Write right, Wright p.4: "Keep It Interesting"

"Drama is real life with the boring parts taken out." -- Alfred Hitchcock

"Try not to write the parts that readers tend to skip." -- Elmore Leonard

Every chapter, every paragraph, every word should have a purpose. Every choice an author makes should serve the function of furthering the story. Before you write something (or you're editing a draft), ask yourself what is it accomplishing.

There is only one hard and fast rule in writing fiction: Don't Be Boring. Any other rule can be broken, but if you fail to entertain or engage the reader then you have failed as a writer. I would say every scene in your book needs to accomplish one of same three aspects seen in the Three Act structure. Namely, any given scene should introduce something, complicate something or resolve something.

I'm continuing to struggle with the opening chapter of my second novel. I know, in a general sense, everything that will happen in the book, but I am far less certain on how to present it than I was with the first book.

The first one was fairly well thought out in my head as I had spent years coming up with the story. The second and third parts of the series are far less concrete. Don't misunderstand me, I know where it is all going, but I don't have specific scenes thought up except for a couple of action set pieces.

So here I am this summer trying to get the second book off the ground, but the above quotes from Hitchcock and Leonard keep haunting me whenever I read back over I've written. I've taken two shots at it so far and they both seem wordy. I want to start the book off as exciting as possible and still convey the vital story information, but I think it's bogging down.

If I can just get the characters out of the starting gate then I think the rest will start to flow a little easier.

We'll see.