Beginnings

Okay, it's been a while. Life sort of took over there.

I've been thinking about the beginnings of books lately. Specifically, the advice that your first page - your first sentence - has to have a hook to have a chance of getting published.

Most of the RWA contests are all about the first 30 pages. Submissions are about the first 30 pages. Everyone agrees, an agent or editor can tell by the first two sentences whether they are going to read on or not. So those first few sentences better be good.

Jump into the action; start with a gripping bit of dialogue; an unusual situation; a killer first line. Et cetera.


Here are the first two paragraphs of Anne Stuart's The Devil's Waltz (excerpt posted on eHarlequin):

The Honorable Miss Annelise Kempton did not suffer fools gladly. Unfortunately it was her lot in life to suffer them far too often, and to maintain a relatively polite mien in the face of idiocy. It came from being penniless, almost thirty years old, unmarried, not a beauty and far too bright for a woman.

She'd accepted that lot long ago, with her usual lack of self-pity. Her profligate father hadn't been able to arrange any chance of marriage, but her godmother, Lady Prentice, had managed to provide her with a season when she was seventeen...

Here follows the longest, most egregious case of info-dump I have ever seen. We learn everything about the lifespan of this character that we utterly don't care about yet, without even the faintest attempt to put it into a scene. It goes on, and on.

Okay, I know. Anne Stuart is a bestselling successful author and can get away with things a hopeful can't think about.

Still.

If I wrote that in my manuscript, it would get tossed in the garbage pronto. People would be crabbing about rookie writers who don't know what they're doing and haven't learned their craft well enough before submitting. I mean, doesn't she even know you're supposed to a) start the story with action and b) avoid infodump? No one says this about Anne Stuart.

Here is the beginning of Stephen King's Firestarter:

"Daddy, I'm tired," the little girl in the red pants and the green blouse said fretfully. "Can't we stop?"

"Not yet, honey."

He was a big, broad-shouldered-man in a worn and scuffed corduroy jacket and plain brown twill slacks. He and the little girl were holding hands and walking up Third Avenue in New York City, walking fast, almost running. He looked back over his shoulder and the green car was still there, crawling along slowly in the curbside lane.

Hey. What's going on? I found my tattered copy of Firestarter on my bookshelf and I can't put it down, even though I know what happens in the end. Damn, he's good.

How about this: There is no rule. You can start however the hell you like. How does that sound? Start however the hell you want and see if it works. Rules will drive you absolutely crazy if you let them. You got a fast story? A slow story? Good for you. Write the story you want to write.

And if it doesn't win a contest, who cares?