IndieAuthors.Social NewsJul 28, 2025

Blank Pages and Blinking Cursors: Why Are Openings So Hard?

Imagine that you are driving when a freak rainstorm hits five miles from home.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/07/28/blank-pages-and-blinking-cursors-why-are-openings-so-hard/

#Lamentations #REALWORLD #Writinglife #beginnings #firstpages
@indieauthors

Allison WyssMar 13, 2023

I wrote about the opening chapter to Erika T. Wurth's WHITE HORSE and how it pulls together the mundane and the creepy to both situate & get the story moving--and also do weirder things like evoke the uncanny & make brain explosions.

#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #BookOpenings #FirstPages #WritingCraft #ErikaTWurth #WhiteHorse #Horror #GenerationalTrauma #Monsters #Ghosts

https://bit.ly/WhHSS

White Horse and a Scary Start | The Loft Literary Center

WritingExcuses (unofficial)Feb 26, 2023
18.09: Unpacking the Tension https://writingexcuses.com/2023/02/26/18-09-unpacking-the-tension/ #UnansweredQuestions #TheoryandTechnique #Juxtaposition #Microtension #Characters #FirstPages #TheMatrix #Season18 #Conflict #TedLasso #Emotion #Tension #Tool
18.09: Unpacking the Tension

For the next several episodes we’ll be talking about tension. That may seem like a lot of time to spend on just one word, but as we unpack the word ‘tension’ in this episode you&#…

Writing Excuses
WritingExcuses (unofficial)Aug 22, 2021
16.34: Novels Are Layer Cakes https://writingexcuses.com/2021/08/22/16-34-novels-are-layer-cakes/ #TheoryandTechnique #freeindirectspeech #FirstParagraphs #StoryStructure #FirstPages #Season16
16.34: Novels Are Layer Cakes

Your Hosts: Dongwon Song, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler Novels deliver a lot of information, and it’s helpful to consider that delivery in terms of layers. Novels are lay…

Writing Excuses