Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- paper and pencil
- computer or typewriter
Step1
Hook your readers and make them curious. Begin by provoking their interest. Reveal a secret, create a mystery, start a plot line. But be sure that whatever your hook it has consequences later in your story.
Step2
Start in the middle, never at the beginning. Your character should be in the action as the chapter opens. And end each chapter before you get to the end. Make your reader want to know what happens next.
Step3
Leave questions unanswered at the end of the chapter. You can answer these in the next chapter or at the end of the book.
Step4
Keep reminding your reader about the problem your character is facing and what the stakes are. The goal he or she is striving for should always be just out of reach.
Step5
What happens next should always be inevitable, but never predictable. The reader may be surprised, but not feel cheated.