I’ve done over 40 interviews with authors, writers and other industry professionals and today, I’m going to be sharing my favorite piece of writing advice I’ve received since doing these interviews.
And this is the piece of advice I think about all of the time. If you listen to yesterday’s episode, I told you that I thought this would surprise you a little bit about who I got this advice from. Now I should qualify this a bit because I’ve received some seriously amazing writing advice over the course of the Writerly Lifestyle Interview Series . From dialogue to character, to plot and villains, there’s been some really amazing advice that I still go back to on a regular basis. But my favorite piece of writing advice really encompasses my writing philosophy. And that’s why I think I consider this to be my favorite piece of advice. Now, before I reveal what it is…
If you didn’t catch Wednesday’s episode, you’ll want to give that a listen. This podcast will now be focusing exclusively on thriller mystery and crime genre is. And in doing so we’re going to be starting an exciting pitch session to launch this whole thing.
So if you are a querying author, you’re going to have the opportunity to put your work in front of agents. I’m really excited about this. So definitely check out Wednesday’s episode or head down to the link in the description to find out more on the website. You are not going to want to miss this opportunity.
And the deadline is August 18th, so get to it right away. Okay. So let’s get to this piece of writing advice.
This advice comes from a nonfiction writer who makes money writing articles online. Listen to the way she considers her audience throughout the entire piece. She’s writing. You’re going to hear a lot of parallels between writing nonfiction articles and writing novels. This is especially true of our openings. You’ll see what I mean. And then I’ll hop on after to explain more about why like the so much.
Sinem Günel: You know,, the first sentence of the article, it is content, but it has a very copy kind of character because it needs to be strong.
And then you can lose a lot of readers in your first few sentences. So that’s [00:02:00] one of the things where I spend a lot of time on, like, I can write an article. Pretty quickly, but I have my swipe files and my backup rough ideas of how to start an article. And I constantly look at my own work and see what worked well in the past for my introduction specifically.
And then it tells us each, the starting of each paragraph is also kind of a mini introduction. So I always try to be intentional about how, how do I make them want more and, you know, read more. And at the end of the article, again, we have to this point of making them want more. So they click on the landing page on, on the subscription page for the email newsletter.
So I feel like. In a subtle way. It always works together because yes, I want them to read my content and to love it. But if I want that, I have to be really [00:03:00] clear in the introduction. And I, for me, that is kind of an intersection of content and copywriting. And I think it just makes sense to understand basic copywriting principles.
So you can kind of play around with the two and then That’s kind of a feeling based thing, but at the end of the article, I always try to kind of make that wave into making them feel good so that they are like, ha that was nice. I think I want to read more like that. I feel like if they feel like that they either click to my next article or they click and subscribe to my email list, which is kind of a big win for me.
So it’s, it’s more of a, in your mind asking yourself, what do I want them to do next I want them to read more and I’m not selling anything. But I still want them to do something. And then in the end, [00:04:00] that’s just, , how can I make them feel a certain way so that they take one of those two options of either, or there’s probably more options.
Like, even if they just give me a follow, that’s a huge win because they are more likely to see my work in the future. So that’s the way I try to think about it.
Okay. So there’s a lot to unpack here, but I’m going to just talk about three things that I like so much about this. Sinem says we can lose a lot of readers in those first few sentences. Even though she’s talking about nonfiction articles that should sound familiar. As writers, we need to make sure our openings are really strong. Check out yesterday’s episode. If you want to hear from two agents and an author about what makes a really strong opening.
Second, Sinem says she treats each paragraph in a way that makes a reader want more. This is tough and honestly not always possible in an entire novel. But I like to think about this piece of advice when I’m writing. How does every paragraph drag readers through my story? How can I make them hungry for the next paragraph? And the next one, after that?
It’s like in yesterday’s episode when Paula Munier talks about narrative thrust. As writers, every chapter and every paragraph and every sentence is meant to drag our readers through our story.
And lastly, we want readers to read more of our work. Well, how do we do that? Sinem says she wants readers to have a positive feeling at the end of reading one of her articles. I certainly want readers to have a satisfied feeling when finishing one of my books. Then they’re more likely to buy another.
So how can you end your book in a way that leaves readers satisfied? Again, there’s a lot to unpack here, but thinking about writing this way has been really interesting. Hopefully you found that quote from Sinem as compelling as I did. If you’re writing a thriller, mystery or crime fiction novel, and you’re querying, consider submitting to the Thriller 101 pitch session. It’ll give you an opportunity to get your opening in front of agents looking to sign clients in those genres. I now have more than 10 agents taking part. You won’t want to miss this. The deadline is August 18th, so polish your opening and let me hand it over to agents for you!
