Comments on: Make Readers Suffer—Great Fiction Goes for the GUTS https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/ Author, Blogger, Social Media Jedi Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:32:17 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 By: Raani York https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54638 Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:32:17 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54638 Happy New Year Kristen. I’m not sure where I’ve been too nice (except in real life of course) – sometimes. But I have to admit I permanently keep in mind that I’m writing for an audience where “being nice” is a good thing. I’m still thinking about a loud, noisy, blod-shet, shooting, killing, cussing and cursing kind of Thriller to write… unfortunately my mind always ends up about where the Guy turns into a Softie meeting the woman of his life… I wonder if my simple brain is just not able to get over the romance. *sigh*

]]> By: Jen https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54637 Thu, 01 Jan 2015 23:33:45 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54637 Do you or anyone here have posts on how to logically tease out the change related to the True Problem? I don’t want to “manipulate” the change, but keep chipping away at my Protag’s Lie until eventually she is able to come to the Truth to her True Problem on her own. I’m not sure how to do this without being heavy handed (or the change coming out of thin air).

]]> By: Lisa Vogel https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54636 Thu, 01 Jan 2015 21:57:18 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54636 The movie that comes to mind is the one that comes from one of my favorite novels of the same name: We Need To Talk About Kevin. In it, a mother primarily, but a father, too, struggle with whether or not their son, Kevin, has a real problem or is he just a normal kid with a bit of an aggressive side. The end result (and this is not a spoiler as it is stated up front) is that, yes, Kevin has a problem. He ends expressing it by becoming a murderer. So, why couldn’t the father see it? Why couldn’t the mother, who did see that something was severely wrong, do enough to help him? What stops them — and it stops all of us in one area of our lives or another — from talking about Kevin, getting to the bottom of Kevin, stopping Kevin from becoming a murderer? This, in the sense, is true for my novel #1 that I am currently revising. The details of my characters’ lives are completely different but the underlying point is the same. . . if you’ve got an issue that needs dealing with (and who doesn’t???), why IS it so hard to take corrective action? At least in my life, it is hard. I mean it is REALLY hard. That’s what I like to address in my writing.

]]> By: Cinette https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54635 Thu, 01 Jan 2015 16:55:59 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54635 I found that I was way too nice to my characters in my younger days, but then I married into an Italian family and learned all about conflict:-) Jokes aside, conflict makes a person – or character – stronger for dealing with it. It’s the best way to show our character’s growth.

]]> By: Jeffrey H. King https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54634 Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:42:17 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54634 Go for the Gut – nicely said. Makes me think of Stephen King, who never goes for the soft pictures. He’s unfiltered, midnight-nightmare dirty. And that’s why you turn the pages. Same goes for Tom Clancy, who in one of his Jack Ryan novels kills off the whole fo congress and the executive branch. Leaves you in holy defecation mode, wondering what could possibly happen next.

]]> By: Kit https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54633 Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:50:25 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54633 Great advice! I definitely need to take another look at my MG/YA work, working on the GUTS. I particularly liked the advice to eavesdrop in connection with the conflict. I see/hear conflict when I eavesdrop, but hadn’t thought to dig deeper as I do (even if much of the digging deeper is in my own imagination). For example, what’s really going on in the battle in line at the grocery store and how can I use it?

]]> By: Wednesday links: Conflict and first impressions | Miranda Burski https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54632 Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:07:13 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54632 […] Make Readers Suffer–Great Fiction Goes For the Guts, from Kristen Lamb’s Blog: All good novels have one thing in common: conflict. If you want to […]

]]> By: teachjournalism https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54631 Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:57:14 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54631 In reply to Heather McLoud.

I’d love to see a response on this because I feel it is my problem as well. I have a plot to work with, but don’t trust that it is strong enough to hold readers. Guess we won’t know until I get more of it written, and I won’t get more of it written until I get over those trust issues, eh?

]]> By: jocelynnbabcock https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54630 Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:39:51 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54630 Thanks for reminding me to dig deeper and find that raw, scabby wound the MC struggles with.

]]> By: Mind Sieve 12/28/14 | Gloria Oliver https://authorkristenlamb.com/2014/12/make-readers-suffer-great-fiction-goes-for-the-guts/#comment-54629 Mon, 29 Dec 2014 12:07:55 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=16538#comment-54629 […] Make Readers Suffer – Great Fiction Goes for the GUTS by Kristen Lamb. Great advice! […]

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