Hi Reader!

When I was an acquiring editor for a small press, I got to decide which books we published in my category romance lines.

(Sounds exciting, right? What it really means is that I had to read a ton of slush, and that's not nearly as fun as it sounds. 🥴💔)

And there was this one story that I was SO excited to work on. It was the perfect fit, with all the right tropes and romantic chemistry that 🔥 promised to be off the charts.

But when I got the manuscript, the story was kinda boring. I had to force myself to just get through the first chapter.

The problem was one of the heroes.

💎 He was TOO perfect. ✋

... At least to start. And then around the 1/3 mark in the manuscript, all of his fears and flaws and humanity started flooding into the scenes.

🤨 When I checked in about it, the author said they didn't want to give away his secrets too soon.

So the reader wouldn't have known anything real about this hero until the midstory.

That one decision ☝️ turned a sparkler of a story into a snooze of a read. 😴

You do NOT 🚫 want that experience for your readers.

That's the equivalent of inviting them over for dinner, then 🚪 leaving them on the front porch for an hour.

🚀 Your hero's story starts the MINUTE they step onto the page.

And if their opening scene doesn't give your reader a reason to stick around right now, they're just gonna bounce.

❌ Bored readers don't fall in love with your heroes. They don't bookmark your author page or rush to pre-order your next book.

And as someone who is a passionate reader of romantic fiction (on top of my editing work), I know the pain of a Did Not Finish experience from both sides.

😍 So I made a podcast episode to help you avoid disappointing YOUR readers (or your editor or publisher or agent) in the first ten minutes.

👀👇 Listen to Episode 16: Why They DNF in Chapter One​

🎧🤩 LISTEN NOW!

This episode is around 25 minutes long, so queue it up for the next time you get stuck in the In-N-Out drive-through 🍔 getting takeout for the fam. (They'll thank you for the dinner delivery and 🤓 Future You will thank you for lookin' out.)

🎧⚡👇

​​Listen here​!

☝️💡❣️

⚡📆 This episode bridges what we're working on this month in E2E (the Opportunity) with what we're practicing in July (how to use backstory strategically).

⚡ So whether you've finished your Opportunity Audit or still plan to tackle it soon, this podcast will help you shore up earlier scenes in the story that lead up to your hero's Opportunity Moment.

🖱️ Click here to listen to the podcast inside Heartbeat 🎧, with quick access to the other 📚 Study Resources 💎 from this month.