Karina Sanchez

He smiles crookedly and comes to stand just below me. “You don’t do this whole ‘Old English’ thing much, do you? That’s okay. I don’t do it too well either, and I’ve been here for… oh, about a year already.’ He pauses, and a tiny furrow creases his forehead. “Actually… I’ve been waiting for you. You did bring the box, didn’t you?”
I open my…[Read more]

@overcomer You could always name it after the first line or first part of the first line.

Let me try that again… for some reason I switched to past tense.

“Who are you?” I manage to ask him.
“Someone who knows why you’re here,” the man answers.
I can’t stop staring at the man. There’s something unusual about him that I can’t put my finger on…

“Who are you?” I managed to ask him.
“Someone who knows why you’re here,” the man answered.
I couldn’t stop staring at the man. There was something unusual about him that I couldn’t put my finger on…

“Who are you?” I managed to ask him.
“Someone who knows why you’re here,” the man answered.
I couldn’t stop staring at the man. There was something unusual about that I couldn’t put my finger on…

Wow … I’ll have to put that on my resume or something.

@anna-brie I would like to, but nothing’s really settling with me. How about you tell us?

…”Uh,” I pause, trying to remember any “ideas” I might have had before I passed out. The funny thing is, I’ve never met these people before in my life. How could they possibly know who I am?
The red-headed man glares at me again and waits expectantly for me to speak. When I say nothing, he growls, “Tell us about your idea to save the world.…[Read more]

Well @overcomer, @spradlin posted one of her poems here for critique, and later submitted it to KP right here.

She’s the secretary— she would know the rules. So as far as I can tell, it’s perfectly fine! 😀

Wow, thanks @overcomer! So glad you liked it! And guess what, I’d already replaced ‘the bow is not bent’ with ‘the bowstring is snapped’ long before you even suggested it. Well, you know what they say about great minds… 😉 😉 😉

Here, I’ll post the completely revised version and see if I caught everything— I do like the rhythmic flow, but…[Read more]

Er… well… what’s the poem about? 😛

*goes slowly green in face* Uh… on second thought… I’ll admire it from a distance @Daeus! 😛

@kate-flournoy I don’t know. It might cost you an arm and a leg.

Well glad the topic was timely, @belegteleri! (Still can’t write that tag without smiling 😉 )

This is all to say that subtlety is the key to a strong character.

@Daeus— can I just frame that, and put it on my wall? 😀

A note about character voice: It’s great to have a clear character voice, especially in the hook. It helps the reader connect with the character. Sometimes though, I get annoyed by a too strong character voice. There are two reasons for this. First, with these character voices, there is often a strong sense of inconclusiveness. The character voice…[Read more]

@Ivy-Rose @zoe-wingfeather @writefury @faithdk @Daeus good thoughts, everyone!

I think, Ivy, that action hooks can certainly work, but I tend to be careful using them because if you slam your reader with immediate action they don’t really care, because they don’t care about the character, because they don’t KNOW the character. Get me?

Also, I…[Read more]

@Ivy-Rose @zoe-wingfeather @writefury @faithdk @Daeus good thoughts, everyone!

I think, Ivy, that action hooks can certainly work, but I tend to be careful using them because if you slam your reader with immediate action they don’t really care, because they don’t care about the character, because they don’t KNOW the character. Get me?

Also, I…[Read more]

As a little note, Structuring Your Novel has some good stuff on opening hooks.

Hooks these days tend to be ones that catch your attention with the first line but then transition into a different scene/style. They remind me of an ad in some ways. As I recall some of the classics though, I see that many of them used hooks too, but they were more…[Read more]