Day 14 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Creating Expectations

 

DAY 14

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

Amy xo

LAY IT ON THE TABLE (Yep, that’s a cliche)

Ray Bradbury said, “Get to the big truth first.”

Kurt Vonnegut said, “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”

I have interpreted all of this to mean — set an expectation for your reader as soon as you can. You don’t have to give away all the juicy bits or secrets (sorry, Mr. Vonnegut) but whatever you write first should lead the reader down the path to finding them out. The reader won’t know how they’ll get there, or even why. And the beauty of your book will come with those details.

This kind of (ok, not kind of) circles to backstory and where novels start, which I’ll touch on this week.

Happy Sunday! I’m off to brunch with my college pals. (Any coincidence I have old friends as part of my novel?)

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Amy xo

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