When I spoke at When Words Collide 2025, I talked a lot about knowing a character’s motivation. In fact, that was the entire point of my talk. Trauma was a large part of the conversation. Everything is trauma! Or, at least it certainly seems that way.

No matter if you’re writing a fantasy, sci-fi, or contemporary novel, there is backstory to consider. What has happened before the book starts? That leads us to a common writing fear: dumping a character’s entire history on the reader all at once.

One of my biggest pet peeves in stories is that the villain is one-dimensional. They’re the bad dude because the story needs one. Come on, give me more than that! Why are they bad? Having a believable antagonist make the story that much richer. It also makes me question if the actions of the protagonist are the right actions. Hello, nuance!

No matter the genre, a book can be unputdownable. Some people might think a book that is hard to put down can only be a thriller. While thrillers are typically top of the game when it comes to high stakes, they’re not the only ones who do. They can’t be the only books that have stakes.

In any story, there is a single, driving question that compels the reader forward. In this case, it was who killed Lilly Kane? Remember The Killing? That question was who killed Rosie Larsen? I know I’m giving two examples of trying to find a murderer; just know that all genres will have that single, driving question. It’s not only for mysteries and thrillers. Note: while these two examples are questions, they’re not the central dramatic questions. They are crucial to determining the CDQ, though. Keep reading!

The goal for this post is to help you identify and avoid those common first-chapter cliches which will then grab your reader’s attention (and hopefully get your manuscript out of a slush pile!)

What is your definition of a win? Getting a book deal? Publishing a best-selling novel? Those are some pretty cherry wins; but how many things have to happen before those wins happen?

Have you ever read a book that you know was technically well-written but it still fell flat? Or maybe there’s a book that might not win any big prizes but that story just resonated with you for months or years after you read it? It might be because the author understood their genre conventions.

What makes certain stories feel universally powerful? Though the meat may look and taste differently from story to story, their bones are the same. I’m going to unpack the monomyth, also known as the Hero’s Journey.

"Kim, what do I need to do before sending my manuscript?" I get this question a lot. Even though I think it's a good idea to ask your editor because they may have different requirements/suggestions, here are a few things you can consider.

We read a book because we want to see the journey the characters go on. Their perspective on life and on things should be different than it was at the start of the book. If there is no change, why are we following them? What makes their story so important?

There's nothing worse than ambiguity, especially for a service that has a higher price point – like developmental editing. If you've never worked with a developmental editor before, you likely have questions about what you can expect. I'm going to try to answer most, if not all of those questions.