From the monthly archives:

June 2010

In the Beginning…

June 11, 2010

Few facets of writing are as important as an opening line. While every story needs well-drawn characters and an engaging plot, nothing will deter a reader faster than a lousy first sentence—particularly in short fiction. Thus, your job as a storyteller is to hook the audience at the beginning of your tale and give them [...]

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Off to a Great Start

June 9, 2010

Image via Wikipedia Every now and then I’ll run across an opening sentence that blows me away.  It’s as though the author caught a lightning bolt and nailed it to the first page. The best opening sentence that I’ve seen in recent years was from Molly Giles’ short story Pie Dance. “I don’t know what [...]

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Drawing Them In: Advice on Creating Opening Lines

June 7, 2010

Image via WikipediaWhenever I walk into a Barnes and Noble two things happen: 1. I breathe a little easier because being surrounded by books is like therapy for me. 2. After that euphoric experience my senses become immediately overloaded with all the possibilities. Which book should I choose? Do I go with an old reliable [...]

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It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines…

June 5, 2010

Opening lines are a slap in the face with a strange hand. When done right they bring you into this new world you’re about to explore with powerful force, yet leave you needing to know more. It has to hook your reader quickly and effectively, especially if you’re interested in selling it. In screenplays you only [...]

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Open Up.

June 2, 2010

The irony here is I have no good opening for this post.  I’ve been thinking about this one for a couple of days and realized a few things.  One is that outside of screenplays, where the first ten pages are of vital importance, the writers I hang out with and I haven’t talked much about the [...]

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