In the Beginning

I suppose my latest theme on this blog has been opinions on writing.  Sometimes I feel a bit pretentious offering up these opinions, and someday I may find myself disagreeing with what I write today, but keep in mind these are just the mere opinions of an old man still perfecting his craft.

I was a part of an interesting discussion this week and it involved where to begin when writing a story.  In the writing world, we call this the Point of Attack.  In a world filled with expectations of instant gratification, Point of Attack is extremely important.  I guess it goes without saying (yet I'll say it anyway), it hasn't always been this way.

One of the traps that we fall into, as writers, is trying to emulate successful stories of the past, but when you do so with tunnel vision you may be setting yourself up for failure.  Would Moby Dick even make it to print in today's environment?  Would The Hobbit take so long to get off the ground?  In my opinion, no.

We are programmed to believe Moby Dick and The Hobbit are wonderful tales that must be read, so we suffer through what we would now consider shortcomings in an effort to find that wonderful tale.  If either tale was published, as they are, next week, they would fall off into obscurity.  Not because they are bad stories, but because they aren't written to match up with today's expectations.

So, as writers, we can't pick up a book written before our parents were born, copy the formula, and expect the same results.  No matter how good our tale may be.

Which brings me back to the Point of Attack.

Some people say you must engage the reader within the first five pages, others say the first five sentences, and they may both be right, so it behooves me, as a writer, to start the story off in an engaging manner.  We want to share with the readers every aspect of our characters.  We want them to see where they came from and why they are who they are today.  But, if we begin a story with the birth of our character, we may lose the reader in those first five pages and never get to share the growth of the character with them.

You can share all there is to share and still engage the reader.  Begin your story with some conflict, and sprinkle in the past along the way.  Probably not in flashbacks, as they are often overused, but a couple of sentences can say a lot.

"Ole Joe knows hospitals better than anyone in this room.  What with that cancer he had as a child."

You don't even know Joe, but your imagination just painted a picture of his childhood.

When I say to begin a story with conflict, don't take that to mean you must begin with an epic fantasy battle or the like.  A simple conflict will do.  Think about an opening chapter where Joe is panicking because he forgot to pay the water bill and it's cutoff day.  Zipping through traffic to get to the utilities office before noon.  Worried about his wife's reaction.  Hoping the check doesn't bounce.  This is real world situation that could very well connect with your reader.  They find themselves wanting to know if he gets the bill paid on time.  How much more mundane can you get?  But, this is conflict in the writing world.  And, as an added bonus, it is something the reader can connect with.

So when someone tells you to start the story at the beginning, keep in mind the beginning of the story may not be the beginning of your character's story.  If we did that, The Hobbit would have began "There once was a hobbit born in the Shire."

Sometimes it just works

Since the release of Blood of Two in August, I have had conversations with readers (some friends/family, some not).  To my pleasant surprise, some elements of my story worked how I wanted them to.

When I created Tarimot, he was to be the comic relief, but he didn't agree.  He became more of the advisor to the group and not so much funny, though he does have his moments.  But, one of the things that I used to round him out was his speech pattern.  I actually have a file called Tarimots cadence that I revisit from time to time just to make sure I write his dialog correctly.  In my mind, this wasn't really a big thing, but many of the readers picked up on this and were complementary of it.  I was told by one reader that he felt like I could write a paragraph of Tarimot's dialog, and it would be apparent that he was the speaker without the use of a speaker attribute.  If I could pull this off with all of my characters, I would be ecstatic.

Blood of Two had its share of unexpected events, at least I hoped it did when I was writing them.  Again, I was happy to find out that they worked as I wanted.  One character was expected to go off the deep end, but most of the readers didn't expect the degree of the dive.  There were a couple of deaths in the book, and one in particular that made a reader or two really ticked at the author (mission accomplished).  I wanted to create characters that got the reader hooked, and for the most part I succeeded.

One death scene received the greatest complement I could hear.  The reader told me that the emotion and reactions of the characters around this one death was so spot on that he assumed that I had suffered the same loss.  I was so taken aback that I failed to tell him that I hadn't.

And finally, there was the end of the book.  I agonized over it for months.  It still bothers me from time to time.  It came across as so damned altruistic, but the readers liked it.  That's what counts in this business of sharing the imagination.

The point of this post?  I once read, in one of my many writing books, that if you are particularly proud of a scene, or phrase, get rid of it.  Balderdash.  If after a few edits, you are still proud of it, then it must be good.  I have several readers that will back me up on this one.

Sometimes, it just works.

Shameless plug:
Blood of Two (Drums of Rallinwar: Book One) is available at most e-book outlets.  Check it out at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Diesel, Smashwords, and other electronic retailers.  Buy it, rate it, review it.

Guidelines

Guidelines. There are no rules, and anyone who tells a writer that is not as smart as they think they are. There are, however, more guidelines than you could possibly imagine. What some educators, editors, and writers don't like to admit is that guidelines blend in with personal preferences.

I have compiled my own guidelines over the years. Those, combined with my Chicago Book of Style, Roget's Thesauraus, and good ole Webster, have helped me create a novel and about 20 short stories. Some are good, other's are not, but that's another conversation altogether.

Sometimes openly, sometimes quietly, I despise the use of the old hack -ly adverb. It is hack, in my opinion. They are used in advertising, warning signs, and catch-phrases; all of which are mediums where brevity matters. Work safely, drive carefully, see clearly...

In the story setting, these words have no place. Again, my opinion, my guideline, my personal preference. These adverbs muddle the action; they give the reader an opportunity to check out.

Jerika drove as safely as she could.

Jerika placed her hands at ten and two, just like her husband had taught her, and crept out onto the snow packed road.

You tell me. Which sentence has you more engaged?