She's right. Always start with a hook. Action can be interesting, but so can a quirky detail, an interesting character description, something that easily flows into line two, then line three, and then the reader's hooked. An internal monologue can be action-packed if it holds the reader. Always been against that advice to start in the middle of a scene, too. Sometimes that works, but sometimes starting at the beginning builds tension. Starting at the end rarely works, but if done well, can be gripping.
BTW, I got sucked into the opening of Eat, Pray, Love that was posted in that WD blog.
Seems to me that the best beginnngs are going to be written after the story/book is done so you can better lay the groundwork for what's to come.
That said, here's where my imagination took me when thinking about this subject:
"Start with action," she suggested to me, while riding on a stationary bike that was being pulled through the city of Glens Falls on the back of a flat-bed truck. I was covering this stunt--a promotion for a new gym in town--for the newspaper but end up talking to her about my novel that was falling flat on the page. "Give it more muscle," she said. "No one wants to read limp prose."
Thanks, Brian, for the link. Thanks to anyone else reading this for putting up with my oddities.
2 comments:
She's right. Always start with a hook. Action can be interesting, but so can a quirky detail, an interesting character description, something that easily flows into line two, then line three, and then the reader's hooked. An internal monologue can be action-packed if it holds the reader. Always been against that advice to start in the middle of a scene, too. Sometimes that works, but sometimes starting at the beginning builds tension. Starting at the end rarely works, but if done well, can be gripping.
BTW, I got sucked into the opening of Eat, Pray, Love that was posted in that WD blog.
Seems to me that the best beginnngs are going to be written after the story/book is done so you can better lay the groundwork for what's to come.
That said, here's where my imagination took me when thinking about this subject:
"Start with action," she suggested to me, while riding on a stationary bike that was being pulled through the city of Glens Falls on the back of a flat-bed truck. I was covering this stunt--a promotion for a new gym in town--for the newspaper but end up talking to her about my novel that was falling flat on the page. "Give it more muscle," she said. "No one wants to read limp prose."
Thanks, Brian, for the link. Thanks to anyone else reading this for putting up with my oddities.
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