How to Keep the Readers Turning the Page: An Interview with Author Carol Bluestein
Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Carol Bluestein/@clbauthor
“It is one thing to tell our story and it’s quite another to get/keep a reader invested from beginning to end.” Carol Bluestein, Author
Photo Credit: “Reading Books” from Google Free Images
As writers, we invite readers into our story, hoping they’ll feel as enthralled as we do with it. But unless we craft the story in an engaging way, using the tools of plot, character development, dialogue, scenic details, we risk losing the reader.
I am thrilled to feature my good friend and writing colleague Carol Bluestein in this guest post interview about her riveting new crime thriller series, Seduction: Love ,Loss ,Leverage, Murder, Volumes 1 and 2. Carol and I met through The International Women’s Writer Guild (IWWG). In fact, I distinctly remember the moment at an IWWG conference in 2010 when we met in a workshop on humor writing. When Carol read her piece to the group, I felt an immediate connection. Carol currently facilitates a local women’s writing group which I am fortunate to attend. I am fascinated by Carol’s ability to hook her reader and wanted to interview her to share her writing tips with us. Whether you’re writing fiction or memoir, you have to help your reader stay with you in the story.
My reviews of Seduction: Love, Loss, Leverage, Murder, Volume 1 can be found on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThings and Riffle.
Volume 2 will be out soon. She hopes the second book will be published by the end of June.
It is undergoing the editing process and Carol is at step two of her four-step process,as she explains:
1: beta readers – what’s missing for readers;
2: overall read after edits are made;
3: a professional story editor; and once all those edits are done,
4: a professional book/line editor. She is now waiting for the comments from step 4.
Welcome, Carol!
Author Carol Bluestein
How to Keep the Reader Turning the Page
KP: Tell us a little about your series, Seduction, Volumes 1 and 2. Do you think there will be more books in this series?
CB: Yes, there will be three books in the Seduction Series. While waiting for the edits at step 2 (above), the idea for the third book popped into my head. I’ve got all kinds of notations on the themes and the part of the story that goes with them.
KP: In Volume 1 of your crime thriller series, Seduction, you weave together a multilayered plot filled with conflict, suspense and intrigue. What made you decide to write your story as a crime thriller? Was the plot clear to you from the beginning or did it evolve as you wrote?
CB: The crime/thriller/suspense/horror genres have been my preferred reading/entertainment over the years. It seemed a natural extension to write what I loved. The original draft was clear—I saw it and wrote it. Over the next five years, as I learned more about writing commercial fiction, the plot and themes evolved.
KP: While memoir writing challenges the writer to flesh out the real people in the story, fiction requires you to develop a character from scratch from your imagination. How did you decide to portray your characters? Are they based on real people?
CB: Each of the characters have their own mission and have to have the personality to complete (or not) their arc. I first wrote them as “vanilla” and subsequently learned to give them characteristics that flesh them out. I used their horoscopes. Since some traits were already established, it was easy to pick out their birthdays and identify their best and worst behaviors. As for real people—no, not really. The characters are composites of people I’ve known, met, or observed.
KP: What is your writing goal?
CB: My goal, from the beginning, was to craft a book that people would want to read and enjoy. I learned to save my “darlings” in another file, and do what had to be done to move the reader along. I always figured I wrote it in the first place so it was no problem to rewrite to achieve my goal.
KP: Setting up the conflict and building up the suspense are the reasons I kept turning the pages in Seduction, Volume 1. I know the same will apply to Volume 2. Can you share with us, how you deliver in these areas?
CB: First and foremost, I use the format of a TV movie. The end of a chapter signals a “commercial.” The problem becomes how do you end the chapter/segment so the reader/viewer comes back to the book/TV movie to see what happens next.
Example: The first time the reader finds out about the henchman is the last line of a chapter, “Thank God for Lucy.” (Reader thinks, “Who? Why?”) The next chapter answers the questions. The chapter’s last two words, [Lucy is stalking her target] are “lethal charge.” (Reader thinks, “How? When?”) Answered a few chapters later.
KP: Do you have any other writing tips to share with us.
CB: Two: perseverance and listening. Never give up and listen to your critics. When I give my book to trusted beta readers, I hope they find problems. After 60-80,000 words, I’m too close to my story and need other perspectives to achieve my goaI. I listen to readers and teachers and distill what the story is lacking and how to fix it. During the writing of the first book, I did eight drafts before it was finished and each one is different from the one before. Note: I kept every draft and wound up using sections from previous versions in the last.
KP Do you have any marketing tips to share?
CB: Marketing is coming. I did a soft opening for the first book. It just came out in Audio. I decided to work on the second book to set up the series. That will be published (and hopefully synced with Audio) by the end of June, if not before (I am unashamedly optimistic). I’m starting to use Twitter and blogging. While I wait for final edits on book 2, I plan to do some local promotions.
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Thank you, Carol for sharing your valuable tips on writing and engaging the reader. You dazzle your reader with your ability to create suspense and tension, to create believable characters and to keep them moving forward through action scenes. Memoir writers can learn a lot from reading your work (I have learned a lot from you!) and no matter what your preferred genre, the story carries the reader to the end.
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Author Bio: C.L. Bluestein lives in Slingerlands, New York. Ideas for projects come from life’s absurdities and puzzles–whether it is functional, mental, psychological, or physical. The basic underlying theme is empowerment, or lack thereof.
Website: www.clbluesteinauthor.com
Twitter: C.L. Bluestein @clbauthor
Facebook: C.L.Bluestein
Book Synopsis:
In an attempt to escape her traumatic past and gain independence, renowned author Rachel Allen moves to New York and reunites with Ted X. Donovan–the man that saved her from a brutal rape.
Ted, now the founder of the PRAISE foundation, has become a wealthy philanthropist with presidential connections, but harbors a dangerous, hidden agenda.
Due to Rachel’s and Ted’s work advocating for human rights, the President of the United States appoints them to an isolated think tank located deep within the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
Here, Rachel recognizes the depths of Ted’s skewed sense of love and patriotism, and his connection to an ongoing FBI investigation. Facing her worst fears, Rachel must fight for her life, love, and country.
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How about you? How do you build suspense in your writing? How do you keep the readers turning the pages of your book? As readers, what hooks you into a story and makes you want to keep reading?
Carol has generously offered to give away a paperback or eBook copy of Seduction, Volume 1 to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
Next Week:
Monday, 5/23/16:
“Finding My Way Through the Maze to Reach a Milestone: A Memoir Moment”
