It was a dark and stormy day

What are you reading this week? I’m reading Death, Taxes and Peach Sangria by Diane Kelly.

That line is a classic for a reason. It grabs your attention. Today I Googled what readers want and I got a lot of listing from various sources telling me exactly what you want. What I gathered from each one, though told differently was content, continuality, and wrting a killer of a first line to grab the reader.

I’m going to post links to some of the articles I’ve researched. I’m not endorsing or dishing on them. I think from each one a writer and reader can agree or agree to disagree on the writers advise.

http://www.salon.com/2010/02/24/readers_advice_to_writers/

http://www.thewritingplatform.com/2013/02/understanding-what-readers-want/

http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-do-readers-want-more-quantity-or.html

As a reader, I too love a great first line, but that writing and style need to carry throughout the entire book. When a book grabs my attention and won’t let go until the last page I know that the author did their job. It doesn’t matter the genre, it’s the story that holds my attention and causes me to lose sleep until I read the end.

How do you create stories like that? Isn’t that the question for the ages. In the stories I’ve read that do just that, they have great heroes, heroine and to my way of thinking unforgettable villains.  What’s your thoughts on villains?

As a writer I’d really appreciate your thoughts on the subject. What do you crave from a book?