WA? What's that?

Anyway, this week's Weekly Update is to write for the theme of--

We're all going to write about fish!

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8D

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In all seriousness--It's the aspiring writer's dream to, you guessed it, write a book and actually get it published. Well, the first step in the actual writing process to do so is to hook your reader. As fast as possible. Whether it's the agent who's going to get your book published and out in public, your best friend, a complete stranger in Indonesia, or your mom. The hook is the first few pages (or even page, or paragraph, or sentence) of the book that really makes the reader hungry for more. It makes them so intrigued, or shocked, or awed that they literally cannot put the book down until they've consumed their fill. Some of you might think you're really not all that great at absorbing readers that much, but I claim it's not that hard--all you gotta do is have a creative enough imagination, and be bale to impress the reader sufficiently, which is possible i you can hold a pencil in your hands and know the English language (or another one, for that matter).

Weekly Tips

[submitted by Rising Moon]--I don't care what story you're writing, who the author is, and how the plot plays out--every single decent story is set in motion once the main char's world is in some way disturbed. To name a few you guys all probably know--Harry Potter finds out he's a wizard, that he's leaving civilization for a school of strangers, and that his parents were killed by a focal villain of the story. Luke Skywalker's rural life on a desert planet is disturbed when he finds out he's going to join a scale of literally universal proportions (ironically, same thing with his father, if you wanna start from Episode I). Percy Jackson finds out he's the son of a freakin' god, and is integrated into an isolated culture he didn't even know existed. Bobby Pendragon was tossed into a foreign world and an alien war. At the same time.

You get the picture. Here's the equation--Disturbance in main char's world=Intrigue for the writer=Motivation for the writer=Energy for the writer=Reader's absorption in the story.

[submitted by Rising Moon]--Backstory isn't necessarily a bad thing, when ya do it right--but save it for later. People are bored when the book begins like that, because a hook speaks for the rest of your book; if it starts boring, it'll go on like that. Even if it's not actually true, it gives off that illusion to the reader, and chances are they won't get very far before they drop the book. Be exciting. Disturb, disturb, disturb.