Putting it under tension…

The most common recommendations for increasing tension in a story are things like “raise the stakes, again and again,” “make sure your readers care about the characters/conflict,” “hold back information,” and “use cliffhangers.”  The basic assumption seems to be that most writers have trouble putting their characters

Read more

Noon vs. Midnight

“You can’t tell stories about sunshine.” – Garrison Keillor Last Sunday, I was listening to “A Prairie Home Companion” as I frequently do of a Sunday morning, and the news from Lake Woebegone was about a group of men going out bass fishing on a day that

Read more