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How to improve our writing – part 16
Always remind the reader of the central contradiction of the novel Great contradictions lend a novel its heart and soul. If the reader forgets what drives the protagonist, he won't care enough to read the book. We must create a contradiction for our protagonist that...
Book review: Josh Malerman – Bird Box
I've heard a lot of nice and good things about Josh Malerman's first novel, but, of course, only in the sense that a terribly tense and often brutal, post-apocalyptic horror story full of cruelty can be called "nice and good". At several places, the book has been...
How to improve our writing – part 15
Keep our eyes on the target. Perhaps the most important and difficult task for a writer is to direct the reader towards the purpose of the story all throughout his novel and to do everything to ensure that the reader does not lose sight of it. Many novels start at a...
Book review – Guillaume Musso: The Secret Life of Writers (2020)
The history of a cover-up. Despite the fact that he is a popular and young author, I have not yet read anything by Guillaume Musso before, so that the powerful ability of the author to create atmosphere took me by complete surprise, as he has grasped my attention from...
How to improve our writing – part 14
The Ten commandments of writing scenes. Here is the fourth commandment. 4. Keep a story plausible. Perhaps the writers’ most difficult task is to create stories which, although mostly fictional, yet feel true. What matters to the reader is not whether the story is...
Don’t Let Go! By Michel Bussi – book review
A holiday can be paradise itself, but at other times it can deteriorate into a murderous adventure. Martial and Liane spend their holidays in an idyllic environment on the island of Réunion. For the couple and their six-year-old daughter, these are the days and...
How to improve our writing – part 13
The Ten Commandments of writing scenes. Here is the third commandment. 3. Avoid dead-ends When we are writing a scene in a novel, we should not forget that we have to get from one point to another. We can't start and finish a scene at the same place. If the action...
Anders Roslund: Knock-Knock/Three Days – book review
It was a great pleasure to discover Anders Roslund's crime story among the summer novelties of 21st Century Publishers (orig. 21. Század Kiadó). So far, I have read all three of his books that have been published in this country, and all three were outstanding...
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