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They read because they want to have their emotions
wrenched by the plight of a character to whom they feel
emotionally connected.
You do the connecting. You start connecting from
paragraph one.
If you want to sell your fi ction, you must grab the
emotions of the reader by putting a character in some
kind of discomfort or danger or the possibility thereof.
Immediately.
Big danger, little danger. Big challenge, little chal-
lenge. Anything that is a disturbance, or potential dis-
turbance, to their ordinary world.
Because we naturally side with people who are in
some sort of trouble.
Do you remember the opening shot of The Wizard of
Oz? When I ask this question in writing classes, I usually
get an immediate response that it’s a shot of Miss Gulch
on her bicycle. Or the barnyard in Kansas.
Actually, the fi rst shot is Dorothy and Toto running
down the road toward the farm. Dorothy is looking over
her shoulder, and we fi nd out later that Miss Gulch has
threatened to take Toto in to be destroyed.
There is an immediate disturbance in Dorothy’s or-
dinary world.
In chapter one of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, teenage
Bella moves to a small town and is immediately thrust
into a new school. This is always disturbing. No friends,
no history. We naturally identify.
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