Sunday, November 30, 2008

SCBWI LA- Jay Asher

Jay Asher- No Bookmarks Allowed, How to inject suspense into any novel
· You must make a page turner, don’t let your reader put your book down!
· He read to us the best suspense book: The Monster at the End of this Book (Hilarious!)
· Key to doing this:
1. Fill the book with Anticipation
2. Drop clues
3. Chase your character up a tree, throw rocks at them (problems) and help them find a way down
4. Chase your reader into the story
5. Don’t make it a 2 dimensional story, be a roller coaster

He tossed a ball around but then stopped and promised to throw that ball at them soon- that is anticipation

Brainstorming Anticipation:
· What does your MC want?
· List obstacles which might pop up because of that
· Can those obstacles be foreshadowed with an earlier storyline
· Like if there is a flat tire, foreshadow this
· Have three storylines like A B A C B C. The first A is when you begin storyline A’s problem but then you bring in Storyline B’s problem in before you resolve storyline A.

Then I had to go see Steven Malk for my manuscript consultation. But am looking for someone from the conference with the rest of the notes.

Check out his blog! http://www.discomermaids.blogspot.com/

2 comments:

Rena Jones said...

Great pictures. It sounded like everyone had such a good time at the conference.

Nora MacFarlane said...

Welcome to blogging! Thanks for the conference notes.