I’m working on Hunter’s Gazelle. If you don’t remember that story, don’t worry. It’s one of two I promised myself I’d either edit or finish on my 30 before 30 list so I haven’t talked about it in a while.
My thoughts are on beginnings. What makes a good beginning for a story? The first 10 pages is what gets sent for query or whatever, so you want the start to pull the agent in and move them along.
How do you start?
I know I’ve put down books because of a slow opening. The books ended up being amazing, but it took me a long while to pick them back up in order to dive in.
So what makes for a good beginning?
I’m asking a lot of questions and maybe they are all irrelevant or rhetorical (not the same thing, I know), but I can’t stop asking it.
When you’ve read a good book, did the beginning help start you down the right path or was it something else?
You know what this is? Worry. My desire to pursue publishing has returned and I want this (and everything I do) to be perfect. I want to nitpick and it drives me a little crazy, but I can’t help it. I want to put my hand to the plow and have something noteworthy to show for it or I don’t want to do it at all. I’ve said before this perfectionist drive has led me to change jobs and make changes because of it.
A spanking would set me to rights and keep me on track with keeping my goal. Since that isn’t likely, I’ll have to self-motivate, eh?
But back to my question… What makes a good beginning?
