Writing Suspense / 2 posts found
Simone St. James: On Finishing the Book First
Simone St. James is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Sun Down Motel, The Broken Girls, Lost Among the Living, and The Haunting of Maddy Clare. She wrote her first ghost story, about a haunted library, when she was in high school, and spent 20 years behind the scenes in the television business before leaving to write full time. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Simone St. James Photo by Perrywinkle Photography, 2018 In this post, Simone discusses the nonstop learning that happened in writing her new suspense novel, The Book of Cold Cases, why […]
10 Things to Consider When Writing About Obsession in Fiction
Obsession can be a powerful engine in fiction writing. Your main character might be fixated on another person, or an object, or a task. Yet by its nature, their desire cannot be satisfied. Getting more leads to wanting more. Obstacles only make the need stronger. (Kiare Ladner: On Anticipating False Summits) As the stakes increase, obsession brings a natural arc to your story. Tension rises and rises until … what? In the end, something has to give, whether it is the obsession itself or the main character’s sanity or their life. Sound easy? Nothing’s ever as easy as it sounds […]