Author Tips: Writing Fiction

Wendy Orr shares some of her tips on writing stories and novels

Monday, May 08, 2006

Writer's Notebook

This morning as I was walking Bear the dog, we passed a little oak tree with a comb dangling from a low branch, as if someone hadn't ducked quite low enough when they walked under it, and the twig had pulled the comb from their hair without their noticing.

It's in my notebook now - and I can't think of a better example of something that belongs in a writer's notebook! It lends itself to all sorts of questions and possibilities. Some can be worked out logically:

Who did it belong to? Almost certainly a woman or girl.
What did she look like?
The comb was about at the level of my nose, so she was probably a bit shorter than me.
It was black, so we could guess that she had darker hair.

Why didn't she notice that it was gone? Was she running? If she was running, was she being chased? Or was she chasing something or someone?

If you wanted to write a mystery, it could be a very important clue....

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