WRITER 612: Meet Petronella McGovern, author of 'The Last Trace', on how to build narrative tension and keep readers turning the page.

Meet Petronella McGovern, author of The Last Trace. Petronella shares her top 5 tips on creating narrative tension and so that readers keep turning the page. You'll discover techniques on character development, the challenges of editing, writing cliffhangers, ensuring you have internal and external conflicts and much more. 00:00 Introduction and welcome00:18 TV series based on books02:28 Nat Newman's writing tips on writing accents10:46 WIN: Lies & Weddings by Kevin Kwan13:51 Word of the week: Psephology15:12 Interview with Petronella McGovern, author of The Last Trace23:09 Introducing the multi-generational characters23:46 Crafting emotional connections with characters24:55 Narrative tension and point of view decisions26:40 Internal and external conflicts27:56 Writing realistic teenagers30:41 Drip feeding secrets and foreshadowing34:18 The importance of cliffhangers35:15 The evolution of writing process39:52 Balancing subplots and multiple POVs42:25 Final thoughts and future projects45:16 Conclusion and fun fact Read the show notes Connect with Valerie and listeners in the podcast community on Facebook Visit WritersCentre.com.au | ValerieKhoo.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.