Back Story in First Pages
Back story is part of the set-up a writer needs to establish in those first pages. But how much back story do you need? The answer is—not much. You need only the information that is essential to understand the story your are telling. Remember, your first pages are there to entice your reader to continue turning the pages. Don’t bog them down with back story in those important first paragraphs and pages. Keep it sparse. Clean. Get your reader asking questions. Don’t answer them—not yet, anyway. Go through your first pages and highlight all your backstory in yellow. Then return to those highlighted sentences and analyze them. Does this information need to be introduced right here or could you save it for later? Or try deleting the back...
Read MoreThe Importance of Setting in First Pages
My second component for effective first pages is set up, including that all important setting. Setting grounds your readers. Until my minds grasps some feel for where we are in time and place, it can’t engage with the story. Setting doesn’t always have to be where you are in the world, sometimes it can be something as simple as the coffee cup you are holding in your hand, the sounds of traffic outside on the street, and the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. A woman straightening her hat and anchoring it in place with a hat pin will place your character in a much different time than a woman bending over to tie the laces of her running shoes. Writers often put in too much setting or not enough. You don’t need a lot to anchor your reader,...
Read MoreWriting the Hook
Saturday’s post was about the three important components of beginning pages. (See blog archives if you missed it.) Today I would like to give more information about creating a good hook. Many craft books tell us to begin with the inciting incident. This doesn’t mean there has to be intense action in the beginning lines. Do you know that some of the most intriguing hooks are created with a provocative statement? Author Barbara Robinette Moss does this in the beginning paragraph of her memoir, Change Me Into Zeus’s Daughter. Mother spooned the poisoned corn and beans into her mouth, ravenously, eyes closed, hands shaking. There is no sense of place in this first line. No wild action. But the sentence pulls us in, hooks us with its words. We...
Read MoreThree Requirements of an Effective First Page
During my MFA program at Pine Manor College in Boston, I spent an entire semester studying the opening pages of novels and memoirs. I read at least a hundred books and finally concluded that effective opening pages must possess the following: 1) The hook—that great line or two that entices the reader to continue; 2) The setup, which includes setting, back-story, introduction of characters and foreshadowing; 3) The conflict—or as some call it, the opening action which sets up the initial surface problem and ultimately the yearning, the emotion that drives the story. If you rework your openings to include the above, you’ll be on the way to publication. You don’t have to do it all with your first try. That’s why we edit our work. Go back into...
Read MoreWriting About Place – Dinty W. Moore Style
This was Dinty W Moore’s facebook status today–“Whatever the writer is tackling, ultimately the work is about the self. So in travel writing, for instance, it is not enough to say “I went there, and it was exotic.” I want to see a personal connection, feel why a place got under a certain writer’s skin. If the piece is about a childhood incident, I want to be inside of that memory, not outside watching the writer remember it.”
Read MoreAnother Chicken Soup Call-out
Chicken Soup for the Soul has posted a new call-out for stories about faith. To view the post, follow this link: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=53b363e32d5aba22886ccd85d&id=96c26923cf&e=b5ff15eb09 I think Chicken Soup is one of the best publishing avenues out there for personal essays. They pay well, you receive ten copies of the book you have been published in (great gifts for family members) and it is a great addition to your bio. Please click on the above link and sit down for a few minutes to brainstorm ideas. You just might have the right story for this issue of Chicken Soup for the Soul. The submission deadline is December 31st — long enough to write and rewrite that story as many times as necessary. Good...
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