Sorry for the blog silence--Joanna is out of the office this week, and my immune system decided to take a vacation as well. Excellent timing, no?
But I thought I'd leave you with a fun thing to do to both celebrate the end of the fabulous WriteOnCon (I hope you all had as much fun as we did) and the beginning of a fabulous weekend.
So. If you haven't heard of Pimp of Novel, it's an excellent blog written from the sales perspective of the publishing industry, and I will wait right here while you go check it out. On Wednesday, there was an interesting guest post concerning the opening lines of novels, and what makes them work. What it boiled down to:
"If these many sentences have anything in common, it’s that they alert us that something special is going on: that the writer is in control."
(And check out the rest of the post here: http://pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/2010/08/guest-post-what-makes-good-first.html)
In control. Meaning, the reader opens the book, and immediately feels that he or she is in the firm grip of a storyteller. Something is about to happen, a story is about to start, and you need to be there when it does. That's what keeps us all turning the pages.
I have a few favorite opening lines, but Little Women is in my top five: "'Christmas won't be Christmas without presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." Time of year, setting, voice, and a good idea of what kind of situation we're stepping into, all in one line.
I'd love to hear some of yours! And while you're digging up a favorite, I'd also start brainstorming some brand new opening lines for a little contest we're having on Monday...
Happy weekend, everyone!
2 comments:
Eric does have a great blog, thanks for sharing ... was this Nancy?
Hopefully you're feeling better and Joanna is rested up after her week off! Opening lines huh? Humm… I'll have to start thinking up a few. I hadn't heard of Pimp My Novel. Thanks for the tip. I'm off to check it out!
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