In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Topic: A Quick Lesson on Openings and Hooks
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“I’m letting the story and characters unfold… and writing whatever comes. It’s definitely faster. It’s not at all exhausting. I’m not feeling the ‘brain drain’ I get when I try to craft a story from the outside in. And I’m eager to pick [the story] up again tomorrow.” Patrick Dorn, a new proponent of writing into the dark
Topic: A Quick Lesson on Openings and Hooks
One of my patrons emailed me about the short story I just wrote on Saturday and sent out to them. He said he was “right there” in the story and that the threat of nuclear devastation was real as he was growing up so the story resonated with him.
So far, so good.
Only I didn’t remember that the story had anything to do with nuclear devastation. So I had to go back and look at it.
I had to read only the first paragraph to remember that nuclear devastation was the whole story!
So I’m just sayin’, it feels really good, early on Monday morning, to know I wasn’t able to remember a short story I wrote only two days earlier.
And that is what I mean when I say what you write isn’t important. (grin) The title of the story is “Silence Is Better.”
Here’s the opening (75 words, a character with a problem in a setting) that grabbed me and took over:
Richard Grayson stood just inside his living room and tentatively reached for the door knob. The lingering scent of Marion’s perfume was finally gone. The only smell now was of dust. His hand trembled as he touched the cold bit of hammered bronze.
Do I really even want to open it? Do I want to see what’s out there? What’s left?
It had taken him a little over two hours to get to this point.
Note that the physical senses of sight, smell, and touch are included, plus the emotional sense of trepidation. (I should have inserted the sense of sound here too. I could have done that by inserting “silent” between “his” and “living room.” The other physical senses come into the story very soon.)
But if I wanted to move backward* and rewrite this very short opening, I might write
Richard Grayson stood in his silent living room and tentatively reached for the door knob. All the furniture was still in place, but the lingering scent of Marion’s perfume was finally gone. The only smell now was of the hovering dust.
His hand trembled as he touched the cold bit of hammered bronze.
Do I really even want to open it? Do I want to see what’s out there? What’s left?
It had taken him a little over two hours to get to this point.
The opening is now 10 words longer, yet those 10 words add the sense of sound and enhance the sense of sight.
*But I never move backward. I’ll let the story stand as-is as a marker of my current skill level.
One more note—The opening above is actually a prologue. There was a big discussion on PWW awhile back about whether to use prologues. I say use them when doing so feels right and don’t use them when it doesn’t. This was the quickest way to build suspense and pull the reader into the story.
By the way, if the story idea (character with a problem in a setting) above grabs you, write it if you want. Ideas do not fall under the purview of copyright law. (How that idea is presented in either of the fixed forms above is ©2020 Harvey Stanbrough, but the idea itself is not protected.)
Turned to the novel at 3:30 after a mentoring session and writing the stuff above. Before 5:30 (with a short break in the middle) I’d put down around 2300 words. It promises to be a good day.
By 6 another 700 words, then a much longer break up at the house.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “I Am Fully Unqualified To Talk About All Of This” at https://prowriterswriting.com/i-am-fully-unqualified-to-talk-about-all-of-this/.
See “The Secret Language of Vikings” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/02/the-secret-language-of-vikings.html.
See “The Best Fonts for Books” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/the-best-fonts-for-books/. Grain of salt.
See “8 Social Media Scheduling Apps for Writers” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/8-social-media-scheduling-apps-for-writers/.
See “Two pretty easy ways to add revenue that most publishers are missing” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/two-pretty-easy-ways-to-add-revenue-that-most-publishers-are-missing/.
The Numbers
Fiction words today…………………… 5247
Nonfiction words today…………… 740 (Journal)
Writing of The Three-Year Turn (novel)
Day 11… 3442 words. Total words to date…… 36545
Day 12… 2278 words. Total words to date…… 38823
Day 13… 1677 words. Total words to date…… 40500
Day 14… 3030 words. Total words to date…… 43530
Day 15… 5247 words. Total words to date…… 48777
Total fiction words for the month……… 61632
Total fiction words for the year………… 127176
Total nonfiction words for the month… 19980
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 51240
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 178416
Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 5
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 47
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 201
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31