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Rumple_deWriter
Over 90 days ago
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Don, welcome to this scene of old world culture and charm.
Free advice (and worth every cent) Turn off your 'internal editor', say 'Damn the grammar' and keep writing till the story is finished, and only then go back and begin editing, re-writing, and running whatever grammar and spell checker you prefer. It'll be tough at first, maybe even second, but keep on keeping on.
Free advice (and worth every cent) Turn off your 'internal editor', say 'Damn the grammar' and keep writing till the story is finished, and only then go back and begin editing, re-writing, and running whatever grammar and spell checker you prefer. It'll be tough at first, maybe even second, but keep on keeping on.
Housebroken? What's that about, housebroken? Did I say anything about how many or who here at StoriesSpace fits into that category? Okay, Robert, you win. Let's just say that some things are a work-in-progress. Step carefully, especially in the poetry forums They're good folks, but can get a tad over-excited at times.
For me, it depends on the quality and type of story. Re-reading some of my early stuff would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, even to a writer. Humore pieces, like my current '...Cat Fight' seem to have more staying power.
Wonder if there's a diffeerent perception between poetry and prose? Maybe some of the bi-genre folks might give that thought a whirl.
Wonder if there's a diffeerent perception between poetry and prose? Maybe some of the bi-genre folks might give that thought a whirl.
Fascinating thread. All these 'quirks' give a good list of mannerisms to humanize characters in our stories.
Way back when, Dirty Martini mentioned, CDO, was a super-charged version of OCD because it was alphabitized. Guess I suffer from, DCO, the absolute opposite of OCD, cause I join Rascal in being a self-proclaimed slob.
Way back when, Dirty Martini mentioned, CDO, was a super-charged version of OCD because it was alphabitized. Guess I suffer from, DCO, the absolute opposite of OCD, cause I join Rascal in being a self-proclaimed slob.
For the benefit of any unsuspecting reader, let me state now that this is NOT an article about how one might become a contented courtesan or smiling strumpet. Nope, not even a titillated trollop. Sorry about that. This assault on good taste and English letters is concerned with the fine art of creating attention grabbing hooks in the opening lines of your next Pushcart Prize winning short story or Nobel Prize contending novel.
For starters, here's the biggest single rule those eager to become happy hookers should always keep in mind. There is NO single rule that can guarantee success. Not one. There are, however, some guidelines that might be of some help, maybe. Here are five.
1. The mission of those first few words at the beginning of your story is to intrigue--not inform--your readers, and keep them reading.
Don't fall into the trap of using that priceless piece of writing space to describe people, places or things that can be mentioned later. Consider the following opening line by Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." One Hundred Years of Solitude
The reader doesn't know who the Colonel is, or any of the other W's (what, where, when, why). But ask yourself, would including any of that information have made the sentence stronger and the "hook" more compelling?
2. Instead of falling back on description, consider opening with action. That doesn't mean you need to begin with a car chase, shoot-out or at the climax (so to speak) of a hot, steaming love scene. There is, of course, nothing wrong with any of those. Just remember that action doesn't have to mean frantic activity. Here are a couple examples:
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." 1984, by George Orwell
"They shoot the white girl first." Paradise, by Toni Morrison
3. High on the list of things to avoid describing is the weather. Granted, the opening to 1984 includes a brief mention of the climate. But even if you pull off an Orwellian caliber job, editors, agents, reviewers and other such literary flotsam and jetsam seem predisposed to not liking the practice. No doubt this goes back to the infamous opening line from the novel, Paul Clifford, by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton:
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps
that struggled against the darkness."
4. One of the better ways to intrigue and thereby "hook" readers is to begin with a question. It doesn't have to be explicit. In fact, implied questions often work best. For instance:
"Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not on the subconscious level where savage things grow." Carrie, by Stephen King
"There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." Voyage of the Dawn Trader, by C S Lewis
5. If you feel compelled to use a direct quote, try to make it short, as in, very. The problem with any quote is your reader has no idea who is speaking or the circumstances. If the speaker rambles on for several lines, once "all is revealed" readers may stop to go back and re-read the quote. Here's one example of a great short-quote opening:
"'Take my camel, dear,' said Aunt Dot as she climbed down from the animal on her return from High Mass." The Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay
That's all well and good, you whisper, but what about ripped-bodice romances, the next “50 Shades of Grey” style mega-bestseller, you know, S-E-X?
Glad you asked. But seriously folks, with the sexual demarcation line between erotic, mainstream, and romance novels blurring, it's a valid question.
When it comes to openings, the major difference within the field of 'love stories' appears to be, length. Most readers of novels, novellas and long stories will accept openings with little or no sex.
Most, but by no means all, short story readers, however, seem to prefer steamy openings. There are many, award-winning, moneymaking exceptions to that rule-of-thumb. And even in shorter works, a blow-by-blow description isn't mandatory. For instance:
"Sensual and seductive, she lay amid the rumpled sheets of the bed where we'd just made love-relaxed and at ease within the golden skin of her petite, perfect body. Not posing, not looking at the camera so much as through it, into the photographer, into me, waiting with an expression of amused tolerance for me to finish and rejoin her."
note: The last example is from a 2700-word story of mine, “A Special Photo.” My excuse for such blatant authorial hubris is, well, this is my article....so sue me.
Whatever the genre or format, writing, is writing, and with good writing, to quote the great Dooley Wilson, "The fundamental things apply." One of the most important "things" is to create strong openings. For when it comes to cranking out successful, commercial fiction, there are no unbreakable rules, EXCEPT, don't bore your reader--hook their interest from the beginning and never let go.
Happy hooking.
--
Here's a short collection of other favorite opening lines. Feel free to add some of your own.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
--
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
--
Call me Ishmael.
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
--
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
--
My mother was a virgin, trust me...
Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson
--
Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
Back When we Were Grownups, Anne Tyler
--
The small boys came early to the hanging.
The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
--
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish.
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
--
I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Harbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
--
ON THE THIRD DAY OF THEIR HONEYMOON, infamous environmental activist Stewie Woods and his new bride Annabel Bellotti were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.
Savage Run, C.J. Box
--
"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
--
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
--
Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half-a-day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.
The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor
--
They threw me off the hay-truck about noon. I had swung on the night before, down at the border, and as soon as I got up there under the canvas, I went to sleep. I needed plenty of that after three weeks in Tijuana, and I was still getting that when they pulled off to the side to let the engine cool. Then they saw a foot sticking out and kicked me off.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
--
I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere nor a chair misplaced. We are alone here and we are dead.
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
--
Whenever my mother talks to me, she begins the conversation as if we were already in the middle of an argument.
The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan
--
Describe, using diagrams where appropriate, the exact circumstances leading to your death.
Red Dwarf, Grant Naylor
--
If you're going to read this, don't bother.
Choke, Chuck Palahnuik
For starters, here's the biggest single rule those eager to become happy hookers should always keep in mind. There is NO single rule that can guarantee success. Not one. There are, however, some guidelines that might be of some help, maybe. Here are five.
1. The mission of those first few words at the beginning of your story is to intrigue--not inform--your readers, and keep them reading.
Don't fall into the trap of using that priceless piece of writing space to describe people, places or things that can be mentioned later. Consider the following opening line by Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." One Hundred Years of Solitude
The reader doesn't know who the Colonel is, or any of the other W's (what, where, when, why). But ask yourself, would including any of that information have made the sentence stronger and the "hook" more compelling?
2. Instead of falling back on description, consider opening with action. That doesn't mean you need to begin with a car chase, shoot-out or at the climax (so to speak) of a hot, steaming love scene. There is, of course, nothing wrong with any of those. Just remember that action doesn't have to mean frantic activity. Here are a couple examples:
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." 1984, by George Orwell
"They shoot the white girl first." Paradise, by Toni Morrison
3. High on the list of things to avoid describing is the weather. Granted, the opening to 1984 includes a brief mention of the climate. But even if you pull off an Orwellian caliber job, editors, agents, reviewers and other such literary flotsam and jetsam seem predisposed to not liking the practice. No doubt this goes back to the infamous opening line from the novel, Paul Clifford, by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton:
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps
that struggled against the darkness."
4. One of the better ways to intrigue and thereby "hook" readers is to begin with a question. It doesn't have to be explicit. In fact, implied questions often work best. For instance:
"Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not on the subconscious level where savage things grow." Carrie, by Stephen King
"There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." Voyage of the Dawn Trader, by C S Lewis
5. If you feel compelled to use a direct quote, try to make it short, as in, very. The problem with any quote is your reader has no idea who is speaking or the circumstances. If the speaker rambles on for several lines, once "all is revealed" readers may stop to go back and re-read the quote. Here's one example of a great short-quote opening:
"'Take my camel, dear,' said Aunt Dot as she climbed down from the animal on her return from High Mass." The Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay
That's all well and good, you whisper, but what about ripped-bodice romances, the next “50 Shades of Grey” style mega-bestseller, you know, S-E-X?
Glad you asked. But seriously folks, with the sexual demarcation line between erotic, mainstream, and romance novels blurring, it's a valid question.
When it comes to openings, the major difference within the field of 'love stories' appears to be, length. Most readers of novels, novellas and long stories will accept openings with little or no sex.
Most, but by no means all, short story readers, however, seem to prefer steamy openings. There are many, award-winning, moneymaking exceptions to that rule-of-thumb. And even in shorter works, a blow-by-blow description isn't mandatory. For instance:
"Sensual and seductive, she lay amid the rumpled sheets of the bed where we'd just made love-relaxed and at ease within the golden skin of her petite, perfect body. Not posing, not looking at the camera so much as through it, into the photographer, into me, waiting with an expression of amused tolerance for me to finish and rejoin her."
note: The last example is from a 2700-word story of mine, “A Special Photo.” My excuse for such blatant authorial hubris is, well, this is my article....so sue me.
Whatever the genre or format, writing, is writing, and with good writing, to quote the great Dooley Wilson, "The fundamental things apply." One of the most important "things" is to create strong openings. For when it comes to cranking out successful, commercial fiction, there are no unbreakable rules, EXCEPT, don't bore your reader--hook their interest from the beginning and never let go.
Happy hooking.
--
Here's a short collection of other favorite opening lines. Feel free to add some of your own.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
--
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
--
Call me Ishmael.
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
--
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
--
My mother was a virgin, trust me...
Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson
--
Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
Back When we Were Grownups, Anne Tyler
--
The small boys came early to the hanging.
The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
--
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish.
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
--
I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Harbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
--
ON THE THIRD DAY OF THEIR HONEYMOON, infamous environmental activist Stewie Woods and his new bride Annabel Bellotti were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.
Savage Run, C.J. Box
--
"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
--
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
--
Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half-a-day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.
The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor
--
They threw me off the hay-truck about noon. I had swung on the night before, down at the border, and as soon as I got up there under the canvas, I went to sleep. I needed plenty of that after three weeks in Tijuana, and I was still getting that when they pulled off to the side to let the engine cool. Then they saw a foot sticking out and kicked me off.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
--
I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere nor a chair misplaced. We are alone here and we are dead.
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
--
Whenever my mother talks to me, she begins the conversation as if we were already in the middle of an argument.
The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan
--
Describe, using diagrams where appropriate, the exact circumstances leading to your death.
Red Dwarf, Grant Naylor
--
If you're going to read this, don't bother.
Choke, Chuck Palahnuik
