Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
The importance of capturing a reader's attention early in a book is common advice - and makes sense - whether it be the "first three pages" that Justin mentioned, or the first third suggested by LuvReadin. What I have found myself staring at on occasion is the importance that some advice places on the opening sentence.
Such advice manages to come up with some wonderful examples, some authors have found exactly the right opening for their book. It's great when you see it done well, you can really admire it, BUT is the first sentence in particular that important to the reader's acceptance of book?
It seems to me that a book must set the tone clearly, and capture a reader's interest within the first few pages (I know, that sounds awfully like agreeing with Justin again  ), but I wonder if too much emphasis on the opening sentence and paragraph is like having every book cast from the same mold. Or am I wrong? Is it worth rewriting and rewriting that first page until the very first sentence tells a story in itself? |
Agreed, maybe the saying should be more 'do no harm.'
I read a short story over the weekend and the first two sentences totally drove me batty, I wanted to throw my ereader across the room and actually skipped the story because after re-reading the sentences half-a dozen times they still made little sense.... I decided later to come back and found that after I got past those first two sentences the author actually settled down and wrote a nice narrative. I'm convinced that those two sentences were written and re-written and re-written trying to create a killer opening.
In case you are wondering, the story is in the latest Pen/OHenry Awards 2012 - "Nothing Living Lives Alone" by Wendell Berry