![]() To be engaging, your fiction needs clear stakes for its characters. The problem of finding husbands for these women forms a major part of the novel, as does the challenge of the mother’s troublesome meddling.Įstablish the stakes early. One of the inspirations for Twilight, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, also sets up a central problem within the first chapter: a new, eligible bachelor has moved into town and the heroine’s mother is desperate to set up one of her daughters with him because the family is poor and needs to marry off the daughters for them to have a hope of comfort in their later lives.This conflict, that she’s interested in a person she’s also confused by, sets the rest of the action in motion. For example, in the first chapter of Stephenie Meyer’s massively popular novel Twilight, all of the basic conflicts are established: Bella Swan, the heroine, has moved to a new place where she doesn’t feel comfortable or know anyone, and she meets the mysterious hero, Edward Cullen, who makes her uncomfortable but whom she also feels drawn to.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.” X Research source Hopefully, cockroaches won’t eat your story, but if you have several initial chapters of ordinary people doing ordinary things without any challenges or problems present, readers may not see why they’re supposed to care. ![]() ![]() Famous short story writer Kurt Vonnegut once gave this tip: “To heck with suspense. Fiction depends on conflict, and that needs to be set up as early as possible. While some writers do start very slowly and let their stories build up dramatic tension over time, this requires a level of practice and skill that most beginning writers just haven’t developed yet. ![]()
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