Author, Compulsively Readable Thrillers
While worst-case scenarios are one type of obstacle your protagonist must overcome, there are others. Hobson’s Choice dilemmas are a great tool – Your character must decide which one of two people will live and which will die. Or your alcoholic character has years of sobriety behind him, but needs to drink to prove he’s … Read more
The villains in your stories need to be almost as fleshed out as the protagonists. An evil character has to be more than a two-dimensional stereotyped criminal, sociopath, or mobster. Readers don’t necessarily have to like him/her, but they need to understand their motivation; perhaps even why they’re the way they are. It helps to … Read more
Last year I started a series of one-day workshops devoted to the craft of crime fiction. They’re broken up into various segments, but I wanted to summarize one of the most popular: Building Suspense . Btw, this isn’t limited to crime fiction as you’ll see. But it is a rather long post, so curl … Read more