Free Write Great Fiction--Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell Page A

— the great ’50s film
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
and the classic H.G.Wells tale,
The Island of Dr. Moreau
. And, indeed, Koontz cleverly mentions both of these later in the novel. It is as if he is winking at those readers who picked up on the similarities!
    So you see, there are any number of ways a master storyteller like Dean Koontz may have come up with the initial idea for his first
New York Times
No. 1 hardcover bestseller. What’s stopping you from doing the same?
EXERCISE 1
    This week, choose two ways to get ideas. Set aside at least one hour of writing time for each exercise. Do them.
EXERCISE 2
    Pick the idea you like the best from the previous exercise, and give this idea a hook, line, and sinker.
EXERCISE 3
    Now, apply Bell’s Pyramid to your idea. Is there enough passion, potential, and precision to make you want to continue?
EXERCISE 4
    Even if you decide not to dedicate a whole novel to this idea, going through the process will help you the next time. But if you like the idea, use the rest of this book to get it into fighting shape.
EXERCISE 5
    Resolve to set aside a few hours a month just for getting ideas. Stay alert to the idea possibilities all around you. Jot down notes. Rip out newspaper items. Once a month, go through your ideas and nurture them.

Chapter 4
Beginning Strong
    We start to make up our minds about other people within seven seconds of first meeting them.
    â€” Roger Ailes,
You Are the Message
    Act I, the beginning portion of the novel, has several tasks to perform:
Get the reader hooked.
Establish a bond between the reader and the Lead character.
Present the story world — tell us something about the setting, the time, and the immediate context.
Establish the general tone of the novel. Is this to be a sweeping epic or a zany farce? Action packed or dwelling more on character change? Fast moving or leisurely paced?
Compel the reader to move on to the middle. Just why should the reader care to continue?
Introduce the opposition. Who or what wants to stop the Lead?
    Do these things well, and your plot will have a strong foundation. Your readers will feel they are in the hands of a competent storyteller. And that’s not a bad thing to be, is it?
GETTING YOUR READER HOOKED
    The first task of your beginning is to hook the reader. Period.
    And remember, that first reader is going to be an agent or editor. Tough crowd. These are people who have too many manuscripts to go through each day. They are just itching for a reason to put yours down.
    Don’t give them that reason.
    Then you have the bookstore browser, who might (because the marketing and design departments have done their jobs) open up to the first page to see what’s there.
    This is the battle you fight. There are nine billion other things the reader can do besides read your book.
    First impressions are tough to shake. Make a bad one, and you have to work twice as hard and twice as long to get back to square one. You may not even get the chance.
    So it pays — in life and in fiction — to make a great first impression. Here are some ways to grab readers from the start.
Opening Lines
    Take a look sometime at the openings of Dean Koontz’s novels. Often, they are one-line paragraphs with a named person and some sort of immediate interruption to normality:
    Katharine Sellers was sure that, at any moment, the car would begin to slide along the smooth, icy pavement and she would lose control of it.
    â€” Dance With the Devil
, written as “Deanna Dwyer”
    Penny Dawson woke and heard something moving furtively in the dark bedroom.
    â€” Darkfall
    Tuesday was a fine California day, full of sunshine and promise, until Harry Lyon had to shoot someone at lunch.
    â€” Dragon Tears
    In his onyx-walled room in the occupation tower, Hulann — a naoili — had disassociated his overmind from his organic regulating brain.
    â€” Beastchild
    What are the successful elements of these