Incarceron was a trip. It was a little slow to get into, but once I was in, I was hooked. When I mean slow, it wasn’t that it had too little action or too much narration. It was because there was a lot of sci-fi, alternate world stuff going on that was a little hard to follow at first—at least for me. It might be completely different for someone else.
But, like I said, Incarceron was a trip. Fans of Hunger Games might want to give it a try. They are completely different stories, of course, but have the same sort of vibe.
And like Hunger Games, Incarceron was a best seller because of it’s …
High Stakes
Think Shawshank Redemption, but on crack. Try breaking out of a prison that’s alive, doesn’t want you to leave, and can kill you at whim. Talk about stacking the deck.
Here’s how Fisher did it:
1. Finn aka Giles (the lost prince) finds a key and believes it’s his means to escape Incarceron.
2. He gets help from the outside, the Warden’s daughter, Claudia, who has been looking for the entrance for Incarceron her whole life, not to mention the lost prince, and has never found either.
3. The prison doesn’t want Finn/Giles to leave and leaving isn’t that easy when Incarceron is smaller than an ice cube.
I really liked the imaginative world that Catherine Fisher created. With every page, she left me wondering what will the prison do next and what “really” is Incarceron. Even though the prison was a larger-than-life place, all the work it took to develop it would have been meaningless without the stakes that Fisher created.
I think Incarceron is a good example of a balance between world-building and plot. Fisher was able to blend both perfectly and, in doing so, she crafted an engaging and enjoying story while at the same time showing us a crazy world within worlds.
For those of us that want to recreate the same in our own manuscripts, it’s important to remember that too much focus on world-building without the same amount of attention on the plot will end up destroying both efforts.
I was super excited when I heard a rumor that Shiver wasn’t a series and that I’d actually get some closure from a YA book, especially a YA paranormal romance. It was a complete psych-out and book number two, Linger, will be coming out July 20, 2010.
Shiver is another paranormal romance that has risen to bestseller status. On a side note, I really liked the atmosphere of the story. It felt cold. Weather played a big part and Stiefvater did a good job of making "temperature" just as salient as the characters and the setting.
Even so, I don’t think Stiefvater’s ability to bring out details was the reason it was a bestseller. However, she did do one thing that I have yet to see in other paranormal romance. Whether or not it is the reason for its popularity is debatable, but it’s worth mentioning.
What separated Shiver from other paranormal romance was because of it’s ….
Point of View
Shiver was from the viewpoint of both love interests (the wolf-boy and the girl) in the first person. This is no easy feat, but because Stiefvater was able to pull it off, it provided a greater depth to the characters. We were able to see the world from their eyes and the eyes of others.
There really is no “how she did” type of explanation, but I think if this is going to be replicated certain rules will have to be adhered.
1. Who?
a. You must clearly write out who is taking the lead. Make it blatantly obvious. The reader must know right away whose head they are in or they will only get confused.
b. Stiefvator titled each chapter with the name of the character. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked and left no room for confusion.
2. Voice
a. Character voice is going to be really important. Readers are going to figure out right away if the boy and the girl sound exactly the same. I doubt the reaction will be good.
b. Stiefvator used little things about the characters to separate them. For example, Sam was a musician and he’d break out in lyrics, making his voice guyish. Grace would worry and ruminate, making her voice sound girly.
I liked Shiver’s point of view and I think Stiefvater skillfully handled it. Something like this could easily unravel. It’s really important in working with dual point of views to make the voices and POV completely clear to the reader or you’ll lose them.
The first thing I noticed about Beautiful Creatures was how thick it was. In a world of edit, edit, edit, it was surprisingly fat. Instead of bogging down, I think the chunkiness gave the book some of its charm. It forced me to enjoy the story and not rush to the finish line to know “what happens.”
Apparently, I was not the only one and Beautiful Creatures was able to plop its beefy butt on the bestseller list.
Here was why:
Characters
This story was all about the characters… getting to know them, loving them, and rooting for them. It was a love story, in an old school kind of way, and its enchantment was not so much the magic, but the way the characters related to each other, their families, and their community.
Here’s how Garcia and Stohl did it:
1. Both love interests felt incomplete and lonely until they meet.
2. Numerous obstacles try to keep the lovers apart.
3. The lovers create obstacles by trying to stay together.
4. In the end, love conquers all with the promise that more obstacles are on the way.
Like I said, this is an “old school” love story where the characters have to sacrifice to be together. From a writers perspective, Beautiful Creatures is a good example that we can still break the rules, write like we want to write, tell the story in our own time and pace, and still be successful … just as long as we have the characters to sustain it.
When I think of James Patterson, I think of Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. I have to admit, I have never read one of Patterson’s books until now. I wasn’t disappointed.
I think what made Witch & Wizard a bestseller was because of its ...
Pacing.
Sch-zaam! This book didn’t have legs; it had wheels. It was like being punched in the face every time I turned the page.
Witch & Wizard worked because once you started it, Patterson forced you to continue with the next page and the next. I think readers automatically look for natural breaks in a story to stop reading. Witch & Wizard does not give you that opportunity.
Here’s how Patterson did it:
1. The story opened with immediate action.
2. Something happened on every page.
3. There were no lulls, no reflections, no breathers (unless it was like a minute) before the action continued.
As opposed to some of my other book reviews, I believe Patterson’s writing style made Witch & Wizard a hit. I don’t know if Patterson outlined his story, but I think this book would be a good example of how to outline. Patterson stuck with whatever plan he created without going off on tangents and bogging down the reader. Witch & Wizard was impossible to put down. And isn’t that the point of being a writer … creating a story that can’t leave the readers hands? Outlining before you write is a good way to achieve the same results.
