The narrative voice is the voice of the point of view character that tells the story. With a well-drawn point of view character, a story can be rich and interesting. You want to take the time to get this right.

Last week, this blog suggested five requirements for the first few pages of your bestseller. This week, we present six more!

The first pages of a book are like opening a door. When your reader, agent, publisher or reviewer opens it, you really want them to be so interested that they can’t put it down. To make sure this happens, consider these five requirements for the first few pages.

Will it be a good beginning or a bad one? Within reading the first two sentences, you've already made a decision on whether or not you'll keep reading. Your reader has too. If they have picked up your novel, they may be turned off by what they read if you have one of these eight awful beginnings.

You can use beta readers early in your writing journey, say, after the first draft. Or you can wait for several drafts into it and then let trusted people read it. Either way, you may find it helpful to give them specific questions to answer about your manuscript.

One of my favorite writing books is Story by Robert McKee. I love it because it is a heady, thorough, and challenging explanation of exactly how to tell a story. While it’s designed mostly for screenwriters, I imagine every novelist would find value in it.

I'm completely convinced that you'll make a lot of notes. I'm convinced that you'll hear far more errors than you'll ever see. Reading aloud reveals everything.

Don’t let your lack of knowledge or skill intimidate you. You are not a failure if you have trouble with any of these issues. Real writers, successful writers, don’t let their weaknesses keep them from pursuing their dreams.