Hooking the reader–it’s the author’s goal from the first word to the last. This is why one of the best compliments a reader can give an author is, “I couldn’t put it down.” But how do you accomplish this goal? How do you keep the readers flipping through hundreds of pages? Much is taught about hooking readers […]
Show vs. Tell – A Beautiful Example
We often mention that telling instead of showing is the biggest reason why we reject submitted manuscripts, and we have many articles on the Castle Gate Press website that discuss ways to show rather than tell. Recently, I came across an example of what showing looks like that is so deep and vivid that I just […]
How to draw readers to Christ, gently
C.S. Lewis was one of the great evangelists. He used story to draw people to the faith, stories that showed the spine-tingling presence of God in a way that pulls us in like moths to the flame. As I said in a previous blog post, his prayer for his readers was that “they will fall […]
Five ways to rivet your readers with a first-rate first chapter
Some books draw the reader right in, like a host at an open doorway, and quickly become very hard to put down. Others, not so much. I analyzed two books I find riveting. (While both books had romance stories embedded, neither of these books is in the typical romance genre.) What did the openings of […]
Behind the Scenes – A Research Field Trip
When I started writing my novel, Peril, which includes a number of scenes at NASCAR tracks, I knew very little about auto racing. To give my story the authentic flair necessary to make the setting feel real, I needed to do a considerable amount of research. So I headed to the library, where I checked […]
Writers, more tips for your first page
New writers are often tempted to explain everything at the beginning of a book. It seems to make sense. The reader will want to know where the protagonist comes from, what makes him tick, and so on. So why not just tell him, up front? The problem is that the reader doesn’t care yet about […]