The Opening: Part 2

Last week, we delved into some tips for writing an opening sentence. Now, we turn our attention to what we can learn from modern authors and the masters of the writing craft. While you may not be able to talk to Charles Dickens, he can talk to you.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” ~Charles Dickens’ opening for A Tale Of Two Cities.

This is one of the most repeated first sentences ever. It is not even the whole sentence. In an epic run-on Dickens adds: “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

What Dickens wants us to see and feel and learn and anticipate, we see and feel and learn and anticipate. So profound is his first sentence that even those who have not read the book can quote you those first few words. Even as we learn from Dickens’ craftsmanship we can take to heart what he did not: brevity is a virtue. Countless readers remember only the first portion of his sentence.

Not every book starts like A Tale of Two Cities. There are many ways to give the director’s call and capture the reader’s heart and soul.

The dramatic opening. This often utilizes nature to mimic the stormy or sweet or tense tone readers will uncover in the story.

“Thunder rippled across the frozen lake.” ~Jessie Mae Hodsdon’s opening for Issym.

The unassuming opening. It takes a soft approach, causing readers to lean into the very ordinary nature of the words.

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” ~Charlotte Bronte’s opening for Jane Eyre. This mild opening for a very dramatic novel causes readers to wonder, “What was there a possibility of?” So the bond between author and reader is secured. Only the book can answer the reader’s question.

“They moved with joint precision.” ~Jessie Mae Hodsdon’s opening for Asandra. Again, there is something quite ordinary about movement, but it also raises questions like, “Why are they precise?” “What makes them move jointly?” “Where are they going?”

The evident opening. In this style, there are no hidden questions, there is no lost meaning, and there is no imagery meant to parallel the pace of the book. This opening, as its name suggests, is evident.

“The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex.” ~Jane Austen’s opening for Sense and Sensibility.

“One strike of his sword after another, the youthful warrior barreled through his enemies.” ~Jessie Mae Hodsdon’s opening for Xsardis.

Readers know they will deal with the traditional Dashwoods in Sense and Sensibility and that they will see a medieval adventure take place in my own Xsardis. With unmistakable clarity, there is also a draw. We cut through all the fancy words and jump (in Austen’s work) to a traditional estate and (in my own novel) to a medieval battlefield. As a director’s call this leaves no room for losing readers, who are immediately forced on stage. It might, however, jar them.

The location opening. It is possible to arouse readers’ curiosity based on opening location alone. It is a risky move. If readers find the place uninteresting they will close the book, but, if they long to know more or have a traveler’s heart, this opening can be highly persuasive. Most readers long to go somewhere. That is why they read.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien’s opening for The Hobbit.

“Ho Chi Minh City in the summer.” ~ Eoin Colfer’s opening for Artemis Fowl.

The image of a creature living in a hole is captivating. It begs questions like “What kind of hole?” “What’s a hobbit?” “What was it doing in a hole?” “Will it leave the hole?” And while most kid readers knew nothing about Ho Chi Minh City when they first read Artemis Fowl, they thirsted to learn about a city with such a foreign title.

The problem opening. This opening names a problem from the start. It may not be the problem, but it will point to the climax that will unfold.

“‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,’ grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.” ~Louisa May Alcott’s opening for Little Women.

“When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it’s never good news.” ~Anthony Horowitz’s opening for Alex Rider: Stormbreaker.

The problems are clear: financial woes for our young heroine in Little Women and the impending doom faced by Alex in Stormbreaker. Such challenges arouse sympathy (even on the part of Jo’s drama, which doubles to show us a good deal of her character) and keep the reader browsing on.

The first-person opening. Books told in first-person carry with them unique strengths and unique challenges. Their opening sentences often ignore all location, all weather, all danger, and all other characters except the narrator. The goal is to give readers a glimpse at who they will be following through the novel and to generate sympathy for that narrator.

“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.” ~Rick Riordan’s opening for The Lightning Thief.

Such a comment makes us 1) feel sympathy for his unhappiness, 2) wonder what a ‘half-blood’ is, and 3) want to learn what events led him to wish he was not a ‘half-blood’. This makes for a powerful combo.

Opening styles abound. Most sentences are short; some are not. Most beg a question; others do not. In this article, you have read a run-on and a fragment, a quote and a narration, an imagery-filled opening and a blatantly-obvious opening. In this writer’s opinion, the truly talented authors focus on a moment in order to pull a reader toward the content of the book as a whole. Still, only one rule must be followed: make your reader want to uncover the adventure.

-Jessie Mae Hodsdon

The Opening: Part 1

Novel writers, you face an array of difficult tasks. Yet of all the words you write few are more vital or more challenging than those in the first sentence. It is a reader’s initial blush with who you are. Covers and summaries and introductions are all well and good, but the sentence that begins chapter one is like a director’s call to action. Fail to command attention and you lose the reader.

In a few words, you must pluck Average Joe from a bookstore in modern day America and place both his feet on the ground you imagined. In a world of smartphones chirping and media whiplash, how does an author steal away Joe’s mind from the troubles of his day and his plans for the night? With a lot of work.

As you get started here are some things to remember:

1) Try and try again. You will need to type out sentence after sentence after sentence until you find what feels right. This is most often not accomplished in one sitting. In fact, you may not finalize it until you have finished your novel.

2) Walk away. When you fail to start your book, do not immediately feel shame. If the first sentence is the hardest and most significant thing in your novel, then it is logical for it to remain unfinished until the book as a whole is complete. It shows wisdom and experience for you to walk away from the first sentence and come back to it later with enthusiasm.

3) Ask for help. Despite the self-reliant tendencies of most authors, there is great merit in asking for help. Find a good idea, then changed it to fit who you are as an author. You should also test your first sentence on a variety of readers. If it does not capture them, scrap it and start over.

4) Seize inspiration when it comes. Your inspiration for the first sentence may come years before you ever know the characters or write the book. Profound phrases fall into the minds of writes before bed or on the top of a roller coaster or while sitting in a movie theater. Write these outbursts of creativity in a specific place. Later you have a database to drawn from.

That list is all well-and-good, but the best writing instructors are writers themselves.  Next week, we will delve into what the masters and some modern authors can teach us.

-Jessie Mae Hodsdon

Chapters

     Chapters. They're the things that separate sections of stories into bearable bites--things that make a reader think, just one more, instead of stopping on a sentence. 

     Where should you end them?

     I feel that every author ends their chapters differently. A lot of writers end on a "break". They end where you would think that a chapter should end--somewhere that something has been completed, and somewhere that they can side into the next chapter with ease. However other writers, like myself, like to end on a revelation. This way the reader wants to read more--find out what happens next. But how should you end your chapters?

     There is basically one thing that you need in a section of writing to separate it from the other sections and call it a chapter:

     1.) Something has to be accomplished. If not, then chapters will just seem like breaks in order to have a break...like you, as the writer, forced them in there because you felt like you needed to. Have each chapter have a point to it. Do something productive--or unproductive if you're digging your protagonist into a hole--but do something.

     With either of the two examples of ending chapters, both end with having accomplished something. In the first example, something was obviously accomplished. In the second section, something was revealed, accomplished. As long as something that furthers the plot of your manuscript is completed during the duration of your chapter, then you've successfully reached the meaning of a chapter.

     How long should a chapter be?

     This is also very much so up to personal opinion. How long does it take you to have something important accomplished in your novel? For some people that might be ten pages, and for others it could be sixty. As a rule of thumb, have a big something, or a few little somethings get accomplished in the length of your chapter. If you find that you have an eighty-page chapter, then you might want to look into your novel and see if you conjoined large plot-revelations into one chapter. 

    And that's that! Chapter break. See you guys next week! (Figuratively, of course.) 

      -Elysia Regina

     

Options

     I was recently given the opportunity to write for an interesting company. They assign different project from magazines and the like, and then pay you to complete such projects. I am a fiction girl at heart. Ever since I was little, I wrote fiction. I would write stories about kittens that got lost in forests (unique, right?), and guys with frogs as companions that galloped across the countryside. I never wrote nonfiction, essays about panda bears or how-to articles for gardening. It was never my thing. When I was given this opportunity--I had queried magazines before--I wasn't sure what to think about it at first. I mean, it would be fantastic to make money writing anything, really, but did I really want to do it? I honestly wasn't sure. I love writing books, working on my characters and imagining new plot lines. So what should you do when you're faced with something like this?

     First of all, is it worth it? Sometimes you need to do things that aren't your number one favorite thing to do. Unfortunately, that's just life sometimes. Sometimes you need to do something that isn't your favorite in order to do something later that is your favorite. Is your time and effort with it, and would the outcome be something that you would want? 

     Will you hate it? I don't hate writing articles. Once I get into it, I actually really like it. It's something different and fun. I usually try to take an edge of humor to it, too, which I love. If you are faced with an option like this, think about whether or not you would hate the situation. Some things just aren't really worth your time. There's a difference between doing something that isn't your favorite, and doing something you hate. Doing something that isn't your favorite is slightly annoying. Doing something that you hate tears you down. 

     That said, don't do something that you hate. In the end, unless it's for an extremely short amount of time, it probably won't do you any good. In my case, I am going to pursue the job. I think that it's a good opportunity to get my name out there before I publish my book, and also make a little money doing so. Weigh your options in a choice like this, because time is precious! 

 -Elysia Regina

Publishing 6: The Vanity Press

Somewhere in the land between the self publisher and the professional publisher lies the vanity press. Clouded in murky fog, they lure unsuspecting authors into their trap.

Let me preface my forceful opinion on the vanity press by reminding you that I enjoy my work in publishing. Not everyone does. While I believe the vanity press to be a waste of money, many find it to be an appealing option.

The vanity press, also called a co-publisher and a duel-publisher, offers you a deal. They only accept certain novels, making them feel legitimate. Allowing you to use their name as a publisher, they provide printing and some distribution. In return, you do all the writing, all the editing (unless you pay for that option), all the cover design (unless you pay for that option too), all the marketing, 97% of the distribution, AND you invest 100% of the costs. Then, when it comes time for profit, they take a percentage of your sale price.

Now, it certainly is nice to work with people who are used to publishing. They may well know a few ins and outs of distribution and cover design. Yet the truth is that this blend of self-publishing and professional-publishing only serves to strip you of the money you deserve. When you are paying percentages to a vanity press it becomes ten times harder to make back your money. Remember, you already invested in the printing—along with a slew of other costs.

Furthermore, these vanity presses work with hundreds, maybe thousands, of clients. Professional publishers have invested money in you. They have a reason to promote you. Their livelihood depends on yours. Not so with vanity presses. They have nothing to lose by letting your novel rust in their warehouse. They have already taken the largest part of their cut.

Unfortunately, there are some real sharks in the water (to continue the metaphor of the previous posts in this series). Vanity presses may tote ‘Christian’ in their title as a way to appeal to a group who often chooses to self-publish. They may well be Christian, but that does not mean your novel will become the next Shack or that they will do anything beyond the contract you sign. So read carefully.

Contrary to our excitable common opinion, vanity publishing does not carry the same weight as professional publishing. You still get your name out in print, but do not be fooled into thinking it makes you as appealing to a publishing company as an author who has been published by a professional company.

While these are all drawbacks to the use of the vanity press, it may still be a good option for you. If professional publishers have turned you down, if self publishing is beyond your reach, then it is certainly better to have your words in print by the vanity press than not at all. Pursue your dreams! Just do it carefully.

-Jessie Mae Hodsdon

3 Ways to Meet Your Goals

    In case you guys didn't notice, last week I didn't post. Really sorry about that! I had my wisdom teeth removed and wasn't feeling up to doing much of anything. Ever been there? Yeah, it isn't very fun. Anyway, this week I'll be talking about goals and how to meet them.

     Goals are something that most people set--whether it be financial goals, daily goals, or writing goals. There's something about setting a goal that makes you feel motivated to get something accomplished, right? By setting a goal, you are basically telling yourself that you better get something done by a certain time, or you've failed yourself. Here are three ways to meet and accomplish your goals.

     1.) Set a Realistic End Date.

     Something about setting goals is that they have to be realistic. It isn't that you shouldn't set high goals for yourself, or that you shouldn't make goals that are hard to meet, but that you should make things relatively realistic for yourself or you'll get discouraged. Here's something that you can follow for meeting goals.

• If you set a high goal for yourself, say, "write 500 pages", make an end date that is realistic to that goal. 
• If you have a less dramatic goal, like "write 100 pages", set a shorter end date. I suggest a month.

     If you set a month goal for 500 pages, then you'll probably stressing yourself out all month to try to write that much. Be realistic with yourself.

     2.) Be Consistant

          If your goal is a month--let's take the "100 pages" example--then write every day. If you don't write every day, then that 3.5 pages will soon turn into 7 a day, then over 10, and so on. Write every day and be consistant with yourself so that you don't get discouraged. When I did NaNoWriMo last November (National Novel Writing Month), I had to be consistant with myself. The goal is 50,000 words in a month, and whenever I skipped a day or two, I would have much more to write on the day that I did write, than if I had just written every day. I met my goal of 50,000 words (woohoo!), but it would have been easier if I had never let my days compile and had just written every day. Be consistant.

     3.) Tell Other People About Your Goals

          Another way to meet your goals is to tell others about them. I don't know about all of you, but I very much so like proving people wrong about things that they think about me--like people thinking that I couldn't write 50,000 words in a month. I like proving to people that I'm more than what they think I am. I don't know why this is so, but it's a good way to get myself motivated if other people know about my goals. If others know and I don't meet my goal,  not only did I fail myself, but I also failed all of those people that I told about my goal, and proved those that thought I couldn't do it right. Tell others about your goals.

     Lastly, don't get discouraged if you don't meet a goal. Right now on my main blog, JustaTeenWriting, I am doing a series called "Blog 50 Books". I set myself the goal of reading a book and writing a review every week. Sadly I've been doing really badly at meeting this goal. But here's the thing: Sometimes you might not meet your goals, but don't let this get you down. Either make more realistic goals for yourself, or re-plan. Make goals that you can keep and make them happen. After saying that, I think that I'd better complete my Blog 50 Books goal. See how I told you guys? Now I'll make it happen.

 -Elysia Regina

4 Things to do When You Find a Lemon

     Last week we discussed how to recognize you are reading a book you secretly don’t like and shouldn’t read (4 Ways to Realize You are Reading a Lemon). This week we’re going to take that one step further and focus on what to do when this happens.

1.      Start skimming

     Sometimes a book just has a slow spot and once you get past it things will speed up. Start by skimming a few pages to get the gist of the story. It may catch you back up or you may go through 50 pages in 5 minutes. Either way you will either re-discover a book you do like or you finish a book you didn’t in record time and you still know what happened.

2.      Know it’s okay to not finish

     This one is so hard for me because it doesn’t seem right to not finish a book. If I’m going to pick a book up then I am promising to finish it at least that is how it seems. Yet this is not true. By trying to hold myself to that standard I can make reading stop being fun and then where will I be? It’s better to love to read than to finish every book you’ve started, so it is completely okay to not finish all the books you start.

3.      Read the last page

     If you’re like me you may have an uncontrollable desire to know what happens. I may not care about the characters or the plot, but I have to know what happens at the end. Reading the last page quenches that thirst. Sometimes reading the last page can make me want to give the book a second chance, other times it frees me to move on to the other books on my pile.

4.      Read something else

     There are some times when the only option is to just start reading something else. You may not like the book enough to skim or care enough to read the last page and that’s okay. Not all books are meant to be read by you. As an author there are times when I would prefer someone not read my books than to read them and misunderstand them or just not get them. I’ve met people who’ve expressed interest in reading my books, but inside I know they are not the type of reader I was writing for and if they manage to make it through my book they won’t really get it. So it’s okay to not read a book. Find the kinds of books you like and will make you want to read and major on those. Yes, do read outside of that every now and then. You never know when you will find a new favorite genre, but don’t feel trapped by the books you read.

     This whole post is meant to encourage you to read more. If there is anything that keeps you from wanting to read, then get rid of it. Reading should be fun and exciting, wonderful and beautiful. So tell me what books have you absolutely fallen in love with! Maybe you’ll give me a new favorite too!

-Christina J. Adams