Gabrielle Bisset

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Author Chris Redding Guest Post

Please welcome author Chris Redding to the blog today!


Make your prose so vivid the story will be visually compelling.

Hm. Think about that for a moment.

I’ll wait while you ponder it.

Done?

Your story should be three-dimensional in the readers mind. It should be a movie that only the reader can see. The reader needs to be inside the story with all the characters.

As you live your life, you are bombarded with details and sensations. In a story the characters are. The reader should experience the story just like the characters. The writer must convey the sights, sounds, smells and emotions of the story to make it vivid for the reader. Anyone who picks up the books must be able to “see” the story.

Jason J. Tomaric in The Power Filmmaking Kit said, “The foundation of a good story is inspiration, research, and the ability to develop an idea into a commercially viable product that audiences will want to see.” This is the case with a book also.

What kind of book are you writing? You should know this from the beginning. Are your writing for yourself or an audience? Do you want to make money doing this?

Write what you know. Write what you’ve seen, experienced, or lived. How can you write about something you’ve never experienced? Ask someone who has. I’ve never actually been in the middle of a fire, but I’ve written about it because my husband has been inside of many burning buildings.

The point is, scenes must resonate with the audience which happen is you know the truth of the situation. The material will be strong because you’ve lived it whether on your own or through someone else.

So before you can write, go live.



This is from a workshop: Lights! Camera! Bestseller!



Chris Redding lives in New Jersey with her husband, two kids, one dog and three rabbits. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in Journalism. When she isn’t writing or giving workshops, she works part time for her local hospital. Her latest thriller is Blonde Demolition, available at Amazon http://tinyurl.com/7olwvhs

You can find Chris on the web:


Back cover text for Blonde Demolition

You just can't hide from the past...

Mallory Sage lives in a small, idyllic town where nothing ever happens. Just the kind of life she has always wanted. No one, not even her fellow volunteer firefighters, knows about her past life as an agent for Homeland Security.

Former partner and lover, Trey McCrane, comes back into Mallory's life. He believes they made a great team once, and that they can do so again. Besides, they don't have much choice. Paul Stanley, a twisted killer and their old nemesis, is back.

Framed for a bombing and drawn together by necessity, Mallory and Trey go on the run and must learn to trust each other again―if they hope to survive. But Mallory has been hiding another secret, one that could destroy their relationship. And time is running out.