feed your characters / readers a steady diet of... cues that begin to add up to some conclusion... But the pieces don’t quite add up—so the reader must continue on. You keep your reader guessing.
instead of (or in addition to) killing yourselves trying to concoct a great first line... how about giving some thought to what your opening scene looks like? It takes a lot of the pressure off that first page anxiety — because you're focused on conveying a powerful image that will intrigue and entice the reader into the book.
What do we see? How does it make us feel? How might it even be a miniature code of what the whole story is about?
One of my favorite opening images/sequences is the credits scene of The Shining. I don’t think there’s a creepier opening to be found anywhere in film. It’s all aerial camerawork of those vast, foreboding mountains as that tiny little car drives up, up, up toward what turns out to be the Overlook Hotel. It’s vertiginous, it’s ominous, it emphasizes the utter isolation of the hotel and the circumstances, and somehow, through the music and the visuals and the constant movement, Kubrick establishes a sense of huge, vast, and malevolent natural forces.
The opening image will sometimes —often — set up a location that will return in the final battle scene or in the resolution scene of the story — only at the end there will be a big visual contrast to show how much the hero/ine has changed.
One trick many writers use to create immediate, low-level empathy for their protagonist is to introduce the character in a situation that the reader is likely to have physically experienced. The trick usually serves dual purpose by also generating curiosity as to why the character is in that situation.
bored/shivering whilst waiting for something/someone; eyes swollen with crying; standing/walking in a cold wind.
You almost always start out with a hero who is in some kind of environment where he or she is not completely comfortable and they know something is wrong...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_Q1gFsvIw
{Sometimes} the author is withholding information in order to try to create tension with the reader. So the author might not let us in on the secret of who a character is, what their sex is, where the story is taking place, or what the story is about. This is what I call “false tension,” and it really can get annoying... real tension arises when a character is in jeopardy, and there is some doubt as to the outcome of that jeopardy.
grounding is the fine art of letting the reader know what is going on. You need to focus on some basics: Who is in a scene? Where does it take place? What is the major conflict?
Those questions need to be answered quickly with every scene in a book or story... You could do worse than to start a story with all three elements in the very first sentence: “Johann did not want to die on the moon, but when the asteroid struck the dome above Callisto Crater, it looked as if he didn’t have any other options.”
Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey aren’t novels, per se, they are 400 solid pages of feelings (longing, in the same of Twilight, desire/curiosity/revulsion in the case of Shades). For me, both of them sunk their hooks into me (and about 40 million other people) so deep that I would constantly look up from the books, thinking, “This is such crap…and I can’t stop reading it!” Why? Feelings.
A good story should always be raising questions — not asking them directly, but instead forcing the reader to ask them. “Wait, what’s that weird symbol they keep seeing on the walls? What was that sound? Something’s up with that top hat-wearing fox that keeps following them, too. Where the crap are they going?” This is why too much exposition is a story-squasher
Giving the reader a question she wants to know the answer to is not the same as withholding the interesting stuff until the end.
Humans... have basic cravings. If you can speak to these cravings, you’ll win a reader for 300 pages... what are some game-like qualities writers can apply to their manuscripts to make them more addictive?
Clear goals. Characters are always in pursuit of something...
Cause and effect. Characters’ actions have consequences. Always.
Obstacles and rewards. Obstacles speak for themselves. But rewards are just as important. Finding a tool, weapon, magical object, or guide adds excitement and gives readers an emotional boost... even a contemporary novel can use them, although they’ll come in a different form.
The right level of difficulty... keep the challenges coming at the very edge of your character’s ability to deal with them.
A conflict-rich environment... think of games: if you land on the black square, you get bounced back six spaces. If you jump on the yellow crate, you accidentally release a monster. The setting dispenses dangers and rewards at every turn.
Building up to a big bad something?
Try using foreboding: build tension by dropping hints that not all is well (what are the symptoms of your big bad?) and allow your characters to worry just a little tiny bit.
Consider heightening the emotional build-up by combining the big bad suspense arc with that of something your character is anticipating.
is... your first line... A distinctive, specific first line that can only be the first line to your book and no other?
Peak curiosity. Raise questions... Will your readers wonder why? If not, then rewrite it so they will...
Add a secret...
Always end at a place where the reader will wonder what will happen next... Does the last line of chapter one hook you? If not, why not? Rewrite it so the reader will want to know more....
withhold... valuable information... If you{r readers} already know, then there is no suspense.
I have a theory that if the author is excited by the scene they are writing, excited by what is coming next... that excitement and anticipation can carry over to the reader.H.R.Filmore's Reminders To Self, March 2011.
Tension comes from uncertainty.http://samsykes.com/2010/10/how-to-be-a-boring-wizard/
Show them in the act of attempting to achieve a goal, prevent something bad from happening, et cetera... I don’t really care what it is, just show them trying.
The conflict itself forces characters to respond. In watching their responses, we learn about them.
Create mysteries about your characters... don’t explain. Let us wonder.
illustrate a personality trait that is at the heart of the arc you’ll be putting that character through.
There are many ways to hook a reader who opens your book--a great cover, a catchy title, luscious descriptions, an endearing character portrait, a captivating hook, and so on.
Yet all too soon, much of how well the story grabs a reader will depend upon whether your conflict is engaging...
two main strategies that we can use to introduce conflicts... Think of them as notes on a scale: A) mystery, B) conflict... we might go with a line like this: A, A, A, B. A, A, A, B. In this example we might create a sense of mystery for five pages to lead to the revelation of a major conflict—which in turn leads to more mysteries and an even greater conflict in chapter two.
But of course you can create any variation
On every single page:
1. Make something exciting happen.
2. Give one of your main characters something brilliant, insightful, hilarious, heart-breaking, or completely baffling to say or do or see happening.
3. Give your other main character a completely unexpected response.
4. Give your reader an experience they don’t want to forget.
5. End the page with something to make your reader curious.
Now, you ought to notice something about these ways to make your novel addictive: it’s a whole lot to pack into a single page. Why, if you did all this on every single page, you’d never have room for anything else! None of the other stuff you’ve written, none of the extra description, the unimportant actions, the insignificant dialog, the explanatory exposition, the filler. . .
Yep, there it is. The lightbulb.
