novels – Page 4 – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Tommy Dean on five ways to open any story (but especially a novel)

Advice from an exceptional writer, editor, and literary agent, with real-life examples.

Today’s Friday Five is cones courtesy of Tommy Dean, a talented writer, editor, and literary agent who shares his writing wisdom regularly via his Substack, where today’s post originally appeared. It is reprinted here today with permission.

Tommy Dean

Tommy is editor of the popular flash fiction literary magazine Fractured Lit and Uncharted, a writing coach who offers editing services and writing workshops, and an associate literary agent with Rosecliff Literary. He is the author of Hollows, a collection of flash stories, and two flash fiction chapbooks, Special Like the People on TV and Covenants. Tommy has also appeared on this blog before as the subject of an April 2024 Friday Five interview.

What I love most about this post from Tommy is how he draws from actual examples–actual novels–to support his points. This approach makes me want to dive deeper into my reading to see what other novels follow similar paths.

Friday Five: Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar

‘Modify your story, make it real, make it whole, but don’t give up if you believe in the tale you are trying to tell.’

Portrait photo of writer Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar — Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar

The author of two books and numerous flash fiction and micro fiction stories, Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar is an Indian American writer based in Columbus, Ohio. Her flash fiction and microfiction, including her debut collection Morsels of Purple, explore the nuances of womanhood across cultural and geographic boundaries. Her novel Skin Over Milk tells the story of three girls “who bear the weight of being unwanted daughters in 1990s India.” Sara’s writings have appeared in several print and online literary journals, including Ghost Parachute, SmokeLong Quarterly, Reflex Press, and Flash Fiction Online, and have earned nominations for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. She also is a submissions editor at SmokeLong Quarterly.

In addition to her writing, Sara is a mother, wife, and IT leader who holds an electronics engineer degree and an MBA. Read on to learn how she balances the many facets of her life to consistently create wonderful stories.