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October 2008
WRITERSREIGN 2nd SHORT STORY
COMPETITION LAUNCHED THIS
MONTH!
Full details
here
Suspense is the Ingredient That
Keeps Your Readers Turning Those
Pages
The element of suspense if
something readers love. It may be
heavy, but it can also be light, and
when you add it into your story, your readers
will keep reading until they get to the
resolution. And isn't that what you want?
Let's consider the two most
usual types of suspense.
First there is the 'signpost'
suspense. This is where something happens, or
is said, or is described that hints at some
outcome, pleasant or unpleasant, in the
future.
Next there is the 'up to their
eyes' suspense. The Indiana Jones stories, as
well as many others, show the hero or heroine
'up to their eyes' in some desperate physical
situation that is life threatening, or at the
very least may seriously damage their health.
Underground passages with snakes and rats come
to mind. You need to keep them occupied like
this for a reasonable length of time build the
suspense and have your readers frantically
turning pages to find out how they escape.
It's a good idea to plan at
what point the suspense occurs and at what
point it is resolved. In a short story the
object of suspense and it's resolution may be
the whole reason for the tale in the first
place. In a book you may want to have a series
of suspenseful situations throughout. Do make
these episodes of varying degrees, though, as
you don't want your readers in a constant state
of frenzy through all 80,000 words!
(Read this complete article
here)
Mervyn Love, Editor
WritersReign
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WritersReign Feature
Article
Writing Again After
Life Upheaval
By Karen Elizabeth Rigley
Storms of life can leave you battered and
shipwrecked from your writing. Whatever the crisis, the
resulting chaos can dam up your ability to create. It’s
difficult, sometimes nearly impossible, to be creative and
inspired when you’re in turmoil – emotionally or
physically. You feel drained. As if the ability to
write’s been sucked out, leaving you empty. Words that
once bubbled forth, vanish.
You may think you’re empty, but you’re not. Once a
writer, always a writer. A writer’s spirit flows with an
undulating ocean of words and your ocean hasn’t
evaporated. The power of words; the passion to create,
still lurk in hidden depths. So realize it’s temporary
when that blank screen and empty page haunt you.
Simple steps and a bit of patience will help reclaim your
muse and get your creativity flowing once more. Wade into
the shallows instead of trying to dive.
(1) Look beyond the seawall.
Revisit your last
project. Read your last chapter, paragraph or
sentence. Review your notes. Re-emerge yourself
gradually into whatever you were writing. Don’t expect to
plunge in full force.
(2) Collect seashells.
Edit or critique someone
else’s manuscript. It’s amazing how helping someone else
with their work can help you swim back into your own
writing.
(3) Relax on the beach.
Read. Every writer
was a reader first. Wasn’t reading what ignited your
desire to write? Let the tide wash over you to soothe and
renew your spirit.
(4) Test the waters.
Think of a new project or
the way you want to end your current one. Play with an
outline, a character sketch or a scene. Maybe do some
research. Move through the warm shallows before diving
into the cold sea.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. Like
the ebb and flow of ocean tides, rhythms vary. Everyone
heals at their own rate. Soon your writing will begin to
flow and you’ll find yourself afloat in an ocean of words.
LIMBO SAIL
I drift through the
colorless ocean of writer’s limbo,
aimlessly floating upon a sea of
nothingness.
Has reality encroached too far
shipwrecking my creativity?
Has continuously pondering the fate of
manuscripts
drowned my productivity?
Have the recent crisis and chaos of
life
battered and marooned my muse?
Waves of limbo lure me away from my
writing.
I unresistingly follow like a sailor
searching the seas,
mesmerized by the siren call of mermaids.
I ignore cries of unfinished tales.
Ignore impatient ideas swimming through my
mind.
Ignore imaginary voices floating upon the
waves.
A flame flickers above the horizon,
igniting with the intensity of a lighthouse
beacon,
beckoning me back to the harbor of my
computer.
Karen Elizabeth Rigley
Author bio:
A multi-award winning
author/poet/designer, Karen Elizabeth Rigley is recognized for
her ability to touch readers with her myriad of stories,
articles, scripts and poetry. She’s a member of the
International Women’s Writing Guild and Science Fiction &
Fantasy Writers of America, plus was former editor/director of
Writers Rainbow. Contact her at:
Her work has appeared in: Chicken Soup for the
Soul: Love Stories, Underwired Magazine (Sept 08), Today’s
Woman, On the SingleSide, Magic, The Magic Within, Grit,,
ComputerEdge, Andre Norton’s TALES OF THE WITCHWORLD (Volume
Two), CATFANTASTIC Edited by Andre Norton & Martin H.
Greenberg, CATFANTASTIC II and CATFANTASTIC
III, Romance Writers Report, RhymeTime, SouthWest Writers
Workshop, Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop,
Inkling, Keystrokes, MysteryTime, Housewife Writers
Forum, Strange Wonderland, Science Fiction Review,
etc.
Download
this article in PDF
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