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3 Ways to Make Your Novel’s First Page Cinematic

September 20, 2021 in Novel Structure, Shoot Your Novel with 1 Comment

Today’s post is a reprint from some years back—important technique for anyone writing fiction!

Readers will often stop reading before they finish the first page of your story. While this has always been true, in this fast-paced age that foments impatience, it’s even more true.

If a writer doesn’t deliver what a reader hopes for on that first page, it’s going to be tough to convince the reader to stick around for the whole chapter—let alone the whole book.

There are lots of things needed on a first page of a novel or short story. And while it’s not a hard-and-fast rule that all these elements have to show up on page 1, the more elements a writer includes, the better.

This, of course, is going to vary a lot. And if a writer is starting with a prologue or some scene that doesn’t introduce the protagonist, that makes a difference as well. But the overall objective, regardless of opening scene, isn’t going to change. And that is to engage the reader. Continue Reading…

6 Tips to Make Your Scenes Visually Dynamic

September 13, 2021 in Novel Structure, Shoot Your Novel with 2 Comments

Today’s post is a reprint from 2016.

Many of us were raised watching thousands of movies and television shows. The style, technique, and methods used in film and TV are so familiar to us, we process them comfortably. To some degree, we now expect these elements to appear in the novels we read—if not consciously, then subconsciously.

We know what makes a riveting scene in a movie, and what makes a boring one—at least viscerally. And though our tastes differ, certainly, for the most part we agree when a scene “works” or doesn’t. It either accomplishes what the writer or director has set out to do, or it flops.

As writers, we can learn from this visual storytelling; what makes a great movie can also strengthen a novel or short story. Much of the technique filmmakers use can be adapted to fiction writing. Continue Reading…

How to Wow Your Readers with Your Novel

September 11, 2017 in Novel Structure, Shoot Your Novel with 1 Comment

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been talking about the importance of mastering how to “show” effectively in your writing. This is one of the key things that will make or break your novel.

Meaning: if you don’t master this technique, it’s likely your novels will never see success.

Readers just don’t want to mull through pages of explanation, boring detail, lengthy narrative, excessive backstory.

They want to “watch” the story unfold before their very eyes. And the best way to do this is by using cinematic technique.

Let me share one last excerpt with you, and I’ll get off my soapbox:

Haven’t you read scenes in which two people are sitting somewhere (and you’ve probably not been told where) and just talking? The dialog goes on for pages, and maybe some of it is interesting, but you can’t picture where these people are, what the setting is like, what they look like. Or maybe you have more description than you want—of the restaurant and their clothes and hair and the noise and smells inside. But still . . . nothing happens. Continue Reading…