Beyond the First Sentence. Elements of a Strong Opening Scene

Readers around the world have heard it a thousand times: Hook the reader on the first line or lose them forever. And so, we fret over that first sentence. We dread it and we love it. We write it a hundred times and erase it a hundred and one. Most writers are never completely satisfied with their writing in general, oh, but that first line will give us nightmares.

Thing is, there are very few memorable opening lines in literary history. Even with the abundance of classics and well written, award winning stories. Contrary to what has been drilled into our heads, readers will go beyond the first line, and they'll stay with you if your whole opening is promising enough...

So, how to craft an enticing opening? I recently came across Les Edgerton's book, Hooked. It is an easy to follow, light read with a ton of great advice for writers, beginners and experienced alike.

I don't know you, but I started writing empirically, meaning I followed the example set by those authors I admired. I knew the elements of a good story because I had read many, but I couldn't necessarily name them. This book helped me do just that. It helped me grab concepts that before were ethereal to me and suddenly I could see things I hadn't seen before. For example, two of my stories where in a state of limbo. Even though I had told the story I wanted to tell, they seemed incomplete. Something was missing and I just didn't know what. Well Les Edgerton changed that.

While I will share with you some of that knowledge I found helpful, in no way am I sharing all there is to this book. If you find this article helpful, I cannot be emphatic enough: Get the Book. You won't regret it.

So here we go...

Every novel, short story, or flash fiction is composed of three basic elements:

The Inciting Incident: A single event or action that starts the domino effect of situations that'll drive the plot forward. This incident (In Titanic, for example, Rose's suicide attempt) will generate a...

Surface Problem: Resolving this problem is the final goal of your main character (Jack's interested in her, but even worse, she's interested in him). This is the motor that drives the whole story, and it must give us an inkling of the...

Story-Worthy Problem: This is the psychological inner workings of the character. At first the MC doesn't know what lies at the root of his/problems, but as he tries to solve the Surface Problem, the real, psychological problem becomes evident. (Rose lives under the control of her mother and husband-to-be. If she's to be ever happy, she needs to become the owner of her life.)

So, and this is where the real trick lies, a successful opening will show the reader in one single scene that inciting incident; it'll make it clear, or fairly clear, what the MC's motive will be; and it'll foreshadow the inner demons behind him/her cool facade.

Interesting, right?

Because scenes can be quite long and this is a blog, not a book, I won't include other examples, but go ahead, open any book you want and search for those elements. See them? Great, now pay attention at how the author weaved them seamlessly into the opening scene. Quite the trick, I know. And now's your turn to try.

For more examples of these elements and others, grab a copy of Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go.

4 Writerly Tips From Hemingway

Writing is a private affair. Everyone has a personal style and what inspires you might be downright distracting to another. That's why I usually take every 'how to do' list with a grain of salt. However, reading this insightful work of Hemingway's stroke a cord with me in several different ways. His personna came alive to me and I could feel him, also there were a couple of points that I think I should follow. They work with my style and would help improving my connection to my stories, therefore improving my ability (however reduced) to tell them better.

So, hoping you will find your own discoveries in his words, I share with you just a few of my favorite tips in his own words.

1. To get started, write one true sentence.

"Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, [...] I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written."

2. Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next.

"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that everyday when you are writing a novel, you will never be stuck."

3. Never think about the story when you're not working.

"That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start."

4. When it's time to work again, always start by reading what you've written so far.

"The best way is to read it all every day from the start, correcting as you go on from where you stopped the day before. When it gets so long you can't do this every day read back two or three chapters each day; then each week read it all from the start. That's how you make it all of one piece."

So there you go. There are much more words of wisdom in this book but I cut it to the four that spoke to me the most. Which has been the advise that has touch you the most? Doesn't have to be Hemingway, it could be your hubby, friend, or mom. Share it if you like, I'm always open to wisdom no matter the form.

Enjoy the first weekend of spring! However cold and frozen it may be... =)

Time for a Break?

Summer is finally over, school is back and with it a sense of order returns to our lives. At least for mothers and fathers it does, anyway. We look at our messy house and sigh a sigh of relieve. We survived the insufferable attack of our kids under the influence of too much leisure time, too much sugar, and heat waves. We greet our old friend Silence as we sit at our desks and open our computers, ready to retake control of our writerly dues.

With this welcome change of pace comes another Insecure Writers meeting, and how wonderful! I could actually hear my thoughts as I mulled over what route to take for this latest installment. Given that I haven't been able to write much lately, I decided to talk about rejection. When is it time to pull the plug on a story and let it go into the archives labeled as 'For Future Analysis?"

I have three short stories I considered finished by the beginning of summer. In fact, two of those I've been trying to publish for a little over four months; for the last piece, a Flash Fiction, although I finished it over a year ago, it's only recently that I decided I was interested in publishing it. So far I've garnered four rejection letters for the shorts and both are presently being considered by a fifth mag. No word on weather they have already read them and are thinking about it, or if they're still on the slush pile. You know how it goes.

The flash, though, I only submitted to two publications. Both rejected it, but the latest was awesome enough to actually write back with a series of commentaries as to why they had found the story wasn't up to their standards. It was so good and refreshing! Finally someone telling me what I'm doing wrong, at least to their eyes. After reading their mail, I re-read my piece, thought about it, considered their words, and found out there was so much more I could do to make the story better. Before submitting the story I had send it to a reader to get feedback, but still I guess I was too close to the story to notice many of its shortcomings. Now I'm now working on it, polishing it for a new round of queries.

Then, about the other two... A few months ago I came across a publication called The Rejected Quarterly which mission, they state, is to publish unusual fiction that doesn't fit anywhere else. The first requirement? Have at least five rejection letters for the piece you are submitting to them. My plan is to query both stories at least two more times (provided that this fifth time isn't the charm), then submit them to Rejected Quarterly, and if rejected again, file them for good.

I don't mean to let those stories gather dust forever and ever, but to let them rest a few years as my skills develop further and I become less attach to them. When I feel like it's the time to give them a new chance, or I have no new ideas (it can happen), then I'll revise them and make them pretty all over again.

I don't think a story is ever truly dead. It tugs at you to be told and weather you let it lay dormant for sometime, or you choose to tell in a whole different way, it will always find its way out of your mind. What do you think? How many rejections are enough for you? What do you do with those stories? I've always heard that you should let your stories breath between drafts to get a better perspective of them. I give three to six months before I go back to a story to work on a second draft, maybe I should leave more time. What do you think?

Your Support System, Cheerleaders vs Peer Support?

When I started down this path of embracing the writer within me I had no idea of what I needed or where to begin. My husband had been bugging me about giving it a try when he finally gave me a 'Writing for Dummies' book as a present. I read it, not too happily, though, because I didn't think it'd be of any help, but I didn't want to break my hubby's heart so I went along with it. It didn't take long before I grabbed a yellow marker. I learned things like what is a blurb or the 'normal' length of a novel. You see, I've always read but I never payed attention to details like those; but from all the content in those pages, time has revealed to me this three recommendations as crucial:

Subscribe to a writer's magazine. This is a way of acknowledging yourself as a writer. Whenever you receive your copy in the mail, you feel this great excitement inside of you that says 'Hell, yes! I'm a writer!'. It also will help you learn a hundred other things of how the industry works, and what an agent is expecting from you.

Get a support group. You need outside encouragement, someone besides yourself who knows you as a writer and will help you through the good times and the rough times.

Find a critique partner. Some other person that will read whatever you wrote and give you honest feed back. I always thought of it like a sort of 'quality control'.

As soon as I finished the book, I ran out the door and bought a whole bunch of magazines and soon after, I was pounding the keyboard of my computer. I enlisted my husband as the quality control manager and didn't even bother about the support group, since I already had my whole family as nice cheerleaders screaming their heads off from the sidelines. Of course, I then realized writing a novel implies a lot more than what that simplistic book had taught me, however I recognize it gave me the confidence to start. And that's no small achievement at all.

As I went on with my resolution, I came across an article in Writer's Digest, my selected magazine, that abounded on the support group theme. "It is not a cheerleader group consisting on members of your family", it said. Wait, say what? I thought I had this figured out! Well, it turned out you do need someone yelling from the sidelines to help you through the tough times, however, all your family and friends can do is give you love. Very important, indeed, but not enough if you're striving for quality and qualified opinions.

I thought about it for a few weeks and then went to the interment --where else-- to find more authors and try to connect. It has been some time since then and I've met some great people, among them the talented writers that make the Novel Publicity Group. I'm now part of several writer's groups, and the amount of help and advice I've gotten from these groups is impossible to describe. I do believe they've made of me a better writer, and I can't imagine any author going without one.

In this times where Internet makes everything so accessible, it is even easier to connect, so don't underestimate the importance of networking. You never know what amazing person you might find who can touch your art and change it for the better.

As for a critique parter, my husband's still on the payroll --well, not really. I don't pay him--, but I'm actively looking for another, more literarily savvy, partner to bring a new flavor to the concoction. 

My advice to you would be, find someone who will tell you how it is. A little sensitivity is nice, but he has to be able to tell you if your story sucks or if it's hard to read without fearing she'll be instantenously smitten. So I'd say the key word here is 'Trust'. And it has to go both ways.

So go on, my fellow writers; let's mingle and help each over. Oh, and never stop writing.

If you want more writerly advise, go to the Insecure Writer's Support Group page. You might even want to stay. =)

Sales Agent

A few weeks have gone by since my first novel was published. At first I had no idea of what to expect or how these things work; I was kind of expecting that adds would appear in magazines right away, there'd be critics posting its opinion in a few media and if I was really lucky, maybe doing an interview or a signing of books... you know what I mean: SELLING MY BOOK.

Well, as things work out, it is a lot slower than I thought. The adds that have been already paid are supposed to appear printed in march, a few copies will be send soon to specific targets like critics, news, magazines and small libraries; and a possible, and I repeat POSSIBLE signing of books might happen some time in august... a whole six months after the book's being available in libraries...

BTW, did I forget to tell you I live in Canada and my editor in Ohio??? Yeah, that's right. Now I'm confronted with a situation in which I have to find the time to learn how to promote a book on my own and learn the ropes not only of a writer, but as my own agent here in Montreal. All these of course, when like everybody else, the one thing I have not is TIME. Anyway, there's agencies that are dedicated to this but the other thing I don't have is money; and then, here I am looking through several newspapers trying to figure out who should I call and how should I let them know about my novel. Trust me, it'd be a daunting task for the ablest and I'm the kind of person who is unable to sell water in the desert. What more can I say but: HELP! Anyone out there that could lend me a hand or that has any ideas as to where to go or who to call, I'll be forever in your debt.

I hope little by little word of mouth will mount up as more people in the real world gets in contact with the book; and as my Publishing House grows, it will bring more exposition to the novel. With a bit of luck I'll get out of this not with a bestseller, but with a decent-seller and a lot more knowledge. Wish me luck!

Writing in Numbers

It's been a while since I wrote last. Finally time caught up with me and much as I ran I couldn't escape it, my french course started last week. It's quite interesting and I have to confess I'm enjoying it, though it has been hard to put up with eight hours of not understanding much. The worst part by far is that I had forgotten how tiresome school is and after university, I still have a house to clean and a family to take care of, forget about a writing career. I haven't been this busy in a long time. For now, I'm managing school, taking care of my two little girls, and cooking, cleaning... you know what I mean. On top of all that I'm still trying to write at least three pages per day but it's quite a frustrating exercise when your mind hangs up on you and all you produce are lifeless conversations and uninspired prose.

In any case, before the hectic days began I tried to write as much as I could to have something to work on while I got used to the new rhythm and feel more comfortable. I proudly state that I managed to finish a short story, (4000 wd) called "Francis" that I sent to a Short Fiction Contest; I got the rough basics of a second short story that it's in the works, and I finished the first draft of a not-so-short story (12000 wd).

Well, this last work posed a bit of trouble for me, I didn't know what market, if any, there was for it and for a moment I thought it would become a personal exercise with no hope for publishing. You see, I started writing in what, I felt, was a genre I was familiar with but there were things I'd never paid attention beforehand, like the length of the books and stories I read. I was resigned to leave this piece behind but, unwilling to find myself in this position once again, I decided to turn to the greatest source of information in this century: The Net.

After a short day of research I came out with more understanding of what was expected of me in each area and genre; it also reminded me just how much I don't know in this, my chosen field of work. It turns out that there's a name for every piece of work one does, that doesn't make it any more sellable, though. Here, I'll share with you what little knowledge I've gain on the subject.

An average page of a novel contains more or less 300 words, 250 if there's dialogue; keep that in mind when reading the following.

A work of up to 100 words is called Micro Fiction; this kind of story is becoming increasingly popular among magazines, though it is complex to write and do it well.

A piece that has between 100-1000 words is called Flash Fiction; extremely popular since long, it's the perfect work to put in Cosmo magazine as short romance or as a short comedy in a Men's magazine.

Now, from 1000-7500 words you'd call them Short Stories. These, you all know very well since they've carved a space in literary and film history.

A Novellette is the story that is anything from 7500-20K words-long. Alas, a name for my baby! But the good news stop there. These kind of pieces are the hardest to publish since most magazines consider them too long, and most publishers won't find it profiting enough to pony up with the cost of printing and marketing for a book whose point price has to be low. This work does better when put together with other pieces in a Compilation Novel.

The new electronic market has made popular a different kind of book called Novella. This work is 20K-50K words-long and fits perfectly with most e-readers' expectations; it offers a growing market with great promise for those with no interest of seeing their stories in print.

Finally, every genre of Novel has it's own especificities but in general a work that contains something between 50K-110K is acceptable. Epics and Secuels run even longer.

There it is, in a nutshell, what most writers should know about what editors and publishers are looking for, besides riveting stories. Back to my own work, I've called the Novellette "Perpetual Night" and I sent it to some friends; in general it got good reviews but it clearly needs more work. Right now I'm revising it and as soon as this weekend I'll start editing. My goal is to finish it before nov 30 because a publication has asked for such kind of work and the deadline is the end of the month.

I foresee many sleepless nights before I see it through but, if it gets selected everything will be worthwhile.

Wish me luck friends. I'll keep you posted!

Developing a Story

My first short story is going along pretty well, I haven't finished the first draft but I'm advancing at a pretty steady pace and close to that goal. What I want to share with you today is the creative process I've developed as I find my way in this career; I'd also loved it if you shared yours with me, as it might inspire me to tune mine even further.

When I began with the novel, as I posted in a previous entry, I didn't know quite well how to tackle the process of creating an interesting plot and appealing characters; I thought I could start writing and everything would fall in place as I told the story. Truth be told, it is nearly impossible to tell a compelling story when all you got is bits of pieces of it; so, after my first total failure I started writing down my ideas; and I mean pen and paper, no computer. My mind works better when I put in paper everything, weather I'm developing my newest novel hero or making a grocery list; there's something about doing it the old way that makes it more graphic and clearer in my mind.

I realized that the characters I had found the most interesting as a reader were those going through an ordeal, those who are overcoming adversity in some way; for example, if there were no animosity between the families, Romeo and Juliet wouldn't be a memorable story; had it not been for the fact that he is a vampire and she is a human, Twilight would be just another teen book. In order to make a story interesting, you have to make it complicated... at least in romance.

First I came with the outline of the novel, the main characters, their state of mind at the beginning of the story, their motivations and the complications they'd have to conquer. I'm telling a family story too, so, I also had to create a family tree, a background to it, and the interactions between them. Since I'm planning a series of books, my characters will have to mature as time goes on and I risked making them illogical as I needed them to do something; my way of avoiding this was to create a "Script", one for each important character, where I describe their personality; that way I have somewhere to look when I need to find someone with the right attitude or motivation to react in a particular way.

Finally, I imagine new plots and characters, but places and the details of them come harder to me; so I went to the internet and looked through tons of pictures of houses and landscapes until I found those where I could picture the events of the novel.

The whole process took like three weeks and was tedious at times but, once I went back to the writing, it proved to be worth it and I'm sure to repeat it in the future; as I did with the short story. I'm also sure that as I know better what I need in order to create a more rounded story, my research will be more limited to what I'll really use and shorter in time.

Next time I hope I'll be telling you all about my research into the most rewarding conclusion for anyone in this career, publishing. I'm already looking for magazines interested in new writers, since I'm about to finish that cherished first work. I'll tell you all about it next time.