Introductions
Okay, so introductions tell you a lot about a story. It shows you the first glimpse of the character(s) but it also shows the authors writing style.
#1 Spellcheck!
Spellchecking is a must. Nobody is going to want to continue to read your story if you misspell simple words like ‘because’.
#2 Don’t start with “Alarm Clock”
Why? Well, not only is it overused (which therefore makes it boring) nobody wants to read about how a character wakes up in the morning, does their business and drinks a glass of orange juice. Especially not in the beginning of a book!
#3 “Hi, I’m Cathy. I’m eighteen, blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect curves. Too bad I’m picked on for being ugly”
Yeah, no. Not only have you just described your character as being beautiful and then called her ugly, you make it boring. This isn’t a fact file. You don’t TELL US about the characters, we learn about them as we read. For example:
‘I sigh as I twist my blonde hair into a bun.’
That’s an improvement from your boring fact file (also it shows you’ve put more effort into it).
#4 Don’t give everything away
If you’re writing a book, please explain to me while you would explain everything in the FIRST CHAPTER? What’s the point of writing a book, when you only need to read the first chapter? There isn’t.
Don’t go, ‘My mum is a drunk. So I ran away from home and found myself stuck with a weird possessive alpha (who is my mate) and then I thought everything was perfect and then my dad found me and tried to take me away (turned out he was a werewolf too!!!!!!) and it caused a fight between our packs. We won and now I’m pregnant with my fifth child.’
Clap to the idiot that just gave away their whole story.
# Some other tips
- Okay, so if you’re writing some great story with some magnificent history, you don’t need to spend a whole chapter (or 10) telling us the WHOLE history. Just tell us what’s relevant at the time. The rest of the history we should learn as the book (or books) progress.
- Don’t use slang. It looks messy and gives people the impression that you’re lazy.
