Comments on: Hooking the Reader and Never Letting Go

By: Writing Tips Wednesday – Good Old Advice « Dave Farmer

Writing Tips Wednesday – Good Old Advice « Dave Farmer — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:47:12 +0000

[…] Hooking the Reader and Never Letting Go […]

By: Nigel Blackwell

Nigel Blackwell — Tue, 24 May 2011 02:41:41 +0000

Good stuff. The log line is (in my egotistical opinion) THE best way to end the “what comes first, plot or characters” debate. It ties them together in the smallest number of words, defines the character traits, AND establishes the conflict lock. All these details are essential, but with the right log line the rest falls into place.
Best stories for 2010? How could I get it down to one?! Best books for 2010? Anything by Lee Child (with the poss exception of his shopping list…but even that might be interesting), The Last Fighting Tommy (bio), Oh, and something on social media, white cover, gold laptops, perhaps you know it?
Cheers

By: Gilliad Stern

Gilliad Stern — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:59:50 +0000

Thanks for the information, I didn’t realize but I was going this exact thing. When I tried to narrow my story down to one sentence, it came out with a passive goal. With a little bit of adding to the story, I can have a tangible goal for my characters. Great post!

By: Marcia

Marcia — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:46:31 +0000

Just found this post and it confirms that I’m on the right track. Just have to make the scenes reflect how important the ultimate goal is, make the antag a little more antagonistic and let the reader understand how great the stakes are for the protag. Whew! thanks, Kristen, you have no idea how much this helps! You really are great at spelling it out with lots of examples!

By: Suzan

Suzan — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:26:15 +0000

Dude, Kristen. This post rocks. 🙂

I think my favorite thing that I watched recently was the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Besides the funny quotient, nothing in the cartoon episodes were random or pointless. Everything that was introduced had a reason, and there was always a clear goal in mind for the main character, which was actually NOT always the Avatar. I think that’s a large part of its popularity. I’ll tell you now, I’m not a fan of the movie because it muddled the story and cut out the other character’s arcs.

By: Balance the Party—Guide to Creating Legendary Characters « Kristen Lamb's Blog

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:24:54 +0000

[…] A “novel” comprised of one bad situation after the next with no core problem and no clear antagonist is not a novel. It is a series of vignettes. Novels must have genuine conflict that progressively escalates until the reader can’t stand it anymore and MUST finish our book if he ever hopes to get to sleep. Read this earlier post for more. […]

By: MInd Sieve 3/28/11 « Gloria Oliver's Blog

MInd Sieve 3/28/11 « Gloria Oliver's Blog — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:04:01 +0000

[…] line and actual content get discussed in Hooking the Reader and Never Letting Go by Kristen […]

By: What Is A Log Line? « Donna Newton's Blog

What Is A Log Line? « Donna Newton's Blog — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:55:14 +0000

[…] Here is what you’ll need (courtesy of author and social media expert, Kristen Lamb). […]

By: Peter Koevari

Peter Koevari — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:56:29 +0000

Good morning Death Star 😉

I really enjoyed the post, although luckily I did my research into these things before i started writing… but we can always improve our craft.

My fantasy series’ sequel has grown to be so complex, that there are countless conflicts within the book. Some which are aimed to scare the living daylights out of the reader, others to inspire, and some to naturally make them worry.

I think that for a story to be successful, it needs to be bigger than one dimension, if that makes sense.

I do like what you said about protection and the survival instinct, EVERYONE wants to survive (the caps is catching on, a plague!!!)

HIgh stakes is key, but conflicts are bound to happen throughout a story… my aim is to avoid cliches and predictability at all costs. Nothing worse than reading a rehash of the same predictable story, over, and over, and over again.

By: Donna Newton

Donna Newton — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:34:38 +0000

Kristen, as always you have surpassed yourself. One film I absolutely love is Kenneth Brannagh’s Dead Again. I’ve never really watched it for plot, but then again, until I met you I never watched anything for it’s plot. Now I analyse EVERYTHING! (Mark say ‘thanks’ by the way :D). You have given me a reason to put the film on again – I hope I’m not disappointed this time 🙂