Kristen Lamb

Author's posts

Understanding the Flashback—Bending Time as a Literary Device

We can mistakenly believe that any time an author shifts time that is the dreaded “flashback” I am referring to and the one I (as an editor) will cut. Not necessarily. We need to broaden our understanding of the “flashback” because lumping every backwards shift in time under one umbrella won’t work.

Why Flashbacks Ruin Fiction

All of us will feel a NEED to explain why a character is moody, angry, broken, bawdy, whatever. DON’T. Resist the urge to EXPLAIN. In fact, if readers don’t know WHY, they will want to turn pages to find out WHY.

Deep P.O.V. Part Two—Crawling Inside Your Characters

Yes, there are style changes we can make, like removing as many tags as we can and ditching sensing and thinking words. But deep POV is strongly tethered to characterization. Good characterization.

Deep P.O.V. Part One—What IS It? How Do We DO It?

Everyone wants it. Readers love it. Uh, but what IS it? How do I do it? Can I order some on-line?

You Might Be a Writer If…

A lot of “stuff” has been going on in my life lately. Hard stuff. Heavy stuff. The kind of stuff that just makes me want to write massacre scenes….except I am so brain dead I had to google how to spell “massacre.” Masicker? Missucker? WHAT AM I DOING???? *breaks down sobbing* I am supposed to …

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