Using Dialogue Effectively

Dialogue doesn’t only impart information and move the plot along. It should also indicate the characters’ upbringing, social status or reflect their place in time.

Opposites Attract: Creating Conflict

For me, a great romance takes two people who seem to be worlds apart in Chapter One and are inseparable by the time I reach The End. The trick is making the relationship of such people believable and not leaving your reader with the impression: What does he see in her or she in him?

Hooking the Reader

Writing the perfect first line.

A number of years ago I heard an agent speak and the one thing she said that has stayed with me was: “The first line will sell the book. The last line will sell the next book.”

This really began to hit home the more I wrote, because the more I wrote and had that “internal editor” taking up permanent residence on my shoulder, it made me hard to please when it comes to reading fiction. An author really has to grab me from the get-go to keep me reading these days.

While some stories and characters lend themselves to pull-you-in opening sentences a lot of the time it takes a few paragraphs to give the reader a bit more to become involved in. Most of the time a few paragraphs is all you’ll have when your submission comes across an editor or agent’s desk.

The biggest obstacle you’ll need to work around especially when being fairly new to writing is starting your story too soon. I think beginning a story in the wrong place is a rite of passage that all writers come up against when starting out.

That isn’t a bad thing at all. While years of writing have helped me be a better judge of finding the “right” place to start there are still times I find myself trimming to cut the excess that can be worked in a bit later.

What you’re likely to find is that most of this excess is backstory, the events that have brought your character (s) to this particular place in time.

What is the Purpose of the Book’s Opening?

The main purpose is to entice the reader into your particular fictional world.

The best openings: