Author Helene Young's perfect pace
When author Helene Young found a man’s body washed up on a beach near her home in Cairns, she found herself empathising with his family and lamenting the loss of a man who sacrificed his own life trying to save his child from drowning.
It was also an incident that, in part at least, led to the creation of her new romance novel, Border Watch.
In this interview with Pamela Wilson, Helene shares the emotions that characterise her protagonist, Morgan, talks about the pain that comes with killing off a main character and offers tips on getting the pace of a story right to allow the reader ‘to breathe’, among other things.
Listen to the full interview, or use the index below to navigate to the sections you are keen to hear Helene discuss.
In the podcast, Helene discusses:
1. How she drew on her own personal experiences, and her experiences as a pilot to fuel the idea for this book, her debut novel, and create the story and characters. 00:00
2. Her writing background as a member of a family of storytellers and having always been ‘into stories’. 03.24
3. What it means to be a panster. 04:45
4. The need to understand good story structure such as voice, pace, story arc, etc. 05:30
5. Structured writing vs organic flow. 06:39
6. How to get the pacing right: varying it; why it’s important to allow your readers time to breathe; how and when to use sentence fragments. 09:05
7. Killing a popular character: the response of readers; her personal reaction; in the interests of reality. 11:39
For more information about Pamela Wilson or WriteSmart, log on to http://www.writesmart.com.au/
Border Watch
By Helene Young
Published by Hachette Australia
March 2010
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