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Posts tagged ‘first sentences’

Feb 1

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How to create a beginning to hook your readers, agent, and publisher

Writing a novel, memoir, screenplay, or even a poetry manuscript can be a long, arduous journey. Getting off to a good start is important, and good beginnings are an art that can be mastered. Below are a few posts with tips on how to create a beginning to hook your reader, agent, and/or publisher. Read these posts and tell us in the comments below if you have any additional tips. Thanks!

Ground your readers and they will follow you anywhere: “Give the readers a place to stand, and then you can take them anywhere.” Poet and professor Nelson Bentley’s advice holds true whether you’re writing a poem, a book, or a screenplay. Read more

Jan 20

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How to introduce conflict or change in your very first sentence

Nancy Kress, author of Elements of Fiction Writing – Beginnings, Middles & Ends,says writers have about three paragraphs in a short story and three pages in a novel to catch the reader’s (or agent’s or editor’s) attention. She explains how we can make our openings interesting and original through character, conflict, specifics, and credibility.

In our very first sentences, we can hint at some future conflict or change in our story.

Kress says that we don’t have to have a body hurtling from a window—there are many subtler ways to introduce conflict. Randomly choosing a few of my favorite books from my bookshelf, I’ve copied their first sentences below:

“Running with the Demon,” by Terry Brooks.

“Hssst! Nest!” His voice cut through the cottony layers of her sleep with the sharpness of a cat’s claw.

I like the specifics here and the contrast of “cottony layers of sleep” with “sharpness of a cat’s claw.” We have the feeling that something interesting is going to happen. Read more