How to Start Your Story to Hook Your Readers

Ace Jordyn Craft & Skills Cross Genre Genres No Comments

We all know that to hook readers a story’s beginning must have impact. But how do we do that? There are books on how to write a great first line, how to make those first scenes powerful, how to make the reader want to turn the page. Yet, despite all that information, sometimes it still doesn’t work. When writing the first draft, remember that your only task is to record the story in your head and not to give yourself writers block by trying to write or start it perfectly. Write it, then focus on specific elements. The starting point for your story may change, scenes either thrown out or rewritten. All that said, if you know where to start, you may have less work to do later.

Stories have patterns. These patterns are specific to genre. Every genre has conventions and consciously or subconsciously, readers expect them to be met. The first scenes signal genre and they tell the reader what kind of story to expect. Is it a romance? A thriller? A crime drama? Fantasy or science fiction? Or some combination? Even with a combination, genre expectations must be met in the story and more importantly, they must be signaled at the start. For example, in a science fiction crime drama, the crime genre has conventions which need to be met: a dead body, a sleuth (amateur or detective), a discovery of the body scene, an investigation with false clues, the sleuth confronting the murderer, and a resolution (justice, injustice or irony where the sleuth loses something in the process). Science fiction explores the consequences of scientific innovation in settings which can range from near future Earth, to outer space, other planets, all of which may have realistic or fantastic settings.

How does one do this? Here’s an excerpt from the opening of Robert J. Sawyer’s novel RED PLANET BLUES:
     The door to my office slid open. “Hello,” I said, rising from my chair. “You must be my nine o’clock.” I said it as if I had a ten o’clock and an eleven o’clock, but I didn’t. The whole Martian economy was in a slump and even though I was the only private detective on Mars this was the first new case I’d had in weeks.
“Yes,” said a high feminine voice. “I’m Cassandra Wilkins.”
I let my eyes rove up and down her body. It was very good work; I wondered if she’d had quite so perfect a figure before transferring.

Immediately, we know we’re reading a detective story set in a science fiction world.

Opening scenes don’t always have to be about the plot itself. For example, thrillers establish the genre, characters and promises to the reader about the type of story it is by opening with action scenes unrelated to the core plot, but with action scenes showing the protagonist as a person of action and a hero of the situation. Think James Bond movies for this example. They start with action, not the quieter bits with him going to get his orders to save the world – those appear later. Thriller writers such as Clive Cussler, employ prologues filled with action adventure set in the past. Cussler’s prologues not only set the importance of the book’s quest for a relic or item, but the action sequences and the drama signal the type of story the reader can expect.

Writing to establish the genre helps avoid the dreaded ‘info dump’ wherein the world’s or protagonist’s backstory are explained to the reader. Readers don’t want a biography or a lesson in the geo-politico-socio-economic issues of the world. They don’t care about the why of the character or the world until they know what’s at stake for the protagonist. Only then does the why become part of the how will it be done? and what happens next?

It’s a strong confident opening readers want in which they trust that you will reveal information when it’s pertinent, that you as a writer trust them to help solve the puzzle you’ve created for your protagonist. The confident opening makes us ask questions – who is this person? What is he going to do? What happens next? Actions speak louder than words, so if the social cues say she’s a talented mage, for example, why is she shackled and drowning in a well? As long as every new scene raises questions they will remain engaged in the story.

But we’ve gone through so much work creating the world, in understanding our protagonist and antagonist. This information must be revealed! Yes, some of it must be revealed. When is the best time to do this? Only when the story can’t move forward without it otherwise, it’s an info dump. Until then, keep readers asking questions and avoid the info dump.

In the excerpt from RED PLANET BLUES, we are signaled that it’s a science fiction detective story. The words “the first new case I’d had in weeks” tell us that the protagonist has fallen on hard times, that he doesn’t have a dime in his pocket, and that he’s desperate for work. “Mars” and “quite so perfect a figure before transferring” tell us that it’s science fiction set in a future where mars is colonized and there are intriguing scientific advances. With no info dumping, Sawyer has given us the genre expectations, set the scene, created tension because he has us wondering what will happen next (Will the private detective get the job? But if he’s aching for cash, will he take the job even if it’s a dubious one?). We have other questions too: Why is the private detective on Mars? Who is the woman? What is a transfer? Why is the Mars economy in a slump?

Here’s where I think we get into trouble about where to start our story. Too often info dumps, whether it is about the character or the setting, are about the disorganizing event, the thing that sets the world into chaos and that happens before the story begins. For example, Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliette doesn’t start with whatever set off the feud between the families. The feud is a given and the story starts in the drama of the situation. Dystopian stories don’t start with how the world as we know it ended. They start with the established socio-politico norms. RED PLANET BLUES doesn’t start out by telling us about how and why people colonized Mars, or the disorganizing event that put the Mars economy into a slump, or why the protagonist is on Mars. Those reveals come much later when the information is needed to move the investigation and the story forward.

Besides utilizing genre expectations to hook your reader, there is one more thing to be aware of: the opening of a story is a set up for the inciting incident (the central conflict) and its complications – the situation your hero is going to try to get out of for the rest of the book.

Captivating stories have an inciting incident that sets the story in motion, something that signals the central conflict, the problem our protagonist must solve in order to go from chaos to order. Once the problem is established with the inciting incident, a complication arises which raises the stakes. These stories (as all do) start with chaos and work to establishing order from that chaos although that doesn’t mean that it’s always successful and if it is, that the ending is happy.

Understanding the conventions of the genre you’re writing in will help avoid the dreaded info dump and it has the added benefit of informing the timing of the inciting incident and the pacing of arising complications and information reveals. More importantly, it’ll help you hook readers so that they’ll keep turning the pages to experience the wonderful and wild world you’ve created!

 

Writing Ideas for 2017

First Drafts Guy Anthony De Marco Ideas & Plotting Rewriting No Comments

Welcome to 2017! Hopefully it will be a much better one than 2016.

The start of a new year brings up plenty of resolutions that normally last a few weeks. This is useful for folks who want to pick up discounted exercise equipment on Craigslist, but it’s not as good for authors. If only one could pick up dozens of first drafts for a few cents a pound!

For 2017, let’s see what we can do to kickstart your writing goals.

Finish Your NaNoWriMo Novel

Instead of ignoring that disjointed first draft hidden away on your hard drive, why not go through the manuscript and map out what is needed to make it a can’t-put-it-down book. Add in plenty of notes [I like to use square brackets] to help give you some direction. Because I write using Notepad++ so I don’t get distracted by formatting, I like to pull out chunks of my prose and place it in Scrivener. This helps me to organize it, especially if I’m using a template that has either beats or outline recommendations.

Yes, your inner editor will be screaming in horror, but now is the time to let her loose to sort out that manuscript. There’s no rush! Focus on what is missing and what you have. With any luck, you’re halfway towards a viable novel. Don’t waste your efforts from pounding the keyboard all through November.

Dig Out Your Trunk Manuscripts

You know those short stories, novellas, and even novels that are sitting in a (possibly virtual) box, gathering bits of dust? Why not go through them and see if you can spot why they didn’t sell. After all, you have plenty of experience under your belt from 2016, so you’re further along in your writing development. Try either tweaking them or, if needed, doing a complete rewrite if the foundational ideas were solid. You already put a lot of work into it, so try to make that time count for something.

Learn To Play the “What If?” Game

One of the most-asked questions I get when I’m on panels at conventions is “How do you come up with ideas for a story?” The answer I give is to play the “What If?” game.

If you’re watching the news, wasting your time on Facebook, or even driving down the street, you can find plenty of ideas for stories. All you have to do is to ask some questions about what you’re observing. Most of my short stories come from playing this game. For example, I saw a school bus in front of me with a bunch of rowdy kids. I asked “What if…the driver was a homicidal maniac who has had enough of these brats?” The answer was my flash fiction story, Steaks, which has been published and reprinted six times.

Another example is a short story I co-wrote with Kevin J. Anderson, which was published in the Unidentified Funny Objects 3 anthology. My “what if?” question came about because I was looking through some classic literature on Project Gutenberg’s website. I asked, “What if all of the recognized classics were written by one person?” After some further thought, that person would have to be immortal, so I went with Dracula as the story concept. After discussing it with Kevin, we came up with the story outline and wrote the project together. “The Fate Worse than Death” was picked as a notable short story in Tangent Online’s 2014 Recommended Reading List.

It Still Comes Down to BICHOK

I’ve given you three possible ideas to start something new (even if it’s on the bones of some earlier work), but it still requires you to focus on BICHOK — Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. No matter what, you’re going to have to write (or dictate, which I’m switching to.) If you decide to write just 200 words, which is less than a quarter of this Fictorians post, at the end of 2017 you’ll have a full-sized novel. You are the one that has to decide how you want 2017 to end…either wishing you wrote a novel, or working on editing and publishing your new book.

I hope it’s the latter.


About the Author:DeMarco_Web-5963

Guy Anthony De Marco is a disabled US Navy veteran speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® nominee; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, third-party D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.
A writer since 1977, Guy is a member of the following organizations: SFWA, WWA, SFPA, IAMTW, ASCAP, RMFW, NCW, HWA. He hopes to collect the rest of the letters of the alphabet one day. Additional information can be found at Wikipedia and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com.

New Beginnings

The Writing Life No Comments

It’s a new year! For many people, 2016 is a year they will be glad to put in the rear-view mirror. One thing that is great about a new year is that it gives us all a chance to look ahead with optimism.

This month the Fictorians will be focused on new beginnings. Those beginnings can be of any sort, from starting a new novel, to starting a new career. One goal of the articles this month will be to give advice and guidance to people who might be struggling with their own new beginnings. Sometimes all we need is to see that we aren’t the only one dealing with something new to keep moving forward.

New beginnings can be fun, but they can also be frightening. Sometimes they can be both. Every new beginning has its own set of opportunities, even if the new beginning isn’t one that was welcome. History is full of examples of people who began new careers after failing time and again, only to find their true calling and the sort of fulfillment that doing what you love can bring.

My own situation is illustrative. I started a new career, and moved into a new house we built on the lake, so 2017 is going to be all about making a new life in a new place with new opportunities. It will be a challenge, especially at my advanced age of 57. I’m looking forward to it.

How I’ll Remember 2016

Interacting With Professionals Kevin Ikenberry Life Philosophies Making Progress as a Writer Our Favorite Fiction The Fictorians The Writing Life Your Writing Career No Comments

So, we’ve come to the end of December and the end of 2016. To say that 2016 has been a difficult and challenging year, one so closely aligned with the loss of larger-than-life personalities and rampant disagreement, would be an understatement. As for me, 2016 has been a year of change and a recognition that I’d crossed the line from aspiring author to author.

While riding the wave from the release of my first novel, I was retired from my service in the Army Reserve. I spent the last third of my career on active duty and after surviving a necrotizing fasciitis, the demands of service were deemed to be too much for me. After almost 24 years in uniform, my life experienced a huge change to say the least.

Over the following months, my writing career gained steam. In April, I qualified for full Active Membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America. I had an unexpected email from David Brin that complimented my writing ability and my book. In June, Sleeper Protocol was featured in a BookBub ad. The resulting promotions shot my novel into the top #115 books on all of Amazon and #1 in three categories. It sold over 2,000 copies that month alone. One of my friends, Aaron Michael Ritchey, told me point blank that I was no longer an aspiring author. Halfway through 2016, I had no idea the biggest moment of my year was still to come.

When I was an ROTC instructor, teaching the next generation of Army officers at a small university in Indiana, I frequently recommended two books to my cadets. Twenty years earlier, as a cadet myself, I’d first read Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein while in the midst of my junior year. That year, called the MS3 year, is arguably the worst for a cadet as it culminates in a summer training program designed to rank all cadets in the country from 1-n for assignments in the Army post-graduation. My junior year was not great by any means, but Starship Troopers stuck with me. As an MS4, a senior, I first read another book that would change my perception of military service. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman was equally important to my development as an officer. Starship Troopers taught me how, if necessary, to go to war. The Forever War taught me how to stay human and how to come home. They are the two most influential books I’ve ever read and they occupy a shared space on the bookshelf next to my desk. I’ve never been a real “fan boy” but I think I came really close in August.

I made the decision to attend WorldCon in Kansas City at the last possible moment. There were two major factors: my wife put off a foot surgery that opened the possibility, and then my friend Lou Berger made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. It went something like this – “How’d you like to go to lunch with Joe Haldeman?”

I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

So, we went to lunch with Joe and Gay Haldeman. During the course of lunch, I actually got a chance to tell Joe how much The Forever War had meant to me as a young cadet. We had an incredible conversation about it, his upcoming works, and then my book. Gay asked to see it, so I got a copy out of my pack and handed it to them. At that exact moment, Greg Bear and his wife stopped by. Greg patted Joe on the shoulder and then pointed at my book.

“That’s a great cover!” he said.

I started to shake. Gay and Joe had to run to a panel, but they told me they’d find me at the WordFire booth the next day. Leaving lunch, I couldn’t thank Lou enough. I hoped to see the Haldemans again, but I knew how crazy WorldCon was and tried to just bask in the conversation we’d had and my personal time with Joe.

The next day, they came by the WordFire booth where I’d spent my time camped out next to Chuck Gannon, Larry Dixon, and Mercedes Lackey (which was incredible to say the least). Gay walked up, gave me a hug, and said “We want your book.”

With shaking hands, and vision blurred from threatening tears, I signed a copy of Sleeper Protocol to Joe and Gay Haldeman. We then took pictures together and both of them hugged me before they went on their way. We’ve even since maintained email contact, which is mind-blowing. To say that meeting one of my inspirations was the highlight of 2016 would be a gross understatement. I left there energized and ready for the remainder of the year.

Since WorldCon, I’ve completed the edits for Vendetta Protocol and been hard at work on an alternate-history novel that’s been a real ass kicker. It’s a moment of change for me as it diverges from everything I’ve written up to this point. But, there’s also been a recognition that this is part of that whole writing “thing.” Challenge is always out there. We’re fortunate that so many of our inspirations and our favorite authors are approachable and willing to help – sometimes they even go to lunch with you. For that, I’ll be forever grateful.

I hope you have enjoyed our December “Year In Review” posts. From here, I transfer things over to the amazing Sean Golden for next month’s theme: Starting Over.

Happy New Year!