Immersion and Emotion

A great novel is honed, not hatched. There are two pillars to effective storytelling: immersion and emotional draw. Immersion is what transports readers into your story world. Emotional draw is what keeps them there. This book will take you deep into the craft workshop of the Darling Axe's two senior editors. Michelle and David's core editorial philosophy is simple: every element of a story must serve the reader's experience. First Pillar topics include: the writer's maxim of "show, don't tell", intersections of voice and POV, head hopping, setting, world building across genres, crafting a strong hook, backstory, immersive description, body language, dialogue, filter words or filter verbs, and pacing at the level of scene and chapter. Second Pillar topics include: intersections of plot and character, finding a narrative goal, the psychology of characterization, plot complexity or secondary plotlines, the art of narrative structure and the power of plot points, the hero's journey, the connection between inciting incident and climax, causality in fiction and narrative nonfiction, symbolism, theme, and crafting the perfect ending.

Auteur

Michelle Barker is an award-winning author and a senior editor with The Darling Axe. Her most recent novel My Long List of Impossible Things (2020, Annick Press) is a Junior Library Guild gold standard selection. The House of One Thousand Eyes (2018, Annick Press) won numerous awards, including the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, and was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. She is also the author of A Year of Borrowed Men, finalist for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. Her poetry, short fiction and non-fiction have been published in literary reviews around the world. Michelle lives in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. Find her at MichelleBarker.ca. David Griffin Brown is an award-winning short fiction writer with over twenty years' experience as an editor. He founded DarlingAxe.com in 2018, which has grown into a collective of industry experts, dev editors, line editors, proofreaders, and beta readers, with specialists across all genres. He holds a BA in anthropology and an MFA in creative writing. David lives in Victoria, Canada, on the traditional territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. Find him on Twitter/X under the handles @SeptimusBrown and @DarlingAxe.