitting to WIP Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines. 

Submissions currently in the queue: One

Please Note: As of today, critique slots are booked through April 3.

This week’s questions:

1. Is there enough conflict to wonder what happens next?

2. Is there enough at stake and is it personal to make the reader care? If not, any suggestions?

3. Is the opening all showing or is telling detected?

4. Is the scene grounded enough in description?

5. Is there enough about Malia to make the reader care or sympathize with her?

Market/Genre: Romantic Suspense

On to the diagnosis…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Keep Moving: Describe Your Setting on the Go

[image error]By Ann Harth, @Annharth 
Part of the How They Do It Series
JH: Finding the right balance between a fleshed-out setting and an under (or over) developed one can be tricky. Ann Harth shares a three-step plan for describing a setting that's just right.
Ann Harth writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. Strong, interesting female characters creep into many of her books, and many arrive with a sense of humor.

She taught writing for the Australian College of Journalism for eight years before taking the leap into freelance writing and structural editing work.

Ann is the Far North Queensland coordinator for The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She’s had a number of fiction and non-fiction children’s books published in Australia and the UK and over 130 short stories sold internationally.

When not tapping the keys, Ann stuffs a notebook into her pack and searches for remote places to camp, hike or explore.
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | 
Take it away Ann...

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

How to Show (and not Tell) Without Raising Your Word Count

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Your word count has nothing to do with how well your novel is written, but it can be a red flag that there’s a problem.

I got several interesting questions on last week’s article about how point of view strengthens a novel that deserved further exploration. Essentially, commenters were concerned that showing would bloat their manuscripts and add too many words. They were particularly worried about already large manuscripts.

This is a legitimate concern for a lot of writers, because showing can use more words than telling. But it also allows you to cut words from other areas, because when you show you also:
CharacterizeDramatizeDescribeWhen you show, you allow characters to interact with the world, which sneaks in details while you show action and internalization. The details you use convey more than one thing, which saves you words in the long run.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Forget Hooks: How to Pull Readers Through a Short Story by Making Promises and Raising Questions

By José Pablo Iriarte, @LabyrinthRat

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: Keeping readers engaged in a story is no easy task. José Pablo Iriarte shares tips on how to keep readers wanting more.
I'm going to talk about story openings in this post, but this isn't a post about story openings. Rather, it's about grabbing the reader's interest and sustaining that interest throughout an entire story. That's important to authors working at all lengths, of course, but I think writing short stories comes with its own special challenges when it comes to reader interest.

You would think that short story authors would have it easier when it comes to pulling the reader through a story. What is a short story but the perfect prose morsel for the short attention span age? But on the other hand, we don't just want readers to finish our stories. We want our stories to be memorable. We want them to lead to something . . . the reader seeking out our other works, or reprint sales, or award consideration. With a novel, you've got tens of thousands of words with which to make an impression, to win the reader over or wear down their barriers.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com