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