Writers Tricks of the Trade January-February 2015

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK BUY TO PURCHASE THE BOOK AGENDAS FRED RAYWORTH I’m a heavy reader, an average of a novel a week, sometimes two. I’m lucky in that the quantity never fails to give me inspiration. This week was no exception. As I usually do, I don’t like to cite the specific book because I don’t want to give you any bias if you happen to read any of these books. I want you to either find it on your own, or interpret it your own way. Maybe you’ll see things differently. Maybe I’m too sensitive, or you haven’t learned to spot these things yet. Maybe my articles will help you do that, so your writing will improve. I recently finished a book by a very popular thriller author. This was a oneoff from his usual series. The premise was interesting with plenty to like. However… I HATE AGENDAS I’m not sure how deliberately the author pursued his plot, but the premise, though quite imaginative and off the beaten path, bordered on preaching. FRED RAYWORTH A MAN OF MANY TALENTS VISIT FRED’S OWN BLOG HTTP://FREDRAYWORTH.COM I HATE PREACHING Yup, you got it. Preaching. The author never missed an opportunity to pound his message home, using thinly-disguised plot devices to bring that message to the forefront on almost every page. That could’ve brought the action to a crawl, except he kept the chapters and scenes short, which kept the pace fast. The worst part is that I got the message in the first chapter. I kept saying to myself, Okay, I got it. Now move on with the story! MAKE YOUR POINT AND MOVE ON I repeat, make your point and move on. Some agendas are not as controversial as others, while some are just downright annoying. In this case, the agenda itself wasn’t so much annoying. I agree in principal and sympathize with the author. The problem is that I didn’t want to hear it over and over again. As a result, it made me that much more critical of the other writing flaws. There were many I might not have noticed otherwise. After reading the reviews, a lot of other people felt the same way - some about the writing, some about the agenda. Cont’d… WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE Page 3 JAN-FEB 2015

Writers Tricks of the Trade January-February 2015 | Page 11