Author RA McCandless: Three Ways to Hook Your Reader in the First 500 Words #specufic

Today we're visited by spec fic author RA McCandless. He's launching his newest book today so be sure to check out Hell Becomes Her. Hope you enjoy!

Well there's something you don't see every day.

Plot, characters,
complexity—none of that matters on the first page.  What's important is to hook your
readers.  The cliche is that you need a
very good first line, but the truth is that if a reader has picked up your book
(or read the synopsis enough to buy the ebook/download a sample) they're
already invested and willing to give you some of their time.  Usually, a page at least.  So you have that much time to set the hook
and start to reel them in.  Then,
complexity and layers and characters can all do their work.

Here's a few things that I try
to do with my first page (about the first 300 to 500 words:

1 - Establish my world.  Obviously, I'm going to need a couple ten
thousand words to really build out the world, but I want to give my readers a
real sense of what they're reading.  So,
a steampunk books gets some steamalicious gears, or brass patina, or leather
and tin goggles out of the gate—even if it's only in passing.

Tension!  Conflict!  Character!

Meet the Trifecta!

2 - Establish my main
character.  The primary character, even
if he/she later fades to the background or is subsumed by other character POVs,
is introduced and the solid core of that characters is introduced on the first
page.  Scoundrels are doing
skullduggery.  Paladins are shining their
white cloaks.  Harrison Ford is being a
good man under extreme pressure.  You get
the idea.

3 - Tension/Conflict.  You don't want your readers on the edge of
their seat throughout the entire story, they need some breathing room every now
and then.  BUT in introducing the book,
there should be some kind of conflict, even minor and easily overcome, that
will draw them in and keep the pages turning.
Witnessing an airship docking.
Winning (or losing) a high stakes poker game.  Being confronted by a police captain for a
bust gone horribly wrong.  All of these
create tension or establish conflict that will (hopefully) pique readers'
interest.

It is me, or did it just get complicated in here?

Of course, you don't do these
separately.  With 300 to 500 words to
work in, you weave these elements together to create a tapestry of world,
characters and tension.  With any luck,
this informs your first line, and you've laid the bait, allowed the reader to
nibble, and by word 301 (or 501) you'd set the hook so firmly that no matter
how complex, layered or characterific your story, everyone is along for the
roller coaster ride. 



R.A. McCandless is the author of the urban fantasy Flames of Perdition series.  His first book, Tears of Heaven, was named a 2015 EPIC eBook finalist and winner of the 2014 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader's Poll by Preditors & Editors.  His latest book, Hell Becomes Her, is available now.  He continues to write genre and historical fiction, battle sprinklers and play with his three boys.

Write Tighter, Write Smarter

In between promoting my latest release and running a multi-author giveaway, I'm still trying to make headway on my latest book project, The Heartbeat Thief. Since I'm editing today, I thought I'd share this post with my writer friends. Enjoy!

As a homeschooled writer, I'd learned to improve my craft one layer at a time.

My first WIP was a stack of notebooks, pages of endless prose that I'd written one summer. I wrote it for fun, an imaginary escape, without the least care for grammar or structure or plot. It was a technical wreck but I wasn't worried--because no one but me would ever read it.

My second…that was different. I knew I wanted to share that story. I also knew I had a lot to learn about writing. I began to amass my writer's library and scoured the internet for articles and discussions and workshops, all in the hopes of improving my writing. I spent years learning how to be a better writer--and will spend many more years learning, too.

Recently, I came across those notebooks of my first attempts at writing a novel and was shocked to see what my style was like when I wrote it eight years ago. I think the aspect that struck me the most was how much I rambled.

It wasn't that I wrote endless chapters of setting or backstory or dialogue. My problem was that I wrote the way I spoke--and I spoke with a lot of extra words.

Extra Words

Extra words make your sentences flimsy. A reader wants the heart of the story--and extra words get in the way. Readers crave hooks and action and a thrilling pace but extra words can cause the story to stumble.

My WIP had a lot of extra words. When I read back through those pages, I found myself skimming. That's the ultimate sign that I lost my audience--and my audience was me. How bad is that?

Tighten Those Lines

When I started homeschooling myself, I'd picked up loads of tips on how to improve the mechanics of my writing. Without realizing it, I began to write smarter because I wrote tighter. Of course, I was learning as I went--and applied most of my new skills through editing.

Editing is a technique that should always be done in layers--sentence, paragraph, scene, and story. You can tighten your writing at each of these layers, resulting in better craft and a better story.

Sentence Level

Extra words like to hide in sentences, adding bulk without substance. You can use the "find" function on your word processor to hunt out those words and eliminate them. The biggest culprits? Words such as really, very, and just, to name a few. You don't need them.

And not just single words-- entire categories such as adverbs and adjectives will loosen your sentences. If you need to enhance a noun or a verb, it may mean you didn't pick the right word in the first place. Find a stronger word and kick the enhancers to the curb.

Another tip to tighten your sentences? Skip the obvious. "He put his hat on his head." Unless he often puts his hat on a different body part, you can skip telling us where he put it.

You can also skip the obvious by eliminating things like "she could see" or "I heard"--because you follow those phrases with whatever is seen and heard. And gerunds? You probably don't need them--if your character grabs a gun and has no intention of swinging it like a club, you can drop the "to shoot" that might follow.

Paragraph Level

When looking to tighten a paragraph, I look for sections that feel like telling and not showing. I'll add a line or two that shows the action and then go back to eliminate the telling part.

Okay, you may be thinking, how can that be tighter? You're adding words!

Yes, I am…but they are healthy, vibrant words, packed with wholesome story goodness. I eliminated the empty calorie words. End result? Better writing and a stronger story.

Example: I could tell she didn't believe me.

The fix: With a sharp shake of her head, she jabbed a finger into my chest. "You do this every time! I tell you that I'm finally happy, and you concoct some stupid story about why I shouldn't be."

Yep, more words…but now the reader sees the disbelief and doesn't have to take the narrator's word for it. I added action and dialogue. That original line "I could tell she didn't believe me" is now fluff to be eliminated. Bye bye, extra words.

Scene Level

Sometimes your sentences are tight but your scenes aren't. Maybe you've got too much going on.

You can tighten your scenes by watching for unnecessary elements--any character or prop or intention or action that doesn't move the scene forward can be removed because they are distractions.

What if one of the characters wasn't present? Is someone worrying about an issue that is keeping the scene from being streamlined? If you can change a character's thoughts or attitude before the scene occurs, would you ultimately improve the flow of the scene itself?

Watch for elements that seem stagnant or present obstacles to your action. Removing them will tighten your scenes and your story.

Sometimes the element is an entire scene. Try deleting it and see what it does to improve the story.

Story Level

Take a step back and think about your story as a whole. How can you tighten it?

List your plotline and sub-plotlines. Do you have sub-plots that do little to move your story forward? If the little stories don't contribute to the plot or to the character's growth, you may be hindering the big story.  It's time to send those extra words on their way.

And the characters that are window-dressing? Send them home. Extra people mean extra words. If they don't work the story, there isn't a reason to keep them around.

Make the Cut

You may be intimidated by the prospect of cutting scenes and storylines and even characters from your story because of the damage it will do to your word count. Keep in mind that readers only want the words worth reading. You can always go back and add to the real story, using strong, vibrant language.

And think of it this way--you'll save an agent or editor the trouble of asking you to revise those same issues. Extra words keep your work from attaining "shelf-ready status". Be brave and do what's best for your story. You and your story and your writing craft will be all the better for it.

(Image courtesy of nkzs.)

The Music That Moves The Pen: Author Tricia Schneider (Free Kindle Days)

Readers of this blog may be familiar with paranormal romance author Tricia Schneider because she's cool enough to visit whenever she has good news to share. (She's also one of the hosts of the Very Paranormal Holidays blog hop, which you can enter here).

 

Today starts free Kindle days for Tricia Schneider's newest release, The Witch's Thief (Wild Rose Press).

 

To celebrate her newest story, she's brought us an extra special treat: a guest post about her musical muses! I rather commend her on her choice of music; she's got suburb taste. (*grin*) And it explains one of the reasons why we get along so well...

 

Songs, Sirens, and Story-Telling

Tricia Schneider

A guest post by Tricia Schneider

 

I have three children ages 3, 6, and 7. Needless to say, I have a very noisy household. My writing time has had to become flexible over the years as I became a mother and my babies grew. Each stage brings new challenges and rewards. But one thing has stayed the same throughout. They are always noisy! Especially my boys. They wrestle, they chase each other, they fight, they laugh. They don't even play hide and seek quietly. I can hear them giggling as they try to hide. As much as it makes me crazy and happy at the same time, the noise doesn't help my writing. It's just a distraction. One more among many distractions for a writer to overcome.

I used to write after my noise-makers would go to bed at night, but I didn't last long myself by that time. After a full day, I'm usually exhausted by nightfall. I might be able to stay up and watch a favorite TV show or two with my husband but most times I'm asleep before the end (except with The Walking Dead, there's no way I can fall asleep during that show!). So, writing at night rarely works for me anymore.

Now, I write in the mornings. In fact, I wrote The Witch's Thief during the early morning hours. My kids will either play or watch morning cartoons while I sit in the kitchen and write. But, the noise still bothers me. So I wear earphones and listen to music while I write. The music drowns out the yelling and laughter of my children when they play, and it muffles the sound of the TV on those days they choose to watch something with obnoxiously catchy tunes that I find myself singing for no reason later on in the day.

I listen to a variety of music, sometimes depending on my mood or  at times depending on the scene that I'm about to write.

Here's a list of what I keep close by for my writing days:

Peter Steele of TON

Type O Negative, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, Audioslave, David Bowie, Annie Lennox and Enya. Even though most of these have lyrics, their voices often lull me into a kind of hypnosis that helps me get into that writing zone that I crave each day. And the music is usually dark and moody, very emotional stuff that spurs my creativity since I write mainly paranormal romance with a touch of gothic mood throughout.

Movie Soundtracks and Scores are another favorite for those days when I'm just not in the mood to listen to lyrics:

The Lord of the Rings, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Sherlock Holmes, The Last of the Mohicans, Underworld, Resident Evil, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. More dark and moody themes that spark emotion within me. Just listening to these songs makes me want to write!

And then I have a collection of classical music that I enjoy listening to. Mostly it's Mozart and Bach, but I do have several others that I sometimes find useful.

I can tell you while I wrote The Witch's Thief, I always started out listening to Type O Negative's Bloody Kisses album. Black No.1 and Summer Breeze are my favorite songs on that one and were guaranteed to pull me deep into my writing. There's something very hypnotic about the singer Peter Steele's voice. It's like he used some sort of spell to sing like a siren luring listeners into a dark and dreamy world. Sadly, our world is darker without him. He passed away in 2010. I have all of Type O's albums and thankfully I never get tired of listening to them.

My husband is a bass player and vocalist in a local band (in Pennsylvania) called Mystagen. He has a deep sexy singing voice that I find equally hypnotic. On the album they released a few years ago, the song Soul Steal is my absolute favorite. Lots of emotion in that song, too. Of course, in most cases, I used to write while listening to them practice. No need for headphones then!

The Witch's Thief is being offered

FREE on Kindle from December 17-21.

Hurry over and grab your copy!

Blurb:

To save her sister’s life, Julia Grey seeks a spell hidden somewhere within Merriweather Manor. Her position as a lady's companion affords her the freedom to search the house. But time is running out. The necromancer she's bargained with is growing impatient. And an unexpected appearance of a man from her past makes matters worse in an already complicated situation.

Basil Merriweather returns to England after ten years abroad to discover his childhood sweetheart living in his home. But, he's no longer the carefree man of his youth and she's hiding something--deadly secrets Basil vows to uncover even as he hides a dark secret of his own.

While neither Basil nor Julia will trust in the other, their hearts speak a truer language.  In a grand attempt to save Julia's sister and Basil's life, the two must finally confess sinister truths. Will their admissions help or hinder any future they may have together? Or will the necromancer destroy all in a vile attempt at revenge.

Excerpt:

"What are you doing?" 

He ignored her frantic questioning. Instead, he blocked out the sound of her voice and raised his arms into the air at his sides, his fingers splayed out as he extended his senses to scan the area. His power eased out, like extensions of his fingertips, stretching into the corners of the room, seeking, searching for the source of the magic he sensed. 

It was here...somewhere. 

He had sensed it earlier on his arrival, but being that his aunt and siblings practiced magic on a regular basis he'd never given it a second thought. 

This room, however, stank with it. He smelled the odor, something strangely like sulfur... 

"A spell has been cast in this room," he muttered. A strange spell. Odd. A spell he'd never sensed before, something new. It felt off is some way he couldn't explain. Who would be working new magic of this kind in his home? And, in this room in particular. Aunt Petunia worked her spells in the privacy of her rooms upstairs, or sometimes in the gardens, but never in this room. And his siblings each, practiced in their own private settings, places where they could concentrate without the threat of being disturbed. A fairly difficult task with the number of people normally in residence at Merriweather Manor. 

He took a step closer to the center of the room where he sensed a surge of power. He shivered as coldness seeped into his skin. It wrapped around his arm, sinking into his flesh, right down to the bone. This was not right. 

The magic in his house was always full of warmth and gentleness. Goodness and love. This magic chilled him to the bone. His heart skipped a beat. There was fear, terror, pain. This spell was full of darkness.

About the author:

Tricia Schneider is a paranormal and gothic romance author. She worked as an Assistant Manager at a bookstore for several years. Now she writes full-time while raising her 3 young children in the coal region of Pennsylvania. For more information about her books visit:

Website: http://www.triciaschneider.com

Blog: http://www.shadowsofromance.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authortriciaschneider

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/triciaschneider

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/triciaschneider

To buy her books:

The Wild Rose Press:

Amazon:

 

QueryTracker Blog: The Establishing Shot & Your Novel

Recently I blogged about setting and the novel--specifically, that bit of setting that pinpoints the novel's place in space and time.

I once sat in on a panel at Baltimore Comic Con. (#geekWIN) An artist/writer was discussing the basics for getting one's own comic off the ground, and one of the first thing he'd discussed was setting. The setting should be detailed in the first frame or two. Once we see where the action is to take place, we can zoom in on the action itself.

Later, I realized that what the writer was describing was what film makers call the establishing shot. I also realized how it was a perfect way to approach the writing of setting into a novel.

Here's a bit from that article...you can follow the link to read the whole piece at the Query Tracker blog. Enjoy!

QueryTracker Blog: At the Scene: The Establishing Shot & Your Novel

Are you a visual writer?

As you sit and write your novel, do you imagine the action unfolding as clearly as if you were watching a movie?

That’s the kind of writer I am. Images and words are inextricably joined, inseparable until The End. I tend to visualize the action, the characters, the scenes, mulling them over and “watching” them interact and unfold, then take mad notes when I “see” something that works. The notes turn into manuscript pages and the pages into chapters.

Although novel-writing and screenwriting are two completely different animals, I have picked up more than one pointer from the film makers. By far, the most useful tip I’ve taken is the use of the establishing shot.

In film, the establishing shot is the opening shot that sets the scene—the location, the time, the spatial relationship between characters, even the concept of the story. Traditionally, this was accomplished through the use of a longshot or extreme longshot, although today’s film makers often skip it in order to get right into the action to establish a quicker pace.

Think about how many times we are chided to start in media res—in the middle of things—so that our first pages hook the reader. Those first 250 words are crucial if we want to catch the attention of an agent or editor. We can’t let readers fall asleep on the first page, can we?

However, that doesn’t mean there is no longer a place for an “establishing shot” in our books. You don’t need a lengthy scene set up to run as long as opening credits to an eighties romantic comedy but you do need a way to anchor the reader in each scene in order for them to become submerged in the story. Even in the case of the more modern action opener, the reader gets a strong sense of who and where when you establish the scene....

 

Read more at the Query Tracker Blog!

 

Share it!

Tweetables:

 

"Create the scene before diving into action or dialog using an establishing shot"

 

"Anchor your reader in each scene in order for them to become submerged in the story"

 

 

Whipping Out A Novel

I’m going to finish this novel.

I say that a lot these days. Right now, I’m completing Wolf’s Bane (Demimonde #3). I’ve technically been completing it for some time now, but recently I imposed my deadlines. It’s time to get down to business.

Problem is, there are too many distractions.

I can’t be the only writer holding her own horsewhip, threatening a stinging blow, if that’s what it takes to get the job done.

I’ve been getting some decent word counts done on my writing days. However, my enemy right now is time. I have a full-time job outside the home, I have a family that works me over-time, and all the responsibilities of a multi-book author that seem to be on my mind all-the-time. I’m terrified that I’ll look at the clock one day and there will be a fist-full of hands, sweeping away the precious hours, reducing my writing time in favor of duties that claim priority.

But those mornings when I’m home alone…out comes the horsewhip. Get typing! Put down the phone! Close out the Internet! And, for the love of editors, shut off the TV!

I’m a stubborn lady. I don’t like to be bossed around, not even when it’s myself doing the bossing. That’s why I spent time charting out my deadlines on my calendar. It’s not bossy; it’s simply enforcing work guidelines.

I also recently picked up a copy of “90 Days To Your Novel” by Sarah Domet. Although I am about 60% done with the first draft of Wolf's bane, I thought that this book may help me stay on track with my own deadlines (although I definitely don’t have 90 days to finish this book!) I have a subplot to flush out so I’m looking forward to re-writing my outline—yes, rewriting it, because the book had the nerve to go off on its own half-way through writing.

In addition, a few days ago I got an email from my writer friend SK Falls (she’s also published under the name Adriana Ryan). She and another author are going to embark on a Fast Draft—a summer camp buddy-write—and she invited me to join in. When I saw that the proposed dates for the Fast Draft fell right smack-dab in the middle of my first draft writing time, I could have squealed.

Serendipity, I love ya, you little muse! This is exactly what I needed. We’ll get our word counts in, we’ll encourage each other, and we’ll Tweet about the process. I can’t wait to see who else joins in.

So, this is where it begins. Currently I have 56622 words into Wolf’s Bane (goal is 90k for the first draft). I have my deadlines marked in Sharpie, I have my outlining tool (90 Days To Your Novel), and I have my buddy write that will cement it all together—because a buddy write means, above all things, ACCOUNTABILITY.

I’ve got a solid plan to finish this novel. I’m feeling confident that I can leave my horsewhip in the closet.

And, because I’m a pay-it-forward kind of writer, I’ll be blogging about my Journey to the End of the Book in the hopes that I might encourage another writer to do the same thing.

Give us a shout out—are you writing? Are you reading? Closer to the Fast Draft, I’ll let you know who else is writing it so you can follow our progress on the social media.

Don’t give up and don’t let us give up. We might just be writing the books you really want to read.

Writing Makes Me Feel Like a Time Lord

I'm working on a new short story…kind of a "prequel" to Bleeding Hearts. I don't have any intention of turning it into a novel, though. This is one short story that is going to stay short. *grin*

It's funny…I feel a bit like Doctor Who when I'm writing in the Demimonde series--that's because I don't just try to imagine where the story is going. I also have to figure out where it's been.

Where did Sophie come from? What shaped her current mindset and emotional health? I know many of those answers because the story is told from her point of view. She tells us a lot about herself in those books.

But what about the other characters?

For me, this is the best part about writing a series. I don't just write the stories--I also write the history books that brought them all to the doorstep of the very first book. Like Doctor Who, I see the past, the present, and the future--all at the same time. Many people might assume that writing a series entails following a string of events with the strict progression of cause to effect but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff.

And, considering the longevity of my demivampires, that means there is potential for a lot of backstories. (Knowing my inability to keep short stories on the short side, I have been compiling notes on a true prequel, but that's another story altogether.)

This Demimonde short story "The Scent of Hope" will be available in a sneak peek in a future newsletter. You can be one of the first ones to read it when you sign up for the newsletter using the form on the right side…because it's my way of saying THANK YOU for all your support.

 

Can't see the sign-up form on your mobile? Click here to go right to the form. 

 

And because I am now thoroughly stuck in Doctor Who mode, I might just have to go watch one of my favorite clips of the Doctor and Donna...em, I mean Mr. Logan and Lauren Cooper. (You're welcome *mwah*)

BLOOD RUSH: Book Two of the Demimonde

The second installment to my series is complete and safely in the hands of the editor.

Second books are like middle children. Of course we want them; we are so much in love with our first-borns that we are eager to spawn another creation of wonder. But, like middle children, second books have a personality of their own. They have different moods, different ideas about their destinies. We find out quickly enough that they are not clones of their older siblings—they are unique individuals.

My first book--Bleeding Hearts--was born in a moment of passion, an urge to write, to create, to express. My second book was planned, a calculated decision to continue the story and round out the protagonist’s world. Of course, I didn’t expect the story to take on a mind of its own.

It’s a pleasant surprise, actually. While writing the first book, I developed as a writer. There are so many fantastic resources out there for writers and one day I’ll have to make a list of the library I’ve amassed; not only books, but blogs and websites, communities, and on-line workshops. But it was passion that drove the writing.

Coming up on the sequel, I had a clearer idea of plot set-up, structure, character development—in short, the technical aspects of the novel. I labored over the first chapter, the inciting incident, the three-act story arc, the first page, the first ten lines. And slowly it dawned on me—while I was ensuring myself no major revisions would be necessary, passion wasn’t first and foremost my driving force. This book was officially (gasp!) work.

Middle children shouldn’t be labeled as laborious. When I was doing final edits last month, I needed to understand my novel for the individual story it is, not for the expectations I’d placed upon it. So with this in mind, I returned to my first job as a writer—which is a reader—and read it straight through without stopping to edit. (Difficult task indeed.)

By stepping back and looking through the eyes of a reader, I saw the story for what it truly was—saw the themes, the messages, the journey of the characters and the conflicts that filled their lives. I reacquainted myself with them, remembered who they were and why I wanted to bring them to life. And during the reading, the spark of passion ignited, unfurled, and reminded me how much fun it is to be a writer.

It renewed me.

I ran the draft through a bit of a test—pulled out the Writer’s Digest Yearbook edition of Novel Writing and “workshopped” a few of the articles, making notes and comparisons. I opened Donald Maass' Writing the Breakthrough Novel Workbook and read through several exercises. I combined my eagerness to write with the skills I've learned and hope to continue creating stories that will captivate readers.

Coupled with my rediscovered passion, I am ready to jump back in and continue the series with the same eagerness that I felt while writing the first book. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a little incentive—now that I finished the second, I can finally, guiltlessly, write the third.

Let’s just take life one WIP at a time.