HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS - Amazing research

[andrewburt]

New writing book out for all you speculative fiction writers that I think you'll find really useful:

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS
by Robert Qualkinbush

http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1184 on the ReAnimus Press store
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O272ZI on Amazon

Yes, I'm the publisher, but this is a landmark piece of work. New writers are always looking for The Secret to becoming a professional author. It’s extremely rare to find actual shards of any such Secret—many claim there is no such thing—but here is one.

The analysis Robert Qualkinbush has done here is hard research. He’s dug through a lot of stories from pros and hopeful authors and found something previously unknown in the openings of those stories that uniquely separates the pros from the mass of unpublished authors.

When I founded the Critters Writers’ Workshop it was because there was no other writers workshop on the web. I was hopeful that by harnessing the power of all the writers out there we could all help each other improve and lift up every aspiring author into a pro who could possibly become one. Critters has had nearly 30,000 writers join since then, many of them starting from scratch and turning into award-caliber professionals. This has provided a rich universe of data to mine—which Robert has done.

Robert has analyzed the openings of speculative fiction pieces—science fiction, fantasy, and some horror—from both professionals and new writers and found a slice of that long-sought-after Secret to what makes pro selling stories work. As the title says, this book is filled with tons of examples that show you how to improve your openings so they'll help you sell your story.
If you want to be a professional writer, you have to read this piece. Following the advice and examples herein is not a guarantee of selling to pro markets, of course. You still have to do everything else that makes a compelling story with beloved characters, but your story openings are your doorway to sales—either open or closed. Many otherwise salable stories may well have never been read by editors or first readers simply because they never got past the opening.

I love it when someone applies the principles of scientific analyses to learn new truths, so it’s with great pleasure that I announce a critical shard of The Secret. Use it well, and get those tales published.

—Dr. Andrew Burt
Founder,
Critters Writers’ Workshop
www.Critique.org