Anna Bendewald
Hudson-Ivy Press

  TRUST YOUR READER  When learning how to write a book that people will enjoy reading, it's important to think about trust. Your reader is putting theirs in you by investing (hopefully money) by buying your book and time by reading your book. Both are quite valuable. In return, the best writers will trust their readers to "get it". Whatever 'it' is.  Readers immerse themselves into a story and are in a constant state of evaluation as they consume your words. They will pick up on a character's furtive movement near someone's purse or desk drawer and you won't need to push their sneaky actions or criminal nature in anyone's face. They got it. Now we have a sneaky character. What, as a writer, can you do with that? Avoid repetition to keep your story fresh and realistic. In Stealing Venice, my character Raphielli kept a scarf wound around her neck to hide a secret. I had the scarf slip several times in book 2 Storming Venice and my editor flagged it ...

 LONG AFFAIR VS STOLEN WEEKEND When I'm asked how to write a book, I ask about the longest and shortest stories they've ever read. With that in mind, what kind of story is inside them to write? Are they full of a sweeping epic or something shorter? Shorter isn't less impressive, it's simply a different animal. I read Sue Grafton, the prolific alphabet detective story writer, describe an exercise she undertook to write a complete murder mystery in just a few pages. She likened it to painting a grain of rice with a 1-hair brush. I then read that exercise and it's marvelous!  Long or short, you are going to use your imagination fully...just differently. If you're Tolstoy writing Anna Karenina you're reveling in the smell of wheat fields and the swish of the scythe, the drowsiness of the golden Russian sun and the weariness in Vronsky's bones after laboring with his workers. Then you're writing pages and pages to transport your reader to the countryside ...

  How To Write a Book: Demystifying Sentence Length Nothing can put you to sleep faster than a monotonous book. Cast your mind to Ayn Rand's repetition of adjectives like unrelenting drops of water that become torture. Fact. I don't apologize for my opinion of her work. Or it could be as simple as the author's failure to vary the lengths of their sentences.  He walked down Rush Street, energy fading and mood darkening. Spotting the blonde girl, he walked by without waving. The bus blew past him, he would miss the coming attractions. Zzzzzzz. Repeated sentence structure is hypnotic. Pep things up by varying the length. He walked down Rush street. His energy was fading and his mood darkening as he spotted the blonde girl. He walked by without waving. The bus blew past. Drat! He'd miss the coming attractions! To perfect your sentences try this one trick: Read your story out loud. Any monotony will ring as boring the moment you utter the words. Trust your ear. By nature, wh...

  How To Write a Book: How Long Should My Book Be? When asked that question, my response is: How long should a piece of string be? I get a blank look, then frustration creeps in before realization. A piece of string is cut for a specific purpose and can be as long or as short as appropriate. The real answer is: There is no one rule for book-length. However, the answers to these two questions will tell you how long YOUR book should be: What is the length of currently popular books in your genre? This will tell you what readers expect when they buy your book. That’s a good target. How many pages do you need to properly tell your story? Estimate the depth you need to go to in order to bring your tale fully to life. If the number of pages you estimate you'll need is incompatible with what sells in your genre you'll want to re-evaluate your genre. If your genre is solid, move on to re-evaluating the depth of your content. Something is causing the currently popular books to come in h...

  How To Write A Book: Where's Your Story Set? Fundamental to how to write a book is the decision of setting. If you're writing non-fiction it's been decided for you. But with fiction, you have an important decision to make. The place is often a character in itself. Ask yourself 3 Questions: Does your plot need a place? Ocean? Subway? Secluded cabin? What energy does your story need? Frenetic? (Tokyo) Bucolic? (Geneva, IL) Glamorous? (Montenegro) Not that Tokyo isn't glamorous, but you get my meaning. Does your ideal reader want to spend time there? If your story started in your headset in Loveland Colorado because you went to Junior High there (I did, shout out to Bill Read JH!) it doesn't have to stay here. Would it be more compelling or attractive to your ideal reader if you switched location?  Explore the world with your imagination before you decide because it won't be as easy as searching/replacing the town name once you've written your manuscript. T...