“Too much information kills tension. But showing – through dialogue, active sentences, strong word choice and carefully chosen visceral reactions – pulls the reader into the story and makes them an active participant rather than a bored onlooker.”

We spoke to Pamela Cook to find out what inspires her stories and how a writer can find the self-confidence they need to rediscover their creativity.

“No matter what the genre, a story needs tension. If the reader knows everything up front, there’s no hook, no questions and no reason to read on.”
To learn how to hook your reader and keep them caught, join Pamela Cook in her Saturday 15 September workshop Turn Up The Tension.

Pamela Cook is a city girl with a country lifestyle and too many horses. Her rural fiction novels feature feisty women, tangled family relationships and a healthy dose of romance. She has published four novels and has taught writing workshops around Australia. What role does tension play across your novels? Many people think tension is […]