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ISSN: 1178-3958 November 2019 you a story about this guy she just met–the kind of story How to be Hooky where you can’t wait to hear what happened next. My first book ever, JUST THIS ONCE (Escape to New Zealand), starts out, Rosalind James Wow. Welcome to New Zealand. And then the heroine almost dies. I honestly think that first chapter is what made my career. You want to say, “BOOM. Here is the book.” Last lines of chapters. Every chapter is a cliffhanger, even if it doesn’t end with action or whatever. There need to be questions asked to which the reader wants an answer. In the case of FIERCE, it was mostly, “What will Hemi (or Hope) do NOW?” I realized that I always spend a lot of time on the endings of my chapters, trying to pull the reader along in the story. Here are some last lines of chapters from FIERCE: So, yes, you could say I was at a low point that day I met Hemi Te Mana. But it wasn’t as low as I’d go. Hookiness. It’s what a good book is all about, Nobody should be treating her like that. Nobody should be do- really. When I look at the books I really enjoy, ing anything to her. Nobody but me. that I burn through, they’re (a) pulling me in and “Be ready,” he said softly. And he left. (b) pulling me on. But how do you do that? How I pay attention to this on the paragraph level as well. do you grab a reader? How do you KEEP the If there’s a new thought, a leap–that happens at the reader? How do you entertain a reader enough beginning of the next paragraph. If there’s something the that she will go on to read the next book? How hero or heroine is going to find out, I don’t telegraph it. do you (I) consciously do those things better? Story arc. This seems simple, but you really have to be building to something. It does NOT always have to be conflict. A while back, I was writing a book, FIERCE (Not Quite a One of my best-reviewed books, JUST FOR FUN, has Billionaire) that was quite different for me. KU2 had also almost no conflict in the whole second half between the hero just begun, paying authors for the first time by pages and heroine, but it has plenty of drama. When I first wrote it, read. That meant you wanted, more than ever, to have though, it didn’t have enough of a climax/resolution. My best people finish the book. I wrote that book thinking hard friend said, “Something else has to happen.” I called another with every chapter about pulling the reader along. About friend and wailed, “But the whole POINT is that she trusts making them want to turn the page. Here were some him! She isn’t going to do one of those ‘misunderstanding- things I thought about: run-off-things!’” She suggested something with their son that Start strong. Chapter One really matters! Even though not she’d wondered about–whether he wouldn’t react strongly all my books have lots of “action,” I start most of the New to the thing that had happened. BOOM. In another hour, I’d Zealand ones, especially, with a more gripping scene. Since written three chapters of nail-biting tension, then resolution the book is called “Escape to New Zealand,” that chapter and weepfest, that totally worked and drove the story to the is usually what the person is escaping from. Something finish line. pretty important should be happening in Chapter One. The Which brings us to . reader has to be engaged from Page One. Pacing. It’s about waves. I shift mood a lot within the Here’s the first line of FIERCE: book. That’s partly because romance is all about eliciting Have you ever noticed how, when you’re around certain people, emotion. I want to make the reader laugh, cry, think, steam you seem to grow an extra thumb, and not in a good way? up, be scared, be excited, and sigh. So–different chapters That hooks the reader, because she’s immediately relating will do different things. I actually think of my pacing sort of it to her personal experience (I hope). It also establishes like waves. If I were to draw a diagram, the mood would the conversational, almost confessional tone of the book. go gradually up in a series of smaller waves, gradually FIERCE was my first book written in first person, and I increasing. The peaks of the waves aren’t just sex (which wanted it to feel like your entertaining friend was telling for me happens about 40-65% through the book)–they’re ►► 1 ◄◄ to some books with “blah” endings. Even if the rest of the also action, danger, or just strong emotion. But I want to book is good, it doesn’t make you want to buy the next have quiet, sweet, and funny times in between those. In book. For me: I want readers to cry! In romance, you want JUST STOP ME, there’s a really sexy chapter followed a happy sigh at the end, that lingering feel-good hum that by a funny chapter where the hero messes up. Then a makes the world look a little brighter. sexier chapter. I think the “rest periods” actually help Another common criticism I’ve had is that my endings are intensify the stronger emotion periods–keep the reader “rushed.” I write terrific epilogues if I do say so myself, from getting numb by it being all nonstop action. I don’t but I’ve been told that my final action scenes could like that Disney-movie thing where it’s just racing, racing, allow more time for savoring. My loyal readers have racing–you know, when Cruella’s chasing the dalmatians also mentioned that they want it ALL. They WANT the around all the corners until her car goes off the cliff. proposal. They want the wedding. They want the dress. The waves build to up to a great big wave at the end, and They want the ring. That’s what they’re reading for, and a fall down to a sweet, satisfying wrapup. The last 20% or dammit, they WANT it. So in this latest book, NO KIND so of the book should be building, building, building, with OF HERO (which by the way, yep, is done and ready the reader pressing the “next” button on the Kindle pretty to release!), I gave them the works. That doesn’t mean frantically and staying up late to finish. At least that’s the everything wraps up in a perfect bow. Not every conflict goal! But again–not all the same emotion. I want there will be solved. You will feel sad for one character (if you to be a buildup of suspense if it’s suspense, then that don’t, I haven’t done my job). But that is life too. climactic scary/action thing, then a big, sweet emotional For a thriller, you want a nice solid recap that reminds you that scene, then a wrapup, then another sweet emotional Good won. I swear, one my favorite parts of the Lord of the scene. Suspense, fear, tears, satisfying tie-up-in-bow, Rings trilogy is the epilogue, where you find out who married tears, The End. whom, that Sam is with Rosie and they have a daughter. But that’ll be different for different genres, of course. Just Where you get to savor that it worked out, and you get to one example of how suspense might look. Like a conductor, linger in the book a little longer before you say goodbye. If it’s like a piece of music. Building, building, building. The good, you don’t want it to be over. Not quite yet. climax. And then the tailing off, the sweet finish. Those are my tips. What are yours? Oh, and . kiwi rules Take out the boring stuff. If nothing really important is Afghanistan hadn’t quite killed me. happening in the scene, it probably doesn’t need to be Karen Sinclair just might. in the book. If there are lines or emotions or information You don’t find many too-pretty rich that are necessary, maybe they can go at the beginning boys in the New Zealand Defense of the next chapter or something. [Of course, people who Force. Turns out there’s a reason for don’t like your book will always say it is “boring.” My most that. Fortunately, you can find your true common negative review is “slow and boring.” (Well, that self in the oddest places. Of course, you can lose yourself in those places, and “too much sex.”) But lots of times, you can spot your too—at least some pieces of you. boring passages/chapters and remove them.] Since I was back home with a new BUT–it’s personal. Your personal voice and style. That leg, some facial alterations, and time thing that turns some people off, but what turns others on my hands, I might as well help out ON. That first group? They’re not your reader. You’re my sister. Showing a potential buyer around some of New Zea- writing for yourself, and your reader. My books don’t land’s quirkier ecotourism sites, having a few adrenaline-fueled gallop along at breakneck speed, nope.

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