You write for yourself of course, but there is a small part of you that wants to publish. But why don’t you?
Most of us, as writers, struggle with insecurities. (I take that back, EVERY writer struggles with some insecurities, even famous ones.)
What are our insecurities and how do we overcome them? Or at least, how do we confront them?
Fear of rejection.
This is a big one and it plays into many human decisions. We might not ask out that person we like because we fear them saying no. Maybe it would be better to just never ask them and then they’ll NEVER be able to SAY NO.
While this is true, we’ll also never know if they would have said yes…
There is a saying, “You miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t take.”
This applies here.
If we fear rejection so much that we never put ourselves out there as writers then we will never know if our writing would have been a success.
And ask yourself, what if just one person really loved your story? Would that be enough for you to publish?
Look for that one person and write and publish for them.
Fear of failure.
Fear of rejection and fear of failure go hand in hand but are not quite the same.
If we fear we are going to be unliked, made fun of, laughed at, etc these are fears of rejection.
Fear of failure is more about setting a goal or accomplishment that is really important to us and then it going wrong and us not achieving that goal.
We are afraid to fail.
We want so badly for this to work out that the fear of it not working out paralyzes us and we instead decide to binge on Netflix or play a video game. We procrastinate to not feel the pressure anymore.
The fear of failure attacks many of us but the truth is we might not fail. The other truth is, what we are afraid of happening (failing) will happen if we don’t try.
We will 100% fail at becoming a successful writer if we don’t try to be a writer at all.
But at least if we try there is a chance we will succeed and readers will love our stories.
Don’t deprive your potential readers.
Fear of inadequacy.
This can fall into two categories. The fear of just not being good enough and the fear of being too young or not knowing enough.
Let no one despise you for your youth. Just because you are young doesn’t mean you can’t learn to write a story well and come up with ideas that people will love.
Feeling like we don’t know enough and wanting to learn is better than feeling like a know-it-all and not learning anything.
A common trait with successful people is their desire to continually learn.
Don’t be afraid to search for knowledge and wisdom and use it once you understand it, no matter what your age.
“They saved me from the emotional pain of rejection and failure.” Did they really? And can you prove that?
No, we, unfortunately, cannot prove that. What we can say is that we never tried because of our insecurities and so we have failed.
Or, we can start today, right now and put our work out there and see what opportunities come our way.
We most definitely might get hurt.
We might fail.
We might get rejected a million times but at least we can know we tried and didn’t give up.
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Are You Having Trouble Creating Your Fictional Town?
If you are like many other creative writers fictional towns are a part of the fun and the problem…
You’d been planning for weeks, months, or years even, but the setting is still hard to imagine or put into words.
Hopefully, these tips and tricks will give you some ideas to get you moving forward with your fictional town.
Create a mood board.
A mood board is a collection of images or textures or colors. It’s really anything that inspires you about a certain subject.
So in this case you would make a board that you place images of towns and things you find in towns that inspire you to imagine your new fictional town.
It can be filled with different kinds of architecture that could be found in your town. It would have shops; the people dress. It could have dirt roads birch roads.
Another fast way to do this would be to make a Pinterest board dedicated completely to your fictional town.
Google images of real towns.
One of the best ways to get over a creative slump for creating a fictional town is to look at pictures of real towns.
Even just basing our fictional town on a real town can really help.
Stephen King does this with Derry, Maine. Derry is not a real place but it IS based on real places in Maine. Derry is mostly a conglomerate of what a generic, default quaint little town in Maine might look like.
Looking at images of real towns and basing our fictional town on them is one of the best ways to get into building a fictional town in our minds.
It helps because we lose the doubt we feel when we wonder, “does this town seem real?” The answer would become, YES, because we took real towns and used that inspiration to make a fictional one.
Create a map.
This is almost without question a necessary step in creating a fictional town. You’ll want to be able to map out where events in the story transpire. If this part gets muddled up it could lead to serious plot holes.
Plus once you’ve mapped out the layout of the town this will be a step that gives you a lot of confidence to move forward with your writing.
You’ll be able to see clearly where things are happening and what the setting looks like with your main characters in it.
The layout of a town is important for the plot and it’ll help you as a writer, in the long run, keep things consistent.
Play some world-building games.
There are certain games that revolve around the idea of worldbuilding.
You could play “The Quiet Year” where you take time building a town and drawing it out as you go to get some ideas. And another game called “Kingdoms” is a great way to think about building towns and kingdoms.
Play some video games.
A great way to think about structuring a fictional town is to look at the way that video games do it. You know that games like COD and HALO have maps. By looking at these maps and seeing their layout you can deconstruct how the developers laid out the towns.
Take some time to draw out a couple of small areas that your characters could run around in. Then draw out some bigger mapped-out areas. Then combine some of them and you can really construct a dynamic layout of a fictional landscape.
Google Earth.
Use tools like google earth. Pick out a small town outside a city limit and deep dive into every nook and cranny of it.
If you can draw out a layout similar to the one you’ve explored you know you’re on to something helpful.
The layout of a town or kingdom of even large lands is extremely pivotal to the overall plot of some stories.
In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s layout of the fictional world was extremely important as it dictated the trials the characters would face as they journeyed from one end to the other.
Your story might have similar problems to solve. These problems might be solved by just figuring out the layout of the setting your characters are in.
Do they travel far and wide or are they confined to a small area the entire story?
That’s up to you, but the amount that you have travel and why will bring different moods to different parts of the story.
Traveling to a different place can bring with it certain emotions, excitement, sadness, longing, adventure, fear, etc. Depending on where they are going and why is up to you. But when and how much they travel changes the mood of a story.
Are You Having Trouble Creating Your Fictional Town?
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Let’s be honest, the easiest way to start any habit is to do it every day. They say (whoever “they” is) that after about 21 days or so a habit is formed.
I think this thought can be challenged slightly depending on how rewarding the outcome is of the habit. If it’s extremely rewarding a habit can be formed in a day. If it takes much discipline and work on our part then 21 to 30 days sounds about right.
Not everyone will have the same way in which they form a healthy habit and this might not work for you, but hopefully, it helps you think of a reasonable reading plan that works for your specific lifestyle.
We are hoping this post will give you some ideas on how to create a healthy reading habit. Creating a reading habit is not easy, but we would argue that it is worth
1. Choose 3 Books
Choose 1 Book that seems very appealing to you and would be considered an easy read.
Choose another book that is small and could be easy or difficult. Your choice.
For the third book, try to pick one that’ll take more work on your part. Consider this book an accomplishment you want to make by reading it completely.
By picking at least one book that is extremely easy and more of an enjoyable read you are rewarding yourself for reading and it’ll be easier to pick up every day.
By picking at least one more book that is more difficult for you and more of an accomplishment you will be rewarding yourself by doing something hard and achieving an accomplishment and you will surprise yourself with what you can accomplish if you stick to it.
2. Pick a Number of Pages or an Amount of Time
This can be done in many ways but you should start out with something reasonable for you that it will almost be impossible for you not to complete.
For example,
Read 1 page of each book.
Or,
Read each book for 1 minute.
The point is to build the habit of reading. If you really want to build it, start somewhere and start small.
If you get done with your one page or one minute for each book and want to read more…#winning…kudos to you! Read more!
But the point is pick goals that are almost impossible not to complete.
As each day and week goes by slightly bump up your minimum amount you allow yourself.
1 minute then 2 then 3 and so on and so forth.
1 page then 2 then 3 and so you get the point.
Start small goals that would be difficult not to accomplish and each week bump them up just a little.
This will help you start reading every day and you’ll have the added rewarding feeling of success knowing that you are building something.
Important note: if you miss a day just skip it and move forward. We can’t change the past. We can only affect the present.
If we miss too many days and we can’t catch up we are likely to avoid the “burden” of trying to catch up and then that avoidance will end up destroying our reading habit.
Just skip the days you miss and accomplish the goal for the next day and try not to get down on yourself for it.
3. Pick a Place to Read
For some people learning how to create a healthy reading habit means picking a good spot.
Some people like to be cozy while they read. Others like the sense they feel while moving and reading.
Pick a place that seems right to you.
I’m a fairly adjusted reader (it’s a big part of my line of work) so I read from almost anywhere, but I do find myself reading from bed a fair amount. Especially right before sleep. It’s an easy place to leave a book or just tune out and read something while my wife is socializing on her phone 📱.
Some people have long commutes on trains, planes, cars, and subways. These would be great places to read each day. For instance, just the other day I started two books on a plane:
(Side note:I would highly recommend Storyworthy for those that are interested in honing their storytelling skills both on and off the page.Illium, I’m not sure yet. It has an interesting take on ancient history but it also has adult themes that seem unnecessary and maybe even perverted, but I digress.)
Remember how we talked about the smaller book you picked out. This is where it would come in handy (<see what I did there? Okay…you’re right…dumb joke…nevermind) to take with you on your commute, but real talk, these days we have phone apps for books.
So thinking further on it. If you have your book on your phone you already have a small device you can read from anywhere.
You might find though that you strictly like the feel of pages when you’re reading. That’ll be up to you. Me personally? I love reading on my phone and find carrying around books almost tedious.
The point is, it is convenient to have something to read when you are traveling, especially if you find yourself commuting often for whatever reasons. Try skipping the movies and reading something instead.
4. Personal Goals aren’t Always Necessary
Making personal goals can be very helpful for some people while they learn how to create a healthy reading habit.
Others just need to feel like they are free to pick and go.
The people that find it the hardest to start a reading habit are mostly the latter.
So for those people I say, just pick a book that seems most enjoyable to you and try to read 1 page a day.
If after some days you find the book really boring, pick a different book and put the first down. Leave it.
If you repeat this pattern of trying different books and reading at least a page each day then you too will have started a reading habit of your own in your own unique way.
I was this way. I have probably started or skimmed through hundreds of books and only finished or read fully through some. (It’s not something I feel great about, but it’s the truth.)
In school, it was almost impossible to sit down and read anything. It was a real chore. (In fact, I had to repeat K-5 because of my reading deficiency.) I would start reading and then before I knew it my eyes were flying over the words, but my mind was off elsewhere. It wasn’t until college that I started enjoying reading more and started to read a lot.
And later on, I figured out how to skim most things and now I enjoy it even more. You get to a place where you can find the important information you like and skip the fluff.
All that to say, you don’t have to have a natural affinity for reading to start reading and enjoying it. You just have to make the choice to take the time to figure it out for yourself.
7 Tips How to Create a Healthy Reading Habit
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5. Most Importantly, Have Fun
At the end of the day you do want to start a good habit and skill to have, but it’s nice when it is also enjoyable.
When you’re going through any type of schooling it’s hard to always make it fun, but the more you do it the easier it will be and the faster you’ll get, which means your reading work will be done faster.
For those that just want to read more, I’m biased, so it is hard for me to say that you will regret starting a reading habit (as long as it’s a healthy one).
Inevitably, I think becoming a better reader will be an enjoyable and rewarding endeavor.
6. A Thought on Audiobooks
I enjoy audiobooks myself and believe they have merit.
They will not help your reading skills or habits, but they will bolster your auditory listening skills, which is good as well.
I think that both skills are worth pursuing but for this post, I am going to just say that audiobooks will not help your reading habit specifically.
Will they help you capture more information from books you might not otherwise read? Absolutely. Will they make you a better reader? Absolutely not. (Unless you are learning a new language, but that’s not really the point of this post.)
So the final verdict: audiobooks are helpful but they will not help your reading habits.
7. Utilizing Cues
Some people find it helpful to have a cue set up to help you get into a habit (no we aren’t talking about a cue ball from billiards 🎱).
A cue would be something that signals to yourself that you’re getting ready to do something. A very simple cue that almost everyone uses is an alarm to wake up for work.
When your alarm goes off your body knows it’s about to do your get ready for work routine.
So what’s a cue you could set up for reading. A simple cue could be making a cup of tea or turning on a light in your reading space. It could be both.
The benefits of the idea of “cues” are doing things that help you enjoy the moment, thus it becomes even more rewarding and the habit is even more powerful. Cues are basically extra habits you do around your desired habit in order to help yourself succeed in your goal over the long haul.
Final thoughts:
In order to start a reading habit you want to start out around other things you enjoy.
Take a walk and read. Sit outside and read. Get cozy and read. Make a cup of cocoa. Soak in the tub. Read on your way to work. Take a lunch break and read.
Find out what works for you and what doesn’t. You won’t be able to find out if you don’t just start. Don’t wait for the perfect day. Just start today and learn as you go.
At some point, you’ll just automatically find yourself reading more, but for starting out, try to have added rewards to this idea of reading more and figuring out what works best for you and your lifestyle as you go.
Hope this helps!
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Violent religions come and go with time, but some stick around for centuries.
Some religions are not entirely violent but have certain sects that branch off that are extreme and violent.
Make sure that if you create a violent sect or religion that there be an underlying cause for the violence that “justifies” violence in the eyes of its believers.
To keep it realistic and interesting make sure that it is a cause some are willing to die and kill for.
And at the end of the story make sure your reader knows it’s just fiction.
2. Overbearing governments
Overbearing governments are nothing new or shocking.
They do make a world that is interesting to read about. Follow the struggles of a few in detail and the many in general.
3. Rebellions
Overbearing governments naturally breed constant rebellions and uprisings.
Use these rebellions to make your government sweat or to make your main characters a part of the rebellion.
Or make your main characters a part of the government that is being fought against.
5 Oppressive Settings for World Building
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Imagine book-burning, giant piles of smoking books after a night of crowds and mass fires.
Imagine people hiding books in their houses.
They hide them in their walls, in their floors, in their bookshelves, in their food storage.
What does the government do to those rebels that they find with the banned books?
5. Banning religions
Banning religions and certain sects of religions is nothing new either.
What do they do to those they find practicing this religion? What measures does the government take to find them?
Are your main characters part of the religion or part of the government that bans it?
Who are the “good” people and the “bad” people?
What is right and what is wrong in this world?
Write oppressive settings in your fictional story to keep your reader intrigued and on the edge of their seat while they read into your story. Writing story settings that are in turmoil is a good way to keep your reader interested in what will happen next.
Focus on the natural things that could happen in a world like this so that the consequences are believable to your reader.
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How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book
We didn’t want you to have to scrape the internet for ALL the professional advice out there on how to write a book so we did it for you and compressed it into this massive guide for you to use and enjoy forever!
Okay…maybe not forever but at least long enough to start and FINISH your book.
The easy part is starting your book. But we all know that the hardest part is finishing the darn little thing.
So if you really want to know what the professionals are saying you can find some of that advice conveniently for you right here.
With 6000+ words and 32 tips, be sure to save this resource to your favorites so you can reference back to it anytime you want because it would be difficult to take in all at once.
Find Your Writer’s Mindset
It can be easy to think stuff like, “I’m not good enough.” “No one will read this.” “How can I compete with them?”
Self-doubt is a hideous beast and it preys on all that would venture outside of themselves to try to do anything more than exist in life.
“Imposter’s Syndrome.” Self doubt.” Call it whatever you want but you have to fight against it.
Just think if Stephen King, Rowling, Lewis, or Tolkien thought this way and ended up not writing anything at all. How sad would that be?
To think that you could predict the future that your book wouldn’t be good is quite the ability.
Instead find your writer’s mindset.
“Amateurs wait for inspiration. Professionals get to work.” – Stephen King.
Finding your writer’s mindset means finding the motivation and space to do what needs to be done to get the book done and written. Thinking things like, “I’m not good enough.” And quitting isn’t going to help you.
But sitting down and writing to get the work done will.
Don’t think that something magical will just flow forth. It is work and it takes much time and discipline.
Use these tips to help you create a discipline, get to work, and get the job done.
A good action to help at this point would be to study the way professions like Mr. King manage their writing schedule. You will find fun facts like that in this resource.
Starting Your Book
Come up with your book idea
So you’re here. You are at the start of your book adventure and you are sitting at your workstation ready to write down every word.
No?
Are you in your notebook jotting down story ideas?
Are you thinking about your characters as you ride the subway?
Are you on your way to work, but in your mind you are having a conversation with your antagonist about why what they’re doing is unacceptable behavior?
That’s the funny thing about starting a book huh?
There really are a million and one places you could be right now.
What’s The Big Idea?!
It must be said that today’s book market is EXTREMELY competitive. You need to choose a book idea that people are going to like.
Look at what is doing well. Decide on a genre that you personally enjoy and are passionate about. Pick one that you know well and have read and seen a lot of stories about.
It’s important that you enjoy it a little because it is a giant undertaking to conquer your first book. It’s tough to finish and it’ll be even harder to finish if you really don’t care about it at all.
Take your ideas and write every one of them down. See which ones you can’t stop thinking about. Which ideas do you get excited about weeks to months to years later. Write everything down.
Run the idea that stands out to you the most past friends and family that enjoy that genre as well. When you start to see a repeating pattern of good feedback you can feel a little safer that it’s a good idea.
Write a short story about it and have some people read the short story to see if it is interesting.
Don’t try to have your friends that aren’t readers read your stuff. It won’t be good feedback for you.
But some of the best advice would be to make sure that you enjoy the story and want to see it through.
Just because the book doesn’t blow up right away doesn’t mean it wasn’t a success.
The Game of Throne books were written in the 90’s and only recently blew up. They had a following back then but only recently did they become really really big.
If you love it and others seem to be on board, write it anyway. It may not be the best book in the world but it may show you how much you enjoy writing novels and lead to many other great books. You will never know if you don’t write it.
Start Somewhere
Martin actually claims that he was in the middle of a completely different story when his first Idea for Game of Thrones came to him.
He said it was so real and vivid to him that he had to write it. It was only a scene. “They found the direwolf pups in the summer snows.”
It was from this one sentence that the entire series flowed out of.
Rowling took a train to London after being out hunting for flats. She said the idea for Harry dropped into her head. She didn’t have a pen to write anything down, but she said for the next 4 hours she let her imagination run wild with all the ideas for the book.
She said that night she started writing the Philosopher’s Stone.
You don’t know when or where your idea is going to come from, so just start somewhere and let it grow.
And what might be some important advice:
Don’t worry about it being perfect at first. That’s why you go back and edit once it’s all out.
Don’t procrastinate. Just get it done.
Don’t hold back ideas at first, just keep getting the story down.
Research
How long are books in your genre?
How many chapters?
How many pages?
Look on Amazon Best Sellers to see what people are into right now.
What are looking up and reading that will help you write?
Have you read enough about your subject matter to have something to say about it?
Who will read your book?
What demographic of people will be the target market of your book?
J.K. Rowling wrote her books targeting teenagers and young adults reading for fun.
Who will you be writing for? Will it make sense to them? Will they enjoy it?
Here is an activity to help define your books audience.
Take a moment and think about finishing these sentences:
My book helps…
My book entertains…
My book helps…see that they need to…
My book teaches…to…
My book teaches…about…
My book won’t help…
My book will mostly be enjoyed by…because…
Even just thinking about these ideas can help you narrow things down.
Neil Gaiman on starting a book
I listened to Neil Gaiman teach about starting a book and here is some advice he gave. (These will be paraphrased, not quotes, and with some of my conjecture.)
Before you even start thinking about big novels you should be making short stories.
We should be making short stories all the time.
We should have a notebook that is just short stories or story ideas.
Any time a story idea comes to mind we should IMMEDIATELY write it down somewhere. (Write it down on your hand or a napkin if you have to and transfer it later!)
He mentioned that these short stories, if important, will stick around in your mind and become something more.
Neil is big on short stories, because he will tell you that most of his novels and movies started as short stories that he later expounded upon.
So if you’re about to start a book, hopefully you have already turned your story idea into a short story and you are about to expound upon that idea that has been toying around in your mind.
But let’s keep looking around for more advice.
The Reedsy Blog had some great Questions to ask yourself (I’ll paraphrase them here):
Will I be able to accomplish a finished book with my big idea?
Who is my audience? Who do I want to speak to? Who do I want to read my book?
What am I personally passionate about that I can write without losing my mind?
What do I think is important and needs to be written about?
I think these are great questions that can help you think through ideas you are having so they are worth a moment to chew on.
They made a good point to say that questions like these will help you narrow things down and I agree.
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After listening to Stephen King talk about his writing practice I don’t totally agree with this advice.
I used to do this. Just write and don’t worry about typos or anything, just keep moving forward.
This was very helpful starting out, but as time has gone on I have realized how much time it saves in the long run to write “clean.”
This means do my best to write the first draft without typos so that it is much closer to the finished phase.
When I used to write messy and just skip typos till the editing process, I used to miss a lot of typos (let’s be honest. I still miss typos) that would have been easy to catch in the moment and move on quickly without losing my idea that I’m writing.
Tools
Several sources mentioned tools that you might be interested in checking out for yourself if you are to start writing a book.
If fiction then here is some ideas that might help you:
Do you know who your protagonist is?
Who is your antagonist?
Who are your side characters?
How does your story start and does it hook your reader?
Do you know what your climax will be?
Have you figured out your ending yet?
What age group is this story for?
Is it a children’s book?
This is not an exhaustive list but questions like these can help you start to make the bare bones of your story.
Take a moment to write down the very bare minimum summary (bare bones) of your story idea.
Answer these questions above if you can.
Don’t worry if you can’t. It is better to start writing something instead of nothing so write down whatever you can to get the ball rolling.
If you are really going to write a book the best thing you can do is to start to write about it, even if it isn’t quite writing the book yet.
Even if you’re intimidated by the idea of writing a book, writing about the book is MUCH less scary and it’s good to get the writing moving forward in one way or another.
Go ahead and answer some of the questions or if you haven’t yet, this week turn your story idea that you like the best into a short story that you can enjoy.
Are You Writing Non-Fiction?
Here are some ideas to get you started on a good non-fiction book idea:
Ebook
Recipe book
What is your profession? Could you write about it?
Can you write about finance?
Travel?
Food?
Fashion?
History?
Teaching?
Music?
Art?
Marketing?
Sales?
We could go on and on about ideas for your non-fiction book, but only you can really decide which makes sense for your goals.
What Are Your Goals?
When you’re thinking of writing a book, your end goals are extremely important at the start.
Possible goals:
Make money
Teach people
Entertain
Become a best-selling novelist
Self-enjoyment
Create a career
Depending on what your ultimate goal is will determine what you write about and how you write it.
If you want to become a best-selling author then you must learn the art of telling a good story and entertaining your reader for hundreds of pages.
If you want to make sales based on your expertise then you may be writing non-fiction and offering to sell valuable information to people that they are willing to buy.
You might have to ask yourself, “Is there a market for this?” before you’d even want to spend the time investment it takes to crank out an entire book.
Take a moment and write down your goals and dreams for your book.
Sometimes the best place to start a project like a book is with the end step in mind and visualize each step it takes from the end to get the beginning, where you are now.
And sometimes all the prep work in the world won’t change anything as much as just sitting down and writing the thing out.
It may take days or weeks or months or years, but in the end you’ll be proud of what you’ve done and then only then will you see if what you did create worked. And you better bet you’ll learn a ton along the way.
Look For Wisdom From Those That Have Gone Before You
Pick out your favorite authors in the genre that you want to write in and start reading.
Study the way they write the niche your in.
If they don’t specifically tell you how to write a book, don’t worry. Looking at how they write a book with a detective’s eye for details will help you start writing yours.
When you come to a problem place, pull out one of their books and start researching how to write it.
Create a Writing Routine
One of my favorite authors is Dan Brown.
Learning from Dan Brown in his Masterclass has been a really awesome experience. If you love learning I highly recommend investing in Masterclass.
One of Dan’s main points in his class is creating a writing routine and protecting it. No one says in order to be a writer that you have to write all day long, but Dan will tell you that is vitally important to create a space and time in your daily life where you can write uninterrupted.
Creating a Space
Try to find a place where you can write. It needs to be somewhere that is very hard for people to interrupt your thought and word flow.
You might think this is impossible.
Dan tells a story of a woman that he knew of that felt like she couldn’t find anywhere to write because she lived in a small apartment with her family and there was absolutely no place in the apartment where she could get alone and write uninterrupted.
So she did the impossible.
She started to write in her car.
In her car she found a place and made a way to get away from any interruptions and write without being interrupted.
She kept up with this practice, and over time of getting away when she could and making it a priority she wrote her entire book in her car.
So who knows where you might have to go, but it is possible to find a space to write.
Find a Time
The time that you write doesn’t have to be the same time of day every day and it doesn’t have to be the same amount of every day.
Dan starts first thing early in the morning, but not all of us are full-time writers yet. You might have to write after the kids go down for sleep or after they go to school.
It doesn’t really matter when you write and it doesn’t always matter how long you write, but find a space and time to write and write when you can. If you do this, you will be much more likely to finish your book than those that don’t have a routine.
How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book
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Don’t make the error of writing too much of your book before you have a friend or family member read a bit and critique it.
If you’re in the right direction then it should go well but if you’re not sure to get a good advisor.
You can’t do this just anyone. It has to be with someone that is a good reader, is open minded, and isn’t afraid to hurt your feelings.
It needs to be someone that can tell you that it isn’t good at the beginning instead of finishing 100,000 words and being told the entire thing needs to change.
Have someone in mind that you can get quick feedback from along the way.
Different Kinds of Writers According to George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin says there are two different kinds of writers. One is more of an architect and the other is like a gardener.
The architect has everything mapped out and starts writing with a complete outline in place. The gardener starts from anywhere and kind of sees what grows out of it.
Knowing which one you are will help a lot with your daily writing process.
It will help you know where is best for you to start. Should you start making an outline to help you stay on track or should you just start writing and see where it goes?
Don’t Worry About the Title Before Starting
Titles are extremely important, but they aren’t worth not starting.
As you go just be looking for the title. You’ll find it.
Speed Up Your Writing Process
You can speed up your writing process by using a talk to text app or software.
If you feel that you have strong communication speech skills this might help you get down everything you’re thinking about in your story quickly.
Some people don’t like this method and prefer typing or writing, but it’s really up to you what you think will work best.
Expect Writer’s Block
If you set out to write anything, you can bet that no matter what a day will come (okay lots of days) where you can’t think of what to write next.
Here’s some ideas to try to beat writer’s block:
Read about the genre or subject matter you are trying to write.
Review your outline (if you made one).
Try listening to music.
Watch your favorite movie in your genre.
Take a walk.
Change your writing location.
Get somewhere quiet to think.
Read the news to get an idea for conflict you can add to the story.
Reread what you wrote yesterday to see if it is naturally heading somewhere you didn’t see before.
Exercise. Build up a sweat and get your heart pumping blood into your brain so you can think more clearly.
Technical Stuff
Know how you want the project to be formatted and format as you go. The experts say this will save you a big headache.
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A major problem that a lot of writers can run into is getting burnout.
It can be in the middle or end of your book, but the temptation comes to just rush to the finish line and call it quits.
Don’t do that. Finish the story. Spend the time it takes and finish it well.
Rely on your editing process to really take your time with the ending. Go over your outline and make sure that it really comes to a solid end with a solid resolution.
You could write a really interesting story with interesting characters and botch the ending and not be able to sell a second book.
If you have multiple ideas for your ending, the sage wisdom is to go with the ending that causes more emotions in your reader.
Help Yourself With Others
Try to find places where other writers are to help yourself keep moving forward. Find FB groups where writers help and inspire each other.
Watch talks from professional writers where they inspire you to write better and try different techniques and practices to better help and form your own.
Working in places like coffee shops where others are working and writing can be really helpful to keep yourself motivated.
It helps to look up and see others working around you and feel like you’re not the only one.
Let It Breath
Let’s say you finished your first draft! Great job! Now let it breath.
Let your book sit for a bit. Maybe a couple days, maybe a week or more. It doesn’t matter.
The point is you want to be able to step away from it a little so that you see it with a critical eye.
Sometimes when we are too close to our writing for too long it’s hard for us to see what’s working and what’s not working.
This is especially true in freelance writing, but the same is true with any writing. We take time away from it so that hopefully we can see it with fresh eyes again like a stranger would.
In your editing process here’s an simple list to follow to keep your sanity:
Read out loud to hear any weird wording.
Focus on just one chapter at a time at first to not get so overwhelmed.
First, make sure the structure makes sense.
Second, go through the chapter to adjust wording.
Third, go through last to catch any more grammar mistakes.
If you complete your book, Congratulations! But you’re not finished.
Now you have to let people know that it exists.
You have to know if you are going to self-publish or if you are going to start sending out cold emails to publishers to see if they’ll pick up your story.
Study Amazon Best Sellers.
Look on Amazon Best Sellers list and study how they market their books on Amazon.
Study their blurbs and how they get their first reviews.
Check out their covers for their books and try to get a good cover for your book.
Don’t cheap out on the cover. Don’t do a free cover. Figure out how to make it look as legitimate as possible for your targeted readers.
Get specific with your niche.
While you are studying other best sellers be sure to go to the books that are in your genre and see how they did their covers.
If You’re Self-Publishing With Amazon
If you are self-publishing with Amazon you need to know some key things:
Get reviews. Amazon loves reviews the more you can get the more Amazon will recommend you to other shoppers.
Get good at using the right keywords on your metadata.
Run free giveaways to get more reviews to help with engagement.
Ranking well in Amazon partly has to do with selling copies in a brief period of time.
It’s recommended to try to do “Blitz promotions” where you set it up to go out all at the same time to get mass sales quickly in a short period. They then recommend waiting 90 days and doing it again. Hopefully this will help you leapfrog in ranks.
A quick pitch is the perfect 5 to 10 second sentence you would tell someone about your book to get them interested.
It could be something like this, “Game of Thrones just met Ender’s Game. That’s what you’ll find in this book.”
Now that might not sound interesting to you, but somebody might get excited about that. It just needs to be short and punchy and gets people initially curious enough to download the sample.
Don’t forget about the Front and Back.
Make sure to take time to think about your forward, your introduction and your testimonials.
In your introduction try to include a short story that makes sense.
Get the best testimonials you can. Edit them as time goes on and you get some reviews.
In the back you could tease a cliffhanger that your audience doesn’t expect to get them thinking about a second book.
Include any images you want to.
How Do You Really Write a Book?
How to write a book?
You started reading this because you were looking for tips on how to write a book.
There are so many things to do or not do when it comes to the idea of writing stories, but if there is nothing else you get out of this post, get this:
How do YOU write a book?
You start it. Plain and simple.
And then you write it every day if you can, until it is finished.
If you can’t simply do that, then you can’t write a book.
At the end of the day starting your book really comes down to one simple thing and it is sometimes the hardest thing.
You must sit down and start putting words on a page.
You must stay motivated in the middle to keep going day in and day out.
And you must finish the book, down to every last word.
Now What?
Don’t stop. Write another book.
Use the momentum and the lessons you’ve learned from completing your first book to write your second and third and fourth and fifth.
You might be thinking, “I’m too tired to start another one right now.” That is okay. Even the professionals take breaks after finishing a book. The thing is if you enjoyed writing one you should start making another one soon.
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One of the most manipulative strategies in politics is the indoctrination of the youth to serve the side that is trying to create laws and systems around teaching the youth what they want them to know and not allowing them to learn what they don’t want them to know.
2. Banning education
Another form of a power move or shift is to attempt to purposefully not educate certain people groups so that they cannot rise up from where they are in the settings economy.
Uneducation is just as detrimental to a person’s well-being as indoctrination.
3. Hired Mercenaries
Hired mercenaries carry out whatever they are paid for.
They are paid to do horrific acts that their employer may never even have the gall to do themselves.
They don’t want to get their hands dirty, but they surely will hire someone that is willing.
On the other hand, people with affluence, money, and power might decide they want to take more power by hiring a team of mercenaries to take what isn’t theirs for them.
5 Barbaric Settings for World Building
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It can also be a sad part of a corrupt unchecked prison system.
Are your main characters in prison?
Are they a part of the corrupt prison system?
Do they stand idly by and do nothing? Or do they shake things up by getting in the way?
5. Why are there so many widows?
Create a world where widows are the main characters. Follow their struggles of how they became widows and the struggles they go through to find love again or struggle to take care of themselves and those they love.
Do they have children?
Do they live under constant threat? Is the threat the same that killed their spouse?
Write barbaric settings in your fictional story to keep your reader intrigued and wondering, “what will happen next?” Writing story settings that are barbaric will be interesting for your reader and help keep their attention to see how it turns out for the poor characters involved.
Keep in mind the realistic consequences that could arise from the setting.
Follow the natural flow of possible events to add character and depth. The details are what makes it new and fresh for the reader and yourself as you write.
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Writing Inspiration: How to Find Inspiration to Write From Your Life
Finding inspiration to write can be tough, but finding writing inspiration can be easier than we make it. One of the greatest tricks an author has in their bag is the ability to draw inspiration to write from real life and write that into an interesting story.
Someone might say “my life isn’t interesting. I have nothing to write about.”
Successful authors would argue that thought and would say that you just have to be observant and creative to find writing inspiration in your life.
For example, right now we are all locked up in our homes watching Netflix, trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.
How can you find writing inspiration in that scenario?
Some think this is very boring, but not for us writers. For we have alternate worlds in our minds just waiting to be explored in our writing.
Say I have a character who is living a normal life and then boom, one day a virus pandemic hits the world. I can write about restaurants closing, about government officials mandating in-home orders. People that are out past curfew get tickets and arrested.
Protests start happening and then riots, and then without warning people start disappearing. Just individuals at first but then entire neighborhoods without a trace.
But why???!
And that’s exactly my point is that a little scenario like this is exactly what writers use to create interesting stories.
That’s one of the beautiful things about fiction writing. You don’t have to write inside the box.
Life is more interesting than most people realize and there is writing inspiration all around us. You just have to be observant and take mental notes. Then come up with creative ways to make it into a story, and it does not just come from world events.
Add a few Characters, some problems they face and then bam you have a story outline that just needs to be filled in.
So what if there is no pandemic and life is more normal?
Where do you find writing inspiration then?
Writing from what we know will always be powerful because for someone else it’s either what they know too and it resonates with them or is what they don’t know so it’s interesting to get an inside look.
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Writing Inspiration: How to Find Inspiration to Write From Your Life
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Writing Inspiration: How to Find Inspiration to Write From Your Life
Let’s say you grew up in the country.
Most of your neighbors are 100 yards or more away.
The days are nice and peaceful and you can ride your bike around and play with the other neighbor kids.
Then one day someone moves into a new house.
They build it and they are there. You know someone has moved in but you never see them or anyone coming or going from the house.
One night you get thirsty and go to the kitchen for a drink and you notice flashlights around the new house and then you hear a helicopter.
You think it’s police but as you look more closely you realize it’s not the police.
Who is it?
Who’s the neighbor?
Why is there a helicopter and people running around with flashlights?
What’s going on?
You can find writing inspiration anywhere and the key secret is…starting with normal life is actually an amazing place to start.
You can make a story about any walk of life you just have to put in some real-life experience, research, and then be creative.
And whatever it is it doesn’t have to be perfect or great.
You can write a short story and scrap it later, just try to write it anyway because that’s how we get better at it.
The first draft of anything is usually trash anyway if it’s really going to be a project you believe in and want to promote you’re going to have to spend time editing it and you can’t edit anything you haven’t written in full.
So find ways to take your real-life experience and weave it into your stories.
Write from what you know.
Write from what you find interesting to research or read.
Write from your hobbies and passions and that will be interesting to others like you and others that don’t know anything about what you know well about.
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Mythical Creatures | 7 Tips on How to Write Mythical Creatures
Mythical creatures are fantastic and fascinating. It is almost always enjoyable to read about mythical creatures or to see mythical creatures like the ones in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
Some mythical creatures roam the forests and the foggy mountains unseen by the majority of mankind while others only exist as greek mythical creatures or fairy tales.
So instead of just showing a mythical creatures list, let’s talk about how to write mythical creatures of our own.
Let’s try to make up a new universe of mythical creatures or our own stories.
Writing mythical creatures from greek and egyptian tales, harry potter, and fantastic beasts is fine, but there is something extremely enjoyable about coming up with brand new mythical creatures that no one has heard of or come up with yet.
Mythical creatures can come in varying shapes, sizes, and power.
They can live anywhere. Your mythical creature could naturally be in the sea, sky, forest, desert, mountain, sewers, wherever.
They also could be good or sinister in nature.
A mythical creature could be beautiful and kind and bringing good things, or they could be grotesque and terrifying and be the stuff of nightmares.
So how does one write a mythical creature and determine what it’s nature will be?
What is our mythical creature’s purpose?
This is key when first coming up with a mythical creature list for your story or just one mythical creature to add to your plot.
Does your character get help from these mythical creatures or does the mythical creature present a challenge to your characters?
When you know what it is there for then you can simply make a it a good mythical creatures or a horrible one.
Some mythical creatures are there for decoration. They don’t have much of a purpose other than to be seen and awed by.
These types of mythical creatures might be more majestic and beautiful in nature or so large and powerful that they merely exist and don’t notice mankind as more than a human notices an ant or germ.
So once you have your purpose for the mythical creatures or creatures in question then you can start to use it for your purposes.
What if my mythical creature is evil?
IF your mythical creature has the purpose of challenging your main characters then it needs to be either hideous and dangerous or it must be colossal enough to really pose an imminent threat.
You can decide what type of danger your characters are suddenly in.
Is it like they just landed in a pit of poisonous vipers? Or did they accidently cross paths with a lion?
Think of your mythical creatures like animals.
Is your mythical creature the main antagonist?
Another option is to have your mythical creature as the main antagonist. This would make it either intelligent like humans or so sinister in its purpose that it creates suspense in its existence.
Some mythical creatures are just challenges or hurdles along the way, but some make it into stories as the creatures that are hunting or stalking our characters day and night.
If your mythical creature is your main antagonist, be sure that it is able to convince your reader that the main characters are in serious danger and that they could die or lose at any moment.
This helps keep the suspense in the story and your reader interested on if the characters will survive.
This is to compare mythical creatures in harry potter where the main antagonist was another wizard to the first maze runner where one of the first main antagonists were the creatures in the maze.
7 Tips on How to Write Mythical Creatures
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What if my mythical creatures are to help the heroines/ heroes in their journey?
Mythical creatures that are helpful usually have important abilities that are just good for one part of the story or return multiple times.
Mythical creature sidekicks.
Some mythical creatures are sidekicks and are in the heroine’s journey for the long run.
Think fantastic beasts. In Newts adventures all kinds of mythical magical creatures aid him and most of them are a pivotal part of his character thus playing a role in his character development and how we see him as an entire person.
If one day we saw him and he had no mythical creature up his sleeve we would feel bad for him as if he had lost a part of himself.
Another great example of mythical creature sidekicks is pegasus and Hercules.
Especially in Disney’s adaptation of Hercules Pegasus a mythical creature is his buddy for life. And pegasus is given a personality and personified.
Disney also did this in the cartoon Mulan with Mushu.
Mythical creature one offs.
Mythical creatures one offs are there for a moment and usually pivotal moments but then we don’t see them very much. They may come and go a little between series, but they aren’t playing a major character type like a sidekick.
For example, the mythical creature phoenix that lived in Dumbledore’s office and aided him in his escape from being arrested by the minister of magic.
Also to be noticed 100% is Buckbeak as a mythical creature from harry potter that was mostly a one off creature.
Buckbeak shows up for several scenes, some are for fun but some are a little more pivotal for the movement of the story.
Buckbeat gives Harry a magical fun ride for us, but later on the gang must save Buckbeak from execution because of draco.
This leads our characters to certain places and times they must be in in order for the story to maintain suspense and interest.
Buckbeak even though a one off becomes an important suspenseful and challenging moment for our protagonist.
Another mention is Percy Jackson. There are many mythical creatures in these stories as they liberally use Greek mythology, but here we will mention the seahorse that they ride to the yacht of their antagonist.
Posiedon sends the horse, but without it Percy and his friends may not have reached their destination in time.
This is a very typical one off mythical creatures as it is literally there for only one purpose: transportation and then it is gone.
Mythical creature plot points.
Dobby. Dobby is one of my personal favorite mythical creatures from the Harry Potter universe.
As a mythical creature he shows up many times in multiple books. He is used by the author to move the plot along. He’s not just a “one off” mythical creature.
At one moment he is trying to save Harry Potter by not allowing him to get back to Hogwarts and at another moment he is saving Harry and his friends from being trapped in a dungeon.
He is an important character that helps the protagonist and moves the plot along in a fun and interesting way.
Conclusion
With these 7 tips, you should be able to write some very important and interesting mythical creatures for your stories.
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How to Make Your Reader Care About Your Characters
We write our characters.
We think about them at lunch.
We dream about them.
As writers in a weird way we are emotionally connected to the characters we create.
And thus we want our reader to connect with them and interact with them just as we do and have a fondness towards them.
One of the best ways to make your reader not care about them is to wane on and on about specific details about what they look like and what they act like.
We should avoid this.
It’s our job as writers to understand our characters deeply and reveal who they are through actions, inactions, and dialogue.
So how do we make our reader give two hoots about our awesome characters?
Give them something to lose
At any given moment in the story our character needs to be facing some type of conflict whether big or small.
We need to give our reader a reason to follow along as we reveal to them our beloved character.
Give them small things to lose
Some practical ideas of small things they could lose would be:
– An argument with another character
– They left their homework at home
– Forgot to do homework
– The bully steals their homework
– They have a huge zit they can’t hide
– They get to talk to a crush for the first time but forgot to brush their teeth that morning
– They are apprentice to a blacksmith and chipped the knife they were working on
– A thief steals their coin on the way to the market
– They live on a moon colony and they dropped their groceries outside the grocery store
You can see how the setting can be worked around or even used, but these problems they face are mostly small.
They have something to lose but it’s not life and death.
Use little problems like these to lead your character and reader to the big problems and the overarching biggest climatic problem.
As you take your character through little problems your reader will start to feel invested in who your character truly is at heart.
They will start to be concerned for them.
Keep in mind there is a caveat here.
In order for them to care about these characters, the character has to have some redeeming qualities.
They do not have to be perfect. I advise against that. Do not try to make them flawless.
Give them flaws and redeeming qualities.
Give them a strategic main character to follow
In order for them to care about our characters they have to get to know them.
A few ways to let our readers know our characters:
– From the view of the narrator (you can tell them the thoughts and feelings of whoever you want)
– From the view of the main character only (they only ever know what the main character is thinking and feeling)
– From the view of the main party (they get to see inside a band of characters)
So this can really be done anyway you prefer but if we are going to get them to like them and care about them losing stuff then we have to help our reader get to know them through a certain lens.
We can follow one character that interacts with all other characters.
We can follow a group of main players that we know the inner thoughts of and any one of them at any time could have individual moments with side characters.
This doesn’t mean our side characters can’t be interesting or noteworthy.
When Happy Days was in its prime, the directors and producers would specifically introduce new side characters to audiences to see how they would react.
If the reception was good, they would create a new TV show around those firstly side characters.
So you can take a side character and make them stand out as much as you want for as long as you want.
But whoever you decide to have the story play through, make sure your reader can follow a cohesive story line or it might get confusing.
Make your reader aware of your character’s emotional distress
Whether we want to admit it or not we are emotional creatures.
And with that we enjoy watching characters go through emotional rollercoasters just like we do from day to day stress.
How to Make Your Reader Care About Your Characters
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How to Make Your Reader Care About Your Characters
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Almost everyone has a past. And most pasts come with regrets.
What are your character’s regrets?
– Worries/ Fears
What is your character worried about?
What does your character’s worries have to do with the main plot line?
– Character Flaws
Like we said earlier, do not make your character perfect.
Give them realistic character flaws that your reader can relate to.
By giving our characters these traits we can seamlessly invite our reader into our characters.
Ideas for character flaws:
– Selfish
– Self-loathing
– Arrogant
– Steals
– Harbors resentment
– Greedy
– Lazy
– Know-it-all
– Show-off
– Etc
Flaws are a good way to lead the reader into the characters emotional distress as their flaws create conflict with other important characters and strangers.
These flaws can lead to hurt and broken relationships and leave room for redemption and second chances.
Turn up the heat
We aren’t talking about romance.
We are talking about taking your characters from the frying pan and into the fire.
You can take your character through many small problems to get your reader to care for them but we also need to put them through even bigger difficult situations.
Ways to make your character’s problems seem big to your reader by creating tension:
– Create a time sensitive event
Nothing creates more tension than setting a timing and telling someone. You have this much time to do this OR ELSE.
In fact a popular TV show was made around this entire premise. Remember 24?
We were just watching Nonstop the other night with Liam Neeson and the entire movie the villains have him wrapped up in time tension.
“Every 20 minutes someone on this plane will die if you don’t give us 150 million dollars.”
It’s worked a million times before and it’ll work again.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use timed tension.
– Use the character’s career or reputation
Nobody wants to lose the respect they’ve earned over years and years of hard work.
Nobody wants to lose the company they’ve built.
We don’t want to lose a high paying career.
These are examples of high stake things that we can use to make our reader worry for our characters. Especially if they are being blackmailed or wrongly accused.
– Hunger Games: survival tension
I just said Hunger Games because it is the epitome of survival tension.
There are many stories that use this form of tension as well.
Put your character into a situation where they have to survive dangerous encounters with people, nature or other beings and you’ll create the nail biting tension you need to make your reader care about your character.
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How to Make Your Reader Care About Your Characters
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We want our reader to gobble up every page and to always be wondering “what’s next?!”
But how do we know we are writing in such a way that our story will become a coveted “Page Turner?”
How do we know that when our reader talks about our story they’ll say “Oh! I read that! I couldn’t put it down!”
“Couldn’t put it down…” We long to hear those words about our stories that we have mulled over and lived through.
We won’t know for sure until it is in their hands and under their eyes, but there are some writing techniques that can help us write page turners.
Make your reader worry by adding suspense
Suspense is a pivotal skill in creating a page-turner.
Suspense helps the reader feel like something bad is about to happen so they must know what will happen next because it could be a good or bad outcome for the characters involved.
Create suspense by creating a time sensitive event
A time sensitive event could be big or small.
For example, “We need to figure out the code in 60 seconds or the alarm will sound!”
That is a small amount of time and maybe a minor event but it still creates a moment of suspense for your reader.
It creates a moment where they are thinking and feeling, “What is going to happen next?”
Another example, “if we don’t stop him from reaching his destination, he will release the virus on London.”
“How much time do we have?“- classic suspense question
“He’s already on his way. We only have 16 Hours.“
This scenario has more time and more people are at stake but still creates time sensitive suspense.
In order to create real suspense in our reader’s mind the stakes have to be high.
Always make it that characters that the reader cares about will lose big time if they don’t accomplish their goal.
The what if
You can call this the “what if.”
You want your reader to feel the what if:
– “What if they don’t get there in time?!”
– “What if they release the virus?!”
– “What if the bomb goes off?!”
– “What if the alarm goes off?!”
If we can create questions like this in our readers minds, then we are doing our job as writers that create suspense.
Create question marks that you are ABSOLUTELY going to answer at some point
Let’s say we are with Bruce Wayne (Batman, for those living in non comic inhabited caves) and Bruce is with Alfred strolling through his collection of gadgets and he picks up a grenade that is implanted in the core of a real apple.
He says, “Alfred, how did this apple get down there?”
He goes to take a bite.
Alfred stops his hand.
“That’s not an apple sir. That’s a bomb. The apple core is infused with C4 and the detonator is specifically vibration sensitive to it being bitten. After you take a bite you have 15 second to place it before it detonates.”
“Hmmm, they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but in this instance I guess not.”
Now as a reader I’m not assuming this interaction was just to create a silly pun.
I want to see Batman use this apple bomb somewhere, somehow.
As a writer when you bring up a specific item you should be bringing it up for a reason.
Don’t tell your reader how your are going to use it yet.
Make it a “Question mark moment.”
Leave your reader wondering”how is Batman going to use that and when?”
Questions like these (and you should have many of them throughout your story) will give your reader a reason to keep reading.
They will want to pick the book up again after taking a break.
Revisit questions to add to the payoff
In your story you might mention a particular side Character.
They may bump shoulders with your character at the train.
Then later they see them at a coffee shop.
They see them again at a party and exchange words.
At this point you’ve created curiosity in your reader’s mind, “who is this character and why do they keep popping up.”
Now, depending on the genre of your story this could be a new budding romance or a deranged serial killer.
Only you can tell.
9 Tips on How to Write Page-Turning Excitement
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But the more you bring up this person the more your reader will be waiting and longing for you to share why they are there.
We can do this with objects too.
In chapter one Bruce almost bit the apple.
In chapter 3 Robin could be riding in the cockpit and say, “Bruce I’m starving. Did Alfred put anything in here to eat?”
“Yeah” Wayne says, “check the black bag behind your seat.”
There are two black bags behind Robin’s seat. In one he sees a shiny red apple. He grabs it and pulls it to his face. He looks it over and goes in for a bite.
Bruce puts his hand in front of his mouth. “I said the black bag.”
“I did get it out of the black bag!”
“Let me see.”
Robin pulls up the black bag. Bruce looks into it. “Not that one. That’s not an apple.”
“Not an apple?! Well what is it then?”
“It’s a bomb.”
“Oh…” Robin gently puts it back into the bag and sets it slowly behind his seat.
They’re both silent for a moment.
“I’m beginning to think bombs and fruit don’t go well together.”
Again a comic relief moment but not the one, as a reader, that we’re anticipating.
We’ve seen the apple bomb twice now. And both times it almost kills our heroes but we have yet to see it used strategically by Batman (the hero of unbelievable gadgets) in a way that satisfies our gadget lust.
Having multiple moments surrounding an object or person can create more curiosity and thus bigger payoff when things are finally revealed.
Have multiple hooks working for you
In our stories it is necessary to create suspense and curiosity in almost every scene.
We can’t just say, “if the bad guy wins then the world dies,” and expect our reader to be engaged for the entire story without adding additional “hooks” (suspense and curiosity).
Create curiosity and suspense in every scene (well almost every scene)
Most stories have the long question: “Will our heroine beat the bad guy?”
“Will he find true love?”
“Will he solve the murder?”
“Will they survive?”
But along the way we as writers need to create many small questions to be answered too.
“Will she survive the booby trap?”
“Will they get over this argument?”
“Will they survive the affair?”
“Will she lose her business?”
“Will he get fired?”
Smaller questions help lead the reader to answering the Big question.
Bad stuff happens in real life, allow bad stuff to happen to characters
If we want our reader to keep page turning we need to teach them that the threat our character is facing is actually a threat.
How do we teach them that the threat is real?
By allowing bad stuff to happen sometimes.
If nothing bad ever actually happens to our characters we will inevitably teach our reader the wrong lesson: nothing bad ever happens to character therefore I don’t need to be worried about this problem they’re facing. They’ll be fine.
At this point, we’ve almost lost them.
They’ll surely be losing interest soon.
So instead teach them that the problems are real and worth being concerned about by letting bad things happen.
Use other page-turners
A great practice is to think of page-turners you’ve read.
Think of books you just couldn’t put down.
What did the author do that made you want to keep going and never put the book down?
Learn to read books and consume TV and movies critically in order to use the same techniques they used to keep you hooked for every juicy page.
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