Reading the Bible in 1 Year

The Nation of Israel - Reading the Bible in 1 Year

Thursday, June 3, 2010

WANNA FIGHT?

Well, if you're a writer you should want to - or at least have a lot of conflict. That's what makes a story interesting.

Tuesday night I went to Willamette Writer's mini-seminar at the Old Church in downtown Portland to listen to Elizabeth Engstrom talk about the structure of a good story. She said that we want to live vicariously when we read. Most of us have calm lives but that's not what we want to experience when we read. So, as writers, we need to provide some excitement for the reader. Let them live through our characters. And they have to connect with them too.

So, we need to create a world of conflict and then amplify it even more. Now, I'm off to my WIP to ratchet up the conflict. I have to tell myself I wanna fight.

3 comments:

Rena Jones said...

That's a good point. I suppose the tricky part is finding the balance of what's believable and/or realistic.

Christina Farley said...

Very good point. I think that's why I loved the Hunger Games so much. It's like I went on this adventure all curled up on my couch.

Anonymous said...

This is so true--and it is SO hard to do!