Lesson# 2: Build the introduction.
Series: Be that published novelist who knows the secrets to finish a book
In this whole new series: Be that published novelists who knows the secrets to finish a book:- learn easy tips that are gathered from everyday instances to make them relatable and therefore, easy to grasp and adapt.
If you are ready to begin your second lesson which teaches -how to build the introduction of your book –
-Then read every word of what I’m about to share with you on this topic.
Ask yourself – Do you want to pull your readers from beginning to end in one neat arc?
If yes, then imagine, building up your novel like moving into a new house. Isn’t making your house look its best, similar to writing a book? While decorating the house if you do it well you’ll end up with a comfortable and happy home. Similarly, if you spin the prose well you will manage to get extraordinary out of the ordinary life of your book.
Just as every corner and every nook needs attention in a house similarly every detail, every observation, and every sentence should ring with the clarity of thought and truth in your book.
And just as a guest should feel privileged in your house similarly a reader should feel totally awestruck by the immensely empathetic world you create -so that they draw into your story -believing it.
The key to creating this whirlpool effect in your reader’s mind is to build your introduction well -Yep just that-and then carry that refined style throughout-Yep that way- and you end up having a book that is fantastically readable, warm, and profound.
How to build up that introduction?
First impressions are everything. To involve the reader ” hook them from the very first sentence”. This you must have heard many times, but what does it mean? If you think it means the opening paragraph to start with a long description of the setting to let the reader walk into the scene-then you have got it wrong.
The reader does not learn anything about the story or character.
Readers will keep reading when you make them care about a character and their motivations, hook them by not writing cliches but by showing them a glimpse of the character as to who are they and what they want.
What does the reader need from the start of first paragraph, the first line?
A first paragraph could open up with a mundane activity yet with its pace and details end into an unintended, unforeseen irony thereby enticing the reader. Your first novel can do just that and readers will consider you as a fine writer that is discriminating, compassionate, and surprising.
Like in the first paragraph of her very first novel Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer prize writer, starts with a pregnant woman going through the daily mundane activity of food preparation in her kitchen but the visual detailing in her writing makes the reader realize that the baby is due that very moment, surprising the reader and exciting him/her enough to read on. The book was later converted to an English-language drama film -The Namesake
What to write in the first chapter? Where to begin?
Whatever be your genre a jarring moment, visual or confession that excites him/her to read on and better still jumping right into the main character’s head, a confession of thoughts that carries through the book and does not allow the reader to put the book down is the key.
A suspense novel beginning can be well described by The book- ” I know what you did last summer ” the author Duncan doesn’t mess around -she gets right to the anonymous note by end of the first chapter leaving the reader wanting to know what’s in it?
In case you have read the book “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn then you would know it best describes the opening of a thriller novel, for it pulls the reader right into the character’s mind sending a chill and setting the tone into the coming tension and mystery.-“When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.”.
My feudal lord-an autobiography by Tehmina Durrani is written with such frankness that it shook the foundations of the very society she lived in, only because in this character-driven book, the author made the character admirable.
My own first novel – leads the reader right into the main characters head, where a confession of thoughts are build up in the first chapter itself-
She pulled open the top drawer unit and in it lay that old tin box, she once kept close to her and hidden from the sight of others. She picked it up only to find its lid was ready to fall apart but her letters inside were all safe.
–Babika Goel
The Lost Intimacy: Want Take Have Kindle Edition
So whats the key?
Books can become a masterpiece narrative if you would not wrap yourself too much in the plot but charm the reader with complex twist and turns of human personality adding the right dash of experiences.
Right from Shakespeare plays to the Harry potter series – you would agree be it any genre a true novelist is the creator of characters.
Bought to you by
Babika Goel.
Next, we shall discuss in more depth how to pull your readers from beginning to end in one neat arc. In case you want to incorporate your experiences or feature your book here, please email it at B@authorsonline.in.
To read lesson 1 please click the link –https://www.authorsonline.in/authorsonline-lesson1preface/
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