How to Get Published

by New York Times bestselling author, Joseph Finder

VANISHED, the book that’s coming out in just a few days (!), will be the first in a series featuring Nick Heller, a high-powered investigator with a private intelligence firm . . . and his friends and family.

Creating Nick’s world took longer than I expected, because it was so important to me to get these characters right. It wasn’t just the facts about what guys like Nick - “private spies” - do. It was the essence of the man, the personality, the likes and dislikes, the quirks and the rough edges. It’s always been important to me to like my characters - even the bad guys - and since this gang will be with me for years to come, if all goes well, it was even more important than usual.

Never forget: novels are about people. The more interesting the character, the more interesting the book. Good characters can sometimes save a bad plot, but - with very rare exceptions — good plots can’t save paper-thin characters.

But does that mean that your hero, or your main protagonists, have to be likable? Yes, I really think so. When you’re writing a thriller, it’s especially important. (more…)

by Al Kalar

A good story requires conflict. Without it, you don’t have much to offer the reader. Perhaps a fictional travelogue can get by without conflict, but any good yarn is pretty boring without it.

I ran across a good checklist for conflict written by our old friend, Ben Bova. The list is his, the comments are mine. (more…)

by Al Kalar

There’s a TV show called In Plain Sight that does a great job of making the lead character’s life a living hell.

Mary is a Federal Marshal that works the Witness Protection detail in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yes, “Albakoikee” the place where Bugs Bunny should have made a left “toin”.

She has ongoing problems with her alcoholic mother and dysfunctional (ditzy) younger sister who both live with her; and she spends a good portion of her time trying to solve their problems. (more…)

The story…must be a conflict, and specifically, a conflict between the forces of good and evil within a single person. - Maxwell Anderson

by Al Philipson

by LuMaxArt

For a story to be interesting, there must be conflict. If your goal is to describe some utopian society filled with all sorts of technological wonders, you don’t have a story, just a boring travelogue.  How interesting would Beowulf have been without Grendel, his mother, and the dragon?

Ben Bova once described “a story” as “a narrative description of a character struggling to solve a problem.”

So, what do you need to do to provide the problem or “conflict”? (more…)

by Al Kalar

I was re-reading a great “how to” book from Ben Bova called The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells*.  This book was a great help to me when I was getting started as a writer.

In the book, Mr. Bova gives us the following list of tips that can be applied to just about any good fiction: (more…)