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How to Captivate Your Readers with Seeds of Curiosity

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Have you ever become so engrossed in a TV show that you spend hours binge-watching the episodes? (My weakness is British murder mysteries.)

Maybe your friends told you it was an amazing show that you absolutely had to see. So when you finally have free time on a Saturday evening, you decide to put on the first episode.

At first, you’re leaning back in your chair and enjoying the show, but you have one eye on your phone as you scroll through social media. (Yes, I’m guilty of this.)

And then: Bam! The unexpected happens.

A plot twist changes everything.

You put your phone away, and you’re now on the edge of your seat.

Before you know it, you’ve finished episode five. It’s late into the night, but you can’t tear yourself away from the screen.

You have to find out what’s going to happen next. Is your favorite character really going to get killed off? How will the screenwriters tie up all those loose ends?

Okay, maybe you’ve never binge-watched a TV show, but perhaps it’s happened to you with a good book.

The story pulls you in. Even though you keep telling yourself, “Just one more chapter,” you can’t put the book down.

It’s like the author’s put a spell on you.

Imagine if you could captivate your readers in the same way.

You capture their interest so completely that they read from the first sentence to the last without their minds ever beginning to wander.

In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to do just that with a copywriting technique called “seeds of curiosity”.

No matter whether you’re writing a blog post, an email, a sales page, or a story, this technique will help you keep your readers glued to the page.

Read on to discover exactly how you can use it in your writing to mimic the spellbinding quality of your favorite books and TV shows.

What are seeds of curiosity?

Legendary adman Joseph Sugarman coined the term “seeds of curiosity” in his book Advertising Secrets of the Written Word.

Sugarman explained that good writing is like a slippery slide:

As you start to slide down and build momentum, you try holding onto the sides to stop, but you can’t stop. You continue to slide down the slide despite all your efforts to prevent your descent. This is the way your copy must flow.

The headline must be so powerful and compelling that you must read the subheadline, and the subheadline must be so powerful that you are compelled to read the first sentence, and the first sentence must be so easy to read and so compelling that you must read the next sentence and so on, straight through to the end of the copy.

Wow, that does sound like quite a challenge, doesn’t it? Easier said than done, right?

Thankfully, Sugarman gives us the super easy-to-use seeds of curiosity technique that will help us make our slides much more slippery.

He explains,

At the end of a paragraph, I will often put a very short sentence that offers the reader some reason to read the next paragraph. I use sentences such as:

But there’s more.
So read on.
But I didn’t stop there.
Let me explain.
Now here comes the good part.

These seeds of curiosity cause you to subconsciously continue reading even though you might be at a point in the copy where the copy slows down.

Sugarman doesn’t explain why he calls this technique seeds of curiosity. Maybe because you’re planting curiosity in the reader’s mind or maybe because you’re enticing them to read further like you entice a bird with seeds.

Other copywriters refer to this technique as “bucket brigades”. Before modern fire engines and hoses, people would put out fires by filling up a bucket of water and passing it down a line. They were called bucket brigades.

Essentially, they kept the bucket of water moving all the way down the line just as these transition sentences keep your reader moving all the way to the end of your copy.

Sugarman points out that this technique is used a lot on TV. For example, before a news show cuts to a commercial, the host will often tease an upcoming story and tell you to stay tuned to find out more. Your curiosity is piqued so you suffer through the commercials.

And that’s what those captivating books and TV shows do too. A chapter or an episode ends without fully satisfying your curiosity so you have to keep reading or watching.

Now here comes the good part. (See what I did there?)

I’m going to show you several easy ways that you can use seeds of curiosity in your writing right now.

5 Ways to Use Seeds of Curiosity in Your Writing

1. Ask a question.

When your readers see a question, their brain is eager to discover the answer, and so they keep reading.

Here are some examples:

  • What’s the bottom line?
  • Want to know the best part?
  • What does this mean for you?
  • So what’s the point?
  • Can I be completely honest with you?

You can also use seeds of curiosity when answering a question:

  • Yes, you’re right. Here’s why.
  • No, that’s wrong. Here’s why.
  • The correct answer might surprise you.
  • Here’s a clue.

2. Create an open loop by holding back information.

Mention a benefit or payoff you are going to reveal later on in your piece. The reader has to keep reading in order to get to the punch line.

Of course, always make sure that you close the loop or your readers will be very angry with you. (Just like you get angry when a TV show doesn’t bother to resolve a supporting character’s predicament. Ugh, I hate that.)

Here are several examples:

  • I’ll explain how to do this in a minute.
  • Read on to find out what I discovered.
  • You’ll never believe what happened next.
  • I’m going to share a secret with you.
  • More about that later.
  • Don’t worry. There’s a solution.

You can also tease that there’s danger ahead. Our brains have a greater sensitivity to negative news rather than positive news. So signaling a problem will catch your readers’ attention:

  • A word of caution.
  • But first, beware.
  • But there’s a catch.
  • It just gets worse.

3. Simplify a difficult concept.

When writing about a technical or complex topic, it’s easy to fall into the trap of crafting dry paragraphs. Technical terms often bore readers to tears or worse confuse them.

Use seeds of curiosity to make sure you don’t lose their attention (these seeds can also be an excellent way to transition into an example):

  • Stay with me. This gets interesting.
  • Let me explain.
  • Here’s what that means in layman’s terms.
  • Here’s an example.
  • Here’s another way to think about it.
  • Picture it this way.

4. Get into readers’ heads.

You can use seeds of curiosity to speak directly to your readers. This is a fantastic method to use on sales pages to anticipate objections a person might raise about your product or service.

Here are examples:

  • It’s easier than you think.
  • You might be wondering…
  • Let me guess.
  • I know what you’re thinking.
  • But why should you trust me?

You can also use seeds of curiosity to show empathy with your readers and transition into your personal story:

  • I’ve been there too.
  • I know what that feels like.
  • Maybe you’re like me.

5. Build suspense in a story.

Stories are a fantastic way to capture the interest of readers. (I share more about storytelling here and here.) But, of course, a boring story is going to put your readers to sleep, not convince them to keep reading.

Use seeds of curiosity to add suspense and make your stories compelling:

  • Then it hit me.
  • I couldn’t believe my eyes.
  • You won’t believe what he told me.
  • I was soon to find out.
  • That’s when everything spiraled out of control.
  • But something was wrong.
  • It gets better.

The Takeaway

When you sprinkle your writing with seeds of curiosity, you not only grab the attention of your readers, but you also make your writing more enjoyable to read.

They add a touch of suspense that quickens the pace of your writing and leads your readers along just as if you were holding their hand.

But be careful not to sprinkle your writing too liberally with seeds of curiosity. You’ll end up with an overgrown garden rather than a beautifully planted one.

Too many short sentences will disrupt the rhythm of your writing, just like too many long ones. The best method is to read your writing slowly and look for natural places to add a transition.

Is there a place that’s a bit boring? Where the pace of your writing slows? Where you could add a bit of tension?

Use the example seeds of curiosity in this blog post as inspiration. You can copy them or come up with your own that fit naturally into the flow of your paragraphs.

Your reader will slide all the way to the bottom of your piece and thank you for the thrilling ride.

How will you use “seeds of curiosity” in your own writing? Let me know in the comments. And if you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend who you think might find it helpful too. Thanks for reading!

 

By Nicole Bianchi

Source: nicolebianchi.com

Visit us at First Edition Design Publishing

The 7 best cookbooks for beginners, according to an insider

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Need to find the best cookbooks for beginners? A cookbook publishing insider shares the 7 best cookbooks for beginners, no matter what kind of beginner you are!

There’s almost nothing more exciting than new beginnings, and to me, there’s definitely nothing more exciting the start of a new cookbook collection.

Anytime a graduation, wedding, baby shower or any other gifting occasion comes up, I have to physically restrain myself from buying 5 new cookbooks for that friend entering a new stage of life. And I mean it–someone (ahem, Jarrett) has gotta hold me back.

Because, you see, I think that finding your way in the kitchen is one of the great pleasures of life. And that’s not even mentioning the practical incentives. Like that whole thing about how cooking at home is the #1 best thing you can do to save money, save your health, and save your relationships.

It’s true: cooking is magic for every corner of our lives, which is why it can be so rewarding to give yourself or someone you love the gift of a few cookbooks. But which are the best cookbooks for beginners? Can there even be one set of best cookbooks for beginners?

The 7 best cookbooks for beginners: why this list is different

In researching for this article, I found that many of the other online lists of the best cookbooks for beginners weren’t really for beginners. They shared books that were either too comprehensive (read: intimidating) for beginners or too high-brow (read: doubly intimidating) for beginners. And many didn’t acknowledge that there are many different kinds of beginners, and that therefore, the best cookbook for one type of beginner just wouldn’t do for another.

So instead, I decided to research and prepare my own master list of the best cookbooks for beginners. It’s organized by the type of beginner you might encounter, as well as by what that beginner might actually be interested in learning.

This list is sourced both from my 10+ years of editing and working on cookbooks, as well as my own life as a home cook and a bordering-on-obnoxious gifter of cookbooks. (And no, I haven’t personally worked on any of these–these truly are just my favorites to gift!)

I hope you find this list helpful for spotting that one best cookbook that will work for your beginner, so you can set them (or yourself) on the path of good cooking and good living.

The 7 best cookbooks for beginners

The best cookbooks for beginners who: want to master the basics

best cookbooks for beginners

How To Cook Everything: The Basics

Mark Bittman

There are many cookbooks for beginners who want to master the basics, but this is the best one for one reason: step-by-step photos. Beginners often feel a surge of confidence if they can see exactly how each step is done and how the food should look. So the 1,000 photos in this thorough starter will go far to relieve their newbie anxiety.

I especially love the beginning sections that explain—with more photos!—the different ways to cook, from sautéing to braising to pan-frying. (You won’t believe how often I hear beginners express nervousness because they don’t know what “sauté” means!)

This book is the next best thing to treating your beginner to a one-on-one cooking class. And it’s easily one of the best cookbooks for beginners (and pros!) who want to master the basics.

The best cookbooks for beginners who: love to go out to eat

best cookbooks for beginners

Comfort Food Makeovers: All Your Favorites Made Lighter

America’s Test Kitchen

Here’s a secret: the best way to get a beginner in the kitchen is to convince them they can eat better at home than at their favorite restaurant. And what are the two things that keep us from going out to eat every single night? Cost and health.

Comfort Food Makeovers is the perfect solution for this, as it shows beginners how they can make many restaurant favorites at home for about half the cost and half the calories. Think Olive Garden’s Fettucine Alfredo, Red Lobster’s Cheesy Biscuits, Chili’s Nachos, and much more.

The best part? The crew at America’s Test Kitchen explains exactly what changes they made to lighten up each recipe. So with each recipe, your beginner will be learning how they can modify and substitute their way to healthier food on their own.

The best cookbooks for beginners who: love to watch recipe videos

best cookbooks for beginners

Tasty Ultimate: How to Cook Basically Anything

Tasty

Have a beginner in your life who loves to watch those 30-second recipe videos online but hasn’t spent much time in the kitchen? Tasty Ultimate is from the minds behind many of the internet’s most popular over-the-top recipe videos. You know, the ones with the mouthwatering cheese-pulls and ooey gooey frosting drizzles. And here it delivers more of the same in book form.

This book is perfect for the beginner who gets excited about outrageous mash-up foods—things like Mozzarella Stick Onion Rings and Fried Egg Pizza—but isn’t into the old school bouef bourguignons of other beginner cookbooks.

The best cookbooks for beginners who: are foodies but can’t cook

best cookbooks for beginners

Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Kristen Miglore

I love gifting this cookbook as a wedding gift and graduation gift, because it really is chockful of the best-of-the-best recipes. You’ll find simple staples like deviled eggs, no-knead bread, and fried chicken, as well as one of my favorite recipes of all time: Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter.

The recipes are contributed by a star-studded line-up, full of names the foodie in your life will recognize, like April Bloomfield and Nigel Slater. The recipes aren’t fussy, but they are all elevated in some way. Some in exquisitely simple ways (like the onion and butter added to Hazan’s tomato sauce) and others with twists that could be used again and again (like the Salt-Crusted Potatoes that get a Cilantro Mojo dipping sauce).

This cookbook is perfect for beginners who don’t shy away from sophisticated, chef-y food when they go out to eat, but who want to start with the simplest, best versions at home.

The best cookbooks for beginners who: are newlyweds

best cookbooks for beginners

Date Night In: More than 120 Recipes to Nourish Your Relationship

Ashley Rodriguez

This is such a sweet cookbook for beginners because it’s infused with the warmth that comes from cooking and eating as a couple. It’s the perfect wedding gift because it promises the newlyweds a lifetime of hours at the table together, sharing about their days and feeling close again, even as the distractions of kids, work, and to-dos ebb and flow throughout life.

The recipes are special enough that you’ll feel like you’re treating your spouse to something out-of-the-ordinary. Yet the ingredient lists are short enough for weeknight date-night food, not once-a-year Valentine’s Day food.

This is the best cookbook for beginners who are beginning their lives together in the kitchen. Hopefully, it will show them just how important dinnertime can be for staying anchored to each other.

The best cookbooks for beginners who: are college bound

best cookbooks for beginners

The 5 Ingredient College Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes for the Next Four Years & Beyond

Pamela Ellgen

Here’s the truth: your college-bound beginner probably won’t do much cooking. But here’s another truth: this might be the first time your beginner is choosing all of her own meals. And over the next four years, she’s going to start getting kitchen-curious. What better way to speed up that introduction to the kitchen than to make her first cooking experiences incredibly simple and soothing?

That’s why I love this book—it’s not about flashy cooking or learning knife skills or using new ingredients. It’s 5 ingredient cooking for the student who has never once made French toast or macaroni and cheese but is finally ready to try. It’s also great for the beginner who’s on a student budget. It’ll help them swap a few fast food meals for meals eaten at the dorm without settling for styrofoam-y noodles.

Remember: beginners have to begin somewhere. And college really is the best time to take that first baby step into the kitchen.

The best cookbooks for beginners who: are budget-minded

best cookbooks for beginners

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day

Leanne Brown

It’s no secret: cooking at home is the #1 best way to save money (not to mention improve your health)! Yet eating at home can feel expensive and time consuming if you’re surrounded by the wrong recipes. You know, those recipes that make you buy ingredients you’ll only use once, or that call for pricey proteins like shrimp or steak.

Instead, help any budget-minded beginner arm herself with the simplest, most delicious, and affordable recipes she can get her hands on. This IACP award-winning cookbook has been a sensation because it proves that you can eat well on just $4 a day (the U.S. food stamp allotment) without resorting to processed, packaged, nutrition-devoid food.

There’s almost no cookbook collection that wouldn’t benefit from this practical and clever cookbook. But it’s especially one of the best cookbooks for beginners who want to crush their savings goals.

Source: cooksplusbooks.com

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But How Much Are You Reading?

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Listening Up

For me, it’s always a kind of relief to write a piece for Writer Unboxed. That’s because you, Unboxed one, are among the most consistent elements of publishing.

Writers tend to work through the upheavals of the industry by focusing ever more intently on writing. This actually is not the pathway taken by many others in the industry.

As economic and market forces bash and bang up the business, company people (rightly) believe they have a mandate not only to adapt but to innovate, to look for things that will accommodate and/or ameliorate the changing circumstances of a creative industry in profoundly changing times. The industry! The industry!

And so my reporting at Publishing Perspectives and at The Hot Sheet have a lot to do with change: lots of trial and lots more error, fits and startups, big trends that fizzle in under two years, minor fads that flatten everybody’s expectations, and the abiding difficulty that this industry has in understanding itself as part of a major entertainment complex that has overtaken it.

On that last point, it’s not everyone. I love the exceptions: some of publishing’s brightest leaders are working well to associate themselves with studios and other production players to reposition bookish content for survival in a screened landscape.

But another thing I value in the Writer Unboxed community is the authorial viewpoint that, of course, isn’t always factored into industry thinking.

And today, I’d like to “provoke  you,” to use a pleasantly over-strong term, to give me your input on an important distinction that I fear some in the business may be overlooking, and that I’ll bet many in the author corps are not.

Let’s say that there’s a difference in the content and the act: the story and the reception of it.

Heres what I’m on about. As you know, publishing’s shooting star at the moment is audiobooks. Oh, those double-digit gains. The Association of American Publishers just reported that between January and August of this year, downloaded audio was up 37.5 percent over the same period last year, by far the biggest gain in all publishing. And this is being replicated in other world markets we cover.

Audio is hot, hot, hot. (As long as it’s downloaded. Physical audio in the same time-period comparison tanked by 24.6 percent. We don’t need no stinkin’ CDs or cassette tapes, thanks just the same.)

So big is audio that at The FutureBook conference in London in November, my former associates at The Bookseller will be staging a full day of audiobook sessions–there’s an entire audio conference running parallel to the main stream. (And we could have bought stock in headphone makers,  you know.)

As I’m sure I’ve bored you by saying before here, my own pet pleasure in this thing about audio is that in some markets like the UK (but not yet in Canada, we just learned), guys are leading the way in audiobook sales. Yes, guys. Outbuying the women in books. Sounds like another planet, doesn’t it? But it’s true. As long as it’s audio, the guys are in the lead. They don’t like reading, but they like listening, especially while doing other things, surveys show.

But that brings me to my provocation for you today.

Reading Books vs. Consuming Content

Provocations graphic by Liam Walsh

If audiobooks are soaring, and more people (especially those British guys) are reading, this sounds great, right? Your books are being … consumed.

Of course, they’re not quite being read. Except by those saints who are prompted by one medium to turn to another.

Similar effect in film and television series, of course. PBS recently aired the all-too-short BBC/Masterpiece production based on Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist. Granted, some viewers will be tempted to get the book. We have to assume, however, that they’re in the minority.

And as studio work becomes better–as even those audiobooks get better–what’s happening to reading.

My irritating question for you: are you reading as much as you used to?

Let’s make a few assumptions, to try to clear the table of a bit of understandable and natural clutter.

  • Writers don’t always get to read as much as they like because they’re busy writing. It was ever thus, that’s perfectly okay.
  • Writers also tend to become more discerning as their careers progress, so that they may read less but make more exacting choices of what they’d like to read, either to support their own writing or even to support colleagues at times. Also perfectly okay.
  • Writers may also from time to time need to avoid reading. Some find that another writer’s style can become tangled with their own, or another’s good story can sway them from their outlines. Also also perfectly okay.

So those caveats and any others you feel are appropriate are easily taken onboard here, no worries.

But what I think we’re seeing is that writing really is becoming “content,” as much as some may not care for the term. I mean to say by that that your next piece may be read by far fewer than it might have been 10 or even just five years ago. It might be heard by a lot more English blokes at the gym. Or it might be watched on Hulu or Amazon Prime or Netflix or HBO by a lot more people. It might even be murmured by Alexa from a whole lot of Echo devices, right?

But reading? That’s where I’d like your input.

Being writers here, we’re all likely agreed that the act of reading is valuable in many important ways–the cultivation of imagination, the development of concentration capability, the joy and necessity of critical thinking (whatever happened to that?), the marvelous gift of vocabulary expansion, and so on. There’s little need for us to defend the value of reading to each other; other choirs need to hear us preach that one, not us.

But how say you, then? Whither reading? Not books, reading.

By Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson)
Source: writerunboxed.com

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The Top 10 Writing Posts From September 2018

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These were the new Writers Write posts you enjoyed most in September 2018:

  1. 7 Reasons Why Introverts Make Good Writers
  2. Banned Books Week – The 10 Most Challenged Titles Of 2017
  3. 9 Useful Character Questionnaires For Writers
  4. Cheryl Strayed’s Advice For Beginner Writers
  5. 7 Things You Can Do Today To Become A Better Blogger Tomorrow
  6. The AVBOB Poetry Project Year 2
  7. A Magic Trick For Writing
  8. The Top 10 Writing Posts From August 2018
  9. 10 Things William Faulkner Had To Say About Writing
  10. 5 Storytelling Software Options For Busy Writers

 

Previous Posts

Source: writerswrite.co.za

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Your Book Isn’t for Everyone

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Think for a moment about your work in progress. How should your book be marketed? What kind of reader do you want to attract? Who is your book for?

Why, it’s for everyone! you exclaim.

After all, who wouldn’t want to read your fabulous plot, compelling characters, and engaging writing voice? Perhaps a few doltish persons on the fringe, but anyone with good sense and a love of good story would like your book.

Sorry, but nope.

Some people won’t want to read your book. In fact, some people might hate your book. And that’s a worthwhile reality to consider when we writers send our manuscripts into contests, open ourselves to outside critique, and read through reviews. Sometimes you’ll get feedback that you can simply shrug off with, “My book wasn’t for them.”

It isn’t personal (even though the comment might sting), but rather a mismatch between author and reader. We simply can’t write a story that every single person will adore. Your book, and my book, is not for everyone.

Yet that simply puts us in good company. I like to turn to the world of authors and see what wisdom they can offer. Check out these reviews, followed by the book that sparked them.

“…no more than a glorified anecdote, and not too probable at that…” – The Chicago Tribune

“…an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life.” – The Saturday Review

THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald

“…no better in tone than the dime novels which flood the blood-and-thunder reading population… his literary skill is, of course, superior, but their moral level is low, and their perusal cannot be anything less than harmful.” — in The New York Times

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain

“The book as a whole is disappointing, and not merely because it is a reworking of a theme that one begins to suspect must obsess the author. [The main character] who tells his own story, is an extraordinary portrait, but there is too much of him.” – The New Republic

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, J.D. Salinger

“These are one-dimensional children’s books, Disney cartoons written in words, no more.” – The Guardian

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE, J.K. Rowling

“How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery.” – Graham’s Lady’s Magazine

WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Emily Bronte

“the plan and technique of the illustrations are superb. … But they may well prove frightening, accompanied as they are by a pointless and confusing story.” — Publisher’s Weekly

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, Maurice Sendak

But you know what? Just take that last one. Sendak didn’t write this book for everyone. It found its way into the hearts of children, of all ages, over the years.

Here’s how the Library Journal described it: “This is the kind of story that many adults will question and for many reasons, but the child will accept it wisely and without inhibition, as he knows it is written for him.”

Knowing who your book is for can help you figure out how to distribute and market it to the right audience, as well as how to handle the negative reviews that inevitably come in. When that happens, remind yourself that you’re in the same circle with the likes of Twain, Rowling, and Bronte. Not such a bad place to find yourself.

By Julie Glover
Source: writersinthestormblog.com

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The 3 Secrets to Addictive Fiction

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In today’s unbelievably competitive industry, how can you make your fiction the best?

Addict your reader.

Make reading your stories and novels an addictive experience. The reader who is addicted to your writing will plunge into your fiction and then fight to stay there forever.

But how can you addict your reader to your stories?

Use the secrets that all great authors have used throughout the ages to give the reader exactly what they want. There are literally thousands of these secrets, but in my work as an independent editor I have prioritized them and categorized them into the simplest possible arrangement—three basic categories.

I teach fiction through its three aspects:

1. character
2. plot
3. prose

However, beyond than that, I teach the secrets to making these three aspects addictive:

1. unforgettable character
2. inescapable plot
3. mesmerizing prose

 

Secret #1 Unforgettable Character

The most fundamental truism of fiction is that all great plot grows out of character.

You can design any type of plot you like. However, if it’s not grounded in the character of your protagonist, it will be nothing but a mish-mash of events from which the reader can disengage at any time and walk away.

On the other hand, you can design almost no plot at all, and if it’s grown entirely from the character of your protagonist, the reader will not only be addicted to your work, they’ll convince all their friends and relatives to become addicted as well.

Ask yourself:

How did James Bond become a cultural icon, although his plots are repetitive and he must frequently be rescued by a young woman he’s just met? What made Agatha Christie a phenomenon of her genre, although her mysteries so often hinge on her villains’ implausible acting skills and even authorial cheating? Why do we still love Cathy and Heathcliff, although Wuthering Heights is so bizarrely organized and consists almost entirely of a laundry list of inhuman behavior?

Because Bond, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Cathy and Heathcliff are the unforgettable characters from which their plots grow.

This means that character is where we always start.

So how do we make this character unforgettable? That work is based upon the character’s conflicting internal needs. These needs must be internal or they won’t be powerful enough to fuel an entire novel. They must conflict, or there won’t be any climax to this story. And they can be explored most effectively through the three basic human needs: love, survival and justice.

There’s a lot to discuss about a protagonist’s conflicting internal needs. And I’ll teach you all about them in my 2nd guest post for Write to Done: The 2 Steps to Creating Unforgettable Character.

Secret #2 Inescapable Plot

Now what is this unforgettable character going to do?

A story—short fiction or novel—is, at its most fundamental, simply an opportunity for the reader to spend time with your unforgettable character. To make friends with them. To bond. To allow this character to become a part of their life.

This means you must design a plot that gives the freest possible reins to the protagonist’s character—exploring it, exposing it, delving into it to reveal its most intriguing and hidden facets.

The paperback genre industry of the early 20th century can teach us everything we need to know about how to design plot. Those authors cranked out their genre novels regularly and reliably, treating fiction as a day job to which they showed up and worked five days a week, 45-50 weeks of the year.

What do readers get out of genre fiction?

A plot that hooks them quickly, takes them for a thrilling whirl, then throws them off a cliff.

This is rooted in our human addiction to things that come in threes: the simplest construct that exists that also retains a crucial layer of complexity.

And this is why I teach three-act structure: Hook, Development, Climax.

Within these three acts, we can refine our design based upon the importance of climax. Each act has a unique purpose, to which we can devote a full half of that act. And each act also needs a climax, to which we can devote the other full half of that act. That’s how important climax is.

Once we have these six structural pieces, we can refine our design even further by breaking each piece into six more pieces. In this way, we can quickly and easily design a plot of 36 pieces along a specific pattern.

I call this holographic design.

The reader has already unconsciously adopted this pattern through the reading of their first great story. It’s what they expect. Because it’s great storytelling. And, through proper design, it’s what we can regularly, reliably give them.

But how do we turn this simple design into a rollercoaster ride, one that will keep the reader addicted on every single page? There’s a counter-intuitive trick to this that gives your plot the essential contrast that throws your entire design into three-dimensional relief, gripping your reader, meeting their unconscious expectations, and making your plot inescapable.

I’ll teach you all about this in detail in my 3rd guest post for Write to Done: The 4 Steps to Designing Inescapable Plot.

Secret #3 Mesmerizing Prose

Finally there is the writing of this character-grown plot.

How do you turn a brilliant, well-developed idea into a novel of some 70,000-100,000 words—a novel that the reader can’t forget, can’t escape, can hardly put down even for a minute? Because 70,000-100,000 are a whole lot of words. And the reader has a life to live.

How do you write a novel that’s mesmerizing? One to which the reader is addicted?

You’ll hear a lot in the writing community these days about how to make time to write, how to write faster and more efficiently, how to get your manuscript finished. This advice is mostly about time management, on the assumption that your life is not set up for endless hours in front of the keyboard. However, focusing upon time management misses a crucial element of writing: you write because you love to.

Truly, if writing is not the one thing you love to do above all else, then go find out what is and do that. Life is too short for wasting on doing things you don’t love.

And if writing is the one thing you love to do above all else, then you don’t need time management. You need stamina. You need to stay in touch with your passion. You need, especially, to know what you’re doing.

Only through a combination of your passion and an understanding of your work can you make your time at the keyboard as productive as humanly possible. Only in this way can you produce manuscripts full of life, while also devoting yourself to the life that is your own.

Your first goal, of course, is to get a draft written. But there are tricks to the efficient writing of a first draft. And there are certainly techniques to editing that draft into polished prose.

I’ve developed a set of guidelines that I use for writing quick first drafts and then turning my clients’ drafts into powerful professional prose. And I often teach my clients these guidelines. Of course, I never teach them all—those are my trade secrets. But I learned them all from the published works of great authors. And you can too.

All you have to do is study in-depth hundreds novels line-by-line and practice for thousands of hours in order to discover what makes writing clear, strong, and vivid. Mesmerizing.

To which authors and stories are you addicted? Why?

By Victoria Mixon
Source: writetodone.com

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The Halo Effect: Your Readers are Applying it

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So the hero in my latest release has a few unlikeable traits (as in, pretty unethical and unsavoury behaviours), which would be fine in some genres, but not so much in romance. I realised that if I was going to have an online stalker who has come to some pretty dark conclusions about humanity, I needed to address this fairly early on in the book if I wanted my readers to fall in love with him alongside my heroine. Actually, if I wanted them to read past the second chapter!

I decided on the strategy I was going to use, but I began to reflect on the psychology behind Blake Snyder’s famous tactic. The tactic (which some of you would have guessed by now) we’ll discuss shortly; the science behind is the bit we’re going to delve into first, and it’s called the ‘halo effect.’

The halo effect

The halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about his or her character. Essentially, your overall impression of a person (“Gosh, he’s nice!”) impacts your evaluations of that person’s specific traits (“He’s probably also smart!”). We assume that because Johnny is good at A, then he must be good at B, C, and D. Conversely, it also works the other way (called the horn effect); if Danny is bad at A, then he must be bad at B, C, and D.

 

Psychologist Edward Thorndike first coined the term in 1920. Thorndike asked commanding officers in the military to evaluate a variety of qualities in their soldiers. These characteristics included such things as leadership, physical appearance, intelligence, loyalty, and dependability. He found that high ratings of a particular quality correlated to high ratings of other characteristics, while negative ratings of a specific quality also led to lower ratings of other characteristics. Soldiers were far more likely to be assessed as good in all areas or bad in all areas, even when there was no obvious correlation between the traits.

So yes, first impressions count out in the real world (which means they also do in your story).

Check out these other examples of the halo effect:

  • We tend to perceive celebrities as attractive and successful, meaning we also tend to see them as intelligent and funny.
  • Teachers are subject to the halo effect when evaluating their students. A teacher who sees a well-behaved student might tend to assume this student is also bright, diligent, and engaged (it’s actually how I see many students slip through the cracks in our educational system).
  • The halo effect can also impact how students perceive teachers. In one study, researchers found that when an instructor was viewed as warm and friendly, students also rated him as more attractive, appealing, and likable (I’m glad I made it a point to smile at my students during my teaching years!).
  • In the work setting, the halo effect is most likely to show up in a supervisor’s appraisal of a subordinate. In fact, the halo effect is probably the most common bias in performance appraisal. The supervisor may give prominence to a single characteristic of the employee, such as enthusiasm, and allow the entire evaluation to be coloured by how he or she judges the employee on that one characteristic. The employee could have areas they have yet to achieve competence in, but if they show enthusiasm, the supervisor may very well give them a higher performance rating than is justified.
  • Marketers take advantage of the halo effect to sell products and services. The iPod is a great example—a popular product, it functioned as a great launching pad for the iPhone.

What’s more, researchers have found that attractiveness is a factor that can be influential in the halo effect. The truth is, we tend to rate attractive people more favourably for their personality traits than those who are less attractive. Several different studies have found that when we rate people as good-looking, we also tend to believe that they have positive personality traits and that they are more intelligent. If a prospective employer views an application as attractive, they are more likely to rate the individual as intelligent, competent, and qualified (and no, that’s not fair). What’s more, one study even found that jurors were less likely to believe that attractive people were guilty of criminal behaviour (so crime writers out there—consider making your murderer attractive if you’re looking for them to get away with it).

Harnessing the halo effect in your story

Deliberate use of the halo effect can be a powerful writers tool. The idea is to create the impression you want the reader to build upon early on. If you’re looking to create a good impression, you can do this by showing your character as funny or smart, and possibly attractive. Your readers brain will extrapolate from there without even realising it. My character was certainly smart, and the reader got that sense from his hacking knowledge and sharp dialogue. And yes, he’s good looking, but he’s also significantly scarred. Capturing a romance reader in this scenario was going to be a challenge.

The literary device that I used was Save the Cat; a term coined by the late Blake Snyder—a scene relatively early in the story where the reader meets the hero and he/she does something ‘nice.’ Often it will have a heroic flavour, like oh, saving a cat. If that action has enough emotional impact, your reader will start making generalisations about the character’s other personality traits.

In my particular scene, chapter two in fact, we’re introduced to Erik, who is stalking his peers online without them knowing of his existence. What’s more, the reader realises he’s been doing this for some time, and he does not have a very high opinion of humanity. By the end of the scene he also saves one of said peers from being blackmailed by his brother.

On the other side of the coin, you have the ‘kick the dog’ scene. If you want to create a first impression of your villain, then have them commit some act of unpleasantness. If a villain is kicking a dog in chapter two, my brain is going to put two and two together and conclude this dude isn’t very nice in other areas of his life. It’s fascinating that this cognitive shortcut happens outside of my awareness will set up my expectations for the remainder of the book.

The cool bit is that this allows you, the author, to either confirm these suspicions, or blow them off the page.

Source: psychwriter.com.au

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How to Captivate Hurried Readers with a Magic Opening Line

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Can I skip the opening sentence for this post?

Pleeeease?

Let’s say you skip reading the first few sentences and start with the fourth?

Or fifth?

I don’t like the pressure of writing a first sentence.

What if I fail to engage readers? What if I’m boring them? What if I’ve wasted my time on this article because my first line sucks?

The task of writing a first sentence can paralyze even the most acclaimed writers. In an interview with the Atlantic, Stephen King admits he can spend months, or even years, on writing the opening lines for a new book.

Sounds crazy, right?

As business writers, we don’t have the luxury of time. We have other things to do than worrying about one line of text.

So what can we do?

Let me share with you a trick for writing a first sentence super-fast. But first, let’s define what a good opening line is.

Okay?

An outrageously good opening sentence

This is how the novel “Nervous Conditions” by Tsitsi Dangarembga starts:

I was not sorry when my brother died.

Why is this sentence good?

It entices you to read on.

That first sentence creates drama because it instantly raises two compelling questions in readers’ minds: Why did the brother die? And why was the author not sorry? A reader reads on because he wants to find out the answers to these two questions.

Stephen King says it like this:

An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.

One of the most famous opening lines

This is how “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger starts:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

This famous opening line is 63 words long.

Is such a long sentence a good idea?

Ben Blatt analyzed what makes a good novel great, and he also reviewed first sentences. His conclusions are not clear cut, as he summarizes in his book “Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve:”

The first sentence is only as popular as the rest of the book, and brevity alone will not make a first sentence great.

Our literary heroes may write lengthy first sentences.

But when writing for the web, we need to remember our readers. They’re not curled up on a comfy sofa with a book and a glass of Rioja. They’re hurrying across the web, searching for interesting articles to read and share. Who has the patience to start reading a block of text?

So, instead of following J.D. Salinger’s 63-word mammoth sentence, take your cue from Toni Morrison, the master of short first sentences, like this one from “Tar Baby:”

He believed he was safe.

From “Paradise:”

They shoot the white girl first.

From “God Help the Child:”

It’s not my fault.

Each of these sentences makes you curious to read on.

Your first sentence has two purposes. First, get people to read your first sentence—a short sentence works better because it’s easy to read. Then, make sure they want to read your second sentence.

The worst opening lines

Ben Blatt quotes the opening line of the book “Paul Clifford” by Edward Bulwer-Lytton as one of the most ridiculed opening lines ever:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Not only is that sentence awfully long, its worst crime is that nothing happens. Nothing grabs attention. Nothing makes me curious. It’s simply a description of the weather. So what?

Of course, in business we rarely write about the weather, but you may have come across similar opening lines that fail to whet your appetite for reading more. For instance:

Many ways exist to choose your words.

As you know, Rome wasn’t built in one day.

In business, you have to take risks.

Duh!

The above opening lines may be short, but they’re obvious statements, killing readers’ interest. There’s no incentive to read on.

A little-known shortcut for web writers

Getting nervous about writing a good first sentence?

No need for nerves, when you know this blog writing trick …

Unlike novels, a blog post is often a conversation with our readers. And what easier way to engage readers than asking them a question?

A few examples:

Do you hear that nagging voice, too? (source)

Do you ever feel a pang of envy? (source)

Has it happened to you, too? (source)

In a face-to-face meeting, you often start a conversation with a question, like: Cup of tea? How did your meeting go? Or: How’s business?

Why not do the same in your writing?

The one magic opening line doesn’t exist

So, no need to search for it anxiously.

Instead, remember your reader.

Imagine him hurrying across the web. He’s feeling restless. He’s impatient because he’s been wasting his time reading lousy blog posts.

How can you engage him? How can you make him read your first sentence? And then the next?

A good writer draws a reader in, and doesn’t let him go until the last word.

By Henneke
Source: enchantingmarketing.com

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10 Cliffhangers That Make Readers Turn The Page

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Have you read a book you feel compelled to carry on reading? You know the kind of book I’m talking about. You read it past your bedtime and during your lunch breaks. You read it because you want to not only know what happens next, but you also wonder what is really going on.

Chances are the author is using a series of cliffhangers to keep you interested.

What Is A Cliffhanger?

According to Oxford Dictionaries it is ‘a dramatic and exciting ending to an episode of a serial, leaving the audience in suspense and anxious not to miss the next episode’.

The term itself originated with a Thomas Hardy serial when one of his protagonists, Henry Knight, was left hanging off a cliff.

Writers use cliffhangers as a literary device at the end of scenes, chapters, and books. These end without the questions raised being resolved. The reader has to carry on reading to find out what happens.

The History Of Cliffhangers

One of the most famous examples of using cliffhangers can be found in One Thousand and One Nights. Scheherazade tells a series of stories to the king for 1,001 nights, ending each on a cliffhanger, to save herself from execution.

They were also an important element of Victorian serial novels, including those by Charles Dickens, a pioneer of the serial publication of narrative fiction.

Television series are notorious for ending seasons on major cliffhangers. The most famous example was the ‘Who Shot JR Ewing?’ ending in Dallas.

Today

Modern writers are using this device more often because readers can easily be tempted away from books. Instead of ending each scene satisfactorily, it has become quite commonly used to prolong suspense.

Cliffhangers are the clickbait that get the reader to turn the page. James Patterson has used this technique successfully using short chapters that end without major resolutions.

Here are 10 ideas for cliffhangers:

1. An Unanswered Question

This is the most common cliffhanger. Ask a provocative question or make sure that the one that started the scene is still unanswered.

2. A Loss

The loss can be physical or emotional. It can be a tangible thing or a relationship, but try to make it something that the protagonist thinks he or she can’t do without.

3. Dangle A Carrot

Show the character that something he or she wants desperately is there, but out of reach.

4. A Glimmer Of Hope

A pronouncement is made that something something that is needed, new, different, or exciting will happen soon.

5. A Physical Threat

Put the character, or somebody that he or she loves in immediate danger. If you have created empathy between your readers and your character, they have to carry on reading.

6. A Sense Of Foreboding

Use foreshadowing and body language. Use signs and symbols. Let your characters know that they will be going off into a dangerous place or a risky situation.

7. A Ticking Clock

End with a sense of urgency. A deadline has to be met.

8. An Accident

This can be a physical accident or a slip of the tongue. Set off an alarm. Reveal a secret. Break a leg.

9. Unexpected News

This includes any important information, or even a person, that shows up unexpectedly. End a scene with the protagonist receiving devastating news

10. An Unmade Decision

A character has a decision that needs to be made.

By Amanda Patterson
Source: writerswrite.co.za

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In the time you spend on social media each year, you could read 200 books

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Somebody once asked Warren Buffett about his secret to success. Buffett pointed to a stack of books and said,

Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will…

When I first found this quote of Buffett’s two years ago, something was wrong.

It was Dec. 2014. I’d found my dream job. Some days, I would be there, sitting at my dream job, and I would think, “My god what if I’m still here in 40 years? I don’t want to die like this…”

Something wasn’t right. I’d followed the prescription. Good grades. Leadership. Recommendations. College. Dream Job. I was a winner. I’d finished the race. Here I was in the land of dreams. But something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Every day, from my dream job desk, I looked out into their eyes. Empty, empty eyes.

There were no answers.

In January of 2015, I found Buffett’s quote. I decided to read. I was going to read and read and read and never stop until I got some damn answers.

I didn’t quite make 500 pages a day, but, in these last two years, I’ve read over 400 books cover to cover. That decision to start reading was one of the most important decisions in my life.

Books gave me the courage to travel. Books gave me the conviction to quit my job. Books gave me role models and heroes and meaning in a world where I had none.

I want to say reading 200 books a year is an amazing thing. But the truth is, it’s not. Anybody can do it.

All it takes is some simple math and the right tools.

1. Do not quit before you start

When average Joe hears the advice “Read 500 pages like this every day,” his snap reaction is to say, “No way! That’s impossible!”

Joe will then go on to make up reasons to justify his belief without doing any deep thinking at all. These might include “I’m too busy,” “I’m not smart enough,” or “Books just aren’t for me.”

But what if we go a little deeper? For example, what does it actually take to read 200 books a year? Two years ago, I stopped to do the simple math. Here’s what I found: Reading 200 books a year isn’t hard at all.

It’s just like Buffett says. Anyone can do it, but most people won’t.

2. Do the simple math

How much time does it take to read 200 books a year?

First, let’s look at two quick statistics:

  • The average American reads 200–400 words per minute (Since you’re on Medium, I’m going to assume you read 400 wpm like me)
  • Typical non-fiction books have ~50,000 words

Now, all we need are some quick calculations…

  • 200 books * 50,000 words/book = 10 million words
  • 10 million words/400 wpm = 25,000 minutes
  • 25,000 minutes/60 = 417 hours

That’s all there is to it. To read 200 books, simply spend 417 hours a year reading.

I know, I know. If your brain is like mine, it probably saw “417 hours” and immediately tried to shut off. Most people only work 40 hours a week! How can we possibly read for 417 hours?

Don’t let your monkey brain turn you away yet. Let’s do a quick reframe for what 417 hours really means…

3. Find the time

Wowsers, 417 hours. That sure feels like a lot. But what does 417 hours really mean? Let’s try to get some more perspective.

Here’s how much time a single American spends on social media and TV in a year:

  • 608 hours on social media
  • 1642 hours on TV

Wow. That’s 2250 hours a year spent on TRASH. If those hours were spent reading instead, you could be reading over 1,000 books a year!

Here’s the simple truth behind reading a lot of books: It’s not that hard. We have all the time we need. The scary part—the part we all ignore—is that we are too addicted, too weak, and too distracted to do what we all know is important…

All it takes to start reading a lot more is to take “empty time” spent Twitter-stalking celebrities or watching Desperate Housewives and convert some of it to reading time.

The theory is simple. It’s the execution that’s hard.

4. Execute

We all know reading is important. We all know we should do more of it. But we don’t. The main reason this happens is a failure to execute.

I’m not so perfect at it yet, but here are some tactics that have helped me get results.

I. Use environmental design

If you were quitting cocaine, would you keep it lying around the house? Of course not. Media is designed to be addictive. Moving away from media addiction can be as difficult as quitting drugs.

The biggest bang-for-buck changes here are environmental.

If you want to read, make sure (1) you remove all distractions from your environment and (2) you make books as easy to access as possible.

As an example, here’s my immediate environment:

from original
(Charles Chu)

I travel a lot. That doesn’t stop me from reading. The picture on the left is of my “bookshelf” in Thailand. I try to keep books everywhere so I can just pick one up and start reading.

The picture on the right is my smartphone desktop. Notice there are only two apps. One of them—the Kindle app—is for reading. The other is for habits… Which brings me to my next point.

II. Upload habits

Willpower is not a good tool for lifestyle change. It always fails you when you need it most. Instead of relying on strength of mind, build a fortress of habits—these are what will keep you resilient in tough times.

If you’re not familiar with habit science, my favorite book on the subject is Tynan’s Superhuman by Habit. It’s infinitely practical, and practical is all I care about.

Getting good at habit formation took me years. Many of the mistakes I made were avoidable. If I could go back, I’d find a habit coach. Here’s how I see it. One game-changing idea from a good book is worth thousands of dollars. If a coach helps you read ONE more good book a year, you already get your money’s worth.

(A shout out to Cherry Jeffs and Nathan Sudds, two coaches who have helped me out a lot.)

III. Go multi-medium

When it comes to reading, be a jack of all trades, not a specialist.

If your goal is to read more, you can’t be picky about where you read or what mediums you use. I read paper books. I read on my phone. I listen to audiobooks. And I do these things everywhere—on park benches, in buses, in the toilet… Wherever I can.

Make your reading opportunistic. If you have a chance, take it. If you don’t have a chance, find one.

I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.

— Orhan Pamuk

If I hadn’t started reading, perhaps I’d still be at my dream job. Perhaps I’d still be at my desk, taking peeks at the clock and wondering if that was how I was going to die…

If you’re looking for answers, give reading a try. You may find much, much more than what you were looking for.

Source: qz.com

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