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Rick Jantz, Writer

“You are what your deep, driving desire is."

Writing Tips

How Important Is The Opening Line In Your Book?

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BOOM! How was that? Or does BAMB work better? What about, “Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you!” Did any to these grab your attention? Were they eye-catching or annoying? These are just examples of the importance of the opening line in your book…or even a blog post such as this.

Now, for blog posts you have maybe five seconds to grab your visitors attention. And if you don’t do it that quickly they click away to the next website. You probably have the same amount of time to convince a reader to buy your book. Sure, maybe they’ve read the back cover for a quick book synopsis but then they may crack open the cover to see how your book starts (how many of us have done the same?)

If you haven’t reached out and grabbed your perspective reader’s attention with a great first line then they aren’t likely to reach for their wallet!

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The Types Of Genre Writing And How To Find Yours

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For new and aspiring writers it’s sometimes difficult to decide on the type of genre that you want to write for. This includes whether you want to write fiction or nonfiction, write on your own website (a blog), or become a copywriter. So how do you decide which type of genre writing is for you?

Finding your writing genre or niche is based on two things:

  1. Write about what you know
  2. Write about what you’re prepared to become an expert in

You will need to find a way that helps you focus where you will spend your time writing. Starting with what you know and are passionate about is always the top recommendation. However, if you’re prepared to spend the time and become a subject expert then you can delve into a genre that you know little about but have always wanted to learn (passion and curiosity will take you far).

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How Research Will Help You Write Your Novel

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How Research Will Help You Write Your BookRemember all the research you did in school when you had to write a paper or create a new project? Hours spent writing out your notes because we couldn’t highlight encyclopedias and we had to avoid plagiarizing like the plague. Ugh, tedious, boring work just so we could get a good grade.

Guess what? If you want to become a published author those years were not in vain! And whether your story takes place on another world, in another country, or in another time you must do your research BEFORE you put ink to paper or fingers to keys. Your story must be based on facts, accuracy, and attention to detail; otherwise your reader may do their own research and, if what you say is not true then you will lose credibility and likely a reader.

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Don’t Give Up On Your Dream Of Being Published

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The dream of every writer — to become published. More than 25 years in the making (see explanation below) my first full-length novel will soon be released on Amazon. What an incredible feeling!

Like many other writers I’ve always had an underlying passion for the art so I could share my ideas, beliefs, and ways of thinking through the written word. Images of scenes and characters often haunted both my waking and sleeping hours. Many notebooks have been filled with ideas, plots, and subplots. This was just something I knew I needed to write.

And now, the picture on the right shows you my first success; not financial but creative. Following your vision and bringing it to life in a book is a success that only writers can know.

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Living In The Story – The Voices In Your Head Are Real

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The Voices in your head are realWhen you eat, dream, and talk in your character’s voices and are getting strange looks from passerbys then you know you are right where you need to be…living in your story, breathing with your characters, wondering how they are going to solve the obstacles you’ve given them to overcome.

And that’s such an exquisite place to be and one that you won’t share with any others. When you’re writing that novel you need to be screaming in frustration with your protagonist or driving a powerful car with your antagonist as they try to escape. But with salivating mouth you force the protagonist to calm down and figure out how to end the madman driving insanely away with the woman you love.

You are the maestro and must know all the parts!

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Title Or Story: Which Comes First?

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Title Or Story Which Comes FirstBefore I get into this post I want you to know something; I wrote the title for this article before I wrote the article. Now lets see how I declare myself.

I’m always fascinated with how authors come up with the title for their stories or books. Did they have a bathroom eureka moment and pulled up their britches and go flying to their keyboards to get it down? Or do they patiently write the whole book and then sit back with a glass of wine and ponder what they call the beast?

Name it or write it…what do you do first?

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