How Do I Make The Next Book Better?
Contents:
Forgettable books often have thin description, with the bare minimum indicating setting. When writing description, remember to: Is this information crucial to the story? Does it illuminate anything important about my characters and their world? So cut it Are there enough active verbs? Instead of using adverbs, use verbs that carry descriptive power.
Diverse and developed characters Writing a good book also requires skilled characterization. To make your characters diverse and well-developed, do at least some of the following: Give your characters flaws: Your hero might be brave in some circumstances but irrationally fearful in others Sketch brief backstories for each important character: Real people have histories. They have upbringings, triumphs, disappointments, aspirations Create contrasts between characters: Characters who all talk the same, look the same or think the same are dull. Find interesting differences Give your characters identifying attributes: Think of someone important in your life: Do they have odd sayings that nobody else uses?
A distinct way of pronouncing a certain word? How do they walk and carry themselves? Give each character a signature detail or two Grow your characters: How do your characters change as the events of your novel unfold? A major event such as the discovery of a hidden superpower or a death in the family creates cause-and-effect ripples 6.
Other authors give deep detail on subjects ranging from domestic arts to international terrorism. Dire consequences, given the setup. First, free your vocabulary while also keeping it in check. Some genres do allow characters that resemble cardboard cutouts. It is an art and a technology that creates SEO quite efficient developing the main well-known features of seo. Make a list of Heart-Clutching Moments and put them on index cards in rough order. Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser at the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams, bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs.
Effective dialogue What do many of the best-loved movies of all time have in common? Tells the reader something about your characters and their relationships. Adds to tension and conflict Furthers the plot by letting the reader piece together a larger picture. To ensure your novel has strong inner logic: Make sure that the bulk of your story answers the central questions you set up: If characters act completely against the personalities and backstories you create, they may seem inconsistent and confusing 8.
A good balance of tension and release Whatever you want to call it — rising action and falling action or build-up and climax — tension and release keeps readers invested in the outcome of your novel. Because balancing action and tension release is key: Create a suitable amount of conflict and suspense for your genre: Your reader will naturally expect a greater amount of tension and suspense if your novel is a classic thriller Have mini-resolutions along the way: It could work to have your story just keep building to a single epic showdown between protagonist and antagonist.
But you can create variety and interest by having mini-conflicts and resolutions on the way to the central conflict resolving. Combine different types of tension: Your story might pit your protagonist s against other characters, the environment, or an internal struggle. Alternatively, tension might arise more out of plot uncertainty rather than direct hostility.
A sense of originality Many of the landmark novels of the last few centuries have built on their predecessors but also offered something new. To stay original make sure that you: What matters to you?
Put your own unique background, history and points of reference to use. Nobody shares both your history and perspective so draw on both The key to writing a good book: To make sure your ending is satisfying: Make sure you have followed through on questions you yourself have raised in the course of the book Resolve important tensions that have built up in the course of the story, or use a cliffhanger to create anticipation for your next book Need help writing a better book?
How to start a novel: First sentences, first paragraphs Finding sentences to start a story: Post navigation Previous How to expand your novel idea into a stronger story. Next Foreshadowing in a sentence: Begin by reading up on body language.
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Dwell inside your characters and sense how they feel in any given situation. If Brian needs a cigarette, use the moment fully:. Brian paused and lit a cigarette. I should add that you can pick apart any masterwork on that basis: One of the biggest is that love—or sex, at least—makes people irrational.
We throw over the picture-perfect millionaire for the rough-around-the-edges dirt biker with debt; we lie to our faithful wife on the phone while bonking the secretary in a motel. Which goes to show that if you incorporate a strong enough motivating factor—even an irrational one—you can easily establish a plausible reason for erratic actions on the part of your characters.
And those characters are far more interesting to read about than those who always behave rationally. Similarly, any number of terrific plot turns can result when you give a character an obsession—random or not—or an idiosyncrasy that can act as a thread through the story. For instance, someone who is obsessed can become single-mindedly so, leading to horrible errors in judgment. Control freaks turn vainglorious and become prone to fatal decisions:.
It follows that an obsessed character must either find grace or be forced to it , or reject growth and stick with their crippled, familiar life to the end. In fact, a little capriciousness here can be beneficial. Which one are you sort of avoiding dealing with? What if he categorically will not show up anywhere on time? Automatically, this character becomes more interesting, and automatically we feel a little detonation of uh-oh: This sort of characterization does two things: It makes a character stronger as a dramatic device, and it makes him more memorable. Or they might not even notice—but they will get a feeling that for some hard-to-pinpoint reason, this character just seems genuine.
A few years ago I was teaching a workshop and trying to get across the concept of writing freely with no thought of whether you like the result. A participant spoke up: I practically reeled from the force of the genius of that question. Thank you, anonymous writer and unknown art instructor! Everyone in the room immediately made the translation: Not-pretty has two meanings here: Most people shy away from darkness, but as an author you must be willing to dwell there, see it truly, explore it before you represent it.
I kind of hate to say this, but I advise going back to your childhood years—the primal times before we really knew right from wrong, and before we were strong enough to defend ourselves from evil. Feel the fear that coursed through your body when you saw the neighborhood bully coming. Feel the shameless intoxication of wrecking something out of spite.
As for freeing up your writing, do the same thing. When you were a kid, you did everything with almost complete abandon.
How to Make Your Novel a Page Turner
Call up that spirit as you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. When I worked for a large bookseller, we ran surveys that showed our core customers to be well educated and fairly affluent. This was not surprising: Educated people tend to like books, and their income tends to enable them to buy books. You cannot do it. And dumbing down your work can be doubly disastrous, because if you do, agents and editors will not be able to relate to it.
First, free your vocabulary while also keeping it in check. Edwina stopped revving the accelerator.
Character Worksheets
The car rocked back into the sand. She looked up at the thick spruce boughs that hung into the road. Agents and editors will recognize an honest, unstilted voice, and they will respond to it. As will your future readers. Agents and editors have a sixth sense when it comes to kitchen-sink novels. I once read a novel manuscript at the insistence of a friend who knew the author. In it, a man on foot stops to talk to a man on horseback who is wearing a live snake around his waist like a belt.
The incident was colorful but had no bearing on the story, and I suspected that the only reason it was there was that the author had once met up with a man on horseback who wore a snake around his waist like a belt. A casual inquiry proved me right.
Alternatively, adapt your story to the cool thing. The author with the snake-belt guy might have brought that character into the story more, either by making him a one-shot oracle who gives or withholds a crucial piece of information, or by making a real character out of him, with a name and a crime or a heartache. The snake could then have served multiple purposes: Did you grin or chuckle at that last line about the snake-belt guy lacking a girlfriend?
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What agents and editors love above all is wit. Note that wit is not exactly humor: Wit is more of a brain thing. All of these can serve as subtle tactics for adding wit to your fiction. For instance, you might decide to give a character a blind spot. Imagine that snake-belt guy shows up for a first date and the woman slowly picks up her purse and leaves the coffee shop without so much as a word.
The underlying wit is that until that moment, it had never even dawned on him to consider leaving the snake at home. Look for opportunities to incorporate small, believable incongruities.
Check out these self-improvement books to steer yourself into awesomeness. Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life. to the gatekeepers who hold the keys to publication, it's not enough for your story to be good. Use these techniques to take your fiction to new.
A character who is sharp about some things but not others can be funny. Lots of books make readers laugh and lots make readers cry, but when readers laugh and cry while reading the same book, they remember it. What makes people cry? What I mean is: In this case, cheap is usually the crappy twin of quick. Take your time and let emotion build from a single seed.
How to make him vulnerable? Maybe our bouncer has never given up his boyhood dream of being a fighter pilot. Maybe, as a year-old, he decides to go for this dream. He tells no friend back home, no one he loves what his ultimate goal is. You know what to do from here: Let his dream come closer; let him overcome setbacks.
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