Such prophetic words, right? Right place. Right time. They cover such a large part of our lives.
Meet the perfect person? Right place, right time.
Find the ideal job? Right place, right time.
Sign with your dream editor or agent? Right place, right time.
There are days when I want to scream in frustration over those four little words. In the chaos of the world, am I really supposed to believe that I have to master timing and logistics (not to mention all the other things involved) to find happiness or fulfillment or satisfaction in my life and career? Well fooey.
So maybe I can’t work magic in life. But I can work a little magic in my fiction by making sure I introduce the right elements at the right time. During a recent workshop, I had the chance to edit my current WIP, Unspoken Rules, with a longtime mentor and friend. I’ve trusted her judgment for many years, having learned so much through her direct guidance as well as the variety of classes she offers through her writing academy.
Unspoken Rules is a thriller/suspense and I was holding back key elements of the plot and characters because I wanted it to be a surprise to the reader. I wanted them to follow the breadcrumb trail, to stay on the edge of their seats (hopefully) as I crafted the story until I made the big reveal around chapter 12-15. So imagine my surprise/shock/dismay/terror when I was told I needed to lay out these elements – not just early in the story – but on page one! Egads! What about the surprise? What about the suspense? What about all the work I’d done laying the groundwork for the big reveal on…let me count….page 172.
Yeah. Ok. Maybe she had a point. A little one. I wasn’t quite convinced just yet.
Although I should have been convinced immediately given the repeated conversations on social media, many of them from editors and agents, that tell us how little of the manuscript they actually read upon submission. They need to be hooked. Not on page 2. And definitely not on page 172. But on page 1. And early on page 1.
But how do you hook the reader, much less an editor or agent, when secrets are crucial to the story? First, you decide which parts of the story are critical to character development and separate those from plot development. Character development should drive the plot but won’t necessarily reveal crucial plot twists before you’re ready for your reader to know.
Once those elements are separated, use the character development as the hook to pull readers forward. Tease and twist your characters. Make them suffer and when they are down, kick them. All in the name of plot development, of course.
In Unspoken Rules, Carlie is traumatized by past memories. She’s been told they are false but she doesn’t trust the people telling her. In the first draft, I’d only used Carlie’s expression of trauma as a hook. I didn’t give it weight or definition. Now I show the memories, the pain that’s caused at least some of her trauma. I show at least one reason why she doesn’t trust the people telling her the memories are false. And I try to squeeze almost all of it on the first half of page 1.
Talk about an editing frenzy.
The thing is, once I put in these elements I was afraid would spoil the tension, I think it upped the tension. At least I hope it did. I know all the secrets so it’s hard to judge sometimes.