Sunday, October 19, 2014

Things That Make You Say, "Shut-Up!" ***Spoilers***

There's nothing more satisfying as an author than making your reader exclaim, "Shut-up!" in a good way.  Whenever I write a specific kind of scene into one of my books--one that I hope will have a certain element of surprise or shock--I secretly hope that this scene will make the reader exclaim some such phrase of surprise.  For me, a "shut-p" moment is one of both shock and awe.  For example, though I would never tell one of my students at school to "shut-up" when I want them to stop talking, I do tell them occasionally that, when I saw how awesome their grade was on a test,  I couldn't help but yell, "Shut-up!" They always giggle at this (even the boys!) and I know it's because I'm speaking their language.
Where you shocked by any of my writing choices? Smiley Face Man was!

So, here's my question for you, the reader.  What, if any, scenes in my books have made you make some such exclamation of awe and surprise?  If you haven't read Deck of Cards and Cordia's Will, you might want to stop reading this post until you have finished both books. That's because, if you read my suggestions of examples of what might scenes might have been surprising to my readers, you might ruin the books for yourself.  As a writer, it is very helpful to know that I am in touch (or out of touch) with my readers. If I am including certain elements in my books because I want to catch the reader off-guard and surprise them. If it's not working that way, then I need to know it. If it is working, then that's also awesome to know, particularly since I have so many works in progress.
So, what do you think? Here are some example of scenes designed to catch the reader off guard!
1) When King Leopold slaps King Philip across the face for going behind his back in Deck of Cards
2) When King Philip cuts Rose's tongue out in Deck of Cards
3) When King Leopold kills King Philip in Deck of Cards
4) When you find out Queen Margaret is still alive in Deck of Cards
5) When Queen Katherine is found dead in Deck of Cards
6) When Jaris dies in Cordia's Will
7) When Cordia becomes engaged to Carey in Cordia's Will
8) When Carey confiscates Cordia's mail in Cordia's Will
9) When Will returns in Cordia's Will
10) When Cordia steps out with the gun aimed at Carey in Cordia's Will
Are there any others that I missed??
Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments here or on my Goodreads blog.  However, if you are going to comment with a spoiler, please mark it accordingly. Otherwise, you can always just leave the numbers of what you saw as the major "shut-up" numbers. Seriously--even if your comments are anonymous I would really love to hear from you! Feedback from my readers is vital to my writing process.
Also, if you haven't left a review on Amazon, Smashwords, and/or Goodreads, please consider doing so. I would love to hear your thoughts there as well. And if you love either or both of my books and you spread the word, it helps others to decide to give them a try and it helps me to know that I am making good decisions as a writer. If you have constructive comments, I can use those as well.

If you were looking for the links, here they are!  Deck of Cards can be purchased here and Cordia's Will can be purchased here.

1 comment:

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