http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Melvin+M.+Harter Writing Melvin M. Harter Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=262885&ca=Writing Tough as a tire iron and proud as a parson in paradise, Jeff Sanders, Private Investigator, was good at his job, always cool and always composed, never rancorous or rattled on the witness stand. Fit at 40, he was a wiz at bending the truth toward the side that hired him, but he never blatantly lied.... Writing Melvin M. Harter Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=260348&ca=Writing Authors are frequently asked how they conceive and create a story. There may be almost as many ways as there are authors: outline; write ending and work up to it; precise factual experience or observation ("creative non-fiction;") whatever comes into your head; emotional idea; paper or audio notes;... Writing Melvin M. Harter Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=258368&ca=Writing From Rita Jamison's Freelance Writing Workshop; Adult Education, Los Altos, CA, 2005 Your plot's great. Your theme is awesome. You have a beginning, middle and end with interesting characters — No problem sitting and writing a story; no writer's block — But it bombs. No one reads beyond page one or... Writing Melvin M. Harter Sun, 25 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=256099&ca=Writing PART 1: WRITER'S BLOCK From Rita Jamison's Freelance Writing Class; Adult Education, Los Altos, CA, 2005 At one time or another we all experience "writer's block." We have ideas. We know we have a good story to write. We just can't sit down to do it or we do sit down and just stare at the empty page... Writing Melvin M. Harter Sat, 17 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=253875&ca=Writing If readers can't identify with, care about, or somehow share the feelings of the characters, despite a perfect plot and poetic prose, the story is likely to bomb. Readers must respond to the characters viscerally, with sympathy or antipathy, early on. Readers want their primitive feelings titillated... Writing Melvin M. Harter Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=251684&ca=Writing We don't hook a reader with logical exposition, flat narration or argument. We must get to the part of the reader's life that is involuntary, automatic: the five senses and mood/emotion. In that way we convert "tell" into "show." The visceral approach to description brings a story to life. It shatte...