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I’m going to teach you how to write an addictive page-turner every time and how to get 5-star reviews like these in the process!
Are you wanting to write awesome fiction books?
Do you struggle with HOW to grab your reader?
Do you want awesome book reviews?
Then keep reading…
This blog is all about how to write a book your readers won’t forget!
Quick story…
I’ve always struggled, whether it be a short story or a novel to keep with a theme. Or I’ll have an idea in my head of how I want my story to end, and I’ve never seen it end up there.
And it’s so frustrating.
The story would wander around and I didn’t know exactly WHAT made a story a compelling story.
The trick is really to have a bit of an outline or a formula as a guide and you WILL get the ending that you want.
We will cover:
- Title – How to Make them grab YOUR BOOK off the shelf
- The Wallop Scene – Floor your readers!
- Main Characters – Make them Good and Bad
- Create a Sizzling Plot Twist!
- Give ’em a Jaw-dropping ending!
Let’s dive in…
Title – How To Make Them Grab YOUR BOOK Off The Shelf
Blend in and stand out…
Readers are territorial – they know what they like. If a title doesn’t ‘sound’ like something in their genre, they won’t buy it.
As humans, we like to have questions answered. Think the same way as titles; ‘Behind Closed Walls’ (I made that up) for a crime book would make me think as a reader ‘What’s behind the walls? it sounds bad… but HOW bad?’
Look at the top 50 bestselling books on Amazon in your niche. How many words are in the title? What question does each title ‘ask’?
Make sure your book title ‘fits’ in with your genre, using the same kind of language and asks questions.
Readers will want to read your book to find out the answer – so that’s the first part of your book marketing done.
One of our books is called ‘Meet Me at 10’
Why did we call it this? (We had several other titles). Because ‘Meet Me At 10’ asks the reader questions; who is meeting at 10? Why are they meeting at 10? Where are they meeting? Is it in secret? If so, why? The more questions you can get your readers to ‘ask’ the better…
Look at the Crime genre on Amazon…
They are great for ‘asking questions’ –
What’s in the letter?
Who is it actually from?
What happens now that it has been read?
Who has gone to her grave?
What happens now?
Has that woman taken a secret with her?
The Wallop Scene – Floor Your Readers!
- What is a wallop scene? – It’s a scene right near the beginning of chapter 1. You have your cool opening line then you set out your scene and tone of the book. Your readers feel ‘safe’ as they get to know your first character or two. I call this the everyday scene, people are going about their business. Then WALLOP!
- Something DRASTIC happens.
- A plane could fall from the sky (literally) or the bride could run out of the church at the point of saying ‘I do’. A body could get found.
- It’s anything that ‘disrupts’ the norm you will have created.
- It will make your reader sit up and take notice – by changing the trajectory, your readers will think ‘hang on’ I’m in for a ride here!
- Which is EXACTLY what you want…
Main Characters – Make Them Good And Bad
- Humans are a mixture of ‘good and bad’.
- Don’t do what I did at the very beginning of our book publishing journey – one of our villains ‘Kyle’ in our book ‘Meet Me At 10’ is obviously a ‘bad’ character. But our editor made me realise that I was ONLY making him do bad stuff ALL THE TIME. But that’s not how humans work.
- Even serial killers open a door for somebody and love their mum (sometimes – you get my point)
- When we changed some of Kyle’s traits (he did have SOME good points), it made him more relatable/believable which made for a much better story.
- Look at your top 3 main characters – give them all good and bad traits and show examples of them doing both in the story. Your readers will fall in love with them.
Create A Sizzling Plot Twist!
- My favourite thing ever about writing books! – The Plot Twist!
- Your readers will thank you for it!
- The best reviews are ‘I never saw that coming!’
- Invest in your twists.
- Write down 3-4 possible plot twists – the bigger the better!
- By planning your book (we use index cards – WATCH THIS VIDEO on the method we use – ) you can pre-frame your readers and steer them one way, and then all of a sudden, bring them back to another way – a rollercoaster!
The method we use to plan our books.
- To come up with ideas – write down really in-depth character profiles of each of your main characters. Then think ‘What would they HATE to happen and why?’ then make THAT come true in the story.
- For instance, it could be they have a best friend who they say they couldn’t live without and yes… we may need to kill them off RIGHT at the WORST time when the main character needs them the most. It will yank at the heartstrings of your reader.
- Or it could be that your main character is frightened of losing their business and financial security, then right when it seems to be going ok, drop a letter through the door that they are now out of business or through a scam owe millions (just at the point we are cheering them on) – awful yes, will your readers love it? Absolutely!
Give ’em A Jaw-dropping Ending!
- Do NOT forget to put as much effort into your ending.
- I was saying this to my co-author Claire, that it seems like most crime dramas we watch have really disappointing endings when we have been addicted to the series (and I hardly watch tv so for me to invest in a tv show, it must be good)
- How do you come up with a good ending?
- To keep it simple, I would liken it to creating a plot twist – it needs to be planned out and pre-framed.
- Think ‘what would my reader love to happen?‘ ‘What would my reader be expecting?’ and make sure you deliver in bundles.
- Tie up loose ends, there’s nothing worse than when your reader had questions in the beginning (remember from the front cover they asked themselves questions, your book needs to deliver on their curiosities or it will show in your reviews and sales).
- This is where asking for 10-20 beta readers really helps. We give out free digital copies to beta readers and then give them a questionnaire. One of those questions is ‘did you expect that ending?’ (If you would be interested in knowing what else we put on our beta reader questionnaire, comment below)
We have used these steps and I would argue that because we do, our books take our readers on a ride of emotions and events (check out our reviews and you will see!)
Final Thoughts:
If you would like to know more about how to come up with ideas, check out our blog/video HERE:
Next Steps:
Look at our other blogs that may also help you HERE
I’m going to teach you how to easily get more eyeballs on your book and how to implement easy strategies without spending a fortune in the process!
Click here for our FREE Strategy!
7 Easy Ways to Get More Eyeballs on Your Books and Make More Money!
See you in the next one,
Vicky & Claire x
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