To involve and inspire your readers, LIVE your stories rather than write them. Forget about the page or the screen in front of you.  Imagine that you are there, alongside your characters, and that you can feel the wind blowing and see the clouds fragmenting overhead.

Writing should be a "theatre in the round". Your reader should hear and smell and touch, as well as talk and think and analyze. Describe what's behind you as well as what's in front of you. Remember, too, that your characters are real people and have day-to-day concerns that in some ways are even more pressing than the main plot, such as arguing with their wives or husbands, or bringing up their children, or paying the bills, or trying not to drink too much. Also remember that most people have a sense of humour, and that they deal with even the most frightening or tragic situations with a joke.

- Graham Masterton

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