People don’t have to read your novel. There are plenty of other things they could be doing, such as watching television, walking the dog, mending the shelf in the bathroom and even (believe it or not) reading someone else’s book. It’s therefore imperative that you grab them with your first line and make sure you keep them until the very last.
Put everything you’ve got into the first line, the first paragraph and the first chapter. (That’s not to say you can take it easy with the rest of the book, just make sure the first is the creme de la creme.) Make that initial chapter as exciting an introduction to your fictional world as you possibly can. Don’t worry too much about explanations, about who’s who – all that can come later – just give them 100% action.
If your book is a romance, start with a steamy sex scene; if it’s a murder mystery, start with a killing; if it’s a western, start with a stampede or a shoot-out… you get the idea. You’ve got to hook your reader from the start. If you don’t, you’ll never see them again.
Modern action films start with a chase or a heist , sometimes even before the credits have rolled. Learn from the movie makers. They’re spending hundreds of million dollars making their product, a fortune marketing them, and they need it to succeed. The last thing they want is a mass walk-out from the cinema.
Occasionally, the opening ten minutes are the best thing in the movie, and that’s something you’ve got to guard against as a writer. Having started with a bang, you’ve got to make sure the rest of the novel lives up to it.
Don’t try and keep up the same pace throughout the novel, that would only serve to exhaust your reader. Regulate the speed and pace of the book to build up to a climax. Maybe several climaxes before the big bang at the end.
Once you’ve established who your characters are and the situation they’ve found themselves in, you’ve got to get the reader on your side and keep them there.
One essential is that the reader enjoys your protagonist as a character and must care what happens to him or her. That doesn’t mean to say that they have to approve of the lead character or even like them, as Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels and others ably demonstrate.
The reader also has to approve of the mission the hero embarks on, whether it be to win the girl (or boy) or save the world from nuclear annihilation. If the reader doesn’t give two hoots about the character or what he does then they’re not going to read any further.
For more advice on story and plot, click here
