One of the requirements of being an author is the ability to condense the entire book you have written/or are writing to a few key lines. This is an important element in your repertoire of writing skills. How easy or difficult is it to describe the story line of a 80,000 word book in a few lines? As you know, it is widely advocated that you shouldn’t even go beyond two sentences! Continue reading “A book in two sentences.”
Author: Prem Rao
Author, Blogger, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Podcaster
Suspense/Thriller Writers is a group on Facebook which I visit quite frequently. It has interesting posts and interesting people, most of them keen on making a name in this genre of writing. Pat Bertram provoked thought with a recent post, as she does from time to time so effectively.
She said we know the Big Five C’s in writing, which are:-
- Character
- Conflict
- Change
- Contrast (contrast in settings, between characters, in dialogue)
- Caring (what the character cares for, and making the reader care for the character)
We were asked to add to the list of “Cs” which make effective writing. My instinctive reaction was to add “C for Credibility”. This was top most on my mind for two reasons. The first is that I just finished a novel by a major best-selling author, who shall remain unnamed for the present. The book got off to a great start but left me disappointed at the end. I didn’t find it gripping enough. On reflection, I realized that what the protagonist was doing was totally incredible. He was superman personified and this was a huge let down for me. Have you felt the same any time?
The second reason and perhaps what strikes me even more is that as a writer myself, I am very conscious of making both my plots and my characters very credible. People should relate easily to them and feel the story is believable. If the plot or the characters are outlandish by far they will be disappointed. You want them to think of the characters as people they have known, seen or heard about.
To me, therefore, credibility is a hallmark of a good writer. To be successful, within the norms expected of the genre you write in, your plot and characters have to be credible.
My debut novel, a psychological thriller called , “It Can’t Be You” was published in November 2009. It was based on a story I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2oo9. One of the proudest moments in my life was when I found the book listed under “Suspense” in the popular on-line book store, Flipkart.
On March 20, 2011, it was ranked 33 out of 17,400 titles in the “Suspense” category. More importantly, I was proud to see the authors whose titles figures in Ranks 21 to 40 included:- Ruskin Bond, David Baldacci, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, John Grisham, Robin Cook, Lee Child, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, John Le Carre, Prem Rao, Harlen Coben, Greg Isles, Mario Puzo, and Daniel Silva.
Authors wonder sometimes if they are prophetic. How is it that what appears in the plot of their books actually happens in reality? I guess the answer lies in their writing about what they perceive happens in the society they live in. Here’s a case in point. What I have written in “Lucky For Some, Thirteen” about sleeper cells in Bangalore seems to have come true. Continue reading “Sleeper Cells”
Here’s the latest on “A Toast To Plum:Celebrating P.G.Wodehouse”. A post in my writing blog Writing To Be Read. http://networkedblogs.com/sttTG
I am sorry. I haven’t given this blog the attention it deserves. I have now decided to reconfigure the blog.
I would have loved to have separate Pages for each of my books and writing projects. I started this blog with this objective in mind. Sadly, it didn’t work that way. I found that all I could do was to add “comments” and not “posts” on each of these Pages. Not being tech savvy, I couldn’t lick this problem and perhaps this was the main reason why the blog was neglected, in a manner of speaking.
I have now chosen to be more creative to fix the issue. I will settle for the easier option of creating distinct “Categories” for each of my books and writing projects. Hopefully, all the posts will now come on the blog with posts relating to any one book/project being accessible by checking under that particular category.
Let’s see how this works and take it from there.
I have always maintained that writing a synopsis was far more difficult than writing the entire story. Yet it is undisputed that without a snappy synopsis, you are unlikely to go anywhere with that book you have painstakingly written for months or years. Is there a formula for success? Can this difficult task be made any easier?
There are some events that take place in your lifetime which have a tremendous impact on the world. These are unforgettable stories which are spoken of and written about for decades, going on to becoming legends. From my youth, I remember the John F. Kennedy assassination, as if it happened yesterday, though the President was shot dead in Dallas, Texas nearly 50 years ago. On May 2, 2011, the news that Osama Bin Laden, perhaps the most wanted man on earth was killed in a raid in Abbottabad in Pakistan took the world by storm. Continue reading “Should Your Lips Remain SEALed?”
I first read “The Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth in the early ’70s and he soon became one of my favourite authors. I vividly remember the book ( and the subsequent movie) even to this day, decades later. Such was the appeal of the story. In my view, it is one the best thrillers ever written. I was amazed to read that he wrote it in just 35 days! If you haven’t read it yet, grab a copy! You will not regret your decision.
Let’s face it, it is tough to write when your mind is preoccupied with other things. For the first time in my writing career, I hit a patch where I just didn’t write: for nearly a month! Was this the much dreaded writer’s block? Thinking about this astonishes me. What happened? What are the lessons to be learnt? Was it just the age old writer’s block or a deeper malaise? What could I do to prevent this from happening again? Continue reading “Writer’s Block or just a dry patch in writing?”
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 