NOTES: How To Write Best Selling Fiction (1981) by Dean Koontz

The Opening Scene = HOOK

Grips reader immediately

• Sudden violent action, or arresting,
• Unusual eerie image with implied violence
• Anxiety, nervousness, foreshadowing
• Stakes are high, tension

The Tease = What’s going to happen next??

• Introduce lead characters
• Plunge lead character into terrible trouble
• Strong sense of reality = background

COMPLICATIONS

“Bulk of the story line is then concerned with the complications that arise as he desperately tries to solve his problem”

1. Every complication must make the hero’s situation darker (Make task more difficult, not just slow him down)
2. Every complication must be a logical outgrowth of the events that have gone before it. (Readers always want to “get on with it”. DO NOT WASTE TIME WITH TANGENTS)
3. The author must NEVER use coincidence to complicate a story. (It must evolve from characters actions - consequences. And be related with prevous events - sequential)
4. Complications must never arise because of a character’s stupidity (It’s OK to have blind spots, soft spots, be impetous or shortsighted… But the hero can’t walk into problems like a moron).
5. The final complication must be worst. FURTHERMORE – this complication must be something the reader could’ve foreseen if he were as clever as the author

PLOT DO and DON’TS

• DON’T let your hero lose his battle unless it’s the only logical solution = READERS Want HAPPY ENDINGS
• DO make sure the solution is clever enought to justify all the complications
• DON’T start writing until you know how to solve all the hero’s problems.
• DO speed up pace towards end of book - nothing to write but action in last 50 pages
• DON’T drag on after resolution.

MAINSTREAM FICTION - Plot is the skeleton in which action,characterization, theme, symbolism, background, and mood is muscle, tendons, flesh.

GENRE FICTION - Plot is everything. Everything else is not paid much attention to.

Plot is what happens. Action is HOW it happens.

1. You can have too many action scenes - but amateurs tend to err on less, so err on MORE at first.
2. Make the most of every action scene - drag it out by padding it when it’s GOOD. Make things worse.
3. Different prose styles can affect or destroy urgency in a scene - You can go shorter… or a super long sentence

LEAD CHARACTER

1. Must be virtuous on the big moral issues - comes down on the side of right and good. Flawed is ok, but never evil, unless in a corner.
2. Competence. Readers don’t want an idiot, fool or wimp.
3. Courage. Dont’ want cowards who run from problems, or try to escape the consequences of their actions.
4. Likability. Don’t want a stuffed shirt or self-congratulatory prig. Modest. Humble. Humor. Kindness, Consideration, Concern.
5. Imperfections. Flaws.

CHARACTERIZATION

• Physical Appearance
• Voice and Speech
• Movement and gestures
• Past Life
• Religion
• Sexuality
• Vocation
• Skills and talents
• Fears
• Dreams
• Pleasures
• Plans for the future
• Sense of humor
• Politics
• Attitudes towards the opposite sex
• Attitudes towards children
• Attitudes towards money
• Attitudes towards love
• Attitudes towards death
• Attitudes towards liquor and drugs
• Ideals
• Regrets
• General likes and dislikes

EDITORS REJECT BOOKS BECAUSE OF CHARACTER MOTIVATION - NOT PLOT

Virtually any plot can be made totally plausible by an experienced writer who has control of a wide range of fiction writing techniques

MOTIVATIONS: This is what makes characters BELIEVABLE. (Layer them to make it complex and rich - greed, jealousy, worship)

• Love
• Curiosity
• Self-Preservation
• Greed (this is for villains most of the time)
• Self-Discovery (This is for literary fiction)
• Duty (Not a trait most people identify with anymore - must layer it)
• Revenge (Modern times, we’ve outsourced to justice system. Great for villains)

SETTING BACKGROUND:

1. Don’t fake it - DO YOUR RESEARCH
2. Broken into small chunks and littered inside the action
3. Exotic locale has advantages
4. Don’t avoid using a geography just because others have used it a lot.
5. You can skip geography… if your “background” is a profession, industry or business that’s interesting.
6. Dont’ stuff so much background that it becomes a travelogue
7. A thoughtful choice of background adds to the suspense of a novel

MISCELLANEOUS

90% of the time “said” and “asked” are sufficient. The other 10% of the time, when a somewhat stronger word seems called for, the writer can usually get by with a forceful but not exotic verb: shouted, called, replied, insisted.

Transitions - excess prose. Get them from one scene to the next quickly and efficiently. A space or a “30 minutes later” will suffice.