"It was a dark and stormy night," has
almost become a joke for the opening of a novel. What made me think of opening
sentences/paragraphs of books this morning?
I'd just finished reading Livia on my
Kindle and opened the Entanglement. The first line was "So what do
we have on him?"
It reminded me of a blog I did from a combination of
newsletters I sent to writers around the world and a column that used to appear in an English
writer's magazine.
I immediately want to know what they did have
on him.
First impression, first lines are often what
make me go onto the second paragraph, the third, the 1,082nd etc.
I need to decide on my first line on the book
I'm working on now. Should it be "Oatmeal molasses bread" or a
rewrite of "Annie Young-Perret fell asleep to rain beating on the roof.
She dreamt about cookies and warring families, seeds planted by her agent about
the assignment she would begin in the morning." It needs to be reworked. Rain beating on the roof is a dark stormy night beginning.
Granted dark and stormy nights and rain beating
both ground the setting, but its weak.
I think of some of my favourite book
openings.
"On a hot midsummer morning, after over
sixteen years of marriage, Jane MacKenzie saw her husband fifty feet away and
did not recognize him."
Alison Lurie TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
“Friday January 1st 1960 (New Year’s Day) How
on earth can I get rid of David?”
Colleen McCullough ANGEL
Colleen McCullough ANGEL
“Mary, you will regret this.”
Elizabeth Goudge SCENT OF WATER
Sometimes I can write a 1,000 words in a short time. Words pour out of my fingers onto the keyboard. Other times, it can take a morning to get a paragraph the way I want.
Then I think of some of my own openings that I slaved
over.
“I’m in love with a chickpea named Peter.”
CHICKPEA LOVER NOT A COOKBOOK
"Hilke Fulmer often wondered if she'd been
born into the wrong family." MURDER IN INSEL POEL.
"The card came today."
THE CARD
"Holding her breath, Leach inched past the two double beds and spindly writing desk with gold leaf drawn in a thin line along its curvy stick legs." RUNNING FROM THE PUPPET MASTER
"Mark set up in bed. His mother screamed. And again. Hi father yelled. He couldn't make out the words. It didn't matter. It was always the same." FAMILY VALUE
The smell of burning wood and wool floated through the air. Then the odor of human flesh wafted in the mixture." MURDER IN GENEVA
"Life be what it be. I used to thinks nothing can be changed. That be before the Massa Edward brought his wife to Two Pines." MURDER IN CALEB'S LANDING
"YOU FORBID IT?" MURDER IN PARIS
I'm using this blog to procrastinate rewriting that bloody opening. No more...I'll bring up the document now...or maybe I'll get a cup of tea...
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2 comments:
I've developed a different system when I am considering a book and deciding whether I want to read it. As well as looking at the plot synopsis (or starting to and then stopping when it is obviously giving too much away) I turn to page 55. I then start at the top of the page and, if I can read to the bottom without it jarring, I am pretty confident that I can read the book without being annoyed by the writer's style.
I do look at the beginning as well, but I think you are proving what I thought - writer's work long and hard on the opening to grab the reader. The page 55 test checks whether they keep it up! You can pick any page, just use it consistently - I find page 55 is near enough the beginning to be unlikely to give spoilers.
I love the idea of turning to a middle page and you're right about keeping up the writing throughout which is why writers write many drafts and rework rework rework.
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