BEGINNING YOUR NOVEL

By: Sue Rich

Grab the editor by the throat.  No, I don't mean for you to run to an editor's office, wrap your hands around his neck and shake him until he agrees to read your manuscript.  But if the opening paragraph of your story doesn't accomplish that, you're finished before you begin.

If you want your work to explode out of the slush pile and fire an editor's interest, then you must achieve that with the first line, or at the very least, the first paragraph.

Here's an interesting tidbit:  One editor told me (I won't mention names) that when she opens an envelope containing a submission, she pulls the first page only half-way out and reads a few lines.  If her interest isn't piqued by then, she slides the page back in and puts the envelope on the rejection pile.

Don't let that happen to you.

All of us are tempted to start with background--the reasons and motives for our character's behavior--but those of us who have made the hurdle into the ranks of published know a secret.

Background can wait.

First and foremost, you must get the reader's attention, and make them want to know what happens next--and that's no easy feat in just a few sentences.

So, how is it done?

I've found that opening with a teaser--one that demands answers--works very well.  Here's an example of an attention-getting opening line:

"She's dead?  Murdered?"

When you start with a phrase like that, you're taunting the readers' curiosity and asking questions that need to be answered.

Who was murdered?  How?  Why?

Finding the answers to these questions is what keeps them turning the pages.

Okay, here's another one:

"I've been dodging the hangman for three years, and I still don't know if I committed the crime."

Think of all the questions this one stirs.  How could he not know if he'd committed a crime?  Was he drunk?  Unconscious? What was the crime?  To whom?  Why has he been running so long?  How is he going to resolve the situation?

There are a lot of questions for one small sentence, and it's not all that hard to achieve.  Here, I'll show you.  Get up and go to your bookshelf.  Read through the first few lines of your favorite story and see how many unanswered questions you find.

I picked Once and Always, by Judith McNaught.  In the first paragraph, Jason Fielding's wife, is wary, nervous and has an over-bright smile as she asks her husband to fasten her necklace.

Why?  What does she have to fear from her own husband?  Has she done something?  Is she planning to do something?

Although this question isn't answered right away, by the end of the first page, we have an ugly feeling about this woman, and Jason's distaste for his wife is extremely apparent.

Why, why, why?

As you can see, Judith McNaught is amazingly skilled at hooking the reader and pulling them into her story.

Silhouette author, Rita Rainville, is more than adept at grabbing the reader by the throat.  Just look at the first five lines of her story, Gentle Persuasion.

"We've got to get rid of Edgar."
"Permanently?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Quietly...perhaps poison."

Wow, what a beginning for a romance.  And the questions!  Who is Edgar?  Who's planning his death?  Why?  Will they succeed?  Who's speaking?

Aren't you dying to read more?  I know I was...and did.

All right, now.  Let's go back to the first opening line I gave you (which is from my own book, Mistress Of Sin), and take a look at more of the first page.

"She's dead?  Murdered?"  Valsin Masters stared down at the month-old newspaper in his hand, at the blurry front-page sketch of the woman who had shared his home for two weeks.

Pain moved through him in waves.  Oh Sara.  He lifted his gaze to watch rivulets of rain trickle down the glass veranda door.  The wide, thick lawn and jungle-like foliage beyond were barely visible through the splattered panes.  Though it was a summer shower, he felt chilled.  She had loved this island.  Beautiful, gentle Sara.

Dead Sara.

His hand trembled when he recalled how her smile and musical laughter had brought a whisper of joy into his lonely world.  A sweet warmth that, for a little while, made him forget his self-imposed isolation.  Made him forget the reason he'd imprisoned himself here on Arcane.

As you can see, I've answered the first question.  The reader now knows who was murdered, Sara.  But, in answering one, I've opened up several others.  Why was such a sweet, gentle person killed?  Who did it?  What was she to Valsin?  Why was she with him for only two weeks?  Why is he lonely?  Why has he chosen isolation?  The uncertainties just keep coming.

And that's what keeps the reader reading.

Of course, your entire story can't be all questions.  You must give the reader answers, but in doing so, you will, hopefully, create new questions.

The examples I've given you so far have been in dialogue, but beginnings can also be effective in narrative.

The beginning of Stef Ann Holms', Weeping Angel, is a good illustration.

Every woman out of diapers thought Frank Brody handsomer than a new catalog bonnet.  Every one but Miss Amelia Marshall.

Although you may not be consciously aware of the questions, there are many.  Who is Frank Brody?  Why doesn't Miss Amelia Marshall think he's handsome when all the other women do?  Does she know him?  Has he done something to her? Said something?

Here's part of another narrative opening.  This one uses action.  This is from Elaine Crawford's, Captive Angel.

Fire engulfed the ship.  She dodged through the burning debris.  Flames licked all about her, up the mast, along the rigging.  Tatters of blazing sails flailed in the wind.  The ship was doomed....

Here, the author has not only created the questions:  Who is she?  Will she survive?  And, if so, how?  She has also created a feeling of hopelessness.

Now, take an unbiased look at your first page.  How many questions are unanswered?  If there are none or very few, then look at your first chapter and see where the real questions, the real excitement, starts, then put that at the beginning of your manuscript.

Personally, I prefer opening with dialogue, simply because the immediacy helps draw the reader in more quickly.  But no matter which form you choose, do your best to tantalize the reader into wanting to know more.  Curiosity is going to keep your reader interested, and if that reader happens to be an editor, it might just spark their desire to buy.

Courtesy of www.fiction-writing-tips.com