Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

TICK—TICK—TENSION: SETTING THE CLOCK

By: James R. Tucker

Story is about tension. 

Conflict, its resolution, and the build up to that. Sometimes your story is about the tension between characters, sometimes it is the tension between a characters actions and the oncoming consequences, sometimes the tension comes from the circumstances the plot has put your characters in. 

Tension occurs when you inform the reader that something is going to change, to be revealed, or even be destroyed. As the author you set a ticking time clock on the story and that knowledge will keep your reader turning pages. 

Have you ever been writing and feel like you are simply typing words? That your sentences are going to resound in the readers minds as: “blah, blah, BLAH”? 

You need more tension. 

Even if you aren't writing a thriller or an action book you need tension. All genres do. Now if you are lucky enough to be working in a genre that allows it (thriller, crime, horror, urban fantasy, and scifi/fantasy) you can set an actual ticking clock on your story. You can create a situation where your character has a certain amount of time to accomplish a task or there will be dire consequences. Your ex-CIA operative must diffuse the bomb with only 20 seconds on the clock. Your teenage protagonist just has to survive until the sun comes up and the monster goes away. Your swords-woman has only as long as it takes the candle to burn through the rope holding the guillotine blade off the Prince's throat to cut her way to him across a sea of barbarians. 

But how do you set a clock ticking on a quieter book? 

. . .

To read the rest of the post, click here:

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

• So You Want To Write A Book http://ow.ly/Wo0LD
• Writing is Hard http://ow.ly/Wo13b "It doesn’t seem that hard at first.  When you’re caught up in the thrill of creating people..."
• Fiction University: Tick--Tick--Tension: Setting the Clock http://ow.ly/Wo1a7
• The 5 Incredible Benefits of Unplugging | This Incandescent Life http://ow.ly/Wo1ha
• Fiction University: Cover Design on a Budget http://ow.ly/Wo1la
• 15 Things to Consider When Writing Description | Writing and Illustrating http://ow.ly/Wo1qf
• Things to Know When Working With a Printer - WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™ http://ow.ly/Wo1zA
• Before You Start Writing Your Query Letter—Do This First - Writer's Relief, Inc. http://ow.ly/Wo1GM
• Looking Back at 2015 in Book Publishing - The New York Times http://ow.ly/Wo1Xe
• The Write Conversations: Make Progress on Your Writing Journey in 2016 by Taking Time to Look Back http://ow.ly/Wo2sh

Happy writing and running, Kathy