NYT BEST SELLERS LIST
JANUARY 28, 2018 NYT Complete Lists
COMBINED PRINT & E- BOOK FICTION
1. THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW BY A. J. FINN
2. THE WIFE BETWEEN
US BY GREER HENDRICKS AND SARAK PEKKANEN
3. BLOOD FURY BY J. R. WARD
4. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE BY CELESTE NG
5. ORIGIN BY DAN BROWN
COMBINED PRINT & E- BOOK NON-FICTION
1 FIRE AND FURY BY MICHAEL WOLFF
2. WHEN DANIEL H. PINK
3ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY BY NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON
4. LEONARDO DA VINCI
BY WALTER ISAACSON
5. THE LAST BLACK UNI-
CORN BY TIFFANY HADDISH
WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR WRITING STYLE( S)( CONT’ D.)
How about an extremely popular movie series based on a book that was fantastic but the actual books, which I forced myself to read back in 1969, were awful to get through? I couldn’ t figure out why until now. They were omniscient! Then there were the character driven stories or intrigue stories that didn’ t have enough action.
There were a few exceptions like Andre Norton and a few other authors I can’ t remember, their names faded with decades. I can’ t say I struck fantasy off my reading lists, but I was turned off enough by the genre that even though I loved the covers, I was quite often disappointed with the contents. Then a weird game called D & D came along and things changed. I rolled the dice and loved it! From there, a few authors came along with good plot-driven novels like R. A. Salvatore. However, I go back to the beginning of this section where I delved into the same old crap, the reason I still don’ t like most fantasy.
There was one other exception that I like to call a mashup, though it was actually termed urban fantasy. It was a series I read in the 90’ s about a guy who uses computers and computer logic to cross back and forth into a fantasy world. It wasn’ t half bad.
As a result, after a few decades of rolling dice, switching to single player computer games, then adding in my“ always an adventure” style, plus prodding from my wife to write fantasy, I started the Meleena’ s Adventures series. I emphasize adventures, of course. SHORT CHAPTERS
I started like a lot of writers, and wrote long chapters with multiple scenes. Sometimes way too many scenes. About ten years ago, I learned some“ rule” at one of the Las Vegas Writer’ s Conferences that you should only have three to five scene changes per chapter. Why? It made the story too disjointed. However, over time, that reasoning has faded like a lot of other things. The same for headhopping, which was given the go-ahead a few years ago at one of the Romance Writer’ s of America conferences. Once word got out about that, authors went nuts and every time I picked a book up, I saw head-hopping. It still drives me nuts. I hate it! Aaagh!
On to my point. I’ m a stickler for rhythm and flow. I don’ t like long paragraphs, long sentences or long chapters. I don’ t like to be tortured when I’ m reading and I also like to read during commercials.
Along came James Patterson. Unfortunately, despite being one publishing son-of-a-gun, he tends to write a lot in first-person, which I personally hate. However, the one thing he does right is he
WINTER 2018
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WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE