KN Magazine: Articles
I've Got A Secret / Sandy Ward Bell
A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre, says author Sandy Ward Bell. In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, Sandy explains that creating obstacles for your characters is one thing, but developing underlying secret subplots can make a novel a page-turner.
Cheerio!
Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
I’ve Got a Secret
By Sandy Ward Bell
Whether you write romance or young adult or literary fiction, adding a bit of mystery to your story will improve your work. A mystery helps to move a story forward. Creating obstacles is one thing, but developing an underlying secret as a subplot can make your book a page-turner.
A budding romance is fun, but what if the protagonist’s best friend receives a ransom note for someone they don’t know? Now the love story will include an adventure. It comes down to questions without answers and our job as writers is to make those questions so fascinating the reader will fly through to the end to get the answers. Sometimes “will she get her man” is not enough.
When I took on the challenge of writing a modern version of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I wanted to stay true to her vision and respectful to her characters, knowing the best way to do that was to not deviate from her main themes. With that figured out, the next objective was to make my story as humorous and compelling as Austen’s. While I couldn’t use the delicate beauty of old English and the culture of ancient British estates, I could create a few extra characters with secrets that influenced the protagonist.
In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price doesn’t spend a lot of time with her father. So in Parked at the Mansfields’, I made the father of my main character, Franny Price (note the renaming), disappear without a clue. By giving my protagonist new challenges, it was easier to modernize the story as well as expand on character development. To surprise Austen fans (who know her stories by heart), I added a mystery: there is a key attached to a family secret and Aunt Wilma is going mad trying to find it, while Franny searches for her father. That was my way of twisting the story enough to make it an entertaining ride and strengthen the plot.
If you are having difficulty finding that perfect twist for your book, look first to your characters. Let’s imagine you already wrote an important scene with your protagonist and a co-worker eating at a restaurant while discussing their problems. But, did you, as the writer, notice a guy at the next table recording their conversation with his phone? Now you can imagine it, and add to the story that your co-worker is a tech-geek, and the intruder is his nemesis. Simply exaggerate a characteristic or profession and let your creative mind do the rest.
Go to your settings, if you are still stumped. Your main character is at a lake, surrounded by tall trees, contemplating if he should give his girl the engagement ring. But wait, there is a creepy sound coming from within the dark forest. He stands to investigate and a splash in the water causes him to jump. The unknown creature living in the lake will help him make his decision.
Another way to find a hidden mystery in your story is to ask why. Why does the protagonist drive a red car? Is it because that is the same kind of car his dead mother drove? Why does your main character like antiques? Is it because she’s looking for her childhood bookshelf that has a concealed compartment? Why does the Uncle always kiss the mailbox after retrieving his magazine subscriptions? Is it a sort of Morse code he uses to communicate with his neighbor? Never underestimate the power of “why.”
A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre. And you’ll have fun as a writer, too, tweaking your characters and storyline to offer readers a tale both enjoyable and unexpected.
Sandy Ward Bell grew up in upstate New York and had a successful career as a radio announcer and promotion director. After becoming a wife and mother, the art of storytelling became her new passion with the motto, “You can never be in too many book clubs.” Writing fiction became a natural next step. Her first novel, In Zoey’s Head, reflects her experience with the media and pop culture. Her second book, Parked at the Mansfields’, highlights her appreciation for Jane Austen’s timeless story. Throughout the years, she’s called Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home. Currently she lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband and a Westie. Visit sandywardbell.com for more updates on current and new work in progress.
Submit to our blog! (Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)
I've Got A Secret / Sandy Ward Bell
A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre, says author Sandy Ward Bell. In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, Sandy explains that creating obstacles for your characters is one thing, but developing underlying secret subplots can make a novel a page-turner.Cheerio!
Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
I’ve Got a SecretBy Sandy Ward BellWhether you write romance or young adult or literary fiction, adding a bit of mystery to your story will improve your work. A mystery helps to move a story forward. Creating obstacles is one thing, but developing an underlying secret as a subplot can make your book a page-turner.A budding romance is fun, but what if the protagonist’s best friend receives a ransom note for someone they don’t know? Now the love story will include an adventure. It comes down to questions without answers and our job as writers is to make those questions so fascinating the reader will fly through to the end to get the answers. Sometimes “will she get her man” is not enough.When I took on the challenge of writing a modern version of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I wanted to stay true to her vision and respectful to her characters, knowing the best way to do that was to not deviate from her main themes. With that figured out, the next objective was to make my story as humorous and compelling as Austen’s. While I couldn’t use the delicate beauty of old English and the culture of ancient British estates, I could create a few extra characters with secrets that influenced the protagonist.In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price doesn’t spend a lot of time with her father. So in Parked at the Mansfields’, I made the father of my main character, Franny Price (note the renaming), disappear without a clue. By giving my protagonist new challenges, it was easier to modernize the story as well as expand on character development. To surprise Austen fans (who know her stories by heart), I added a mystery: there is a key attached to a family secret and Aunt Wilma is going mad trying to find it, while Franny searches for her father. That was my way of twisting the story enough to make it an entertaining ride and strengthen the plot.
If you are having difficulty finding that perfect twist for your book, look first to your characters. Let’s imagine you already wrote an important scene with your protagonist and a co-worker eating at a restaurant while discussing their problems. But, did you, as the writer, notice a guy at the next table recording their conversation with his phone? Now you can imagine it, and add to the story that your co-worker is a tech-geek, and the intruder is his nemesis. Simply exaggerate a characteristic or profession and let your creative mind do the rest.Go to your settings, if you are still stumped. Your main character is at a lake, surrounded by tall trees, contemplating if he should give his girl the engagement ring. But wait, there is a creepy sound coming from within the dark forest. He stands to investigate and a splash in the water causes him to jump. The unknown creature living in the lake will help him make his decision.Another way to find a hidden mystery in your story is to ask why. Why does the protagonist drive a red car? Is it because that is the same kind of car his dead mother drove? Why does your main character like antiques? Is it because she’s looking for her childhood bookshelf that has a concealed compartment? Why does the Uncle always kiss the mailbox after retrieving his magazine subscriptions? Is it a sort of Morse code he uses to communicate with his neighbor? Never underestimate the power of “why.”A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre. And you’ll have fun as a writer, too, tweaking your characters and storyline to offer readers a tale both enjoyable and unexpected.
Sandy Ward Bell grew up in upstate New York and had a successful career as a radio announcer and promotion director. After becoming a wife and mother, the art of storytelling became her new passion with the motto, “You can never be in too many book clubs.” Writing fiction became a natural next step. Her first novel, In Zoey's Head, reflects her experience with the media and pop culture. Her second book, Parked at the Mansfields’, highlights her appreciation for Jane Austen’s timeless story. Throughout the years, she’s called Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home. Currently she lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband and a Westie. Visit sandywardbell.com for more updates on current and new work in progress.
Submit to our blog! (Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)
I've Got A Secret / Sandy Ward Bell
A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre, says author Sandy Ward Bell. In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, Sandy explains that creating obstacles for your characters is one thing, but developing underlying secret subplots can make a novel a page-turner.Cheerio!
Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
I’ve Got a SecretBy Sandy Ward BellWhether you write romance or young adult or literary fiction, adding a bit of mystery to your story will improve your work. A mystery helps to move a story forward. Creating obstacles is one thing, but developing an underlying secret as a subplot can make your book a page-turner.A budding romance is fun, but what if the protagonist’s best friend receives a ransom note for someone they don’t know? Now the love story will include an adventure. It comes down to questions without answers and our job as writers is to make those questions so fascinating the reader will fly through to the end to get the answers. Sometimes “will she get her man” is not enough.When I took on the challenge of writing a modern version of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I wanted to stay true to her vision and respectful to her characters, knowing the best way to do that was to not deviate from her main themes. With that figured out, the next objective was to make my story as humorous and compelling as Austen’s. While I couldn’t use the delicate beauty of old English and the culture of ancient British estates, I could create a few extra characters with secrets that influenced the protagonist.In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price doesn’t spend a lot of time with her father. So in Parked at the Mansfields’, I made the father of my main character, Franny Price (note the renaming), disappear without a clue. By giving my protagonist new challenges, it was easier to modernize the story as well as expand on character development. To surprise Austen fans (who know her stories by heart), I added a mystery: there is a key attached to a family secret and Aunt Wilma is going mad trying to find it, while Franny searches for her father. That was my way of twisting the story enough to make it an entertaining ride and strengthen the plot.
If you are having difficulty finding that perfect twist for your book, look first to your characters. Let’s imagine you already wrote an important scene with your protagonist and a co-worker eating at a restaurant while discussing their problems. But, did you, as the writer, notice a guy at the next table recording their conversation with his phone? Now you can imagine it, and add to the story that your co-worker is a tech-geek, and the intruder is his nemesis. Simply exaggerate a characteristic or profession and let your creative mind do the rest.Go to your settings, if you are still stumped. Your main character is at a lake, surrounded by tall trees, contemplating if he should give his girl the engagement ring. But wait, there is a creepy sound coming from within the dark forest. He stands to investigate and a splash in the water causes him to jump. The unknown creature living in the lake will help him make his decision.Another way to find a hidden mystery in your story is to ask why. Why does the protagonist drive a red car? Is it because that is the same kind of car his dead mother drove? Why does your main character like antiques? Is it because she’s looking for her childhood bookshelf that has a concealed compartment? Why does the Uncle always kiss the mailbox after retrieving his magazine subscriptions? Is it a sort of Morse code he uses to communicate with his neighbor? Never underestimate the power of “why.”A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre. And you’ll have fun as a writer, too, tweaking your characters and storyline to offer readers a tale both enjoyable and unexpected.
Sandy Ward Bell grew up in upstate New York and had a successful career as a radio announcer and promotion director. After becoming a wife and mother, the art of storytelling became her new passion with the motto, “You can never be in too many book clubs.” Writing fiction became a natural next step. Her first novel, In Zoey's Head, reflects her experience with the media and pop culture. Her second book, Parked at the Mansfields’, highlights her appreciation for Jane Austen’s timeless story. Throughout the years, she’s called Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home. Currently she lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband and a Westie. Visit sandywardbell.com for more updates on current and new work in progress.
Submit to our blog! (Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)
Variety is the Spice of Writing – But So Is Plausibility / Author Stephen L. Brayton
The beauty of the written word is that real life can be just a jumping off point. Plus, there’s no reason to get bogged down in the same details over and over. In this week’s blog, author Stephen L. Brayton shares how he incorporates variety into his stories and why it’s so important. After all, Brayton’s heroine Mallory Petersen, a taekwondo instructor and private investigator, packs a sidekick worth getting right.
Happy Reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Variety is the Spice of Writing – But So Is Plausibility
By Stephen L. Brayton
Since I’m involved in martial arts, I write a series about a character that is a taekwondo school owner as well as a private investigator. Yes, she carries a gun, but she relies on her martial arts skills more often.
I have two challenges in writing this series. First, is to create scenes where my main character, Mallory Petersen, can use her skills, and secondly, is for her to use a variety of those skills.
After all, what fun would it be for the reader if all she ever threw were a couple of punches and a front kick?
So, I’ve adapted my own training into scenes. Yes, punches and front kicks are used, but also round kicks, sweeps, sidekicks, and a variety of weapons such as the long staff and bahng mahng ee, or single stick.
I’ve been able to take some of my favorite exercises and techniques, allowing Mallory to use them in practical situations.
In an upcoming story, she has to execute with skill certain techniques to avoid being killed by an assailant wielding a knife. The situation is dire. She doesn’t have a weapon. She is also in danger of freezing, suffering from withdrawal symptoms, and can’t waste time or else somebody else dies. It’s one of those scenes designed to keep the reader on edge.
But when I create one of these scenes, I have to choreograph the movements. Many times, I’ve mentally written the order of technique-reaction-counter techniques while doing laps around the local high school track. Running, for me, is a great way to free up my mind to think about writing. When I concentrate on a problem within a story, I focus less on how my muscles hurt or that I want to quit after only a few laps.
Back home, I’ll write down the steps in order, then physically work through them, either alone or with a partner. Of course, I’m not actually going to incapacitate my partner, but I am able to get a feel for how the techniques will work. I also get a sense of time, whether the scene runs too quickly or drags and I need to add more material to spice it up a bit.
One area I need to keep in mind is that Mallory is human and feels pain. My writers group has commented on this several times after I’ve read portions of Mallory’s action scenes. This is not like the movies where no one gets hurt, and the heroine fights through any injury with no consequence. Mallory experiences both pain and injury. Sure, she can grit her teeth and still fight on, but she is not Superwoman.
I know I’ve done my job well when I hear comments from readers who say they can follow the movements and know that what I’ve written, and what Mallory has accomplished, actually works.
Creating new scenarios and using the variety of martial arts techniques I know is part of the fun of writing. With that foundation, my imagination can run free to do whatever is necessary to make the scene worth reading.
If you would like to read more about Stephen L. Brayton’s books please click here.
Stephen L. Brayton owns and operates Brayton’s Black Belt Academy in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He is a Fifth Degree Black Belt and certified instructor in The American Taekwondo Association. He began writing as a child; his first short story concerned a true incident about his reactions to discipline. In college, he began a personal journal for a writing class; said journal is ongoing. He was also a reporter for the college newspaper. During his early twenties, while working for a Kewanee, Illinois, radio station, he wrote a fantasy-based story and a trilogy for a comic book. He has written numerous short stories both horror and mystery. His first novel, Night Shadows (Feb. 2011), concerns a Des Moines homicide investigator teaming up with a federal agent to battle creatures from another dimension. His second book, Beta (Oct. 2011) was the debut of Mallory Petersen and her search for a kidnapped girl. In August 2012, the second Mallory Petersen book, Alpha, was published. This time she investigates the murder of her boyfriend. Visit Brayton’s website at http://stephenbrayton.wordpress.com
Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com
Rolling. Speed. Action. Cut! … Darn, Take Two! Rewriting and the Zen of Film / Author Daco Auffenorde
If the thing to remember when purchasing property is location, location, location, then the thing to remember when writing is…well…not writing at all. It’s rewriting.
Citing examples from Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, Lisa Scottoline, Charlie Chaplin and others, author Daco Auffenorde examines the process of rewriting, the strong case for getting the idea down and then molding it, and how absolutely critical rewriting is to achieving artistic (if not financial) success.
(And just so you know, I rewrote this intro 7 times.)
Happy Reading! And may you never run out of extra paper.
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
According to a 2010 CNN report, famed actor-director Charlie Chaplin demanded 342 takes just to get actress Virginia Cherrill to mouth the words “flower sir” in the silent film City Lights. Iconic director Stanley Kubrick reputedly reshot one or more scenes in The Shining over a hundred times.
Great film directors like Kubrick and Chaplin are often revered for their willingness to reshoot scenes. So why do writers believe their first draft is a perfect, one-take scene, or if they do recognize the need to rewrite, become paralyzed by the thought? I think it’s because rewriting is not only a blow to the ego, it’s also hard and time-consuming. Unlike a movie director, an author can’t call “Cut” and reshoot the scene immediately. Yet, rewriting is as critical to a good book as the retake is to a successful movie.
Stephen King told The Paris Review (Fall 2006), “Every book is different each time you revise it. Because when you finish the book, you say to yourself, ‘This isn’t what I meant to write at all.’” In 1958, also speaking to The Paris Review, Ernest Hemingway revealed that he rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms thirty-seven times and the last page thirty-nine times. According to a mid-2012 article in the New York Times, Seán Hemingway discovered after studying the collected works of his grandfather that there were actually forty-seven endings to the novel. The Telegraph added that not only was the story rewritten multiple times, but that Hemingway also compiled a list of alternative titles before he decided on the final.
What this means is that the key time in the writing process—the time when the book takes shape—is in the rewriting. So, how does the reluctant rewriter make sure her book gets the rewrite it deserves?
Take 3 … and action.
Done. The end. I’d finished writing The Scorpio Affair, the sequel to my debut suspense novel, The Libra Affair. I’d proofed it over and over, corrected typos, tinkered with sentences, cut verbiage. It had to be ready to send out to the publisher. But books are meant to be read, so before submitting my manuscript, I shared it with a trusted beta reader, and he suggested that I yell, “Cut!” and reshoot some scenes. I didn’t take his word for it right away. Instead, I put the manuscript away for a while, and then later read it on my own. He was right.
I knew how I wanted The Scorpio Affair to begin and end, and those parts of the book were fine. In between, I’d taken my heroine Jordan Jakes, a CIA covert operative, on a wild ride with lots of action and intrigue. But much of Scorpio was too episodic. Many chapters told exciting, self-contained stories, but didn’t move the plot forward quickly enough. There was only one thing to do—retake. And though at first I found myself frustrated at the daunting task of an entire rewrite, I remembered that most successful authors embrace the rewrite as a fundamental step in crafting a good story. For encouragement, I recalled the King and Hemingway examples, and also this wonderful quote from best-selling author Lisa Scottoline: “They say that great books aren’t written, they’re rewritten, and whoever said that was probably drinking Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, because they’re right.” I bought a dozen doughnuts, brewed some coffee, and started to revise The Scorpio Affair.
But here are the first two lessons about rewriting. If the process doesn’t come naturally to you, first put the manuscript away for awhile. As Neil Gaiman said, “Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you’re ready, pick it up and read it, as if you’ve never read it before.” It’s advice that you hear all the time, but it’s difficult to put your baby to bed even for a few weeks. And second, try to find that trusted beta reader, someone who’ll tell you candidly if there’s rewriting to be done.
There are other ways to foster the rewriting process. Writing groups can help immensely, both because you get feedback from an audience—that’s who we write for—and often because you can read your work aloud. I can’t tell you how many times words looked good on the page but have sounded slow and extraneous when read aloud. If you’re not in a writing group, you should still read aloud even if only to yourself. Your ears will tell you if your story has the right rhythm.
A final alternative—there are many good private editors/writing coaches out there. They can be expensive, so not everyone can afford them. But if you’re lucky enough to have some spare change lying around, they can be very helpful, especially in today’s publishing world, where the editorial staff expects ready-to-go manuscripts.
Take 4 … and quiet on the set.
To conclude, I’m going to advise something that might seem inconsistent with the above. In considering how much to rewrite, trust your gut. Don’t rewrite just because someone tells you it should be done. As the artist, only you can decide when your story is ready. The gaffer, grip, production designer, and cinematographer might all have good input, but you’re the director, and the final cut belongs to you.
And that’s a wrap!
If you would like to read more about Daco Auffenorde’s books please click here.
Born at the Naval hospital in Bethesda, Maryland and raised in Wernher von Braun’s Rocket City of Huntsville, Alabama, Daco holds a B.A. and M.A.S. from The University of Alabama in Huntsville and a J.D. from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. When not practicing law, she’s encouraging her children to become rocket scientists and writing novels. Daco’s debut novel, The Libra Affair, an international spy thriller with romantic elements, released in April 2013, and was an Amazon #1 Bestseller of Suspense, Romantic Suspense, and Romance in September, 2013. Daco is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Romance Writers of America, Author’s Guild, and the Alabama State Bar. Visit her website at www.authordaco.com
Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. And, as always, thanks to author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs.
Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine
Want to have your writing included in Killer Nashville Magazine?
Fill out our submission form and upload your writing here: