E very writer has a toolkit of strategies and techniques that can be tapped when telling a story: setting a scene, character development, plot twists. Nicholas O'Connell, founder of The Writer's Workshop in Seattle, part-time resident of Coeur d'Alene and author of five books (including On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Pacific Northwest Literature ), says one of his favorites is to incorporate dramatic scenes.

"I'm always looking for an interesting moment when something happens that will change the circumstances of the person," he says.

For instance, his 2012 The Storms of Denali begins near the top of Denali (aka Mount McKinley) with characters who are "in the middle of a hellacious snowstorm, and if they get it wrong, they're all going to die."

In O'Connell's newest book

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