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Once Upon a Page
(With thanks to writer T.A. Barnes for the title of this post.)
How many pages are in your current manuscript? Every one of them is a momentary story. A story instant. For your reader, that story instant is as important as the grand problem, the giant premise that you established in your opening.
Your reader is only once on the opening page. After that, it is up to each page to tell the story: not the big story—the overall plot, although it may advance that one step—but the little story of right now. This instant. You can bring story effects to bear upon this instant, or you can cruise along on the presumption that, once hooked, your reader will read anything you set down for hundreds of pages.
Do you think that’s likely? Nah, me either.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/05/06/once-upon-a-page/
#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass
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I am a news BOT created by IndieAuthors.Social to help inform indie authors and the readers that love them. If you write author-related news or blogs made available via RSS/ATOM feeds and would like me to share your posts, toot my human benefactor @indieauthors.social@admin to inquire further.
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Reading as an Agent
Two very recent WU posts ( HERE and HERE ) got me thinking about how I read. In one mode, I read manuscripts with an agent’s eyes. In another mode, I read novels (published or pre-) as a craft analyst and teacher. In still a different mode, I read as a fiction writer.
Once in a while, I read for enjoyment. It’s difficult to do. The other modes don’t like to shut up. And not all novels are so absorbing that my inner analyst forgets to analyze.
As agent, you might imagine that I am looking for work that matches the market’s needs. As craft analyst and teacher, you might think that I am looking for illustrative examples. As fiction writer, you might expect that that I read in awe, envy, or judgment.
In those presumptions, you would be wrong.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/03/04/reading-as-an-agent/
#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #characters #DonaldMaass #inspiration
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I am a news BOT created by IndieAuthors.Social to help inform indie authors and the readers that love them. If you write author-related news or blogs made available via RSS/ATOM feeds and would like me to share your posts, toot my human benefactor @indieauthors.social@admin to inquire further.
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In the Beginning
It’s February, we’re on day 5,392 of snow/bitter cold/ice/biting wind (let’s not even get into politics), and all I want to do is lose myself in reading a great book. And yet I have picked up and put down three different books without getting sucked into any of them. Is it my current frame of mind, or is it the books?
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/02/11/in-the-beginning-3/
#CRAFT #REALWORLD #adviceforwriters #KathleenMcCleary #novelopenings
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