Welcome to A Novel Approach. I hope that what I write within this newsletter inspires you while it helps you write better. In keeping with my penchant for double-meanings, I chose the title of the newsletter because you can interpret it several ways.

Literally, a novel approach is a new approach. I hope this will be a new approach (for you) to learning how to write a novel. I am always on the lookout for new ways to learn to make my own writing better, and I look forward to sharing those methods (and ones I've used in the past) with you.

If you look at it differently, a novel approach can also mean learning to write a novel by approaching it in parts. For instance, I will take the building blocks of novels - plot, character, dialogue, setting, description and such - and try to make them understandable to you. A piece at a time.

After all, a novel is quite an undertaking. It makes it less intimidating and overwhelming to break it into parts. One word at a time, if you will.

The last reason I chose the name is that I thought I might (only might) try to show you parts of one of my novels in progress with "before and after" bits to show you exactly how I improve my novels.

No matter how you look at it, though, I hope these novel writing tips will speed you on your way in writing your own book. Good luck on your journey!

Writing a First Novel Part One:
Creating a Hook

Since I hate the sensation of falling, and I don't like heights, I can't say it's something I'd want to do. But novel writing never felt quite that precarious to me. Even the first time out.

That doesn't mean it wasn't dicey. It is. And it takes both courage and reams of perseverance to get from beginning to end.

I hope this series I'm beginning today will help you through writing your first novel. Or your fifth or tenth. We'll start at the beginning with creating a hook.


By Hook or by Crook

In order to keep your readers reading past Page 1, you have to engage their curiosity. It may be morbid curiosity, but it still needs to be piqued, or you won't have any readers.

How do you do that?

By jumping in feet first, right into the middle of the action.

Here's an example of a decent, but sluggish beginning.

Everyone loves Prince Gavin. And that’s just the problem. No one will admit he’s anything less than perfect. And he does everything he can to keep that image.


Some people really believe the lie. Either through true ignorance or feigned. Some people believe it because they want it to be true. And I can’t blame them.


But I am not one of those people.


Let me introduce myself. I am Anna, daughter of Emma, sorceress of Coralen, Keeper of Argon Cove. Supposedly, I sit in my mountain tower and watch the world go by.


Instead, I’m living on the road. Traveling, alone, in the dead of winter, and pretending I’m not a sorceress. Because if the wrong people find out what I am, they’ll kill me.


And that is how I came to be on the Southwick Road, traveling east, towards Bailanshire, during a snowstorm on the fourth of January, in the year 1009.

Okay, that might gain mild interest. It's told in a "storyteller" sort of manner, which fits the fantasy genre it belongs in.

But despite the introduction of two main players, one good (Anna), one foreshadowed to be bad (Prince Gavin), it's done in such a way that may leave many readers saying, "So what?"

Good question. Let's give them some "what" to care about.

Modern readers are impatient. And easily distracted. So you have to hook them immediately, introducing your main players, good and bad, and the main conflict right up front. You have to "hook those fishies", or you'll starve for readers.

Let's try the same story line a little differently.

I struggled through the knee-deep January snow on Southwick Road, everything I owned strapped to my back. Missing the snowshoes I'd had to trade for food this morning.


The wind slithered through every seam of my cloak. Caked snow on my boot tops seeped through my trousers. The shriveled apple and stale bread from breakfast had long since stopped fueling me.


A gust of wind seemed to howl my name, "A-a-anna-a-a!", as if Prince Gavin's minions could smell my sorcerous essence in the windblown trail I left behind. I knew better than to use any spells to warm myself, no matter how cold it got. Then they would find me.


Prince Gavin the Good. If I'd had spare breath, I would have cackled at the idea. But everyone called him that. Everyone who didn't know what I did.


I slogged on, shivering at the idea he might catch me. I needed to reach Bailanshire by nightfall, or I'd freeze to death and save Prince Gavin the trouble.

Wow, that grabs you, doesn't it? It still conveys the two main players and the conflict, but this time, you're right in Anna's mind, suffering the icy wind with her, shivering at the thought that the "good" prince might find you.

Now you want to know more. Why is Prince Gavin chasing a sorceress? What does she know that no one else seems to?

The reader is no longer saying "so what?" Now he or she is saying, "what next?"

That's a hook.

Take a look at your own novel. Do you drop the readers right into the mire with the protagonist? If not, read ahead and find the place where the action really starts. That's where your book really starts.

Go hook 'em!

Since writing a first novel can feel like you're falling a long ways, here's an appropriate quote.

First you jump off the cliff, and you build wings on the way down. ~ Ray Bradbury