How to Start a Book

Okay, I finished the rough draft of my manuscript… and then the second draft… and then I went through it again. You know what? I hated the beginning.

Maybe I had read this thing too many times. Maybe the whole thing was trash. I started doing some research. I had one question to answer… How is a book supposed to start?

I realized that I’m not the first author to ask this question when I realized how many books and blogs there are out there with this as a topic line. Realizing that I could kill many hours reading and call it research, I dug in to read as many of these as possible. I was going to find out the perfect solution to my dragging book problem.

After several hours, I realized that each author had their own solution to the best way to start a book. Although I had become familiar with some great phrases like, ‘setting the hook’ and ‘dragging the reader in’, I still didn’t know for sure how to redo the beginning of my book. I had found several books that made me question where the beginning of my book should be, however. Maybe I needed to add a few more chapters at the beginning? Tell more story? Tell less story?

Finally, I decided that the opening of the book just needs a couple of things. When I go shopping for a new book I often read the first page. If I like the character and the voice of the author, I’ll probably buy the book. So, I decided that what I really needed to do was to go back to the beginning of my book and rewrite the first page and make sure that the character is in there enough to be understood and that I get enough of my writing style there for the reader to understand how I’ll write the story. I just needed to create some situation for the main character to ‘be in’ that would describe her personality in the first page. How hard could that be, right?

One of the most interesting blogs, that I read, used the Disney movies as an example. In most of the Disney animated movies, the main character is introduced by an opening song that goes through and introduces their world and the one thing that they value. Belle in the opening of Beauty and the Beast and her books, as an example. 

Now, all I have to do is find that core value of my character and create an interesting scene to begin the book. It doesn’t even have to have an importance in the story, just introduce the character and grab the reader into the story.

Should be easy, right?

Keeping our Manuscripts out of the Trash

Recently, I attended a writing workshop where I sat down in a class that was outside my normal genre. I didn’t see anything that fit with my needs during that hour, so I thought I would give it a shot. I usually write Science Fiction but the next book I was considering was a murder mystery on a space station, so I thought I would attend a workshop class with a mystery writer and see if I could pick up a few tips.

Boy was this a great choice.

The author in question was named Betty Webb and she was one of the most informative instructors of the three-day conference. In fact, I adjusted my schedule to attend a couple of her other offerings before the end of the workshop. One of the things I appreciated, aside from the loads of great information, was the handouts she gave to the group. It’s one of these I want to share with you today.

A lot of the information she shared was specifically about mystery writers but some was for writers in general and this handout was a great example of that.

It is titled:

The Top 25 Reasons Your Submissions are Rejected.

Tips from the Surrey, B.C. Writers Conference. Each year agents and publishers conduct an exercise, where they read aloud the first pages of writers’ submissions to see how far they would read before it would be rejected. Here is a list of the reasons for rejection:

1.      An opening image that did not work.

2.      Opened with a rhetorical question.

3.      The first line is about setting, not about story.

4.      The first line’s hook did not work, because it was not tied to the plot or the conflict of the opening scene.

5.      The first line’s hook did not work, because it was an image, rather than getting the reader into the story.

6.      Took too long for anything to happen (a critique, incidentally, leveled several times at a submission after only the first paragraph had been read); the story taking time to warm up.

7.      Not enough happens on page 1.

8.      The opening sounded like an ad for the book or a recap of the pitch, rather than getting the reader into the story.

9.      The opening contained the phrases, “My name is…” and/or “My age is…”

10.   The opening contained the phrase, “This can’t be happening.”

11.   The opening contained the phrase or the implication, “And then I woke up.”

12.   The opening paragraph contained too much jargon.

13.   The opening contained one or more clichéd phrases.

14.   The opening contained one or more clichéd pieces of materiel. (The most I counted in a single submission was 5.) Specifically singled out: a character’s long red or blonde hair.

15.   The opening had a character do something that characters only do in book, not in real life. Specifically singled out: a character who shakes her head to clear an image, “he shook his head to clear the cobwebs.”

16.   The opening has the protagonist respond to an unnamed thing (e.g., something dead in the bathtub, something horrible in the closet, someone on the other side of the peephole…) for more than a paragraph without naming it, creating false suspense.

17.   The characters talk about something (a photo, a person, the kitchen table) for more than a line without describing it, creating a false suspense.

18.   The unnamed protagonist cliché: The woman ran through the forest…

19.   An unnamed character (usually she) is wandering around in the opening scene.

20.   Non-organic suspense, created by some salient fact being kept from the reader for a long time (and remember, on the first page, one paragraph is a looooong time).

21.   The character spots him/herself in the mirror, in order to provide an excuse for a physical description.

22.   The first paragraph was narration, rather than action.

23.   Too much physical description in the opening paragraph, rather than action or conflict.

24.   The opening spent too much time on environment, not enough on character.

25.   The first lines were dialogue. (To be fair, only one of the agents seemed to have a problem with this.)

This is why they would read beyond Page 1:

1.      A non-average character in a situation you wouldn’t expect.

2.      An action scene that felt like it was happening in real time.

3.      The author made the point, then moved on.

4.      The scene was emotionally engaging.

5.      The voice is strong and easy to relate to.

6.      The suspense seemed inherent to the story, not just how it was told.

7.      Good opening line.

8.      There was something going on beyond just the surface action.

As I said before, it was a great workshop and this was just a part of the pile of information that she shared.  I am glad I went outside my comfort zone and attended a class that I normally would have overlooked.

I just purchased one of her books to read. Hopefully I’ll be as impressed with her writing as I was with her as a teacher and person.

I Didn't See That Coming!

I commented a while ago (see post from 29 July 2011) on how reading extensively can make you a better writer.  I've just finished the second book in an unnamed fantasy series, and I've been spending some time analyzing the characters in the series.  Overall, the characters are well-developed; having unique traits and histories to which they remain consistent, while still having a growth arc through the story.

This particular author is writing at the top of his craft, and there are many things I can learn from how he handles his characters.  There were, still, several places where the I-wouldn't-have-written-it-that-way lights started flashing.  I'm not sure if this is more plot-related or character-related, but here's what I noticed:  Things seemed very predictable.

As soon as two characters come into conflict, I could see how that was going to build, and how it would eventually have to be resolved.  I did a quick count, and there were 21 such situations in this book.  Sixteen of these played out exactly (or almost exactly) how I thought they would.  Four of them remained unresolved at the end of the book.  The last remaining conflict involved revealing something that had happened in the past.  Whathad happened was what I thought it would be, but the how was completely different than I had predicted.

What I'm pondering on now, though, is whether or not it's better to set things up in a story and then deliver pretty much what the reader is expecting, or to have the plot twist and turn and keep the reader guessing?  While my personal preference is the convoluted didn't-see-that-coming option, there's no arguing with the fact that the author of the book I read has multiple NY Times bestsellers, while I…do not.  So, should I change my writing approach in order to be more commercially successful?

As an example of what I'm talking about, I can think of a number of instances in the Reckoning series we're working on where the characters will analyze the existing situation in an attempt to figure out what is going on.  In almost every case, they make logical, well-reasoned analyses…and then come up with the wrong answer.  The reader already knows what the right answer is, so the expectation is for each side of a conflict to respond to what is, but instead both sides are responding to what they think is going on, making the response something other than what would have been predicted.

As I said, I personally like this approach to plotting out a story, and keeping the reader guessing a little.  As I also said, as a writer, I tend to read a book differently than most people.  Please add comments with how you feel about stories you've read, and let me know if I'm going down the wrong path.

Ideas: Feast or Famine

Okay, why is it that ideas come in bunches?

I am currently finishing my final (and I do mean FINAL) edit of my solo novel, Forged by Betrayal, I am editing our fourth book in the Pathfinder series (which we are just finishing the rewrite of), I have 20,000 words or so done on another story that popped into my head in November and wouldn't go away and this morning... that's right, another story just popped into my head. Full blown, from beginning to end, characters, plot, setting, everything.

Why is it that when I have nothing on my plate I stare at a blank page and try to think of angry dinosaurs (my version of counting sheep for blocked writers) and nothing will form in my feeble brain but when I am too busy to do anything about it, I have stories popping into my head with music fanfares? I've heard of thinking about something else until you get the answer you're looking for but this is getting ridiculous. 

I once took a writing class where a student was hesitant to share his ideas for fear someone would steal them. The instructor (a NY Times bestselling author) told us that he had so many ideas, he’d never write a third of them. Later in the class he showed us how true that was by expanding on our ideas at the drop of a hat.

So my question is this. Is imagination strengthened with use? Do we function in the right brain or the left brain and get stuck in one spot?

I know that when I’m writing, or creating, I get thrown off by going back and editing. Editing is an analytical process and uses a different part of the brain than the creative process.  When I first started taking the series of writing classes with that instructor, the first rule he put in place was that we weren’t allowed to do any editing. Only writing. Editing would come later. It helped a lot. The ideas came easier.

Is that because we can strengthen our imagination and our creativity with use or because we slow ourselves down by switching back and forth from creativity to rationality?

I’m not sure what the answer is but I’m sure I like it when the ideas come out of the blue ahead of time and I don’t have to stare at blank pages and think of angry dinosaurs.

When that happens to you, make sure you write down all of the details before you forget. That way you’ll be prepared for that next blank page.

~Jeff

Life at the Comic Con

Last September, the three siblings had the opportunity to attend Salt Lake Comic Con to display and sell copies of our books (including book #3, Force of Reckoning, which was published just in time).

For anyone contemplating attending a Comic Con, I would definitely recommend doing it the way I did.  Renting a table meant that all the interesting characters paraded past me, instead of me having to traipse around the whole complex looking at all the great costumes.

Here's my favorite for originality:

As first-time vendors there were definitely things we would do differently if we had it to do over.  First, as you can see in the "Dark Helmet and Pizza the Hut" photo, vendors brought large backdrops to help sell their wares, something conspicuously missing from the top image of our booth.  Lost opportunity.

Second, we prepared flyers that walked through all that was published and what we planned to finish in the coming year.  The were remarkably hard to give away.  Bookmarks, on the other hand, practically flew off the table.

Third, after the first day, we put out a candy dish with chocolate to get people to stop and talk with us.   Again, these were remarkably hard to give away.  Everyone who did stop to get one had to ask permission first, and there were not as many of these as one would suppose.  I'm not sure what the answer is, but hopefully we can figure it out.

Lessons learned!