Anna Bendewald
Hudson-Ivy Press

  Let's back up to one of the first questions people ask immediately after divulging they'd like to learn how to write a book: "Where is the ideal space to write?" An excellent and fundamental question. Their second question is: "Where do you write?" My answer is that I don't write in a specific place, but in order to write, my environment must be free of distractions and limit people's ability to interrupt me. I write my books on a laptop and can park myself on a sofa, propped up on a bed, in a coffee house, airport, on a plane or train, even in a parked car while my family is on a hike. The only critical aspect is that I must have an expectation of privacy to enter my character's world and let their experience flow through my fingers and onto the proverbial page. "How do you write productively in an airport or on a train?" they often ask as if I've scandalized them. "Noise-canceling headphones," is my reply. It's tr...

How To Write a Book: What's your POV? I recently read a book written in first person that made me unsettled. A bit like a baby must feel when strapped to someone's chest facing forward. No. Really. Like I was dangling out there as the action was happening. The immediacy had me slightly unnerved throughout the read and it wasn't until afterward that I put my finger on the fact that it was a memoir of someone to whom bad things happened and I felt as if they were happening to me. There are 4 types of POV in writing 3rd Person Omniscient: Little did she know she'd become the queen in twelve short months. Popular for children who need this kind of foretelling to keep their attention. 3rd Person Limited: She felt awkward with the crown perched on her head. This most popular point of view has someone telling us the story pretty much as it happens. 2nd Person: You are the master of your domain and self-care can be a priority. With you as the focus, I think of this as most ef...

  How to Write a Book: Avoid the Improbable Now, by improbable I don't mean you can't write fantasy or surprise. No, I'm urging you to avoid your character "racing" everywhere when you mean getting from one place to another with purpose. Or considering something "for a minute". Do you know how long it would feel for someone to leave you in silence for an entire minute? How about this passage from a famous writer:  He selected a fine cigar and after lighting it, he tossed the humidor at the doctor. "Cigar?" First, selecting and lighting a fine cigar takes a number of steps involving snipping the end, and touching flame to the other end and puffing I think. Was he holding the humidor that entire time which means he did that all with one hand? What was the doctor doing while this was happening? And humidors aren't wiffleballs. I don't think you toss a humidor containing fine cigars at someone. The passage doesn't say he warned the doc...

  How To Write a Balanced Book What is balance in a story? It's easier to say what an unbalanced story feels like. It feels off. It can be many things that cause a story to be unbalanced. Sub-plots that are left forgotten only to pop up and try hog the limelight. A dearth of information only to then pour out in a torrent of explanation known as the dreaded 'info dump'. Or pacing that drags along paying needless attention to pointless minutiae only to race through big plot points or gloss over critical interactions. As a writer, you must always think like a reader. What do they love most of all? To feel smart and involved. Don't get them involved in a sub-plot without making it worth their while. Keep that sub-plot alive and in its proper place--supporting the overall story experience. As for information, there are many ways to sprinkle clues and information throughout. Trust your reader to pick up on them so that when all is revealed, they've gathered everything all...

  How to Write a Book: Plotting First, you may ask, why not just let the story flow? It'll naturally have a beginning, middle, and end. Isn't anything else contrived? To that I ask: Q: Are you a unicorn who has stories flow out of your fingertips in the same sequence that they'll ultimately land in print? A: If you're not that unicorn, you will need a bit of contrivance to craft the plot of your story. There are so many different ways to plot a book, and I've tried them all. But ultimately I realized I was trying for a perfectly balanced experience... like Carl Gottleib's script for Jaws. If you've ever read The Jaws Log you'll know Carl was contriving so hard during the 159 days he was "co-writing" Jaws he probably looked like an interpretive dancer there on Martha's Vineyard while crafting the perfect 3 Act experience. And what an experience!  Act One: Grizzly murders with the town in peril Act Two: Heroes set out only to find they need a...

  How To Write a Book: Is Pacing Important? YES! A book that lags is a book that gets set aside. While long ago people were so enthralled to get their hands on a book that they were content to read it while it was chained to the wall in a library, nowadays we have so many commitments and distractions fighting for our attention that even the juiciest book has to compete with the nagging voice, “Did I turn the iron off?” and once you set a book down to check the iron, there are a bazillion things that come to mind and fight to keep you from returning to that story.  Q: What is this force that seeks to thwart authors and compel readers to stop reading? A: The Pre-Frontal Cortex Yes, this wonder of the human brain that sits just behind our foreheads is designed to do a wide variety of prioritizing from behavior to goals to calibrating emotional responses and complex organization for task completion. And when you stop reading a book your PFC blinks into life and starts trying to "h...