mystery

There’s nothing like a stunning twist or shock to keep readers flipping, clicking or swiping pages. Part of the fun for readers is thinking a story is going one way, and getting taken completely by surprise.

Harlan Coben is one of the reigning kings of the art of surprise. “I’ve rarely met a twist I didn’t like,” he has said. His method, if it can be called that, is to write himself “into a lot of corners” and see how things work out. That’s one way to go. Forcing your writer’s mind to deal with conundrums is a great practice.

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It’s hard to begin a novel. Heck, it’s even hard to begin a blog post. Why? You only have a few lines to grab a reader and draw them into your world, and the pressure is on.

While we often obsess over plot, pacing, and other mechanics of storytelling, the open is one of the most important (and difficult) elements to master. It’s a promise that you offer to your reader. Nail it and readers will stick with you, even if other elements of your story aren’t perfect. But if you don’t start your novel off in the right place, readers will grow bored or get confused and eventually give up. Not good. 

A lot of writers make the mistake of starting out with background information, but you should delay that until later on in your story. Don’t spend time with too much preamble. Plunge your reader into the heart of the action to hook them right away.

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Point of View

A point of view is the perspective an author uses to give a glimpse into the world he’s created. The reader may experience this world directly through the inner thoughts of a character or distantly from the perspective of an objective observer. Point of view is an important literary device for exploring a story. The point of view an author chooses can determine how the reader understands and participates in the story. Point of view can be used to express the feelings, thoughts, motivations, and experiences of one or many. It is the angle that the story is viewed through.

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5 Writing Tips

• Use writing prompts to work your way out of writer’s block.
• Write for your readers not for success.
• Avoid adverbs whenever possible. Adverbs tell and don’t show because they draw a conclusion. Here are a few examples of adverbs: Sweetly, beautifully, hatefully, and suddenly.
• Avoid using dialects or phonetic spelling. It takes the reader out of the moment.
• Cut it if you, as a reader, would skip it.

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Adopt the three-act novel approach. In this first act, introduce plot and character. In the second act, develop both your characters and the plot. In the third act, tie up loose ends.

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In the world of your novel, no character should sound like the other. Instead of relying completely on dialogue tags, you can also lean on different speech patterns, and words or phrases that the character may use often.Consider assigning a unique speech pattern to each of your main characters. Describe the cadence of their speech, if they use big or small words, and if they’re abrupt or coy.

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Many writers have the tendency to write dialogue like they think it should sound. This often leads to cringe-worthy interactions where thees and thous are used incorrectly. On the other end of the pendulum, some writers have a tendency to modernize historical dialogue, ignoring the era-specific ornate language for a plain, stripped down, bastardized version. That’s a no-no, too. Whether you’re writing a period piece or a young adult series set 10 years in the past, remember to use specific language that’s accurate for that time period.

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Let the reader know more than the protagonist does. However, don’t let the reader know every single thing about the characters. Don’t be afraid to let your protagonist fail. Make sure that each character (and name) stands out from the others. No Marcia and Maria in the same book, unless this move is on purpose.

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“Create an arc for your protagonist that changes him/ her in some way

by the end of the story.”

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