Openings: How to Grab Readers from the Moment They Start Reading

The job of the first sentence in a novel is to draw a reader in, and the job of the opening paragraphs is to convince him or her that this book is worth reading all the way through.

Whatever genre you write, the opening paragraphs need to create suspense and make the reader care about the characters and want to know what's going to happen to them.

James Scott Bell, in The Art of War for Writers, says this about openings:

“. . . you are in a battle for attention. You must use all haste to surprise and capture the reader.

And I mean take him by the lapels and drag him into the story world with no time wasted.

. . .

So how do you do it?

By understanding why people read.

They read to worry.

They read because they want to have their emotions wrenched by the plight of a character to whom they feel emotionally connected.

You do the connecting. You start connecting from paragraph one.

If you want to sell your fiction, you must grab the emotions of the reader by putting a character in some kind of discomfort or danger or the possibility thereof . . . Anything that is a disturbance, or potential disturbance, to their ordinary world.”

Bell’s making a strong point, but he is not saying to open with murder and mayhem, unless that’s what your novel is about. He is saying that you should open with a disturbance to your character’s ordinary world that will make the reader pull for them.  

That’s the litmus test.  To do that, it helps to make the opening pithy and immediate.

Here’s an opening Bell offers as an example, where the disturbance is placed at the end of the first paragraph: from Allan Folsom’s The Day After Tomorrow:

Paul Osborn sat alone among the smoky bustle of the after-work crowd, staring into a glass of red wine.  He  was tired and hurt and confused.  For no particular reason he looked up.  When he did, his breath left him with a jolt.  Across the room sat the man who murdered his father.

No question that gets my attention and makes me not only curious about Paul Osborne, but worried about him.

Bell is a master of fiction writing, and if you haven't had a chance to read his books on writing yet, you'll no doubt love them. The Art of War for Writers is chock full of pithy, usable examples to help you hit the beats just right throughout your novel.

Do you have a favorite opening in a book you enjoyed reading (or writing)? Maybe a different kind of book than the one Bell shared? How did it pull you in? Did it create suspense and curiosity and above all, worry? Care to share?

Little Free Library Movement: Books Creating Improved Face-to-Face Communities

Something interesting is happening with a movement that started about a year ago in Wisconsin, called the Little Free Library Movement. People put up small, free library boxes on their property, usually out by the edge of their front yard, and put books they own inside for others to stop by and borrow at will. That concept, itself, is certainly interesting, and as the experience has spread throughout the U.S., there seems to be a happy byproduct—positive face-to-face community interaction through sharing the books.

The Little Free Library Movement is a kind of amazing grass-roots effort. When you go on the website, you'll see that their mission is:

To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide. 
To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity, and wisdom across generations
To build more than 2,510 libraries around the world - more than Andrew Carnegie!

Here's how it's described in a recent newspaper article:
The book-sharing movement began about a year ago in Wisconsin and is creating ripples of goodwill in neighborhoods. 
The two men who started the Little Free Library are Rick Brooks, 64, and Todd Bol, 56.

Brooks is an outreach program manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He does a lot of workshops on everything from preventing lead poisoning to getting through to kids about drinking and driving. Bol's background is in developing businesses in foreign countries. 

In the fall of 2009, Bol happened to attend a workshop by Brooks, and then told him about a memorial he had built in his front yard in Hudson for his late mother, June Bol, a schoolteacher. It was in the shape of a little red schoolhouse, with a bell on top, and offered free books.

Bol soon found himself starting to make Little Free Libraries for others, having gone to an old barn that had been torn down and gotten trailer loads of wood. People loved the little buildings.

"They'd tell me they had met more people than in the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years," Bol says.

By 2011, they were getting national publicity. This year, they hear every day about more of the hutches going up. . . .

Maybe in a few years, the Little Free Libraries will be remembered as just another fad.

For right now, though, Rick Brooks says about the little wooden structures that are spreading across the country, "This is obviously about more than just books. Something is going on."

(Seattle Times 7/12/12)

Do you have a Little Free Library participant in your neighborhood? I have to admit, I was not familiar with this until I read the Seattle Times article. But I'm kind of thrilled by it. Sometimes things happen that restore your faith in humans. They don't have to be big things, they can be little things, and they can make your heart full. This is a great Little one.

Thinking About Self-Publishing? Things You Need to Know

Are you thinking about publishing your book yourself? It's a huge decision, and every writer has deeply personal feelings about whether indie or traditional publishing is the right goal for them. Over the past few years, as traditional publishers have faced dramatic changes and self-publishing has expanded its capabilities, lots of writers have become interested in the indie route.

Fortunately, with so many authors publishing independently, lots of information has become available on what's involved. Recently I came across a great article on the subject by David Carnoy at CNET. As an indie author himself, and a professional techie, he's in a position to offer some excellent insights. He chose the self-publishing route several years ago, against the advice of his agent, and says that while many things have changed since then, especially in the e-book world, much of what he learned along the way applies more than ever. Here are his twenty-five tips on the pluses and minuses and how-to's of indie publishing today.

Now, if you think you've got something truly special with your book but are butting your head against a brick wall trying to get through the traditional publishing industry's gatekeepers, keep in mind that standout books can make a huge splash in the indie world—once in a very great while. Looking for inspiration to take the plunge?

We all know the success stories of the authors of HUNGER GAMES  and FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. Now comes Tracey Garvis Graves, a forty-five year old mom from Iowa who got tired of rejections from literary agents, and decided to go indie with her debut novel, a romance. After selling 360,000 copies, she's been picked up by a major publisher. The paperback edition of her book, ON THE ISLAND, came out from Penguin yesterday. Here's the Wall Street Journal article about Ms. Graves and her book. You have to admit, that's inspiring.

Personally, I'm still interested in finding support from the traditional publishing industry, but I must say the indie world has definite appeal. I'm not closing any doors. What about you? Which direction will (or did) you choose?

Writing the Long Synopsis

We don't usually think about writing a long synopsis (about five pages). If asked for materials by an agent after pitching to them, we typically send a query letter, a short synopsis (one page), and the first two or three chapters of the novel (or sometimes the full ms.).

But if you are submitting materials to a publishing house, whether through your agent or on your own, you will probably be asked for a long synopsis. They need to see how the whole story plays out before they decide whether it's something they can run with.

And here's a secret: you need to write a long synopsis even if you don't intend to ever submit to a traditional publisher. Why? Because the end result will tell you whether your novel did its job. How? It forces you to be very clear about what's in your book, and when you've finished you will know if the story works from beginning to end, where its storyline weaknesses are, and what you need to do to fix them. Your key points need to track and connect from beginning to end and be compelling to someone unfamiliar with your book. Putting that on the page makes it easier for you to see the story from that unfamiliar someone's eyes.

Anyone who's tried to write a synopsis of any length knows how hard it is. I've heard best selling authors state flatly that it's harder to write a synopsis than it is to write a novel, and if you know someone who's read your manuscript, ask them to do it for you. (If only!!)

While a synopsis is not a blurb, you still have to give it a little zing. It needs to be somewhat compelling, even though the plot, not language, is its main focus. You have to tell the story, not write an outline.

I recently came across a great point-by-point for writing a long synopsis. It incorporates the six main points in any novel (inciting incident, first major plot point, character turning point at book's midpoint, second major plot point, climax, and end), plus transitional sections between them, into a total of nine items to be included. Below are the nine points with my descriptions of them added.

Long Synopsis 

• The Hook: a compelling statement of the inciting incident (the thing/event that turns the protagonist's world upside down and sets the story in irrevocable motion. The inciting incident usually happens within the first twenty pages of the book, with some exceptions in literary and experimental literature).
• Set Up: what the characters are up to, how they settle into their new reality after the inciting incident. Here you have the opportunity to give some flavor of characterizations in reactions/behaviors.
• Major Plot Point 1: something key to moving the story forward that happens once the protagonist is well-established (typically the plot point is unexpected/unwanted events, or behaviors of others).
• Response: how the protagonist and other prime characters react to what happened in Plot Point 1. This, in turn, sets up . . .
• Midpoint/Major Character Turning Point: around the midpoint of the novel, the protagonist's defenses against the problematic action of the story are bridged somehow, and s/he sees the situation in a different light and changes his/her attitude and behavior to reflect the new understanding. The synopsis presents this by showing the decision/changed behavior of the protagonist.
• Attack: what the protagonist and other characters do after the turning point to take on the issues they are confronted by, and to assert themselves within the plot. This typically involves working toward a resolution of the primary problem of the plot. Before they get to the resolution, though, another big thing happens. This is . . .
• Major Plot Point 2: a new development or intrusion of a major new but related element in the storyline that compels reaction and moves the story forward, perhaps in a surprising direction, and definitely at a faster pace.
• Resolution/Climax: key points after Plot Point 2 that show the protagonist making a choice that is like entering the river of no return to follow through with his/her resolution, so that the climax becomes inevitable; and the primary action of the climax.
• End/Denouement: the wrap up—should feel inevitable, and if it's really good, will also be surprising

 I've found this approach to be a huge help in writing a long synopsis. Hope you do, too!

What Do You Do to Focus?

Writers always seem to have particular methods of helping them tune into their writing minds. Ideas come at odd times—usually when you're doing something repetitive when your mind can meander—like taking a shower or ironing or washing dishes (those last two may not apply any more since almost no one irons or washes dishes by hand these days. Did anyone think about THAT when they invented wrinkle-resistant fabric and the dishwasher??)

But how does it work for you when you've got the idea and want to write it? Not just jot it down, but actually make it part of your book?

I've posted here on writer's yoga and on creative visualization meditation(click on Creative Energy in the Pages Bar above), two of my favorite methods. A long brisk walk is another I like, and then there's playing the piano for a while. All seem to help with jump-starting the disciplined writing process. I'm always interested in what other writers find useful. So, what works for you? Do you do something particular each day to warm up for your writing time?

Viewpoint: Professional Editors Are Not Optional for Top Quality Novels

One of the first outward signs that some of the biggest traditional publishers were changing years ago was when they started pruning editors from their ranks of employees, apparently to cut costs. (This was back in the early '90s before e-publishing was any kind of threat to the bottom line, so it seems unlikely there was any connection there.) Perhaps editors, who once upon a time were the most revered people in publishing houses, became overabundant. But unfortunately, one result of reducing their numbers seemed to be fewer opportunities for mid list and debut authors in these big houses. The big authors still got full editing support, others not so much. Sound familiar? This trend has only accelerated over time.

It's very difficult for a publisher to take on projects that aren't already highly polished if they don't have editing staff to support them. As anyone who's tried to edit their own manuscript knows, it's a HUGE amount of work. There are layers and layers of editing, ranging from spelling, grammar, and punctuation, to tweaks of story arc and character integrity, to full character development and storyline revisions, requiring scene cutting, scene additions, and rewrites of chapters. This applies to the work of almost all writers, no matter how articulate they are. Editing is no place for sissies. Professional editors in publishing houses tend to have spent many years learning to be editors and typically have college degrees in editing or related subjects.

I believe it was a mistake for publishers to cut their editing staffs. It may have lowered their costs, but in the long run it made them less competitive. I also believe there isn't a substitute for quality editing when it comes to developing outstanding novels. So how can we get the editing we need to make our manuscripts topnotch if we don't have a publisher with great editing support?

We can hire editors ourselves, and many of us do exactly that. But most of us can't afford to pay the prices top professional editors charge (and deserve)—easily $2,000 for a 350-page manuscript, often twice that much, especially if the manuscript requires a lot of work. There's also the built-in potential for conflict of interest. An editor you are paying may not be entirely comfortable giving you in-depth, honest criticism and advice on your manuscript (especially if it's not as well-developed as you think it is, an all-too-common occurrence). This is often raised as an obstacle to objective editing by author-paid editors.

It's a complicated topic, but here's my viewpoint: we owe ourselves topnotch professional editing to make our novel the best it can be. If we've taken the manuscript as far as we possibly can, and truly believe in it, but are still not getting a sale to a publisher (or if we intend to publish independently) we need an excellent editor to help us put the final touches on it. 

What's your viewpoint? Do you hire professional editors? Do you think there's a good middle ground? Maybe great crit partners do enough? Or less expensive, less experienced editors who still provide valuable input? Or perhaps if the novel doesn't sell over a period of time, we should simply put it away and move on to a new project?

Kiersey Temperament Survey Identifies Who Reads What Genres; Says Reading "Still Strong"

The Kiersey Temperament organization is an interesting operation that identifies temperament types (personality types) through psychological testing and provides lots of detail on what these personalities are like.

One of the 'details' they've focused on recently is how much people like to read books. A major question they wanted answered was whether book reading is in decline. They also investigated what kinds of books are being read by what types of personalities. They surveyed over 3,300 people who've participated in their self-assessments over time, and came up with some interesting data.

It's great news that a large majority of respondents in the survey are avid readers who state that they will continue to be avid readers. (Did we ever really have any doubt?)

What's really interesting in this survey, though, is the breakout of what types of personalities like to read what genres of books. Fascinating to contemplate, and could be useful in shaping those marketing messages.

There are four basic temperament types, and four character types within each one of those. They are:

Guardians: cornerstone of society. Given to serving and preserving our most important social institutions. Guardian Character Types: Supervisor, Inspector, Provider, Protector

Idealists: passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Their quest for self-knowledge drives their imagination. Idealist Character Types: Teacher, Counselor, Champion, Healer

Rationals: the problem solvers. Rigorously logical and value competence and ingenuity above all. Rational Character Types: Fieldmarshall, Mastermind, Inventor, Architect

Artisans: want to be where the action is. Spontaneous, adaptable, and competitive, they believe today must be enjoyed. Artisan Character Types: Promoter, Crafter, Performer, Composer

Go here to see which genres are read by which temperament types.

And if you're interested in finding out where your own personality fits into the Kiersey paradigm, go here to take the temperament test and see which type you are. (It's really fun!)