JULY 2026 Group Read: Conflict, Action, and Suspense! > Likes and Comments
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I've been a bit deadline-overwhelmed so haven't been bugging y'all about nominating a book for next month, but, yeah… nominate a book for next month! I'll put the poll up on Monday, but not if there's only one in the race!
I'll throw one out there I don't think has been nominated before.The Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester.
I’ve had the FFF around awhile and never read it so I’ll back Rob’s nomination
I think I have the 1994 edition of that but it's buried deep. Doubt I'll be able to dredge it up and read it in the next two weeks while I slog through the end of two contracts and start up a new one.
Deadline Hell ends today… then I will start reading this. I promise!
Still waiting for mine to show up at the library. Then I’m in.
I didn't disagree with anything he said in the first chapter.This idea of immediacy is interesting… especially if we think about how to add a sense of that in fantasy or far future SF where there are no Apple iPhones or Ford Broncos…?
Interesting point in Chapter 2: Stage-Setting:It’s pretty well acknowledged that readers “hear” as well as see words on the page. That is, word sounds and word images play in the readers’ minds even as their eyes scan the words. Some have referred to this as “the music of words,” others as an appeal to “word-sense,” but the important thing is to understand that the way words “sound” on the page will affect what the reader takes away.
In Chapter 3 (Openings) the advice continues to read as fairly "basic," but we all need to start somewhere. This is solid stuff here:Stories rely on a developing conflict to generate interest and a sense of identification. If the opening is squishy or dull, it doesn’t matter how exciting or eye-grabbing the remainder of the book is, the reader will have already put it aside. We have to start at a point where something is happening, and we have to make it interesting.
Interesting. Attention-getting. Dramatic.
[…]
The opening of a story must form the foundation for what is to follow. It must be a block—sturdy and uncompromising—to build the rest of the story upon.
There's great advice in here, but honestly…? The writing often fails to get that across, which is weird. A poorly written book on the craft of writing?But still, I like this in Chapter 4 (Leave 'Em Hangin):
Story pace, essentially, means two things: smooth, even writing without anticlimaxes, without lengthy static prose; and carefully constructed scenes that blend with one another and build to a satisfying climax. Pacing our story means controlling it, and that, in turn, means taking the long view and measuring each scene against the entire story line. Would we want two action scenes back to back? Are the elements of suspense so unconnected as to destroy the threads of menace?
His concept of "Well/Maybe" dialog is interesting. (Chapter 5: "Building Through Dialogue")The Well/Maybe approach to dialogue has the advantage of avoiding story bog-down. By nature, indirect response injects something new in the interaction between speakers. No question completely answered, no thought fully portrayed, no agreement thoroughly made. There are equivocations and limitations in the dialogue responses with Well/Maybe, and this keeps the story moving because there is never enough to satisfy the reader's questions.
More good advice sort of poorly communicated, but in Chapter 6, "Building Suspense Through Mood and Atmosphere"…We are punishing our readers by making them suffer through our development of circumstances, which causes anticipation and dread. And we shouldn’t apologize for doing this because it’s what they really want: drama, excitement, uncertainty, unsettledness, fear and dread!
Philip wrote: "More good advice sort of poorly communicated, but in Chapter 6, "Building Suspense Through Mood and Atmosphere"…We are punishing our readers by making them suffer through our development of circu..."
A creepy way of putting it, but true enough.
Here's a quote every author should have hung up over their desk:Think of characters at war—either with themselves or with others—and then chronicle that war until there is peace.
I found Chapter 8: Building Through Point of View almost incomprehensible. I've never read this guy's fiction, but he is struggling to make himself understood in this attempt at non-fiction. There's a vague sense that he knows what he's talking about, and I haven't seen anything I would say is patently "wrong," but there's an ongoing impenetrability to the prose that I just can't break through.
But now here it's June 1st already so once more into the breach…
Please nominate a book on the art and craft of writing genre fiction or fiction in general. I'm feeling saucy so will risk a book I haven't read yet as my nomination. Going to the stack of unread books on writing, how about…
Conflict, Action and Suspense
… to get us started?
NOMINATE!