5 Vital Tips For Starting Your Blockbuster Story

Post author By Dan Alatorre AUTHOR
Post date November 27, 2016
7 Comments on 5 Vital Tips For Starting Your Blockbuster Story

1. Most of the input we get about writing a story comes from people who are traditionally published, and traditionally published people are going to agents. Agents are effing lazy. So if you don’t hook the agent or publisher on page 1 paragraph 1, they don’t read much farther.

2. That’s… a lot of pressure for one paragraph.

3. On the other hand, the end customer is who we market to as independent authors. That means you have a much wider berth. 50 pages as opposed to one.

4. And that’s why it’s important to start your story quickly and hook your reader (I’m always gonna advocate that), but to remember it’s a rule that came from agents and publishers, not readers – so tell YOUR story.

5. Tell it well, but tell it the way YOU need to tell it.

7 replies on “5 Vital Tips For Starting Your Blockbuster Story”

Great advice
Although the majority of writing ‘rules’ have made me a better writer, I don’t get some of the shit that I feel forced to comply with. And like You have mentioned, blockbuster books like Harry Potter, seem to break a lot of the standard beliefs. I think if the storyline kicks ass you have a lot more liberty.
Thanks for the post.
E6

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That’s always going to be the case. We used to have a saying, revenue hides all sins – that apply to running a business. In books, great writing may or may not cover all sins, but great sales definitely does.

I think you have to write your own story the way you want it written, knock off any rough edges to conform to society is expected norms, without losing your voice or your story. If that means breaking rules, then break them.

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