By admin | March 2, 2008 - 10:52 pm - Posted in Liner Notes
The first line of any story is the most important.
People get drawn in to a book because of the first line.
Brandon, Howard and Dan talk about how to start a book and what’s important about the first line.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Liner Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[…] It’s Monday, and that means another installment of Writing Excuses is live. This time around, Brandon grills Dan and I on “first lines,” the importance of hooking the reader, and why he worries that this gets too much emphasis when aspiring writers seek instruction on the craft. Have a listen to Episode Four: Beginnings. […]
So, can the hook be in the first few sentences? Instead of the very first line?
A good hook probably would be in the first few sentences. You don’t need to throw a one-liner, or grab people with a stunning first sentence.
any plans to create transcripts of these chats someday? I’m deaf so I can’t hear the podcasts.
@Steven: We don’t have plans to do that, and I’m pretty sure none of us have time, but it’s possible a transcription could be arranged.
Lauren:
One of the points we were trying to make here is that your book ought to open with a hook, but you shouldn’t really worry about that hook until after the fact. Think of it as a marketing rather than a literary decision: finish writing your entire novel and THEN go back to the beginning and ask yourself “what is the best way to open this book?” If the answer is “a zinger in the first line,” do that. If the answer is “a strong introduction of the conflict somewhere on the first page,” do that. There are plenty of other answers, too; every book is different.
…So, what is the first line of Neuromancer?
Ok, I did remember it correctly…I looked it up to be sure… “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
Eh. Its alright. I just wondered.
I’m willing to make a transcript. I’m not a font of time myself, but I already took a few notes on the earlier ones. I type fast, so it might not take me much time.
I’ll just go ahead and make one for episode 4 anyway and see how long it takes me. If it isn’t too much trouble, I can go back to episode 1 and go from there.
Thanks, Matthew!
If you’ll email the transcript to one of us, we can post it on the site here where it’s easy to find, and will remain archived with the podcasts themselves.
–Howard (… dot tayler at gmail dot com)
One problem with the transcript is that I am still completely unused to your voices and I have my own hearing problem regarding processing. I can get all your words, but sometimes the voices run together. However, I assume that one of you can put in the right names if I get them wrong or leave it blank.
Thanks for your help. I really enjoy these podcasts! Maybe I’ll get to meet some of you sometime since I live in Orem, UT.
Lauren
What about prologues? That might be a can of worms, but I was hoping you would talk about it during the podcast and it never came up. When is a prolgue appropriate, and when is it extraneous?
I’ve put up a summary of this episode at
http://mbarker.livejournal.com/62405.html
Hope it helps
Really like this podcast
Just pimped it on the blog. I got a book to review the other day with a hook that I thought was brilliant.
It’s by Lauren Groff, from The Monsters of Templeton:
“The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace,the fifty foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.”
Tres cool. Maybe you could do a show on names … or maybe not, now that I think of it, how would you approach the subject?! Could be difficult.
Best wishes,
~Chris