Book contents
- Reviews
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- – 1 – Getting started
- – 2 – Memory and imagination
- – 3 – Character
- – 4 – Plot and structure I
- – 5 – Plot and structure II
- – 6 – Form and length
- – 7 – Dialogue
- – 8 – Narrative viewpoint and narrative voice
- – 9 – Beginnings and endings; tension and pace
- – 10 – Description
- – 11 – Research
- – 12 – Drawing it all together
- – 13 – Publication and the writing life
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
– 9 – - Beginnings and endings; tension and pace
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2022
- Reviews
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- – 1 – Getting started
- – 2 – Memory and imagination
- – 3 – Character
- – 4 – Plot and structure I
- – 5 – Plot and structure II
- – 6 – Form and length
- – 7 – Dialogue
- – 8 – Narrative viewpoint and narrative voice
- – 9 – Beginnings and endings; tension and pace
- – 10 – Description
- – 11 – Research
- – 12 – Drawing it all together
- – 13 – Publication and the writing life
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
The function of the beginning of a story. You don’t have to get the opening right before you can make any progress. Different kinds of openings. Starting with exposition. Starting in medias res. The necessity of having a sense of an ending while writing. Judging when to stop. The importance of how the story lands, rather than where it ends. The role of tension in a story. The cliffhanger. Arousing the reader’s curiosity. The importance of pace and how to sustain it. Methods of interrogating your writing for tension and pace.
‘Each chapter needs a narrative function. If you can’t summarise the purpose of a chapter you would be wise to check that it really does have a function. The other way to interrogate your writing for pace and tension is to ask yourself: What does the reader want to know at the end of this chapter?’
Keywords
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- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to WriteA Handbook for Fiction Writers, pp. 161 - 183Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022