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Opening Scenes: Action or Summary?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

#writetip How do you start your novel? Are you a believer in action or summary? Me, I like to start with action, whether I’m reading or writing a novel.

In my humble opinion, the opening scene is where you get to “show” your stuff. An opening scene filled with action gives a writer the opportunity to show who their main character or villain is, what he/she is made of and how he/she behaves.

I find if I read a summary of a character in the first scene, I don’t tend to be that interested in the character or believe what the writer has to say about the character.

However, if the character is thrown into a situation, I get to learn through seeing and make my own decisions on what they are made of and then the writer has me, and I’m happy to go along for the ride.

Sea Turtles

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

#sailing Part of the fun of cruising for the winter is the wildlife. This sea turtle swam right past our catamaran.

The dog barks frantically, telling something is amiss. I guess he’s not sure what’s in the water and so close to our boat.

A Story Worthy Problem

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#writetip How do you know if you have a story worthy problem and why do you want one?

I guess it depends on whether you are writing short stories or novels. I write novels, but love to read short stories. Let’s say a novel is somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Some can be more and some less.

For a reader to want to spend their time reading 70,000 words, there has to be a problem they are interested in and it has to be big enough to write that many words about.

Your main character needs to strive for something of they are just sitting around being boring. They need to come up against obstacles.

My idea is that you know you have a story worthy problem if you find yourself at 70,000 words (ish) and are still writing about it. If you run out of things to say, it might not be the story worthy.

Mystery Novel: Order of Clues

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#writetip Are you writing a mystery novel and unsure of where to place your clues? Are you including red herrings in your novel? Me too.

One thing I learned working in the human resources field is that people tend to remember the last message you give them. So when I was giving feedback, I tried to end the meeting with a positive message, something the person could take away and be proud of.

I thought this could translate into writing a mystery novel. I give a “real” clue and follow it with a “false” clue. My hope is the reader will remember the second clue, forget the first clue but still have it in their mind, and not guess too early who the villain is.

What do you do?

Cruising Dogs Need to Swim

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

#sailing How may people does it take to get a dog on a boat? Apparently four.

Two to swim with the dog, one to lift the dog onto the boat and one to clap encouragement.

I say this in fun, but there are many situations where your dog has to swim.

Here we couldn’t get the boat closer to the beach, so the only way for us to get on board was to swim.

Before you take your dog cruising, make sure it can swim.

Farley doesn’t love it, but he can do it.

Descriptions That Engage The Reader

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

#writetip When you create the world your novel exists in, there are an infinite number of “things” you can describe. A daunting task! How do you choose what to write about and what to leave out?

One technique is to describe what the character cares about. Chances are if the character is interested in the “thing” being described then the reader will be to.

The character might be interested in something if it is relevant to their goal, if it is a danger to them, or if it shows something about their personality.

To show the reader your character cares about this “thing” you can have the character give their opinion in either speech or thought. You can have the character go to extreme to save this “thing.”

If their house was burning down, what would they save? Maybe that’s the “thing” you should be describing.

For everything you describe, ask yourself how what it means to your character. That should get you on way to deciding what in your new world to write about.

As usual, this is what works for me. If you have other methods, I love to hear about them.

Goats and WI-FI?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

#sailing

Getting wi-fi while cruising the Bahamas can be challenging, but it can also be funny.

For the first time in my life I’ve been to a store where I can buy wi-fi and a goat at the same place. How is a woman supposed to make that decision?

A goat on the boat. Hmm? That might be difficult to explain to my husband. I mean there are shopping impulses, but this could be seen as a little extreme.

In then end, I gave up the idea of having a goat and bought the wi-fi card. I just couldn’t figure out where the goat would sleep.

Switching POVs

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#writetip. I find reading novels with multiple POVs entertaining and enjoyable. So what’s the trick to writing multiple POVs. As usual, this is only my opinion, so here’s what I think.

If you’re going to have multiple POVs in your novel, it’s important to let your reader know this early on in the story.

I could be jarring for a reader to get half way through a novel, and the POV is ripped from underneath their feet and a new character steps in.

Changing POVs in the first few chapters will warn the reader this is your style and hopefully they’ll enjoy your book more. They’ll expect different characters to have their say, to drive the novel, and to provide surprises. They won’t get so attached to one POV that they can’t bear the change and toss the novel aside.

Why Have A Literary Agent?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#writetip I often get asked why I chose to work with a literary agent. I’m not going to talk about all the pros and cons as there a many articles/blogs on this subject.

What I want to talk about are two benefits that aren’t usually shared.

Benefit Number One: As soon as I signed with an agent my friends and family understood I was serious about making a career out of writing, that it wasn’t just a hobby. The support I received increased tremendously. This came in the form of: being left alone when I wanted to write, not offending anyone when I turned down an invitation, so I could write, having experts willing to spend time answering my questions, increasing the number of people willing to read my work and critique it.

Benefit Number Two: When my friends and family treated me like an author, I behaved more like one. I took myself seriously. I gave myself the time to write, the time to improve my writing, the time to research. Having an agent is a boost to the ever fragile ego and motivates me to keep working hard.

Margaret Hart of the HSW Literary Agent took me on as a first time author, and for that I must thank her.

Catamaran or Monohull

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

#sailing. Mattina, our Lagoon 380 S2, is sailing along the Bahamas Banks with Different Drummer, a Bristol 47.

Sailing in the flat water on a windy day is exhilarating on either boat. We are sailing from Norman’s Cay to Pipe Cay. One of those “once in a lifetime” days that we seem to be getting a lot of.

This has been a windy season in the Bahamas. The wind has been kind and come from the East, and we’ve had more days than usual where we can sail the banks under full sail.

We’ve sailed from the Bahamas to Aruba and back with Different Drummer. For that trip we were on a Niagara 42 sloop.

Whatever you sail, the opportunity is there for an adventure.