"It was the best of time" - Why couldn't Dickens have stopped there?
I'm not a writer who can give instructions on how to craft any part of a story. I'm still reading, studying, gathering. I'd bet 99.9% of all writers worth their ink do the same, whether they have one or one-hundred works to their name.
Not only is the craft and writing environment ever evolving but we are individually searching for the unique voice that sets our stories apart.
But there is one constant. That opening hook.
"The best laid plans of mice and men rarely get mice or men laid" - me with help from Steinbeck.
Like most other writing techniques, I didn't really understand that when I started. I should have. I've been reading since elementary school. Even then, if the first glimpse at a story didn't spark my interest I'd slide the book back into its spot on the library wall and pick out another.
After my first manuscript was completed and ready to share with the world, I decided it would be a good idea to actually read some books on how to write. Just about everything they said not to do, I did. Everything they said I must do, I didn't. I spent a year studying the craft by reading self-help type books (first being Stephen King's "On Writing"), revisiting classics I'd held from school days, and investing in newer books. I made Amazon and Books-A-Million happy.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a new writer in possession of a good story, must be in want of a publisher" - me with help from Jane Austen.
The next year was spent deconstructing. I rewrote every scene, every paragraph, every sentence. I worked with an editor who showed me more problems and I repeated the above exercise.
The most constant feedback I received was about my opening. It didn't have a voice. It didn't hook the reader. One of my beta readers said she loved the story from chapter two to the end but if she didn't know me she would have dropped it before finishing the first chapter. That stung.
Back to the drawing board. I deconstructed, redeveloped, and shifted scenes. As a result, the first fifty or so pages were rewritten. I liked my story before the alterations. The final version is so much better. My opening isn't perfect but I'm learning.
We fret over words. I stared at my blank page for a while before typing those letters to begin this post, wanting to find the perfect opening lines to hook you, the reader, into wanting to read.
Dig deep. Find your opening. Set your hook then let your voice do the rest.
"Falcon shaded his eyes as he stepped out of his tent. The first rays of morning light streamed over baron edges of a seemingly endless mountain chain. Long shadows danced in vibrant colors across the desert floor. In an instant, the dark, featureless night transformed into a beautiful sight with every hue imaginable on display. The desert itself came alive." - C.L. Blanton, Absolution's Curse.
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