There’s a very simple and straightforward technique you can use to start your book, fiction or non-fiction, in the most powerful way possible. When you understand the strategy, and when you understand the technique, you’ll never be at a loss for starting your book, any book, in a way that gives you all the advantages you could want.
How you start your book is essential for three very important reasons:
The first and probably the most important, is that’s it’s an easy way to get the agent or the publisher hooked on your book. If you know what you’re doing, then your manuscript literally becomes glued to their hands and they can’t put it down. That means you’ve just beaten out about 95% of all the other manuscripts that are out there right now.
The second reason is for the general reader. You know how you select a book. You don’t browse through the middle two chapters and then make the decision. You look at the beginning first, and then you might take a look at the other chapters as you stand there in the book store.
But you won’t move on to those secondary chapters unless the start of the book hooks you and glues the book to your hands.
The third reason is for you and you alone. If you write a powerful enough start to your book, you yourself become hooked. You’ve got to continue writing because the start of your book is so powerful you’ve got to see where this is going to lead. It becomes a very powerful motivating factor for you.
So let’s start with your work of fiction. You’re writing a novel. The beginning, the very start of your book, must be so compelling, so riveting, the reader is literally forced to find out what happens next. You’ve heated the element of curiosity to such a high temperature that the reader literally has no choice. They must move on to the next chapter of the book.
Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD, “How to Write a Book On Anything in 14 Days Guaranteed!” then you’re just plain nuts! It’s free, no charge, but you can bet this $100 CD will be carrying that price tag very shortly. How do you get it? Just email me at Free CD, Please, or CD_please@writeabooknow.com and make sure you include your name, your mailing address and your telephone number in the email. Now, back to the article…
If your book is a thriller, I strongly suggest a murder. And throw in as many non-sequitors as you can imagine. Here’s what I mean. The victim of the murder is a religious person, or a lovely old maiden aunt, or the host of a children’s television show, or a just about anyone who you wouldn’t expect to get murdered in the normal course of events. You’ve got only one objective in mind, to really feed the flames of curiosity. Nothing else. Don’t kill a child, or a lovely young co-ed. You want someone who’s death is completely out in left field. You don’t want to create hate, you want to create curiosity.
Have them die in a very violent way, by a person who appears, but is totally unidentifiable. By the way, the murderer will not appear in the next chapter or the chapter after that. Remember, you want to keep that element of curiosity going.
By the time the reader finishes the start of the book, which may be only a page or two (it’s seldom anywhere near the length of a regular chapter) they want to know why that person died, who killed them, what was the motive, and how did all this come about..
The reader has been given a series of elements, each causing still more curiosity.
By the way, those answers don’t come about until the end of the book.
Are you writing non-fiction? Then the same rules apply. Start by showing the reader what they’ll get if they follow the instructions in the book, but also what they’ll end up with if they don’t. Describe the large sums of money they’ll have the adoration they’ll receive the compliments that will be headed their way. But also the devastation if they stray from the path. How do they get all those rewards? Well, that’s for the rest of the book.
You see, the beginning of the book is really a sales letter for the book. You’re telling the reader, directly or indirectly what excitement or benefit they’ll be deriving if they simply press on and take a look at the next chapter.
The reality of the start of the book is simple. Someone is standing in the middle of the bookstore with your book in hand (and thousands of competing books all around them). Your job is to sell your book to this reader immediately.
You can even determine if you’ve done the job right. After you’ve written the start of your book, ask yourself this one, simple question, “If I had just read this start, would I feel overwhelmingly compelled to buy this book to get the rest of the benefit or excitement that it promises?”
If your answer is yes, you’ve done it right. If you’re doubtful, then take another look at the beginning of your book.
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Cheers,
Steve Manning