SNOOPY'S 6 RULES FOR WRITING A GREAT NOVEL

First ...

these past 3 days, I've had a busy work schedule and an average of 3 hours sleep a night.  That after working 7 days straight.  Whew!

So, to all my friends who've missed me  ... I hope you can forgive me.

That, and Victor insists I get him out of the latest no-hope fix I put him into in the latest chapter of THREE SPIRIT KNIGHT! 

(SHE WHO BREEDS is about to give birth to the Nameless Ones, and Victor "don't know nothing about birthing no monsters!"  A take on a line from GONE WITH THE WIND.)

Now, back to our regularly scheduled post ...

Snoopy insists Barnaby Conrad, co-author of SNOOPY'S GUIDE TO THE WRITING LIFE, took the six rules to great novel writing from him.

 (Don't miss Mr. Conrad's great book for under $2, LEARNING TO WRITE FICTION FROM THE MASTERS):

  http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Fiction-Masters-Barnaby-Conrad/dp/0452276578/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353346429&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=advice+from+the+masters+barnaby+conrad

  But as for Snoopy's claim about those six rules, Woodstock is his witness so ....

You choose who came up with these interesting SIX RULES TO A GOOD NOVEL:

1. Try to pick the most intriguing place in your piece to begin.
2. Try to create attention-grabbing images of a setting if that’s where you want to begin.
3. Raise the reader’s curiosity about what is happening or is going to happen in an action scene.
4. Describe a character so compellingly that we want to learn more about what happens to him or her.
5. Present a situation so vital to our protagonist that we must read on.
6. And most important, no matter what method you choose, start with something happening! (And not with ruminations. A character sitting in a cave or in jail or in a kitchen or in a car ruminating about the meaning of life and how he got to this point does not constitute something happening.)

Hone your opening words, for just as stories aren’t written but rewritten, so should beginnings be written and rewritten.

Look at your opening and ask yourself, ‘If I were reading this, would I be intrigued enough to go on?’
And remember:

Always aim for the heart!

Charles Schulz classic 1997 comic strip from SNOOPY'S GUIDE TO THE WRITING LIFE, a steal at $1.25 used:
http://www.amazon.com/Snoopys-Guide-Writing-Barnaby-Conrad/dp/1582971943