The 30 Day Novel: First Pages

By Cyn Mobley

Your first few pages -- really, your first few paragraphs! -- must do three things. Hook the reader, created reader identification, and convince the reader to suspend disbelief. Miss any one of these, and your reader will simply put the book down. This book shows you exactly how to do each of these three critical tasks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cyn Mobley
• Release date: Jun 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781596771024

Cyn Mobley

USA Today bestselling author, former naval officer and lawyer. Eight Greyhounds, three Airedales, and a coupla mutts.

Book preview

The 30 Day Novel: First Pages

Cyn Mobley

Published by Greyhound Books at Smashwords

Copyright Cyn Mobley 2007

Originally published as BAM: Book a Month

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ISBN: 1-59677-101-1

Table of Contents

One Month: You’re Done and it’s GOOD!

First Scenes and Hooks

Reader Identification

Suspension of Disbelief

And the Other Stuff

With Thanks

The 30 Day Novel series came about as a result of the Knoxville Writers Guild. For several years, I’d been thinking about teaching some workshops but I really didn’t know how to get started. After I joined the KWG, I offered to teach in its summer workshop series. In the process of preparing for the workshops and coming up with worksheet and note-taking outlines, the shape of the eventual series emerged.

The most critical part of writing is the material covered in the very first book, Plot. Once you’ve got the shape of the story down, the material in the later books will help you produce a solid first draft that will require fewer revisions.

The books are all about technique. Perfecting technique removes that as something you have to worry about and allows fuller play of your craft and talent, just as developing an effective straight punch that operates on reflex frees you up in a fight.

I imagine a lot of my approach to writing comes from my early training in karate and my subsequent cross-training. In Isshinryu karate, students begin by learning The Charts, a series of basic techniques and short combinations. Learning