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Hook Em: Openings that Wow Your Reader
While I don’t always write a great opening line, I do hear a lot of praise about most of them. I’m not entirely sure if my process will work for anyone else, but since great openings are key to book sales, I’m going to share it with you today. The Breakdown There are 3 key essentials to creating great openings that hook your reader and generate sales. Killer first lines. Active first paragraph Compelling characterization I will break these down individually to help you understand. Killer First Lines I mentioned how watching television helps me create scenes and great killer opening lines. I tend to write a lot of dark fiction, so…
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The Weekly Breakdown for Surviving NaNoWriMo
Week 1 you’re rolling right along. You’re maintaining the suggested word count, and feeling confident you’ll finish ahead of schedule. This is a great feeling, and I encourage you to keep going. Week 2 arrives, and you still have a lot of steam. You plug away, still making that word count, but suddenly, it’s become a struggle. Don’t worry. Every other person doing NaNo feels the same thing (except your friend Joan. She is still going at full speed. She’s the exception. Ignore her.) Even with your brilliant outline, the little things around you begin to distract you. It’s become harder to meet the daily word count. For the first…
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How to Prep and Survive NaNoWriMo
I’m a WriMo, as in NaNoWriMo. It’s a term for those who participate in the annual November National Novel Writing Month. We are WriMos, not to be confused with WiNos (or could we?). I embark on my 7th year of NaNoWriMo in hopes to complete at least one of these unfinished novels collecting dust on my hard drive. I am not scared (Liar. My pants ARE on fire.) I have learned that the only thing that can stop me from finishing is me. I am fantastic at getting in my own way. I assure you of this. So, what do I do for prep? My quick answer would be nothing, but that’s not…
