Roberta·Turning the scene is something I haven’t been careful enough about, and I appreciate you mentioning it. I want every scene to end with a bit of a cliffhanger so the reader has motivation to turn the page, but if the scene is too flat, perhaps they’ll turn the page for the wrong reasons.
As for books to recommend, I’ve found The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass to be helpful. He talks about delving down past the obvious emotions into what he calls third-level emotions. When I’ve done it for a particular story, my readers seem to respond to it in a positive way.
- Mindee Arnett·
You’re welcome. I’ve read that one by Donald Maass as well. I need to revisit it soon.
This is such a great article! Lots of useful information that I’m sure I’ll be referring back to over and over. Thanks, Mindee!
- Mindee Arnett·
You’re welcome. So glad to hear it!
- janewrites·
This is just what I need. Thank you!
- Rae·
Thank you so much for writing this! There is very valuable advice here and recommendations to other craft books, especially in sections three and five. I plan to come back to this a lot in the near future as I revise.
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