Feb
Introductions…
Starting your book can be hard, no doubt about it! You want to find the perfect first line (aka the hook). You must draw the reader in and give them an idea of the setting, time period, and characters personalities. Granted the first page doesn’t have to introduce both your h/h but you must give an intro to one of them.
You have an estimated 500 words to do all this.
In one of my WIPs I put the reader in the hero’s drunken place. He’s fumbling down an alley way in search of a place to rest for the night. I give a bit of info on why he’s so drunk but mostly I try to get the reader to visualize what his drunken state is like. I’ve entered it into a contest and it seems to be mixed on how people like it. Some do, some don’t. And I know it needs work, so I’m ok with their opinions.
But now I wonder what would make you stop reading a book after just the first page? Readers and writers alike, tell what would irk you so much that you’d refuse to turn the page.
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I would also like to take a moment to announce the THREE winners of RI’s 1st Scholarship.
Donna Hatch, AJ Chase and MG Braden
I wish you the very best at the RWA conference and hope you get full requests! Good luck ladies!
Congrats to Donna, AJ and MG!
I hope you enjoy yourselves and make the most of it!
February 16th, 2008 at 11:49 amYay! Thank you so much, RI! Wooohoo.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:10 pmCongratulations on the scholarships!!!
February 16th, 2008 at 2:21 pmCongratulations on the scholarships!
And hmm, I don’t think I’ve ever tossed a book out after the first page, though a badly translated one once got tossed after three pages. (Let’s just say that Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is best read in English…) However I know that there are books where I’ve been uncertain, some of them made it up after a while and I finished them while there have been others that I lost interest in and have yet to finish.
When you mentioned giving the reader a sense of the setting, time and all I was reminded of a book I read. From the back-cover it was a story that could have been historical or contemporary and the cover gave no clue either. And I swear it took me several pages before figuring out that it was a contemporary novel. (There was a society ball, so it was really difficult to distinguish from a historical!)
Nice topic, Haven
February 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pmCongrats to the scholarship winners!!!
I try to give a book the benefit of the doubt and hope that it will get better, but I cannot stand it when a book starts off with info-dumping. I like action, get me invovled. I want to visualize the characters, see what they see, hear what they hear, feel what they feel. In essence I prefer showing to telling.
February 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pmCongratulations AJ, MG and Donna!
I’m a pretty patient reader. Sometimes I’m put off by the over emphasis on starting with some bit exciting bang. I really want to be invested in the characters and get to know them before something happens so it’d have to be a pretty annoying beginning to put me off. I’m looking to be led into a world instead of being yanked into it. Despite the current trend to put backstory and setting off, I’m much more likely to put down a book that tries to hook and does it badly than a book that slowly builds the story and the world.
February 16th, 2008 at 11:07 pmGuess it was all that Tolkien training.
Congratulations to the winners!
It takes more than a page to make me stop reading.I get most put off by “business as usual” books, where the scenes are interchangeable from whatever I read last week, or last year.
Haven, some people are very leery of drunkenness in romance, so maybe you’re pushing some buttons. Don’t worry about them! Write your hero as you see him. Someone will fall in love!
February 17th, 2008 at 7:02 amA huge congratulations to Donna, MG, and AJ! Hope your conference experience is everything you wish it to be and more.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:54 pmCongratulations to Donna, Aj and MG. I’m sure you’ll have a ball!
I usually give a book a chapter before I’ll put it aside. It can be a variety of things that stop me from reading. It might be the writer’s style or voice, the setting, I might not warm to the characters or it might just be plain boring. The good thing is different things appeal to different people. One reader’s boring book is probably another’s keeper.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:02 pm