Writing: Subsequent Openings, How not to

[sartorias]

I actually had two, count them two, excellent writing conversations within the past twenty-four hours. One by phone, the other by the more usual method in my isolation: e-mail.

Comments

[oracne]

Ah-hah!

Good one.

[mildmannered]

yes! yes!

Rock.

[sartorias]

[grin}

:bow:

[matociquala]

Ooo! Shiny! Smart!

[lnhammer]

Good observations about openings in general, actually.

---L.

[sartorias]

[beam] thank you!

[kateelliott]

Re: Writing

[sartorias]

Well, looking at openings of any sort is worthwhile--how do we suck in those first readers, whether the book stands alone or not? (And, how do we keep their interest, with regard to your example from Kit's book.)

These are good writing topics, and I am always trying to learn more.

Re: Writing

[green_knight]

(wandering by from several friends removed)

I think sometimes writers mistake a fraught situation with an emotional one. Forex, the (nice) doctor hard at work in the emergency room, struggling to save lives after a train crash. Yet such an opening still wouldn't work unless the doctor her/him self has that internal emotional struggle or change - which doesn't have to be about the external situation s/he is in.While I agree that there should be conflict in a scene, internal or external, and that there should be open questions to draw the reader in, I think in the case of the valiant doctor it would be perfectly workable to leave everything on the 'action' plane - only it has to matter. Not the anonymous case in bed twenty, and of course he fights for every one, but something more meaningful, more personal - either a character introduced before, or one that resonates with the doctor, even if it's just 'the little boy was found with his teddy. One so young should not die

Re: Writing

[sartorias]

I agree--that is, the question isn't always one of maturity but rather of neutrality. As you point out, mature characters (or characters lacking the standard adolescent angst that one finds in many books) can be presented with situations that catch them off-balance, and that, I think, is where the writer can place hooks.