There needs to be an element of safety and normality to any good story—you can only truly catch your readers off-guard by making them feel safe, by letting them think they know exactly which way the story is heading, and THEN throwing something unnerving at them that will really make them gasp
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.
the beginning is... the emotionally engaging originating event. The middle is the natural and causally related consequence, and the end is the inevitable conclusive event.
When a{n important} character dies, it should... profoundly affect... the other characters in the story. Cities have been razed and nations overthrown to avenge the loss of a loved one
where each book is meant to stand on its own as a self-contained adventure... focus on the essentials - they {readers} don’t need to know everything that happened in the last book, only what actually impacts... this book
As a writer I can show the audience one thing at a time... so the order in which I show them becomes very important.
By choosing the items {I show} I am telling my audience what the character is thinking about.
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?
Each character, scene, and bit of backstory should matter
I don't know exactly how and why all these details are important, but I know they are. This author does not waste the reader's time.
Make sure your audience can feel it when the story has reached a turning point.
be{ing} creative first thing in the morning, before doing anything for the outside world, really sets the day up for me. It makes it feel that CREATING is my job, not answering emails.http://www.sfwa.org/2011/06/guest-post-the-no-1-habit-of-highly-creative-people/
Brainstorm what everyone else would do, then do the opposite.
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.
1. Article - The girl sat on the bus.
2. Noun - Rain soaked through his jacket.
3. Interjection - Oh, he knew what he was doing.
4. Participial phrase - Running after her, he stumbled and fell.
5. Conjunction - Either she wanted to be with him or she didn't.
6. Adverb - Stubbornly, he crossed his arms.
7. Adjective - Upset over what had happened, he refused to speak to anyone.
8. Prepositional Phrase - At the top of the stairs, he turned around.
9. Infinitive Phrase - To pour out his soul to the woman he loved was his goal.
10. Gerund - Shouting was the only thing that worked.
A chapter summary is not a synopsis, btw. A synopsis has its own narrative flow. It is meant to engage, inform and basically sell your work.
In the first level of imagining a story, I say, “It was a beautiful sunny day.” In the second level, I take it from the abstract to something more concrete. I try to make it not just “a” day, but “a real” day. Maybe I’ll describe the wildfires, or the afternoon thunderstorm that you smell coming even at dawn. In the third level, I go even farther. I begin to come up with details that don’t just make it a “real day of a kind” but that make it a “unique” day—a day when ladybugs land on your arm at the mailbox...
I also tell you something about my character. She doesn’t try to kill the insect or brush it off; she admires it
experiment, write by hand, write on different types of paper, write using crayons or whatever medium you want and see what happens...
Are you the same person when you are home lounging around on your own as when you're out on a date or at a company party? Are you the same person around your friends on a Saturday night as with your kids?
different characters bring out different sides of your protag
Voice goes much deeper than the style of how words are strung together on paper or screen. Voice reflects what you believe, what you know, what you understand, what you have experienced in life... when it comes to spending several months of your life writing one, it’s going to reflect who YOU are deep inside. Your cares and concerns, your beliefs, and your passions... that’s why Voice cannot be duplicated. No two souls are alike.
there’s a profound difference between a love interest whose only investment in the plot is their attachment to the hero, and a fully functioning character who develops into a love interest.
if you're not living a happy life prior to being published, being published is not going to be the thing that suddenly makes you happy.
Maybe you have the most original basic premise evar — but that's not your plot. Your plot is how your new widget changes the people in your story, and how it affects their lives. Or what decisions your people make as a resulthttp://io9.com/366707/8-unstoppable-rules-for-writing-killer-short-stories
write your own 1-star view... This will help you anticipate the 1-star reviews you'll get, as well as a chance to fix it.http://critiquecircle.com/forums.asp?action=viewforum&thread=853477&offset=60 (post by Tiaclare)
the books I enjoy reading most are books I would never in a million years have thought of myself.
trouble with opening chapters usually means they can be cut.http://madwomanintheforest.com/wfmad-day-28-question-day-one/
one of the things most new writers fail to do is establish setting. They never describe the place the characters are in, and {Elizabeth Wolheim at DAW) likened it to sending actors out on stage without any props.http://critiquecircle.com/forums.asp?action=viewforum&thread=874873&offset=0 2nd reply by Jongoff.
The best short stories I've read are ones which start in the thick of things, but still keep you guessing and let you get to know the characters before you fully comprehend the trouble they're in.http://io9.com/366707/8-unstoppable-rules-for-writing-killer-short-stories
If your readers don't get the full details, they'll just full in the blanks with what's relevant to them. And if those details aren't what you had in mind, you can run into trouble with how a reader sees and understands your story.http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/07/in-proper-context.html?spref=tw
