The Art of Writing: How to Write Bestselling Novels

Writing with Impact

[NOTE: I can't take reading requests since I run a business and have a family. Sadly, rarely find time for my own writing nowadays.]

This is one of the more important chapters you'll read about how to change your writing for the better. Writing with impact is a truly valuable skill that'll take your books from mediocre to great.

Publishers and readers are looking for writing that really gives them emotional journeys, not just with the storyline but with each paragraph.

They want words that grab them and sentence structures that squeeze the emotion right out of them, making them come back for more.

That's impact.

There are different ways to create impact with your writing. Creating impact typically comes in the form of the words you use, where you position them in sentences, and how you layout the sentences in each paragraph.

BACKLOADING

Backloading: To place a high-impact word at the end of a sentence, thereby "backloading" it.

Backloading a sentence is one of the easiest ways to create impact. You simply take the word with the most impact and reconfigure the sentence so the word is what finishes the sentence.

Examples

No Backloading: I couldn't see anything but the dead body, even when I closed my eyes.

Backloaded: Even when I closed my eyes, I saw the dead body.

The first example leaves you with eyes. Eyes aren't that exciting in this sentence because they're not the subject. Maybe if she'd lost an eye, we'd backload the sentence with eyes. But the dead body is the real subject here and it's what gives impact. So we backload the sentence with it to leave the reader with that rather than the closed eyes.

Always find the subject of the sentence that has impact and move it to the end of the sentence if you need to give that sentence impact. You don't want to backload every sentence, of course, but backloading is something you want to do often if you can.

REPETITION THE WRONG WAY

There's a great way to create tension and impact with repetition, and there's a great way to kill your writing with repetition. Generally speaking, you want to avoid starting successive sentences with the same word. Likewise, you want to avoid starting several sentences in the same paragraph with the same word.

For instance, new writers do this a lot with pronouns.

Example:

Susan didn't like the way he walked. She didn't like the way he talked. She even hated the way he ate his food, little bits getting caught in his beard periodically. She couldn't believe someone could smell like that and not even be aware of it. Had he been raised in a barn? Oh, that's right, he was from Kentucky, so maybe he was raised in a barn.

Using "she" repeatedly to start sentences gives the reader the feeling of repetition, and not in a good way. That's why you have to vary the words at the beginning of each sentence.

Not only that, though--you also have to vary your sentence structures. The reader will get bored if they keep reading the same sentence structure over and over again. If you change things up constantly, your paragraphs are more interesting to the reader and they won't get that feeling of repetition.

Example Corrected for Impact

Susan hated the way he walked. Even the way he talked was awful. And when he ate his food, little bits caught in his beard. Yuck! Then there was the awful smell. How could someone not know they smelled like that? Had he been raised in a barn? Oh, right--he grew up in Kentucky. Probably had been raised in a barn.

Feel the difference? The sentence structures vary and the first words of the sentences are never the same. Repetition eliminated.

REPETITION THE RIGHT WAY

There's a trick you can use to give impact to the ends of paragraphs that author and writing instructor Margie Lawson calls a Double or a Triple. Or a Double Tap or Triple Tap. It goes by different names, but the name's not important. It's when you repeat the first few words of a sentence in the next one or two sentences but with different information.

Example:

Double

He had a way about him words couldn't describe. That smile that told you you were the only girl in the room. Those eyes that looked deep into your soul. But when he spoke those words to me, my heart beat faster. My heart beat for him alone.

Triple

I'd never be free of the sickening stench. I'd never be free of the chain around my ankle. I'd never be free of her pliers at my teeth.

SPECIAL PARAGRAPH FOR IMPACT

Let's say you just finished a good paragraph but you need more impact. You can add a one-sentence paragraph after it for just that purpose. Make sure it starts with "and" to give it that much more impact.

Example without Impact Paragraph:

I tried to get to my car, but pain shot through my leg from the bullet wound. My hands, covered in my own blood, slipped on the pavement. I had only seconds before he'd be on me, then it'd all be over.

Example with Impact Paragraph Added:

I tried to get to my car, but pain shot through my leg from the bullet wound. My hands, covered in my own blood, slipped on the pavement as I tried to pull myself closer to the car. He'd be on me in seconds.

And that's when I felt the searing pain tear through me.

See how the "And" sentence carries a lot of impact with it? And notice how the statement the sentence makes is strong and increases tension? Make sure your "and" sentences like this one are strong and create good tension.

Just be sure not to use these sentences too much or they'll lose their impact. If you use them sparingly, though, they'll retain their unique feel.

ASSIGNMENT

Now take these skills and use them right away on one of your stories to give it a ton more impact. If you implement it throughout an entire manuscript, you'll have conditioned yourself to write and rewrite that way naturally.

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