BLANK PAGES AND OPENING
LINES
by
C.
Neuroticus Absolutus
You stare at a blank page wondering what words to write. What words
will grab the reader's attention and get him or her to put your book
in the digital shopping cart? Attention grabbing words like those
describing a shot ringing out just as the papal procession passes. Do
your words need to excite, like those depicting thundering hoof beats
as a courageous horse streaks towards the finish line with a frail
heart that's about to burst? Will your words strike fear as a tiger
stalks a preteen girl lost in the jungle? Will your words capture the
unforgettable fragrance of a rosebud as it bursts open? Will your
words evoke the reader's passion as the forbidden lovers embrace and
kiss in a clandestine paradise?
You while away an hour, thumbing the pages of your well-worn
Thesaurus, looking for just the right words, those words that will
introduce your Great American Novel.
Still your your page is bare.
Maybe you could hire an artist to convey the dark, bloody scene of
the murder you're planning for the opening. But that would be
switching from mental to visual artistry. And it wouldn't even be
your art.
Well, maybe your problem isn't in your choice of words at all.
It's not easy to write words when you don't know what your story is
about. Is that your problem?
Writing is story telling. If you haven't defined the story you're
about to write, haven't chosen a route from point A (the beginning)
to point C (the end), you'll likely never get there. Of course, Point
B is everything between point A and Point C.
While you've got that blank page up on your word processor, write a
few paragraphs, or pages even, and tell your story like you're
talking to an old friend. Don't stop to look for synonyms, to check
punctuation, to determine the correct conjugation of a verb, to
decide whether or not to use an adverb or even worry about spelling.
Write the story as fast as you can. Then read your story aloud and
imagine each actor, action, and each scene. Can you see it? Is that
the story you want to tell? If it is, than you're ready to decide
your actual starting point.
Will it start as the killer silently watches his prey as he
stealthily closes in, or when the point of his knife penetrates the
pale skin of the innocent damsel's neck?
Will it start as the dragon crushes its prey's ribs between its fiery
jaws or when it opens its reptilian eyes from slumber and hears the
footsteps of an intruder in it's lair?
Or perhaps it starts when the eyes
of soon-to-be lovers first meet across a room?
You see, you still have to choose what words to use. That's your
first decision. Point A, the starting point. But now it's easier to
choose the words. Don't worry. You may decide later that you favor a
different starting point. Perhaps you've wasted words before you got
to the real starting point of your story. That happens often with
beginning writers as they try to set up the scene. Check out the
following two-paragraph story beginning:
Paragraph One
“It was a dreary day. The
windshield wipers clacked a steady rhythm as I listened to Adele's
latest song on the new HD Audio system I'd just had installed at Best
Buy. Got it on sale. Great price! I'd just waxed my Porsche and was
miffed, not just about the rain, but also about the UPS truck that
got in front me and kept splashing torrents of oily road water on my
car. Knuckle-dragging cretin!
Paragraph Two
“I got my Glock 19 from the
overstuffed glove compartment and moved around a UPS truck, still
certain Lady Gotham hadn't seen me following her. I inched forward
into her blind spot and held steady. As we entered a tunnel, I guided
my Porsche alongside her, rolled down my passenger window, took aim
and shot. She never saw me. I goosed the Porsche and flew out of the
tunnel ahead of her. In the rear view mirror, I saw her drift across
lanes, broadside a pickup, bounce away into the tunnel wall and spin
around. Her car flipped over as the UPS truck T-boned her. Traffic
behind them became a pile of scrap metal.”
“Rot in hell, bitch!”
Notice that Paragraph One adds nothing directly relevant to the
story. Delete it.
The story begins with the first
word of Paragraph Two. Check to ensure that your opening paragraph is
pertinent to the story and includes no extraneous words like
overstuffed
as in Paragraph Two above. With, “I got my Glock 19 from the glove
compartment,” the interest and excitement begins, not just for the
paragraph, but for the story.
Most
fairy tales begin with something like, “Once upon a time, there was
a handsome prince . . .” Did you ever wonder why? It's a slick,
very successful gimmick to immediately let the reader know a fairy
tale follows (a specific sub-genre), what it's about (probably a
fantasy romance―the
prince is
handsome),
and who it's about (a handsome prince). The fact that you've can
discern this much from the first sentence should alert the writer as
to how
important the first words are. Look at the first sentence above
(Paragraph Two): “I got my Glock 19 from the glove compartment and
moved around a UPS truck, still certain Lady Gotham hadn't seen me
following her.” Without further ado, the reader knows who the
narrator is, that he has gun, the make of the gun, and that he's
probably trying to kill Lady Gotham. By the end of the first
sentence, the reader is either interested or not. That's why the
first words are important. The reader gets hooked and gets the book
from the shelf and into the shopping cart. By the end of the first
paragraph, (Paragraph Two above) the reader knows that the narrator
is a killer, that Lady Gotham is dead, and the reader is left
wondering why. One question this mystery must
resolve
is why Lady Gotham was killed.
That's in the unwritten contract between the writer and the reader.
Okay. Now you know. No more blank
pages. Just remember: It's all about telling the story. So go tell
your story. Process some words!
