Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "first-lines"
Starting a Book
No, this is not a new project. It is one started and abandoned due to a major plot glitch. The glitch is solved so now the project is on track, maybe.
Perhaps I am odd but the most important part of writing a book or paper for me is coming up with that first sentence. I jot down plot ideas. I make out character sketches. I map out settings. [And I didn't know I was a plotter? A bit dense perhaps.]
From these I can write a first rough draft but it feels flat. It struggles. Something is missing.
But my reading is that way too. The first paragraph is critical. It sets the tone for the entire book for me. If I like it, if it fits, I slide into the book and roll on through it.
This third book in the Hazel Whitmore series has the first half of a draft written. The opening is flat, dull. It's interesting and eventful but doesn't grab me, it doesn't fit.
Where do good first lines come from? I don't know exactly. Perhaps that is why they are so hard for me to come up with.
My first lines seem to require me knowing the plot outline, the characters and the settings. Somehow these meld together becoming a story. And there is the first line.
The one for the third Hazel book? "You will pay." Hazel held the note she found in her locker in her hand reading and rereading it.
Perhaps I am odd but the most important part of writing a book or paper for me is coming up with that first sentence. I jot down plot ideas. I make out character sketches. I map out settings. [And I didn't know I was a plotter? A bit dense perhaps.]
From these I can write a first rough draft but it feels flat. It struggles. Something is missing.
But my reading is that way too. The first paragraph is critical. It sets the tone for the entire book for me. If I like it, if it fits, I slide into the book and roll on through it.
This third book in the Hazel Whitmore series has the first half of a draft written. The opening is flat, dull. It's interesting and eventful but doesn't grab me, it doesn't fit.
Where do good first lines come from? I don't know exactly. Perhaps that is why they are so hard for me to come up with.
My first lines seem to require me knowing the plot outline, the characters and the settings. Somehow these meld together becoming a story. And there is the first line.
The one for the third Hazel book? "You will pay." Hazel held the note she found in her locker in her hand reading and rereading it.
