MESMERIZE YOUR WRITING: Week 1 - Introduction

As a writer, of course, you want your writing to be irresistible starting at page one. You want your reader to be awestruck and spellbound, turning pages as the night melts away, right?

You want your writing to be so clear, concise, and effective that all eyes will be riveted to the page, amazed at how spellbinding, unforgettable, and filled with resonance your words are, true?

I know you feel that way because all authors have those feelings, especially when you find someone else’s particularly engrossing book that you can’t put down. You want to be just like that author who writes an opening line that sticks with the reader forever? Someone who can command attention?

Follow me and I will lead you into the magical forest of mesmerized writing. It’s writing that holds my attention, almost like a trance, where the author weaves words together in a way that moves me to love, laughter, fear, or tears. I suspect it will become easy for both of us when we learn the tricks of the trade. As your writing friend, I want you to feel free to absorb these mesmerizing tidbits.

I’m a student of writing technique myself, so we shall follow the yellow brick road and learn the tricks of the trade together. You may choose the character you wish to inhabit. Do you want to be Dorothy, searching for the answer; the Lion, afraid to venture into the land of amazing words; the Scarecrow, who says he can’t think hard enough to find these words; or the Tin Man, who’s afraid to try it? I think I’m a Dorothy, with just a tad bit of Scarecrow and Tin Man!

What is mesmerized writing? It outshines the competition! It dazzles the reader! It helps you communicate the magic of your story and persuade people to read to the end. It comes from trusting yourself to be very real so you can write from the heart. Stick with me and I’ll do the research on how to write in a mesmerizing manner and post it so that both of us can find our personal amazing words and put them into story form. Such a deal!

Mesmerized Writing happens when your reader devours your words. A pot may be boiling over on the stove; God’s next-in-command may be on TV; or the kids may be barefoot in the street, but your reader is hiding under the bedcovers with a flashlight. It’s “just one more chapter” time.

Go ahead. S-t-r-e-t-c-h your mind with me. I believe in the impossible. I believe I can write anything I decide to write. I like to set impossible goals, and then achieve them. I believe in the power of impossible thinking and dreaming the impossible dreams, one dream at a time, and then making it happen. These become the bricks on the yellow brick road.

Do you want to create mesmerized writing? Do you want to feel it in your bones when something you write comes out right? It isn’t manipulative or corny. It’s about communicating with enthusiasm. With Pizzazz. Reaching out to your reader and pulling him or her into your story world. Using words that push buttons in the brain that make your book “un-put-down-able.”

It's anything you do which creates a mental experience in the mind of your reader so they become interested in your story; so that they care about at least one of your characters intimately and nothing else seems to matter.

Here's a simple, and exquisite, example from the book, Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurie:

Last night I dreamed I went to Manderlay again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.

·      Can you see the uninhabited lodge with the padlocked gate?

·      Do the rusted spokes of the gate also forbid your entrance?

·      Are you wondering if both of you can get in?

·      We do not know if a man or woman is speaking. Does it matter?

·      Do you feel empathy toward the speaker?

·      Do you want to know what happens next?

My aim is to learn to write in a mesmerizing way. I want to see it, feel it, write it all down, and share it with you over many weeks as part of my blog.

Please join me by going to my website’s home page (BonnieMooreBooks.com) and signing up for my mailing list. Each week when a new blog is posted, I will send out a notification.

Also, please feel free to leave comments. Let me know your experience of transforming your writing.