First impressions are everything.
You meet someone for the first time and what are you looking for? A smile? A firm handshake and an air of easy confidence? A self deprecating sense of humor? A first impression is a kind of promise. Someone is telling you "If you deal with me, this is what you can expect." Ideally that impression is going to grow over time and deepen but I think that first meeting is always the foundation your eventual understanding of the person is built on. If what comes next varies too significantly or too fast you can feel lied too, and if it doesn't change at all you feel let down.
Same with a book. You're making a promise. The first scene (maybe it's my theater background, but I always think in scenes not chapters) says "you are in this sort of world with these sorts of people and these are the kinds of things these people are concerned with."
Now establishing settings and characters are pretty obvious but when I say "the things these people are concerned with" I don't quite mean establishing the main conflict. For me, that doesn't necessarily get started in the first scene. What I mean is more like establishing the main thematic concern.
The Eleventh Plague opens with a father and son burying the son's stern ex-marine grandfather. It comes out in the scene that while the grandfather could be cruel he was really the one that was responsible for keeping them alive in their harsh post-apocalyptic world. Once they've finished burying him they have the following conversation:
I sat beside Dad, edging my body alongside the steady in and out of his breath. He draped his arm, exhausted, over my shoulder. It felt good, but still the knot in my stomach refused to unravel.
“Dad?”
“Yeah, Steve?”
“We’ll be okay," I asked. "Won’t we? Without him?”
When Dad said nothing I moved out from under his arm and looked up at him.
“I mean . . . nothing’s going to change. Right?”
Dad fixed his eyes past me and onto the dark trail we would start down the next morning.
“No,” he said, his words rising up like ghosts, thin and pale and empty. “Nothing’s ever going to change.”
You'll see that there's no big conflict yet, what there is a suggestion that the characters are thinking a lot about change. Their lives have always been very steady, day in and day out, but now that the grandfather is gone, maybe things can be different. It's a complicated notion for them. In some ways they desperately want change but they're afraid of it, and also on some level don't really believe it can ever happen.
As the book progresses all of those questions will play out in a more literal way between the two of them and then will grow to be the dominant concern of the book, effecting the relationships and conflicts of every other character and even the fate of the world they're in. But all that starts right here with a first impression where you learn the general direction of the road you'll be heading down.
So what do you all think? What are the most important things that need to be in the first few pages of a book for you to keep reading?
Theme Week: (The Cursed) Beginnings!
You've got an idea for a story, but where the heck do you start?
It's tempting to do a prologue, an entire set-up before you jump into the story - right? You want your reader to know who your main character is, what he/she looks like, how happy/sad/nervous/scared they are... what kind of surroundings they are in. But... and this is a BIG BUT!!! DO NOT start your story that way!
If you must do a set-up -- do it for yourself. That can be your pre-story before you jump into the REAL story! And, actually it's not a bad idea to write down all kinds of character analysis on all of your characters. Detail your setting - I even draw maps and sketch out rooms, etc. Tell yourself what your characters look like. But again - DO NOT - put those into the beginning of your story. Weave those kinds of details into your first few chapters. It's not urgent (usually) that we know your MC is a blond. However, when she pulls a brown wig on to disguise herself - THEN is when we need to know that. Yes - a scene like that could be the first scene - but chances are, it won't be!
Your beginning needs to have enough mood to draw in the reader - enough voice of your MC for readers to start caring about them - and enough plot set-up that the pages are begging to be turned.
Hard? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Achievable? Most definitely, YES!
For those of you doing NaNo - remember - this month is about getting the story down. Don't concern yourself with the dreaded beginnings - just jump in and write. However, come December - your real work will begin!
Any books you can think of that immediately draw you in?
It's tempting to do a prologue, an entire set-up before you jump into the story - right? You want your reader to know who your main character is, what he/she looks like, how happy/sad/nervous/scared they are... what kind of surroundings they are in. But... and this is a BIG BUT!!! DO NOT start your story that way!
If you must do a set-up -- do it for yourself. That can be your pre-story before you jump into the REAL story! And, actually it's not a bad idea to write down all kinds of character analysis on all of your characters. Detail your setting - I even draw maps and sketch out rooms, etc. Tell yourself what your characters look like. But again - DO NOT - put those into the beginning of your story. Weave those kinds of details into your first few chapters. It's not urgent (usually) that we know your MC is a blond. However, when she pulls a brown wig on to disguise herself - THEN is when we need to know that. Yes - a scene like that could be the first scene - but chances are, it won't be!
Your beginning needs to have enough mood to draw in the reader - enough voice of your MC for readers to start caring about them - and enough plot set-up that the pages are begging to be turned.
Hard? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Achievable? Most definitely, YES!
For those of you doing NaNo - remember - this month is about getting the story down. Don't concern yourself with the dreaded beginnings - just jump in and write. However, come December - your real work will begin!
Any books you can think of that immediately draw you in?
Theme Week: Beginnings
A lot of you out there are working on NaNoWriMo and arguably one of the most important things about a book is the beginning, so this week we're going to be talking all about beginnings of books.
There's one problem.
I don't really know that much about beginnings.
Here's the thing: originally, the first chapter of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was Chapter 4. When I sent the book out to beta readers, nearly all of them felt the original beginning was kind of "blah" and that the book really picked up in Chapter 4.
The problem was, I knew that most of the time when an agent asks for a partial, he'll ask for the first three chapters.
"This sucks," I said to myself (being prone to talking to myself when I was an angsty writer). "I want them to see Chapter 4! Should I break the rules and just send the fourth chapter anyway?"
"No," myself replied. "That's a sure way for an agent to dismiss your work."
"Then what do I do?" I wailed (being also prone to wailing).
"Cut the first three chapters."
To be honest: I sort of shocked myself. I needed those first four chapters, didn't I? I needed to explain how Amy got selected, how Elder was born on the ship. I needed all that background, right?
Turns out, I didn't.
So--write the book the way you want. But when it comes time to edit, you need to figure out what your best chapter is, the point where the reader sits up and says, "Whoa."
Then cut everything before that.
(PS: If you'd like to read the first chapter of my sequel, A MILLION SUNS, click here! And for the record--that was originally a Chapter 5, and I cut the four chapters before it.)
There's one problem.
I don't really know that much about beginnings.
Here's the thing: originally, the first chapter of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was Chapter 4. When I sent the book out to beta readers, nearly all of them felt the original beginning was kind of "blah" and that the book really picked up in Chapter 4.
The problem was, I knew that most of the time when an agent asks for a partial, he'll ask for the first three chapters.
"This sucks," I said to myself (being prone to talking to myself when I was an angsty writer). "I want them to see Chapter 4! Should I break the rules and just send the fourth chapter anyway?"
"No," myself replied. "That's a sure way for an agent to dismiss your work."
"Then what do I do?" I wailed (being also prone to wailing).
"Cut the first three chapters."
To be honest: I sort of shocked myself. I needed those first four chapters, didn't I? I needed to explain how Amy got selected, how Elder was born on the ship. I needed all that background, right?
Turns out, I didn't.
So--write the book the way you want. But when it comes time to edit, you need to figure out what your best chapter is, the point where the reader sits up and says, "Whoa."
Then cut everything before that.
(PS: If you'd like to read the first chapter of my sequel, A MILLION SUNS, click here! And for the record--that was originally a Chapter 5, and I cut the four chapters before it.)
Literary Palimpsest (Don't Worry, I Don't Know What That is Either)
Okay, so I meet the greatest people at book signings. Toni Pilcher was one said person. She is amazing, and I begged asked her to blog for me on the League today.
A little bit about her first: She is simply a graduate student at BYU pursuing her MA in English, writing her thesis on young adult literature. Even though she's a starving student, she spends her grocery money on books, and she has frequent nightmares that her bookshelves are empty.
She is so much smarter than me! So let's have her take it away!
-----------
Now, this literary palimpsest is no new thing in YA lit. Many books are retellings of older stories. Fairy tale retellings are easy to recognize, but some retellings are more disguised. It wasn’t until after I finished Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book that I realized it was a unique retelling of The Jungle Book. With this knowledge, my second reading was much more interesting!
Other books borrow plot structures. The most famous structure is probably the hero’s journey. But think of how Rick Riordan adapts plots from mythology without simply retelling the myths. And in Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, aspects of the main character’s favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, become very important to the plot.
Some books simply make references to characters or lines or themes. The characters in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders read Gone with the Wind, and the idea of becoming Southern gentlemen informs their decisions later in the novel. Poetry is also an important influence in The Outsiders (Stay gold, Ponyboy!), as it is in many other books. Most recently, poetry has provided motivation for the characters in Ally Condie’s Matched and Crossed. Literary palimpsest works on many levels.
After getting this great idea from Martine, I immediately began to brainstorm “master” stories that could illuminate the themes in my WIP. I settled on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and my WIP exploded—in a good way. I have so much more insight into my characters! I’m using some of my favorite lines from Winter’s Tale, including the line that gave the play its name (“a sad tale’s best for winter”), as guides for plot, dialogue, and character development. Though I have a different character line-up and setting than the original, I’m borrowing the basic plot structure and reworking some iconic scenes. And yes, I’m even using the famous stage direction, “Exit, pursued by bear.”
Whether or not readers actually recognize the story beneath the story, I think literary palimpsest can strengthen a manuscript. For a writer, it’s like being an apprentice to a great wordsmith and having something to show for it.
A little bit about her first: She is simply a graduate student at BYU pursuing her MA in English, writing her thesis on young adult literature. Even though she's a starving student, she spends her grocery money on books, and she has frequent nightmares that her bookshelves are empty.
She is so much smarter than me! So let's have her take it away!
-----------
Last summer, I attended Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers in Salt Lake City. I came with questions because I was struggling with my dystopian WIP: the story was just not progressing. At the conference, Martine Leavitt, author of Keturah and Lord Death and other wonderful YA novels, introduced me to the concept of the palimpsest. In technical terms, a palimpsest results when the writing on a clay tablet or a piece of vellum is scraped away and replaced by new writing. Often, the original words can still be seen through the new words. In a similar way, as Martine pointed out, an older story can illuminate the themes of a new story.
Do you follow a master story when you write? Do you recognize the influence of master stories on the books you read?
Are dystopias screwing with our ability to get the big stuff done?
In a fascinating article for the World Policy Institute, Neal Stephenson (author of Reamde, Snowcrash, Cryptonomicon, etc.) argues that (1) as a society we’ve become less able to execute on the big stuff and (2) it may be the fault of us science fiction writers.
Now I feel him on the first part. He describes being a child of the 60’s growing up watching us get big things done in space. That was me, too. I was glued to the Apollo missions (as well as Star Trek, 2001, and anything space), and I later ended up working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Yet this year we watched the Space Shuttle program sputter to an end with nothing really to replace it. So, yeah, we’re not executing on the big stuff so much at the moment.
But, is this because we’re not writing science fiction about moon colonies and galactic civilizations? Well, I don’t know about that. Granted, the science fiction leading up to (and well into) the space age embraced a certain techno-optimisim. And now we’re writing about, gasp, dystopias and steampunk. Correlation ain't causation, though.
I think we’re not executing on the big stuff not for lack of imagination but because of lack of political will. Going to the moon captured the world’s imagination, but the US got there because we were afraid the Russians were going to beat us—and drop bombs on us. Right now our leaders don’t see the strategic value of missions to near Earth orbit. (The irony is that we’re now relying on the Russians to service the space station.)
What do you guys think? Is there a connection between the literature of our imagination and our ability to get the big stuff done?
Now I feel him on the first part. He describes being a child of the 60’s growing up watching us get big things done in space. That was me, too. I was glued to the Apollo missions (as well as Star Trek, 2001, and anything space), and I later ended up working at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Yet this year we watched the Space Shuttle program sputter to an end with nothing really to replace it. So, yeah, we’re not executing on the big stuff so much at the moment.
But, is this because we’re not writing science fiction about moon colonies and galactic civilizations? Well, I don’t know about that. Granted, the science fiction leading up to (and well into) the space age embraced a certain techno-optimisim. And now we’re writing about, gasp, dystopias and steampunk. Correlation ain't causation, though.
I think we’re not executing on the big stuff not for lack of imagination but because of lack of political will. Going to the moon captured the world’s imagination, but the US got there because we were afraid the Russians were going to beat us—and drop bombs on us. Right now our leaders don’t see the strategic value of missions to near Earth orbit. (The irony is that we’re now relying on the Russians to service the space station.)
What do you guys think? Is there a connection between the literature of our imagination and our ability to get the big stuff done?
Finding your Normal
In total I've written three books. One is in a drawer and will remain there until the end of time. One is out now. One is out in Fall 2012. I'm starting number four now. Not a huge number by an stretch of the imagination, and maybe not enough to have developed some tried and true writing method, but I'm realizing it's now enough to start making some observations about how I go about writing a book.
I noticed one quirk in particular. At around page 100 I find that all forward momentum stops cold and I'm overcome by this irresistible urge to go back and rewrite everything I've done to that point. My rational mind is usually screaming that this is me wasting time. That I'm nervous about moving forward so I want to fiddle around. During first draft time I should be pushing forward at all cost, just get that draft done and get to the time when I can rewrite the whole thing. Except I can't. My need to go back and rework the beginning is overwhelming, like some sort of migratory thing. Must go south!
And the thing is, now that this has happened a few times I'm starting to see why it happens. And really it's pretty darn obvious. The first 50-100 pages is where the world of the story is formed. It's where we set up a character's basic traits, their key relationships and concerns. It's the foundation that everything that comes after. I didn't realize it before, but something has been saying to me "The foundation isn't set yet. Go back and fix it before you move on or the whole thing is going to collapse."
What's great about realizing this is the ability to give yourself a bit of a break. The next time I start to get to that 100 page mark I'm going to be able to say "Oh. Here I am again. Time to go back and rewrite." and not stress about it so much. It's kind of comforting too finally start to come up with your own normal.
How about you guys? Any essential writing quirks you've noticed now that you have a good amount of writing under your belts?
I noticed one quirk in particular. At around page 100 I find that all forward momentum stops cold and I'm overcome by this irresistible urge to go back and rewrite everything I've done to that point. My rational mind is usually screaming that this is me wasting time. That I'm nervous about moving forward so I want to fiddle around. During first draft time I should be pushing forward at all cost, just get that draft done and get to the time when I can rewrite the whole thing. Except I can't. My need to go back and rework the beginning is overwhelming, like some sort of migratory thing. Must go south!
And the thing is, now that this has happened a few times I'm starting to see why it happens. And really it's pretty darn obvious. The first 50-100 pages is where the world of the story is formed. It's where we set up a character's basic traits, their key relationships and concerns. It's the foundation that everything that comes after. I didn't realize it before, but something has been saying to me "The foundation isn't set yet. Go back and fix it before you move on or the whole thing is going to collapse."
What's great about realizing this is the ability to give yourself a bit of a break. The next time I start to get to that 100 page mark I'm going to be able to say "Oh. Here I am again. Time to go back and rewrite." and not stress about it so much. It's kind of comforting too finally start to come up with your own normal.
How about you guys? Any essential writing quirks you've noticed now that you have a good amount of writing under your belts?
Things that make you go "hmmm..."
So, I just read this article about the world's most powerful laser being built. The scientists who are building it are hoping to find "ghost particles" and other dimensions.
Uh... wow!
What do you think about this?
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