Comments on: "In the Beginning" Part One–Normal World https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/ Author, Blogger, Social Media Jedi Thu, 17 Apr 2014 15:02:35 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 By: Five Warning Signs Your Story Needs Revision | Kristen Lamb's Blog https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4190 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 15:02:35 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4190 […] the writer who knows these characters and is vested. On this blog, we’ve discussed before how Normal World plays a vital role in narrative structure. As an editor, if I see the main character sobbing at a funeral or a hospital or hanging over a […]

]]> By: Chaplain Winston Muldrew https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4189 Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:26:21 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4189 Thank you for all the writing tips I have read for they confirm that I will never be able to write a novel. The most that I can do is reply and informative writing. I can only write about characters that have been built not build characters. It so sad because I have written thousands of lines, Maybe short short stories will make a comeback as well as poetry.

Thank you again,

]]> By: Frankie https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4188 Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:43:48 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4188 These are actually great ideas in concerning blogging.
You have touched some good factors here. Any way keep up wrinting.

]]> By: 5 Red Flags Your Story Needs Revision | Kristen Lamb's Blog https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4187 Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:52:45 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4187 […] the writer who knows these characters and is vested. On this blog, we’ve discussed before how Normal World plays a vital role in narrative structure. As an editor, if I see the main character sobbing at a funeral or a hospital or hanging over a […]

]]> By: The Beginning... - Bethany Kaczmarek https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4186 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:41:10 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4186 […] you want to read the rest, go here. Check out Kristen’s book, too. We Are Not […]

]]> By: Anatomy of a Best-Selling Novel—Structure Part One « Kristen Lamb's Blog https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4185 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:20:02 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4185 […] be unnecessarily tough. A long, long time ago in a galaxy blog far, far away, we talked a lot about novel beginnings (pun, of course, intended). Normal world has a clear purpose, just like all the other components of […]

]]> By: billgncs https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4184 Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:48:40 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4184 very useful, I appreciate your clear explanations and examples.

]]> By: Author Kristen Lamb https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4183 Mon, 02 Jul 2012 19:55:37 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4183 In reply to Robin D. Ader.

I will grant you that Crichton gets leeway. I know that Timeline was mind-numbing boring until about page 150 and then took off like a shot. I think the NYTBSAs get more wiggle room because they have already demonstrated they can entertain us. With new writers, we don’t get that kind of leeway, we have to earn it. And I completely agree about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I gave it 30 pages and was done.

I know I read Prey as research for a screenplay I am working on. I needed to understand nanotechnology and I think the fiction was more interesting than a text book. I might have afforded more time to get hooked because I had ulterior motives. And I thought it was interesting simply because we don’t get the perspective of stay-at-home-dads too much, so that hooked me. I empathized with the stay-at-home person who was once successful but who then couldn’t find a job.

But the short answer is we earn this benefit of the doubt as a privilege.

]]> By: Robin D. Ader https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4182 Mon, 02 Jul 2012 19:00:20 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4182 An open question to Ms. Lamb, for which there may be no answer on this plain of existence:

Why are there so many commercially and critically successful books that don’t hook the reader in the first 3 or 30 pages? If my father hadn’t told me, “It starts getting interesting after the first 50 pages,” I never would have gotten into “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

You, Ms. Lamb, have cited Crichton’s “The Prey” as a great book. I have the paperback, 500 page version. I quit on page 100. Nothing was happening. Okay, his wife is involved in something at work, his kids are sick, there’s a virus — hackneyed, seen it a thousand times — oh, and she may be having an affair. I didn’t care. I put the book down. Yet, a NYTBS. Why? Just on Chrichton’s name, perhaps? Do those who have had previous success receive license for subsequent bad writing?

Thank you.

]]> By: 5 Common Writing Blunders that Can Annoy or Bore Our Readers « Kristen Lamb's Blog https://authorkristenlamb.com/2011/02/in-the-beginning-part-one-normal-world/#comment-4181 Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:47:33 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=2673#comment-4181 […] is, you don’t care. You aren’t the writer who knows these characters and is vested. We have discussed before how Normal World plays a vital role in narrative structure. As an editor, if I see the main character sobbing at a funeral or a hospital or hanging over a […]

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