NYT BEST SELLERS LIST
JAN 15, 2017 NYT Complete Lists
COMBINED PRINT & E- BOOK NON-FICTION
1. THE PRINCESS
DIARIST BY CARRIE FISCHER
2. HILLBILLY ELEGY BY J D VANCE 3. WISHFUL DRINKING
BY CARRIE FISCHER
4. KILLING THE RISING SUN BY BILL O’ REILLY AND
MARTIN DUGARD
5. THE UNDOING
PROJECT BY MARTIN LEWIS
COMBINED PRINT & E- BOOK FICTION
1. THE WRONG SIDE OF
GOODBYE BY MICHAEL CONNELLY
2. NO MAN’ S LAND BY DAVID BALDACCI
3. THE WHISTLER BY JOHN GRISHAM
4. A DOG’ S PURPOSE BY W. BRUCE CANNON
5. CRASH AND BURN BY FERN MICHAELS
STARTING A STORY( CONT’ D.) Don’ t screw around with: 1. Description. There’ s nothing worse than boring the reader with describing the scene. Save that for later chapters or within the scenes.
2. Back story. Do not start the story with back story! Start the story in the now. Begin with something happening and leak in the back story as the character is going along.
3. Poems. If you’ re going to have one, do it before the story starts. That way, if the reader( like me) isn’ t into poetry, we / they can skip it and get right to the reading.
4. Dialogue. Have to character do something and name him before he starts speaking. Make a setting so the reader knows where they are and why they are speaking. This does not mean a long description of the setting, but a very brief line about who, what, where, when and why before the talking starts. This plays a fine line between adequate description and too much. Blend it in with the character doing something.
GET THE STORY MOVING BEFORE BOGGING DOWN WITH DETAILS
The key is to get the story moving with an action scene before slowing down a bit with details. You need to get momentum then slowly leak in details, background, back story … whatever. Don’ t slam the reader with it right out of the gate. You’ ll lose them and any potential agent or publisher.
WHAT ABOUT THE CLICHÉS AGAIN?
Back to the old weather cliché that one guy was worried about. So what? If you start with the character fighting the weather, instead of describing it, that could work. Then again, you don’ t want to have a character looking in a mirror. Maybe smashing a mirror, cursing at it, but not looking into it. As for dialogue, have the character perform some kind of action, then start the dialogue. There’ s nothing wrong with that. By starting with dialogue, I mean as the first line.
Sometimes, you just have to feel it out, but be prepared to alter it if someone cries foul.
Happy writing.
Fred
WINTER 2017
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WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE