S.J.Glatzhofer

There are many different ways for you to start your novel. However, it is important for you to find the perfect way to start your story. The reason for this is because the start of the book is what will hook an agent to decide if they want to represent you, to help you publish your novel. The start needs to show what the conflict will be in your story, but also not to give every clue away, for your readers to carry on reading.  This might seem stressful, because there might be always a nagging in the back of your head wondering if this start will hook an agent. I promise you, you will look at the start of your novel, after editing and changing how it starts, and think Yes, this is where my story starts.  If you are stuck on how to start your novel, here are some suggestions on how. Dialogue:  → I personally love books that start with dialogue, as in most cases it gets straight to the point. We learn what is bothering the protagonist or what conflict they are facing.  → Night School by

Without characters your story isn’t going to go anywhere, as you wouldn’t have a story to write. Characters are the focus point of helping your novel flow from one area to the other. How these characters behave can cause conflicts between each other which is needed for your creative piece. The best type of characters are the realistic ones. Why? Because they are the ones that we can feel the closest to understanding. Even when reading books like The Hunger Games , although we will never go through what Katniss goes through, her emotions and actions are realistic and ones we can relate to. Here are five tips on creating your characters to come across as realistic: → Draw inspiration from your real life: Think about your friends, and how they add to your life. Think about the similarities between you and your friends. E.g. You both like football, therefore football might be a topic that will be spoken about a lot. Also think about how you behave with different people. For example:

  Growing up, my go-to genre of books was YA Dystopian or Romance. Although I have always enjoyed the magical creatures that are highly used in Fantasy novels, I never found myself drawn to this genre. However, throughout the past year, ever since entering my early twenties, I set myself a challenge to open up the genres I read. As a writer, who has written Romance and YA adventure/thriller novels, I believe it is vital to expand what you read as it helps you learn more about yourself. On my journey to find a Fantasy novel to begin my development in this genre, I found Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. I was captivated by the book's design, which originally made me pick this book up. On the cover, we have sixteen-year-old Bree, our protagonist, with her powers swirling around her arms in red and blue.   The blurb is what pulled me all the way. Before reading the novel, we learn that Bree’s mother has passed away in an accident. For Bree, all she wants to do is to forget about her family m

When it comes to writing, every author has to establish what kind of point of view they want. There are three different kinds, 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person. Each of these narrations are fine to use, but whichever one you choose will affect how your story is told.  First person:  → Uses personal pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘We’. → It is normally told from the point of view of your protagonist, thus we see everything from their eyes. However, this is not always the case, for example The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald .  → Gives a layer of intimacy, as you get deeper into the emotions of this character. → Unfortunately, it does just limit you as you write from their point of view, and we don’t know what the other characters go through. Yet in the last book of the YA series Matched by Ally Condie , she has three main characters, each chapter is from one of their point of view. This is a way to keep the first person narrative, but also not have it so limited.  Second person:  →

At the beginning of every single new year, we all see it as a new start, a new hope. Yet this year, I believe we can all agree that this is different; seeing this more as a continuation from 2020. In my eyes, it is probably for the best to not view the start of 2021 as you may have other years. 2020 taught us all a lesson, that anything can change in a split second. Time is spontaneous and has it’s mind of its own. In 2020 we believed we had all of the time to do what we love, but now in 2021 we are wiser and understand to worship our time in the best way to help us achieve what we want.  Think of 2021 as the second chapter of the roaring 20s, still a continuation from the same story, but with new hypes and love. Acknowledge that sadness will come this year, but it will pass as well.  We have entered an era where high expectations is something we should throw out into the sky. A life without high expectations isn’t bad, it’s a blessing in disguise to not know what is out there waiting