Hook your Reader's from the Start | iSpy-Books - Live Search News: BOOK REVIEWS - The Diigo Meta page

• 10 Mar 08
  

  i Spied

  Action Agents Avoid Beginnings Book Boredom Characters Competitive Description Dialogue Editors Engaging Feedback Fiction Great Hook How Introduction Openings Perspective Print Publication Reader Scenes Setting Story Surprise To Trusted Write Writing

  • Let’s face it: when you send your writing off in the hopes it will be
    
    published, every word is important. You wouldn’t give yourself permission to get
    
    sloppy after page 37, assuming the editor can handle choppy prose or “inventive”
    
    spelling if she made it that far. But what you may not realize is that the
    
    beginning of your manuscript is by far the most important part because it
    
    will encourage an editor to read on or to toss the whole thing aside.
    
    After all, you may have crafted an admirable middle or a breathtaking ending,
    
    but no one will get there if your beginning is mediocre.
    Despite the fact
    
    that more books are being published than ever before, the publishing world is
    
    more competitive than ever before. Agents and editors are inundated with
    
    staggering heaps of unsolicited manuscripts, and it is physically impossible for
    
    them to plow through — in their entirety — every one. The beginning is the
    
    only chance you have to make the right impression.
    Face it, unless you have
    
    to, how often do you push through a book when you’re under-whelmed by the
    
    beginning?
    Which brings us to some rules for great beginnings. There are
    
    exceptions to every rule, of course, but often those exceptions are only
    
    successful in the hands of experienced writers or those with multi-book deals.
    
    For the writers who make up the majority, it pays to heed what the current
    
    market demands.
    Make your beginning shine:
    ~Start with
    
    action.
    “Action” doesn’t necessarily mean a fist fight or an explosion or
    
    a sky-dive gone awry. Action means starting your book or story at a compelling
    
    place, with a scene, with something at stake for your characters. Look closely
    
    and you may find that you have pages of material that shouldn’t be in the
    
    beginning. They fill in some important blanks for readers, but that back story
    
    can safely be moved to somewhere after your opening.
    Don’t start your story
    
    with history — start it with a riveting now that grabs the reader by the
    
    collar and doesn’t let him/her turn away.
    ~Never put dialogue or straight
    
    description in your opening lines.

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