"The Movie Method"

My least favorite part of writing a novel, besides writers block, is writing beginnings. You always want to grab your readers/editor by the throat in the first sentence or paragraph. Doing that is easier said than done, unfortunately.

When I write beginnings, I use the "movie method." I imagine my first chapter being about the first 10 to fifteen minutes of a movie. Will my viewers (readers/editors) fall asleep within a few minutes of the story or will they continue with the story?

You could use the movie method for all of your novel, actually. Just imagine it as a movie or a play of some sort, and ask yourself if you were watching your novel on TV, would it be a cliche and boring storyline? Or will you be sucked in, wondering what the characters next move will be and where the story will take you?

This method works very well for me. My friends, who are also writers, like to use this too. They tell me that they envision what their characters and setting looks like in their head, as if it were a movie. I'm sure many writers, if not a few, do this too. I do and it's very effective and helpful for beginnings and even throughout the book.

Happy Friday! :)