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| Panel members Laurie Hanan, Greg Field, Doris Chu, Gail Baugniet, Kent Reinker, and Dawn Casey welcome the audience |
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As moderator, I opened
the panel discussion with a comparison:
Short Story or Novel: What’s the Difference?
Counting off the differences. |
Sisters in Crime/Hawaii (SinC/HI) is the local chapter of Sisters
in Crime, Inc., an international organization consisting of "authors,
booksellers, editors, agents, librarians, critics, teachers and readers, whose
primary purpose is support through communication.”
As “Sisters-and-Misters” members of Sisters in Crime/Hawaii, we
encourage new writers with various projects throughout the year. One such
project consisted of compiling and publishing an anthology of mystery short
stories set in Hawaii, MYSTERY IN PARADISE
13 Tales of Suspense, available in eBook and print at Amazon.com.
Our discussion for Saturday afternoon addressed the different
aspects of writing a short story. Panel members were SinC/Hawaii members Kent
Reinker, Laurie Hanan, Greg Field, Doris Chu, Dawn Casey, and Gail Baugniet.
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| Kent Reinker Plot Construction |
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| Captivating the audience! |
Kent Reinker, the author of the cross genre mystery/medical/sci-fi novel entitled If Pigs Could Cry tackled the topic of
Plot Construction, detailing the steps on how to convert an interesting anecdote into a memorable short story.
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| Dawn Casey Creating Setting |
Author of the children's Christmas book set in Hawaii: A Christmas Gift, and librarian for the Hawaii State Library, Dawn Casey covered Creating Setting within
a short story. Her advice included an important that all writers, not only beginners, need to be reminded of: Weave details about setting into the description of action.
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| Doris Chu Point of View |
Journalist and screenwriter Doris Chu focused on View Point used
in telling a story. She described the different points of view used by authors to tell their story and stressed that choosing the view in how the story is told is very important.
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| Introduction of our next speakers: Laurie and Greg |
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| Laurie Hanan Character Development |
Laurie Hanan, a cover artist (as demonstrated with MYSTERY IN PARADISE) and the author of the
Louise Golden mysteries, explored Character Development and Creating Memorable Characters. Laurie stated that the reader experiences the setting through the character and the plot develops through the charter, making the character the most important element in any story.
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| Greg Field Functions of Dialog |
Greg Field, editor and crime novelist author of Red Dirt White Bones, discussed the
myriad Functions of Dialog. He explained that dialog is the verbal and non-verbal interchange between two or more characters.
Throughout the panel discussion, each participant offers their views on the topics presented, giving an overview of the basic requirements in writing a novel.
In 2015, Sisters in Crime/Hawaii will continue to hold panel
discussions at libraries around O’ahu. Anyone interested in hosting one of our
panel discussions is welcome to contact me at: gbaugniet@aol.com
A special Mahalo to David Jones for taking and sharing all the photographs
displayed here.
