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#SelfPublishing #amreading #blogger #5amwriting #writing
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#amwriting #books #ebooks #writerslife #writer #blog #author #IndiePub
#SelfPublishing #amreading #blogger #5amwriting #writing Writing the first line to your book is an incredibly daunting task. This is your first opportunity to hook readers in. I remember writing and rewriting the opening line to my humor book OH BOY, YOU’RE HAVING A GIRL over and over again until I finally felt like I nailed it with this:
“If you’re a guy and you’ve opened this book, you either have a daughter, are on the verge of having a daughter, or are in the delivery room hoping that that sweet bundle of joy that just emerged from your wife somehow, someway, spontaneously grow a penis. I am here to tell you: That almost never happens.” If you’re having trouble nailing your opening, you’re in luck: writer and WD contributor Jacob M. Appel offers up seven different approaches to writing a killer opening line (he includes examples from classic novels to accompany each, too). Here they are and they are worth bookmarking and referencing each time you begin a story. 1. A statement of eternal principle. This technique is a staple of European classics. Think of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”) and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”). Of course, the story or novel you write must confirm the proposed principle. If it turned out that Mr. Darcy didn’t want to wed, or that Anna was happily married, these openings would certainly leave readers wanting. (An excellent contemporary example is from Jane Hamilton’s The Book of Ruth: “What it begins with, I know finally, is the kernel of meanness in people’s hearts. …”) 2. A statement of simple fact. The entire weight of the narrative can sometimes be conveyed in a single statement. Think of, “I had a farm in Africa” (Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa) or, “It was a pleasure to burn” (Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451) or, “I am an invisible man” (Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man). No gimmicks. No fireworks. Just—as Mr. Gradgrind demands in the opening line of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times—the facts. 3. A statement of paired facts. In many cases, two facts combined are more powerful than either one on its own. The paradigmatic example is the opening line of Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: “In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.” A town with two mutes is not necessarily compelling, nor are two inseparable men. But a town with two inseparable mutes? Now that locks in our interest. Read more here. #addalittlemagic #maxhamby #read #mglit #books #ebook #epub #family #kidlit #TheWeekend #mom #ChildrensBooks #art #digitalart #illustrator #moms #parents #blogger #mustread #love #travel #food #shop #sale #adventure #blog #kids #cute 1. The Prologue Beginning
A prologue is an episode that pertains to your story but does not include the hero (or includes the hero at a time well before the story proper begins, when he’s a child). It might not be “Chapter 1” per se, but it can serve as a legitimate opening—if it works. For example, the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (I often use film and television examples when I teach because they illustrate so perfectly the concepts of storytelling and are so universal) begins with a prologue in which two of our main heroes first meet each other as children. Our heroes are onstage, but they’re not at the age they’ll be for the story proper. Mulan begins with a prologue that establishes the villain, the stakes and the ticking time bomb. The action is contemporaneous with the scene that introduces our heroine, but she is not onstage, and she does not become aware of the danger until deeper into the story. Game of Thrones (the HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s novels) begins with a prologue showing less-than-minor characters discovering a new danger in the land. Ghostbusters begins with a prologue showing a nonprimary character who sees a ghost, which provides the need for the Ghostbusters to form. The 2009 version of Star Trek begins with the arrival of a terrifying new enemy vessel that can destroy whole fleets, and our heroes haven’t even been born yet. In these cases, we see some of the ways a prologue-style opening can help your story. These examples also illustrate why it’s one of the most popular ways to open a novel. A prologue can establish why things are as they are in the world of your story, and why the character is the way he is when the main action begins. And a prologue can even hint at or reveal the danger that will soon sweep over the hero’s life. [Want to land an agent? Here are 4 things to consider when researching literary agents.] As you probably know, we’re in disputed territory when we talk about prologues. Many fiction experts tell writers never to write a prologue, while others (like me) say prologues are great. The Anti-Prologuers argue that: 1) No one reads prologues; 2) Prologues are just dumping grounds for backstory; and 3) Prologues prevent you from getting to the main action of the story. The Pro-Prologuers (Pro-Loguers?) contend that: 1) 95 percent of fiction readers do read prologues; 2) Any portion of a book that is a dumping ground for backstory should be cut—not because it has the word prologue at the top but because telling instead of showing is lazy writing; and 3) Prologues allow you to set the right tone for your novel without having your protagonist onstage doing something heroic. Can beginning with a prologue engage your reader? Yes. Can it be done so poorly that it disengages the reader? Also yes. It’s not an issue of right or wrong. If your prologue engages the reader, it’s a good thing, and if your prologue disengages the reader, it’s a bad thing. 2. The Hero Action Beginning In a hero action beginning, the hero is onstage, doing something active and interesting related to the launching of the core story (it need not involve explosions and car chases, but it certainly can). Groundhog Day begins with Phil Connors onstage giving a (sarcastic) weather report. WALL-E begins with WALL-E onstage doing his daily routine of garbage collecting and compacting. Juno begins with Juno walking through the neighborhood, drinking SunnyD, on her way to the corner store to buy a pregnancy test. Nearly every James Bond story begins with 007 performing some amazing derring-do. What About Bob? begins with Bob going through his neurotic morning rituals. The hero action beginning is the other most common way to begin a story. Only the rarest of story ideas can’t manage a hero action beginning. Unless your hero is catatonic or incarcerated in a hole or the like, I’m certain you can come up with something interesting for him to do at the start of the novel. [Did you know there are 7 reasons writing a novel makes you a badass? Read about them here.] But remember to ask yourself how much of a stretch is it to show that action. And would a prologue (or some other approach) help you more than a hero action beginning? Now you’re thinking strategically about your story—an excellent and essential thing to do. Some books lend themselves naturally to a hero action beginning. If the protagonist is a superhero when the story begins, you can start the novel by having her save the earth. If he’s a football player, show him on the field in a big game. If she’s a karate champion, show her winning a tournament. But if your hero isn’t a hero yet or isn’t yet in a position to show it—or if you simply prefer to establish your villain and time bomb in a prologue—perhaps the hero action beginning isn’t right for your book. Mulan begins with a prologue because the protagonist isn’t yet in any kind of heroic capacity. Mulan is feeding chickens on the family farm—not necessarily an interesting introduction. The writers could’ve invented a way for her to be heroic at the outset, but they chose not to, and I agree with their choice. Don’t force a hero action beginning. We all could make up something for our heroes to do as the book begins. But if it feels like a stretch or a cliché, choose another approach. Read more here. #addalittlemagic #maxhamby #read #mglit #books #ebook #epub #family #kidlit #TheWeekend #mom #ChildrensBooks #art #digitalart #illustrator #moms #parents #blogger #mustread #love #travel #food #shop #sale #adventure #blog #kids #cute I was assigned this article four months before its deadline. “Aw, that’s plenty of time,” I thought to myself.
No points for guessing what eventually happened: The deadline was around the corner before I knew it, and my plans to research, write, and file early had been foiled by my next-level procrastination skills. Over the years, I’ve tried to beat procrastination with these tactics: I write thoughts down immediately; I abandon multi-tasking; I tell myself very sternly to get on the stick. I have tried punishing myself (no Cadbury eggs until you get this thing done!) and rewarding myself (write a paragraph, get some Cheez-Its!) Nothing seemed to work, until I discovered that the secret is the loafing itself. Yes, I get stuff done, with good results, when I put it off until the very last minute. Even better results, I think, than when I chip away like a good, responsible doobie. (I should note here that I’m using “loafing” and “procrastination” interchangeably, for the shallowest of reasons: I picture “loafing” as William Powell in a dressing gown, a la The Thin Man, solving a murder with a drink in his hand. “Procrastination” is Beavis & Butt-Head. Whatever you call it, it’s decidedly not doing the thing you’re supposed to be working on.) When I told other writers I was working on this article, I got a slew of excited me toos and a couple of writers who flat-out refused to call it “procrastination” or even “loafing.” It turns out, more and more writers are practicing it to great creative payoff, even if we can’t actually call it by its name. “I love that you call it loafing,” writer Daryl Tanner told me. “It takes all the negativity out of the vital time of clearing.” “Clearing” describes best what loafing does for my creative process: I get many of my brainstorms when I’m doing something totally unrelated to the diligence of the butt-in-chair calcified advice that many new writers receive. But the research is piling up about loafing: Organizational psychologist Adam Grant, in his latest book Originals, noted that “Procrastination may be particularly conducive to creativity when it leaves us solving problems at moments where we’re unfocused.” He goes on to detail a number of Nobel Prize-winning scientists who were passionate about the arts. (Prize winners are 22 times as likely as the average scientist to be amateur performers, and 12 times as likely to be passionate amateur writers.) The obvious implication is that cross-discipline thinking is important, even when the other discipline is task-oriented, like ironing. The experiences of other writers bears this out. Writer Susan Mihalic said, “I believe that taking my attention off my writing and putting it elsewhere can benefit the writing. I think that’s the subconscious at work. It’s why I have epiphanies when I’m driving or riding my horse or taking a shower.” Travel and tech writer Deborah Shadovitch said that she does tasks when she “lacks needed words.” “I get up, wash my dishes, sweep my floor, hang up clothing…things that let my brain do its word-thing,” she says. And she, like Tanner, terms it something different: she says she has to let the words and ideas form in her brain first, and the brainless tasks are one way of doing just that, one way of feeling as if you’ve completed something without doing any writing. Read more here. #addalittlemagic #maxhamby #read #mglit #books #ebook #epub #family #kidlit #TheWeekend #mom #ChildrensBooks #art #digitalart #illustrator #moms #parents #blogger #mustread #love #travel #food #shop #sale #adventure #blog #kids #cute #writing #writers |
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