Writers are told time and again to start their stories with a bang. Open in the middle of a murder, a high-speed car chase, or heist-in-progress, and readers will be instantly hooked, right? How is it, then, that Margaret Atwood dares open her hefty contemporary novel The Robber Bride with a main character’s morning routine: […]
August 18, 2010 by 12 Comments Beginning Your BookHow to Strengthen Your Story With Proper Framing
Framing is a useful, but too often overlooked, technique that gives your story a sense of cohesion and directs readers’ loyalties and attention. What Is Framing? Frames bookend a story with a definitive opening scene (that introduces readers to pertinent characters, settings, and themes) and a closing scene (that brings the story to a resonant […]
June 6, 2010 by 63 Comments Beginning Your Book5 Ways to Maximize Your Story’s Inciting Event
The Inciting Event is the moment your character’s world is forever changed. It knocks over the first domino in the line of dominoes that forms your plot. It sets off an irrevocable chain reaction that will eventually lead your character to the maelstrom of your Climax. So how do you go about creating an Inciting […]
March 11, 2010 by 25 Comments Beginning Your BookThe 4-Step Checklist for Your Story’s Opening Scene
Your story’s opening scene is always going to be tricky. It has to accomplish all kinds of goals in very little time and few words. Today, let’s look at the four things your story’s opening scene needs to check off its list–starting with the single most important one. The Most Important Job of an Opening Scene Arguably, […]
September 13, 2009 by 63 Comments Beginning Your BookThe “Establishing Shot”–and 9 More Ways to Strengthen Your Story’s Beginning
Just for the record: I hate beginnings. The first fifty pages of my novels are inevitably torture to write. I’m always sure I’ve lost my touch, convinced that every successful story in the past was a fluke, absolutely certain I’ll never make these opening scenes gripping enough to hook a reader. And it’s no wonder. […]
December 20, 2008 by 19 Comments Beginning Your BookSecret Storytelling Weapon: The Book’s Back Cover
What’s the first thing most readers look at when they pick up a book? If they’re anything like me, their attention is first snagged by the cover art, the title, and the author name, and from there they flip the book over and a take a gander at the back cover or the inside jacket […]
May 4, 2008 by 27 Comments Beginning Your BookCharacter: The Most Important Part of Your Story’s Beginning
If all of writing was as difficult as the first 50 pages, I probably would have wimped out years ago and found myself a new vocation. (Something easy and safe—like being a Walmart greeter or maybe the collector of the quarters from Laundromat machines.) Despite the fact that I already know every plot turn that […]
January 8, 2008 by 39 Comments Beginning Your BookWhen Not to Skip the Prologue
If you read last week’s post, “Skip the Prologue,” you’ve hopefully seen some of the reasons prologues are often a bad idea. Even prologues that escape being boring information dumps tend to delve into the dangerous waters of distancing a reader from the main story. Having invested their interest and emotion in a prologue, a […]
January 1, 2008 by 35 Comments Beginning Your BookSkip the Prologue!
Writers have an ongoing love affair with the prologue. You know, that chapter before a chapter inserted at the beginning of a book, intended to fill the reader in on important need-to-know info, so that he and the writer will be on the same page when they dive into the “real” beginning of the story. […]
December 17, 2007 by 15 Comments Beginning Your BookDostoevsky and the Art of In Medias Res
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short novel The Gambler never reached the popularity and renown of his other works (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Notes From Underground, most notably), but it deserves a spotlight of its own for several reasons. The most notable reason is undeniably its stunning and incisive portrayal of gambling addiction. Dostoevsky, who […]
