I recently met New York Times Bestselling Author C.J. Box, and one of the things he told me is something I have felt and struggled with for a long time.  His comment was that you have to really work on that first line of your book.  Make it have punch and really grab the reader.  It has to hook the reader in so they don’t find something more interesting or entertaining to occupy their time.  He gave me a few examples, and while I whole-heartedly agree with him, I can see where the difficulty in doing them in your book can be a struggle.  I also give my readers more credit than he does and think that your hook can certainly be several sentences into the book, but it still has to be there.  And more than anything, your first chapter is extremely critical in developing the interest level in your reader and creating a hook to turn the page to the next chapter.

So here is your assignment, grab any dozen books and read the first line or two.  Then grab one of C.J. Box’s books and read his first lines.  Tell me the difference it makes to you as a reader and see what I mean.  Maybe all the books you choose use this technique well, but I bet you’ll see a difference.

One of the things that makes fiction writing readable is good dialogue, yet many beginning writers make the fatal mistake of not taking the time to work on developing this vital part of good fiction.

I guess it’s because we’ve spent so many years doing term papers and essays that we get ingrained with the idea that we aren’t to have any voice in our narrative but our own.  Obviously, in schoolwork that makes a lot of sense.  Still, even in schoolwork you will wind up quoting what someone else says not only for variety and emphasis, but because you don’t want to be accused of plagiarism.  Dialogue in fiction makes even more sense to use.

Think of it this way.  Which would you prefer, to watch the chess men move on the board in a game, or sit there and hear the players tell you what they would do for an entire game without ever moving even the first pawn?  Can you imagine actors in a play coming on the stage and telling you what they are going to do without acting it out?  Sure, your complex narrative is needed to move the story along, but most essentially it sets the place and the imagery needed for the story and some of the movement.  The rest of the story needs to be peeled away in layers by the dialogue to let the reader discover the elements that move your tale along for themselves. 

The other essence of dialogue that writers need to pay particular attention to is making it real.  The most often seen mistakes are dialogue that is stilted or even overly formal and complete.  People rarely talk that way.  Sentences are partial and often interrupted even by the speakers themselves.  I’ve found it most useful to actually say aloud what my characters will say on the page and let my ear tell me “is this real, is this how someone talks.”  You’ll be surprised how well it works.  Just be careful you don’t overdo with accents, jargon, and dialect touches.  Some can be useful, but when overdone it can bog the reader down and make your writing difficult to understand.  Remember, you are introducing them to a new world that they might not be familiar with, so terms or phrases you use may need to be made clearer than you think.

Don’t show the story, let your characters tell it!