Writing Tidbit: Suspenseful Delight, Not Torture

In The New York Times, author Alex Stone explains the psychology behind why waiting is torture.  The article has some excellent points that I would like to highlight here and relate to writing.  In particular, I want to relate to how writers open up a question but delay when they answer it.  Sometimes the sense of suspense works, sometimes it doesn't.  Perhaps this article gives some hints as to why.

#Amwriting Link: 6 Reasons Your Blog is Scaring Away Your Audience

Found on #amwriting this morning:

Hey, you!  Don't do that!  6 reasons your blog is scaring away your audience by Melinda Atlas.

First off, nice voice in this post--I know, I'm weird, you're not supposed to notice or comment on things like that--but I did find the tips interesting.  The most useful or intriguing tip is under Point #4.  Point #4 concerns novel covers on your blog, what to do, what not to do.  Atlas suggests picking just one novel/cover.  Awhile back, I heard about an author who pointed all his links to one novel, which had links to all his works, or something like that.  This tip reminded me a little of that idea, and it sounds like a good idea to try, using one novel as a funnel for most of your blog traffic.  I'll have to muse on it more, but I'll probably try it.  But I want to wait until I got the right work, likely from my in progress so-called "secret" project (not so secret in that it is an intended for-the-love/free-fic project) or one from my episodic series I talked about in the last post.  Either way, it will be a bit before I can try.

Anyway, what do you think? 

#Amwriting Link: Top 10 Tips Blog Post

Found via #amwriting

My top 10 tips for fiction writers - http://rebeccaberto.com/2011/11/14/my-top-10-tips-for-writers/

Couple interesting points on this one.  The first is Tip #2.  I generally see college course work being discredited on writing forums.  The main point being, it won't get you published, but if you can afford it, it can't hurt.  But then again, there can be cheaper methods to learning how to write, too.

Then there is Tip #7.  Much of the other advice I have found before.  That doesn't meant it is not useful, but as I've been working on writing and studying it for over ten years, I've just seen some of the advice before.  It's still useful for newbies.  But "know[ing] your weakness and push[ing] yourself to become an expert on the topic" is not something I commonly see as advice for new writers.  I really like this tip.  Back when I wrote fanfic, I used to hate writing dialogue, because I couldn't make it sound like the characters.  But I worked on it.  Now, dialogue is one of things I like to write, and I know I have improved. 

What do you all think of the post above?  Or the tips I pulled?

Context is Queen

On a writing forum I visit, there is a discussion about eliminating certain words from a manuscript.  But that reminds me of a discussion about grammar tricks, such as when to use who/whom, and inevitably someone suggests its best not to use tricks but to understand objects, subjects, and such to understand when to use which word.

I think the same must be done for eliminating "overused" words.  You put the word there, and unless it was a pure error, it had a function.  Understand the function of the word to make sure the replacement word has the exact same function and weight and still fits voice.  Also pay attention to what happens if you revise the sentence into something else entirely, for you still have to understand the function the sentence was playing.  In this case, if you intend a different function for the sentence, make sure it fits in the broader picture of paragraph, scene, voice, etc.

Basically, if content is king, I say context is queen.  Make sure you pay attention to her too.