Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Michael, my co-author, basically 'meets' his characters fully formed, which inspires major jealousy for me
I tend to build up a concept, but when I start writing my characters never cease to surprise me-- always some lurking backstory or hidden motives *I* didn't see coming.

Totally true, EricOlsen! When I'm stuck on writing, I go for a run (assuming I'm not trapped in the office). Haven't convinced Michael of this yet, he usually plays video games instead.

Obviously not Nathan :roll: but my coauthor and I went to a Very Posh School which we don't mention in our author bios simply because it's not very relevant. Also, it occasionally puts people off, since they tend to then assume wildly inaccurate things about our backgrounds, or simply think we're pr...

Don't know what I would do writing-wise without my coauthor (not sure what he'd do without me, either). We work by bouncing ideas off each other almost continually.

What a lovely idea! I'll join the party.

I hear you-- no kids, but a postgrad thesis (which doesn't go to bed ever, but it does eat less). What I do is block out small chunks of time every day for writing, plus I think about writing (and sometimes take notes) throughout the day (like if I'm on the bus, etc) so that when my 25 minutes or so...

I agree with JMB: Great concept, great conflict and hook, but the voice comes off as disinterested. Short sentences tend to help with this issue-- for example: 16-year old Belén owes her life to retired Navy man Señor Rossi. So when a ghost appears in her backyard claiming he is a war criminal, she ...

S is for self-promotion!

Oh, wait. No. Wrong day. I is for "Idiot Plots vs. Flawed Characters": http://sb-writingtheother.blogspot.com/

We're trying to get this query polished and ready to send out (and thus stop bothering all you lovely people). Thanks in advance for the feedback. * Winter, 1745. Scotland is losing a war for independence. Desperate, Robert Maxwell and his fellow soldiers beg for supernatural aid from the daione sìd...

I in fact have a whole new blog!
http://sb-writingtheother.blogspot.com/

My coauthor and I would be game. Our WiP is a historical fantasy novel set in 18th century Britain. Although it's not really a YA piece, there is a major teen character.

I think his prose is brilliant, but I couldn't connect emotionally with the characters. However, I'm pretty sure this is a function of my life experience, not of the characterization, which is excellent.

Haha, brilliant!

It really depends on the book, so I can't offer specific advice unless I know what the big reveal is. However, there are ways to break the information up into chunks, like having the character figure out pieces of the "big reveal" earlier (and possibly jump to incorrect conclusions?), so t...

Jumping in with our first paragraph (first chapter, not prologue) He had lost a lot of blood. Robert knew this from the way his muscles felt hollow and shaky, and the way his thoughts wavered in and out of focus, like shattered reflections on a pool. One of Gordons had lent him a feilidh-mhòr, which...