creativity

The Crime of Poison: A perfect murder weapon in the mystery books

written by Jessica Hope (guest post) Give me a decent bottle of poison and I’ll construct the perfect crime. Agatha Christie  Made famous by the likes of Agatha Christie in her captivating novels, poison has become the popular choice of weapon in mystery books. From Murder Is Easy, to Sparkling Cyanide, Christie had an incredible ability to build complex narratives around...

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Aspects of the Novel

No book worth its salt is meant to put you to sleep, it’s meant to make you jump out of bed in your underwear and run and beat the author’s brains out. Bohumil Hrabal, Czech novelist There’s a book called Aspects of the Novel, a series of lectures from E. M. Forster, written in 1927. I haven’t read it myself...

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“The Story Grid”, Shawn Coyne #takeawaykeys

What your characters say they are is NOT who they are… What they do is the key. Shawn Coyne 1. Think in 5 principles, the bricks for any successful story:  TIME, SUBSTANCE, STYLE, STRUCTURE, CONTENT. 2. Learn your genre – there’s a great collection (with examples) of differences between each genre. I can’t mention them all (only some), but read...

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