Anna Staniszewski

Categories: Books

• Tension = Conflicting Emotions

  I’m almost finished reading The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, and I think his chapter on tension is one every writer should read. Tension is what keeps us turning the pages. It can come from a variety of things, but as Maass points out, one of the most effective ways of creating tension is

• Wisdom from THE FIRE IN FICTION

  Last time I was really stuck with a WIP, I picked up Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel. It was amazing. Maass gets right at the heart of what makes books work, and his advice helped me tremendously when thinking about my own writing. So yesterday, as I was trying to figure out which direction

• Making a Story Your Own

  Today I wanted to talk about fairy tale retellings, especially since that’s what I’ve been focusing on in my writing recently. Right now I’m about halfway through reading Ash, a retelling of Cinderella by Malinda Lo. I’m really enjoying the story and the writing is lovely. As I’ve been reading, I’ve been thinking about the

• Starting Your Story in the Right Place

  The other day I picked up a book I’d been looking forward to reading for a while. Sadly, I couldn’t even get past the first chapter. The first few pages were almost all description of the setting and of characters we hadn’t met yet. After that, the narrative launched into an extended flashback; it felt

• Two Great Story Recs

  Ugh, my website is being temperamental today. I had to delete this post and start over, without pictures this time. Hopefully it will work. Okay, here we go: I love recommending good books and movies to people, and it just so happens I’ve come across two of them in the past couple days.
  On Saturday, my

• Celebration Giveaway!

  First off, I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my BIG news post and sent me emails and tweets and Facebook messages. I was just overwhelmed by all the congratulations and kind words – you guys are awesome! What better way to keep the party going than to give

• A Lesson on Openings and Setting from DARK LIFE

  One of the things that makes speculative fiction so fascinating is setting. Often you want to give the reader a sense of the setting right away, but how can you do that without boring her? Well, as I was reading Dark Life by Kat Falls yesterday, I realized she does this very well. First off,

• 6 Reasons I Stop Reading (and How to Avoid Them)

  I’ve been having great luck with books recently (Before I Fall, Incarceron, Mistwood) but for a while I was in a serious reading dry spell. I’d pick up book after book and not get more than a few chapters in. After reflecting on all those books I couldn’t get through, I’ve come up with a

• A Lesson on Dual POV from INCARCERON

  I just finished reading Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron yesterday and can’t stop thinking about what a great story it was. Of course, when a book stays with me like that, I try to analyze what exactly worked about it. I think in the case of Incarceron, it was the story’s fascinating (but not off-putting) complexity and

• Mistwood Launch Party!

  This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for Leah Cypess’s new YA fantasy, Mistwood. Leah and I are both members of the Enchanted Inkpot, so it was great to meet her in person. The event was a lot of fun, and of course I left with my shiny new signed copy