Wednesday's Writing Tip - Strategy, Enticing the reader with plot

Enticing readers to read the stories you've penned is an important strategy. Part of the way of doing this is to pose questions that when answered lead to another question always pointing to the end. Will the hero or heroine reach the first step toward obtaining their goal. This leads to the second step and to the third, Maybe even more. If they fail to reach one of these steps is there a reason, or has the goal changed a bit. Like people in real life, sometimes the initial goal isn't the real one. As this changes the reader is lured on to find the answer to the question.

The writer has the advantage here since he or she knows what the real object to the story is. Clues need to be fed into the story. There's nothing more infuriating than to read a story and find out the end has nothing that was promised in the beginning because there were no hints to what the real ending of the story. But the writer can't make the trail too easy to follow. I know I've read books where I knew what would happen before the story ended. In romances the given is the hero and heroine will connect and live happily ever after. One of my stories this isn't the case. While the hero and the heroine remain in love they aren't going to co-exist in the same place. Most of the readers found the clues that I sprinkled in showing this was to be the end. One reader missed a clue or two and was disappointed. So keeping the reader a bit off-balance is good. They will want to know what happens next.

Next week I'll post a bit more on this. Hopefully you will develop a strategy that will lead your readers onward to the end and to saying "of course that's the way the story should end.

Wednesday's Writing Advice - Strategy

Whether you're a seat of the pants author or a compulsive planner there are some points you need to consider when starting a book. Finding a middle path between the two styles is hard but it can be done. No matter what your style, there are two points of the story that need to be in your head before you can begin.

The first is the beginning. Now this doesn't mean the writer needs to know this as a specific scene. The need to know is the general event that triggers the story. Could it be a death, a disappearance, a disaster of nature. When sends the characters off on an adventure helps either style of writing.

The second is the ending. Again, this isn't a specific scene. What the writer needs to know is whether the story ends in happiness of tragedy. Knowing this will allow then to find the right words through out the story to bring their work to a satisfactory ending.

Once these two points are there the writer can decide if they're going to plan or they're going to just start writing, The trick to keep this going is to move from scene to scene rather than set your plan for the entire book in concrete or just go with the flow. Things happen during the writing of a story. Characters sometimes rebel about the direction they're headed. And this can happen no matter what style of writer you are. Flexibility is important.

For myself, I'm a planner, but I also do a lot of seat of the pants writing. I plan a scene or a chapter and then sit down to write it but when something takes a turn, I keep going and then change the plan for the next chapter. Another thing is that I'm a draft writer. For me this works. To sit and revise every scene before I go on to the next one would bother me. I need to know the whole story before I can go back and make the needed changes. That means planning again.

So no matter how you work, you need to have a strategy that allows you to finish the story. This is what I tell new writers when I'm involved in critiquing sessions. Finish the book. If you don't finish it you can never revise and revision is where the story becomes complete.