The Journal, Friday, August 10

Hey Folks,

Okay, first up, I recommend you visit Reedsy.com and subscribe to their free newsletter. Seriously. If there’s more than one, subscribe to the one by Ricardo Fayet. Extremely informative articles, but they come only via email.

Topic: Take Your Time

Most of you know I enjoy reading thrillers and action-adventure novels. (What are called “thrillers” today were called “men’s action-adventure” back in the ’60s and ’70s.)

When I find something that blows my socks off, I finish reading for pleasure, then go back and find that place and study it to see how the guy (or gal) did that.

It’s a smart way to study particular techniques.

But recently, having read 18 or 19 of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, I started wondering what made readers and critics identify them as “page-turners.”

I mean, I agreed with them. It takes me no more than two or three days to read a Reacher paperback. I typically read a hundred or so pages without realizing I’ve read that much. So they’re definitely page-turners, but I still wasn’t sure why.

Jack Higgins’ books also are page-turners, but I’d already identified his method. Usually you won’t get through more than two or three pages in one of his books without a strong challenge or conflict occurring and the hero or heroine meeting it head-on.

But for all the critics’ one-liner praise, the Jack Reacher books are NOT chock full of riveting action.

So what makes his novels page-turners?

I asked myself this question about six books back. And then about three books back, I realized what it was. (I kept it to myself until I read a few more, just to be sure.)

For one thing, Child is absolutely GREAT at writing cliffhangers. And each scene is a chapter, so he writes a LOT of cliffhangers.

And he’s careful to ground the reader in the opening of every chapter. So those two things alone are excellent, and it’s difficult to put the book down.

But what about all the in-between stuff? As I said, with the Reacher series it isn’t non-stop action. So what is it?

It’s something I’ve come to call quiet suspense. The whole time, from the hook to the cliffhanger, the reader SUSPECTS something’s going to happen. Or suspects something MIGHT happen. Something seems always on the verge of happening.

It doesn’t always (or even usually) happen, but the level of tension is so high you can’t stop reading anyway. Even when Reacher’s doing nothing more than enjoying a cup of coffee and a quiet conversation with someone (usually a professional woman, like a cop or a lawyer or an Army officer or NCO) in a diner. He spends a LOT of time drinking coffee, and he drinks a LOT of it in diners, and he does so in the company of a beautiful professional woman almost every time.

Even in the midst of a non-action scene, the dialogue and the narration (whether first or third person) is necessary and snappy.

And detailed.

Excruciatingly detailed.

Child takes his time when he writes. He allows the characters to tell the story, and he allows it to unfold at close to real-life speed.

As a result, and underlying sense of suspense flows through pretty much every sentence in the book. Not only does the reader flip pages like they’re on fire, but he has zero chance of escaping.

The reader isn’t even disappointed when he comes to the next cliffhanger and nothing “significant” (meaning no strong action) has occurred. Instead, he turns the page, reads the next opening, and goes right on through.

Incredible.

And what’s more incredible is that this will work in pretty much any genre.

Setting is of HUGE importance in most major genres. Characters are a little more important in Romance and they’re certainly on top (so to speak) in Erotica, but in SF&F, Westerns, Thrillers, Horror, Suspense, Action-Adventure, and Mystery, setting is king.

So my advice is this: When you’re writing scenes, don’t be impatient. Take your time and let the scene unfold. Allow your characters, through your fingers, to put the words on the page that enable the scene to unfold.

Remember, as long as the setting is described through the senses and opinions of the POV character(s), the readers will eat it up. If the POV character(s) notice it, it belongs in the scene.

Then slap a good cliffhanger at the end, and go write the opening for the next scene or chapter. Then, again, take your time.
***

I hope you’ll be able to see how well this works in one of my own novels before the end of the month. (grin)

Now I’m gonna get back to it.

Well, I’d hoped for a really big day today, but somehow I ended up with a headache instead. Go figure.

Of Interest

See “Depth Done Right” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/depth-done-right/. He offers more of a reading recommendation than anything.

See you again soon.

Fiction Words: 3251
Nonfiction Words: 800 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 4051

Writing of Nick Spalding 2 (novel, tentative title)

Day 1…… 2000 words. Total words to date…… 2000
Day 2…… 1000 words. Total words to date…… 1000
Day 3…… 3597 words. Total words to date…… 6597
Day 4…… 4538 words. Total words to date…… 11135
Day 5…… 3016 words. Total words to date…… 14151
Day 6…… 2534 words. Total words to date…… 16685
Day 7…… 3859 words. Total words to date…… 20544
Day 8…… 3913 words. Total words to date…… 24457
Day 9…… 2194 words. Total words to date…… 26651
Day 10… 3477 words. Total words to date…… 30128
Day 11… 1911 words. Total words to date…… 32039
Day 12… 3251 words. Total words to date…… 35290

Total fiction words for the month……… 24155
Total fiction words for the year………… 272452
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6100
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 104386
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 376588

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 5
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 31
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193