Opening Sentences and Their Impact on the Reader By Randall Andrews eatsleepwrite.net/openingsentences When I started Writers World Facebook Group, I did a lesson on the importance of the first line of a book and I quoted the phrase, “The first sentence sells the book, the last sentence sells the next book.” The purpose of that lesson was to explain why an opening paragraph of description about how the trees look, how the houses look; the mundane detail of the surroundings are a loss. You will not keep the interest of your readers and more importantly, if you are shopping your story, the most important reader, the publisher will toss it before the story had a chance to fly. Great authors for centuries have given this important advice, “Make every word count.” They have also recommended your story carry the plot with it as it develops, that you are going toward a finish line at all times, especially from word one. That’s confusing for most writers. It almost sounds like the advice is saying you must be reminding the reader at all times what the plot is, but that’s far from the truth. What it’s suggesting is the means will justify the end. Because of that, the means, (the story as it is developing) is telling us something about the interconnectedness of all the parts. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the recipe header. If this is Quiche Lorraine being made, we need to know that up front. In that way, we are seeing something identifiable come together. Watching you bake it will be our story. How YOU do it in your own unique way, what temperature, what ingredients, and ultimately if it’s any good, will be your story. Openings have had to evolve from the best ones already written. What we know about openings, is they excite us to pay attention. The earliest openings went something like this, “Gather around and I will tell you a scary story.” We are intrigued. We came to the cave man campfire hoping Uncle Grog was about to tell a scary story and not one where he took Aunt Ug by the hair and made love to her. (We hate that story.) Thanks to Uncle Grog taking the best opening, we have had to be more creative in our openings to keep the attention of the reader and not be a carbon copy of Uncle Grog, RIP. What we discovered, we could have a direct approach and let the reader know about the events unfolding, or we could use a trick where we write something off kilter and the reader is intrigued by the meaning. Here are some of the widely accepted HOOKING opening lines in literature. We will come back and discuss what they have in common. READ THE REST ON eatsleepwrite.net/openingsentences Place a book cover ad, post your stories, chapters & poetry on Eat Sleep Write; broaden your readership. Authors.Sharing.Conversations. EatSleepWrite.net/authorspotlight Twitter: @EatSleepWriting Facebook: https://facebook/EatSleepWrite LinkedIn: linkedin/in/adamscull
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 02:20:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015