By
Stephen Puleston
The first
chapter has to grab the reader’s attention. There’s no escaping this fact and
the author can’t give the reader any opportunity to close the book. And keeping
the readers interested is another key task for the author. I worked with an
editor on one of my books who advised me to avoid the ‘25% slump’ – a point at approximately
a quarter of the way through the book where the momentum and pace sags enough
for the reader to close the book. Now I aim to introduce a twist or turn at
this point or something that keeps the reader hooked.
The more I write
the more I plot. This is usually a full plot narrative with the main event,
character arcs and twist and turns included. As I write crime fiction I
generally write a murder schedule too that sets out the motives, suspects and
red herrings for all the deaths. But plotting is one thing and allowing the
characters to take the story in various directions is quite another so quite
often I’ll change the direction or remove/add a character. I keep my chapters reasonably
short and I aim for a ‘cliffhanger’ at the end. It may be a cliché but I want
to keep my readers turning the pages of my novel.
Edit, then edit
again and again. Once the first complete draft is written I then start editing.
This means printing off a scene schedule [old fashioned I know] which has all
the chapters and scenes listed with summaries of the content of each scene. This
gives me the ability to take an overview of the whole book and see what
chapters and scenes can be deleted.
A writer’s favourite command on the
keyboard is the delete key. I have a folder called deleted scenes but although
it’s quite full I have never gone back to it. If you’ve written one good scene
then you can write more that are even better.
Some
basics. I always avoid using adverbs and
keep adjectives to a minimum and if I find myself tempted to use speak
attribution other than ‘she/he said’ I always rewrite. The dialogue should
always carry the meaning – anything else is lazy writing.
Don’t be afraid
of deleting – I often catch myself thinking that I’ve written a great scene.
But then I think what purpose does it serve? If it doesn’t move the plot
forward or tell us something about the character then delete it.
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Stephen
Puleston published the first novel in a series featuring Inspector Drake based
in North Wales and also the first in a series with Inspector John Marco based
in Cardiff. The first Drake mystery is called BRASS IN POCKET (currently free on Amazon) and the second
WORSE THAN DEAD available
now. Stephen’s second detective is Inspector Marco who comes from an
Italian/Welsh background and he lives in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.
The first Inspector Marco novel SPEECHLESS has been published on Amazon and the
second and third in the series will be published in 2014. Brought up on the
Isle of Anglesey, off the North Wales coast and Stephen went to school in
Holyhead. After a degree in Theology from London University I decided to train
as a lawyer and returned to work in the practice run by my father on Anglesey.
For many years I worked as a lawyer in a small practice representing clients in
the criminal courts and doing divorce work all of which has given me valuable
raw material for my novels. He still live and work in North Wales where the Inspector
Drake novels are set. Before turning to crime fiction I had written three other
unpublished novels and you can read about my writing and about Wales, one of
the most beautiful countries in the world, on my website - www.stephenpuleston.co.uk. You can
contact him on twitter @stephenpuleston or @inspector_marco Facebook
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