Sarah Spradlin

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

“Of course we have!” she replied, looking at me as if I was out of my mind. Which, at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if I was.
“Come sit,” she told me, and she put her stiff hands on my shoulders and guided me to a chair. As I was pushed down on my seat, I noticed everyone else at the table was staring at me. I sheepishly grinned, and…[Read more]

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? 😀

@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]

You know you’re a writer when you are so attached to your characters that you wish they were real people, and then you start imagining the conversations you would have with them.

This is a great topic! You’re the complete opposite of crazy, Kate!

I love books where the first sentence is a quote that a character says. To me, it just gives immediate curiosity (Also because I am better at writing dialogues than descriptions/scenes. 😛 I know; not good). It feels like you’re immediately put in the action, and if it’s…[Read more]

This is a great topic! You’re the complete opposite of crazy, Kate!

I love books where the first sentence is a quote that a character says. To me, it just gives immediate curiosity (Also because I am better at writing dialogues than descriptions/scenes. 😛 I know; not good). It feels like you’re immediately put in the action, and if it’s…[Read more]

Ooo, I like it @zoe-wingfeather! Like other people noted, I would watch out for info-dumping. For example, the writing in bold below, to me is a bit info-dump-ey…I struggle with the same thing, by the way. 🙂

I sigh. Work is so boring. I’m a secretary for a big computer company, and pretty much all I do all day is file papers.

The story is r…[Read more]

I awoke to the sound of tapping for the fifth night in a row. At first I thought it was outside… but then I realized it was coming from the mirror again. Now, I’m tough, but hey, when your mirror taps, that is creepy, especially in the dead of night. And the fact that I had just read Snow White. I reached out a shaking hand and flicked on my b…[Read more]

I awoke to the sound of tapping for the fifth night in a row. At first I thought it was outside… but then I realized it was coming from the mirror again. Now, I’m tough, but hey, when your mirror taps, that is creepy, especially in the dead of night. And the fact that I had just read Snow White. I reached a shaking hand out and flicked on my b…[Read more]

Yet another long corridor. This is crazy. What does this house look like from the outside? I have absolutely no idea what to do. Maybe I’d try a different door. Trying the next door in line I found it to be like the room in which I had awoken. The sheets were messed up, so I figured people must be somewhere close by. And then I found them. Behind…[Read more]

*nudges topic with tip of boot* This thing needs to wake up.

‘I stared disinterestedly over the top of the bar at the empty judge’s chair, drumming my fingers and trying to look cool and in control. Didn’t matter that my palms were sweating like pigs, and I was three shades whiter than a snake’s belly beneath my arrogant facade. Keep your act…[Read more]

Now that I just looked back at the beginning of your chapter, it’s really just that paragraph that starts with I glance over to the mirror on the wall… that has a lot of info. 🙂

@zoe-wingfeather
Hmmm…I am very interested! Hope you don’t mind if I point out one thing that I noticed: I think the beginning is good but the reader is given a lot of information in just a few paragraphs. (And by the way, I struggle with info-dumping…like, majorly!) Other than that I really liked it!!! 🙂 Nice job, Chloe.

That… is hilarious, @hope. One of my go-to games when I’m babysitting my siblings and they start getting rowdy is ‘castle’— each child is elected by popular vote to fill the place of jester, knight, queen, prince, king, etc. Once we’ve got everyone assigned their roles, we play battle or banquet or coronation some other such castley thing.…[Read more]

You know you’re a writer when you are babysitting a six-year-old and she starts pretending you are a queen she is you assistant, and somehow it quickly spirals into good queen verses evil queen, with a calling down of dragons, wielding of magical spears, and summoning of knights (all the while you’re taking notes of your witty comebacks for future…[Read more]