The Beginning
The next three blog entries are going to be simply The Beginning, The Middle, The End. I'm talking about writing your novel. (Or reading one.)
The Beginning. How do you start? What do you look for when buying a novel? How do you hook someone in from page one, paragraph one, word one?
Oddly enough, or perhaps not so oddly (I'll see what other writers and friends and readers say when they post), I always, without fail, know how I am going to start a novel. The blank page, the beginning, does not intimidate me. Now, I think that is not always the case for others. Much like some artists may stare at the blank canvas, I am sure some writers stare at that blank screen, cursor taunting them, "Start writing something, Dummy," but for me . . . no. I always know where I am going to start.
And for me, when I start, it's nearly always a provocative sentence. I want something that shocks, intrigues, hooks. From The Roofer: My first instinct was to look at the corpse. From Trace of Innocence: Blood spatter was artfully arranged. From Diary of a Blues Goddess: I live in a house with a dead prostitute.
The other element I am always seeking to get in that first paragraph or page is the voice, the unmistakable character of my lead. For me, and other writers are different, setting can come later. Diary of a Blues Goddess was set in the city of New Orleans before the hurricane (it was written three years ago or so). The Roofer is set in the gritty streets of Hell's Kitchen--before Hell's Kitchen was renamed Clinton and became a little trendy. Trace of Innocence is set in a crime lab and my heroine lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. BUT, all of that can come later. I want my character's voice to be distinct. To be the reason the person in a bookstore wants to read more.
And within the first chapter, I want the hook, the set-up, the high concept. In Diary of a Blues Goddess, the Heartbreak Hotel is haunted. In The Roofer, her father is dead and we're at a wake, and this is definitely a dysfunctional, criminal family. In Trace of Innocence, we know she's going to be drawn into a case.
AND, if I'm lucky--or less so much luck and instead the loose plan I have (I don't outline, so I DO mean loose plan)--when the book ends, it will have come full circle. If you've been reading any of the ridiculous comments fields for the last blog entry, The Roofer has been coming up a lot. So I don't want to ruin the ending in case anyone is tempted to pick up a copy, but the last sentence of chapter one is precisely how the book ends as well (which actually isn't giving anything away) . . . and the book was indeed planned that way.
So that's my beginning. Later this week, we'll talk about the middle and the end, but how about you? What do you try to do when you start writing your book? AND if you're a reader, what do you look for when you start to READ a book. Discuss! :-)
The Beginning. How do you start? What do you look for when buying a novel? How do you hook someone in from page one, paragraph one, word one?
Oddly enough, or perhaps not so oddly (I'll see what other writers and friends and readers say when they post), I always, without fail, know how I am going to start a novel. The blank page, the beginning, does not intimidate me. Now, I think that is not always the case for others. Much like some artists may stare at the blank canvas, I am sure some writers stare at that blank screen, cursor taunting them, "Start writing something, Dummy," but for me . . . no. I always know where I am going to start.
And for me, when I start, it's nearly always a provocative sentence. I want something that shocks, intrigues, hooks. From The Roofer: My first instinct was to look at the corpse. From Trace of Innocence: Blood spatter was artfully arranged. From Diary of a Blues Goddess: I live in a house with a dead prostitute.
The other element I am always seeking to get in that first paragraph or page is the voice, the unmistakable character of my lead. For me, and other writers are different, setting can come later. Diary of a Blues Goddess was set in the city of New Orleans before the hurricane (it was written three years ago or so). The Roofer is set in the gritty streets of Hell's Kitchen--before Hell's Kitchen was renamed Clinton and became a little trendy. Trace of Innocence is set in a crime lab and my heroine lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. BUT, all of that can come later. I want my character's voice to be distinct. To be the reason the person in a bookstore wants to read more.
And within the first chapter, I want the hook, the set-up, the high concept. In Diary of a Blues Goddess, the Heartbreak Hotel is haunted. In The Roofer, her father is dead and we're at a wake, and this is definitely a dysfunctional, criminal family. In Trace of Innocence, we know she's going to be drawn into a case.
AND, if I'm lucky--or less so much luck and instead the loose plan I have (I don't outline, so I DO mean loose plan)--when the book ends, it will have come full circle. If you've been reading any of the ridiculous comments fields for the last blog entry, The Roofer has been coming up a lot. So I don't want to ruin the ending in case anyone is tempted to pick up a copy, but the last sentence of chapter one is precisely how the book ends as well (which actually isn't giving anything away) . . . and the book was indeed planned that way.
So that's my beginning. Later this week, we'll talk about the middle and the end, but how about you? What do you try to do when you start writing your book? AND if you're a reader, what do you look for when you start to READ a book. Discuss! :-)
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:37 AM
33 Comments:
The bedroom window exploded.
Colt heard another shot, heard glass raining on the galley table.
Now he was in a bad mood.
That's the opening to the private eye novel I'm working on. I like to start in the middle of things, with something happening right away. I'm with you, Erica. The description can wait. It's easy enough to incorporate details within the action as you go, without slowing down to actually describe the weather, setting, eye color etc. Those things can come later, a little at a time. Always keep things moving forward, that's my goal. Backstory and description need to be woven in subtly, with what's happening NOW in the forefront.
Jude:
If I was in a bookstore and picked that up, I would keep reading. :-)
Starting in the middle of things--that's a great way to describe it. Even, I think, my first novel, where my heroine is woken up in the middle of the night for a pre-dawn rambling phone call from the author she has been dealing with for the last five years (every time he has writers' block he calls her) . . . though there's not "action," in terms of a gun or an explosion . . . you are dropping in mid-relationship. Their banter is there and you can read between the innuendo and figure out there is more to this relationship than simply editor/author.
E
Thanks, Erica!
Now All I need is another 75K words or so to follow it up. :)
Yes. I think all good books, regardless of genre, are really about human relationships. Our characters' relationships motivate them to move and, with movement, conflict arises. The sooner we get to the conflict, the sooner we have a story.
Since I have yet to be published, all of what I am saying is really only theoretical, however, I believe that you need to open with a hook, to get the reader interested, but you have to follow up with making a character that your readers can connect, and want to connect with. The following are the opening lines from wy two WIPs:
______
It was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was. Just like tonight, and that is why I remember it so well. At that time though, I was cursing it for ruining my plans to rob the Van Elson mansion. I'm still not sure if it was the storm, or other factors that colluded to bring about my downfall that night, but I like to say it was the weather.
_______
“… the yellow-green ones are the real firebugs, but not the blue-green ones. They’re actually Faeries.” Tarik explained to Grugr the bullfrog. “You see, the faeries color themselves to look like they are further away so you won’t go after them.”
Grugr remained motionless, except for his breathing.
Grugr is a bullfrog. A huge bullfrog. He has never accepted that he has a weight problem. He can also talk. He mostly chooses not to, which is ok because Tarik makes up for that.
_______
In the first one I'm trying to take the cliche and own it. I'm not sure I've succeeded, but it was a fun exercise. In the second, I'm coming in, in the middle of a conversation.
Anyway, just contributing.
Ewoh:
Sorry, but Ray Bradbury beat you to the punch on the dark and stormy night thing. Check out LET'S ALL KILL CONSTANCE (2003).
Hey, great minds think alike, huh?
Here's how Bradbury starts:
It was a dark and stormy night.
Is that one way to catch you reader?
Well, then, it was a dark and stormy night with dark rain pouring in drenches on Venice, California, the sky shattered by lightning at midnight. It had rained from sunset going headlong toward dawn. No creature stirred in that downfall. The shades in the bungalows were drawn on faint blue glimmers where night owls deathwatched bad news or worse. The only thing that moved in all that flood ten miles south and ten miles north was Death. And someone running fast ahead of Death.
I do like your opening though, Ewoh. Seems that old Ray already owns the cliche, though. :)
Ewoh:
I love both. I love the sardonic humor in the bullfrog one (love when fantasy accomplishes this . . . someone in my writers' group is brilliant at that in her fantasy novel). And I love the humor in dark and stormy--and think it's fine with Bradbury playing with it first. In the end, it's about whether you'd read on, and in both cases, I'd give that a resounding YES.
E
I'm afraid I must disagree, Erica.
Someone like Bradbury can get away with "it was a dark and stormy night" because, well, because he's Bradbury.
The fact is, the cliche isn't, and never was, a very good hook. It's passive, for one thing. It tells instead of showing. To me, it's better to start with action--strong verbs and vivid images. I like Brian's opening, and I would read on too, but if I were to offer advice on editing I would tell him to stay in the active voice and avoid the verb "to be." He uses "was" five times in that short paragraph.
Also, it seems as though the narrator is preparing to tell us about something that happened in the past. Why not start the story in the present, the NOW, with the narrator fighting the weather and any other obstacles he comes up against while striving to achieve his goal?
Thanks Jude and Erica. I had no idea that I was following such a great writer, but I hope I do the cliche justice. I actually met Ray Bradbury as a young boy at a lecture/reading he did down in Laguna Beach, CA. I met him afterwards and he signed a copy of The Martian Chronicles for me.
Thanks also for your nice words about my words :) I'm hoping to have one of these ready for the backspace conference in July. I'm supposed to be meeting with an agent there and I'd like to think that one or the other has a chance :)
Erica, you said you are in a writers group? I guess I never thought that published authors worked in writers groups. You really surprised me. I think it is really cool that you do that.
Good luck at backspace, Brian!
Erica and I disagree about your opening (#1) but, in the end, it's your opinion that counts. If you feel like it works, go with it.
With my own work, I like it when people tell me what I'm doing wrong, because that's the only way to improve. If I ever join a critique group, I want one that is brutally honest. Praise is nice, but it's through criticism that we learn and better ourselves.
I see what you mean Jude. I use 'had' because the first chapter starts off as a memoir. It is supposed to be past tense.
I am in the edit process to find and eliminate passive voice from this WIP. It is a terrible curse which I need to cure through edit and critique.
I do appreciate all the advice from both of you. OK, now, back to work for me.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, Brian. I didn't mean to suggest that you change the verb tense (actually, I don't care much for books written in present tense). What I thought you might try is starting with the story instead of the setup. Show your character attempting to rob the mansion during the terrible storm.
Or, if you're going to frame it as a memoir (this can certainly work, as you'll see if you read THE ROOFER), you might want to show where your protag is now, as a result of his actions.
"Thunder rumbled, the concrete walls of my cell acting as conduits rather than insulators. I could only imagine the lightning."
You know, something like that, showing instead of telling.
The passive voice is something I have to watch out for too, Brian, and a lot of times I don't notice it until someone points it out to me.
Hi Jude and Ewoh:
Wow, I said discuss . . . and lo and behold. ;-)
As for the cliche in the opening. Here's the thing, fellas . . . With both lovers and books, I can forgive a LOT if there's a sense of humor involved. :-) And Ewoh, that opening (dark and stormy night) works because I see this sense of humor of the protagonist peeking out even though he is a thief of some sort. It's intentional--the cliche--and I get it . . . and so, for me it works.
As for critique groups . . . I was in one when I was 22 and knew nothing. I was an English, journalism, sociology major in college, with a minor in Creative Writing. And I came out and knew nothing. Write what you know? I didn't know how little I knew--until I joined a group. I absorbed . . . but like many groups, there were pluses and minuses . . . love affairs within it . . . problems. Then I moved, joined ANOTHER group . . . same thing, only the main problem was the group was too large (25+ members, very chatty!). Five serious novelists formed a splinter group . . . one person was too dominant personality wise and critiqued in a "YOU MUST DO THIS" way that didn't work for me. Then I moved again.
FINALLY, this time, I knew what worked and what didn't and I formed my own group 12 years ago that is STILL running strong. There are some core ground rules, honesty but graciousness being one, no rewriting of another's work being another, no defending endlessly (i.e., people who can't take any criticism), defense if it helps you get to your root issue . . . lots of things we have just over time morphed into. And it works. Now there are five members, I am multiply-published, one guy writes for national magazines, one woman is agented . . . and the other two are newer and starting the journey. Groups can be great, but I think the best ones have gone through that sort of pruning process so that each writer knows what truly works.
E
I got the humor too, Erica. I guess since I'd already read the Bradbury thing, though, it was kind of like standing around the water cooler listening to someone recount Letterman's top ten after already seeing the show. There's no way to guess how many agents and editors have read LET'S ALL KILL CONSTANCE, so I think Brian risks the old "been there done that" syndrome with that opening.
By the way, where can I stand in line for an opening in your crit group? :)
Hi Jude:
I think it'll be a bit of a commute. :-)
E
My Corolla get's really good mileage. :)
Erica --
The best opening line I've ever written is for a book that I had to shelve because I couldn't make the book fit with the opening line! To this day, I'm trying to make it work...
"The day Jiggs Gallagher turned up dead at Devil's Elbow, I was wrestling with a pig named Luci out behind the Heaven's Scent Grill.
Looking back, it was fitting that I found out while fighting a hog in mud, because that's pretty much how I would have described my relationship with Jiggs."
My beginnings always change as I write and revise. But when I'm first sitting down to write, I can usually get going if I start with a quote. I do this a lot at the beginnings of chapters, too.
As a reader, I tend to get bored with openings about scenery. I want to get straight into the action. That's not always true, but usually.
Great blog, today!
-- Louise
Great opening, Louise!
Damn. I really want to hear the story now. Finish it, would you?!
Louise:
I agree. Great opening!
But you never know . . . someday you may be able to finish a book with that opening.
I saved the opening line "My first instinct was to look at the corpse" for over fifteen years. I played with it as an opening for this book or that. Eventually, the second line came. "It's what all the Irish do. We lay our dead in the front of the room . . . " And voila! I had an Irish wake on my hands and The Roofer evolved from that. :-)
E
Here's one that's been on my shelf for awhile:
John Spivey made his living selling paper products.
Killing people was just a hobby.
John worked hard, and he played hard.
Jude:
Awesome. Love, love, love the dry humor.
E
Thanks, Erica. I'm thinking about crafting a short story about this guy, 4K words or so for AHMM. We'll see how it goes.
My beginnings are a little different. I don't go with a punchy opening line, but instead, well, how do you classify them?
----
Here are the opening lines to ROGUE:
Beep.
The facial recognition database had a hit.
FROM FACE-OFF:
Doug’s voice crackled in my ear. “Position One?”
Omar answered. “Set.”
----
Mine are a little bit more action-oriented I guess. I don't know why I do that. I just like it that way I guess.
Oooh, these are great, guys! I'm in such amazing company here...
The opening to EIGHTH GRADE BITES is:
A tree branch slapped John Craig across the face, scraping his skin, but he kept on running and ignored the stabbing of pine needles on his bare feet. He could hear the man’s footsteps behind him, echoing his own.
The man was getting closer.
Hi Karm:
You start mid-action . . . definitely different, but in keeping with the kinds of books you write.
In general, my books, even if suspense, are really about the the oddballs in it, so I think that's why I start with dialogue or a provocative line vs. something action-oriented.
Even in Trace of Evidence . . . "Blood spatter was artfully arranged"--it's a suspense book, but she's discussing Lewis and how odd he is with his artwork, more than, say, opening with a dead body on page 1.
E
Heather . . .
Love the "getting closer" line. Definitely grabs you.
E
Heather: My son would definitely agree that "eight grade bites." Great title.
By the way, The Lost Boys is one of my faves too. :)
Loved "Lost Boys"!
I am ready to read all the stories that have had beginnings posted here. Come on! Let's write! :)
Thanks, Erica! :)
Jude, can you believe I was hesitant to title it that? It's so perfect for the book...
And I LOVE The Lost Boys!
Heather:
I'm a Lost Boy fan, too. When I write YAs, I really look for the "high concept"--like High School Bites. Or . . . Eighth Grade Bites. (Go Vlad!) Lost Boys was perfect for a teen movie for that reason. The marriage of humor, scares, and a cool concept.
E
"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire."
Love it.
Wasn't The Lost Boys rated R though? That would have prohibited most teens from seeing it in the theaters.
Jude:
I don't recall . . . but stuff like that never stopped us anyway. :-)
E
Yeah, it never stopped us either. I rent R movies and watch them with my son sometimes. Depends on what they are. I think we watched The Lost Boys last year when he was twelve. I took him to see Mystic River when it came out, because I enjoyed the book so much and I thought it might be good to reinforce the caveat of not ever getting into a car with a stranger. Like I said, depends on what it is. I don't care for gratuitous sex and violence, but he sees some of that crap at his mom's house anyway. Tough being a parent these days, especially a single one.
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