More About Openings

More About Openings

I was rereading the opening chapters of the new book over the weekend (actually, the whole thing so far is opening chapters), and thinking about beginnings. Advice from far more successful authors than I encourage openings where something happens. Dialogue is action. Narration is passive. I posted my draft first page earlier, and I thought I’d done a halfway decent job of making sure there was something going on.

When I looked at the second scene, it was as if I didn’t have t...