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Successful Book & Reader Break-Ups: Writing a Good Ending

Story Tips,

This is a guest post by Michele M. Reynolds of the Writer + Wilderness Girl Under it All blog. She’s a self-published author with three books in print and another coming Summer 2013.

Breaking up (a reader from your book) is hard to do. Sometimes readers are able to limp through a book’s rough beginning. At times the bibliophile will still hang on through a weak middle. Even a bibliomaniac will not forgive a bad ending. The ending is what he/she was running toward the whole book. Don’t have your reader running toward the finish line with no tape, cheering fans, or ride home waiting for them. One of the biggest complaints from editors and readers is an unsatisfying or bad ending.

Steps toward a Good Ending:

Why Nobody Should World-Build

Story Tips, ,

Howdy! Aubrey Hansen here. If you’re a fan of Jordan’s, you’ve probably seen my name in passing. We’re what you might call partners in crime when it comes to storytelling. He produced my first short script “A House for Marge,” and I’m a story supervisor and screenwriter for his web series Month of the Novel. He’s mentioned in the special thanks of my latest book, and I’m mentioned in his. Basically, if I’ve written it, he’s helped me develop it, and if he’s written it, I’ve either helped develop it or raved enthusiastically about it.

So it should come to no surprise to anyone that he asked me to write a guest post for his shiny new blog. Anyone who knows me also won’t be surprised by his requested topic—world-building. What will hopefully surprise most of you, however, is the thesis I wish to present:

You shouldn’t world-build.

That’s what I said. Don’t. Don’t world-build. Whatever other writers tell you, don’t listen to them! If you’ve already started world-building, get out while you still can. It’s a slippery slope into a dark crevice with no foreseeable bottom; once you get in over your head in world-building, you’ll never get back out. Continue reading Why Nobody Should World-Build →