I’ll admit, I love to learn new stuff. Whether it’s for new skills or creative disciplines, I’m in! It feels so rewarding to keep pushing on the boundaries of your personal world, to pick up new interests or get inspired—taking classes—formal or informal—is a great way to do it. Plus, it infuses youthfulness. How about you? What’s the last class you took that inspired you?
Over the last few weeks I’ve been taking a writing class focused on writing a book’s opening chapter. For the queen of forty-five versions of chapter one, this class was long overdue for me. Perhaps I’ll be able to whittle that down a bit.
Out of the four nights that comprised this class, we dedicated one entire night to writing the first sentence. Yes. That’s right. We spent nearly four hours on writing the opening sentence of a book. Believe it or not, there’s a lot to consider! The objective of the first line? To make the reader curious. How to do that? Seduce! But how? Does it introduce the protagonist, the setting, a bird’s eye view, a mood, an event, a concept, a disruption, location grounding, dialogue between characters?
Of course, just the decision of where to start the story can throw a writer into a tailspin. Today, while procrastinating, I did the math to figure out how long a book would take to write if we spent four hours per sentence. If there are, on average, 350 pages in a book, and, on average, 30 sentences on a page it would take 42,000 hours, which, if you worked for 8 hours a day including weekends, it would take 5250 days. Or 14 years. Throw procrastination into the equation and . . . well, no one’s got time for that math.
I loved many things about this class, but one of them was how often the teacher referred to the reader and how certain decisions we make as writers, affect their—your—experience. Starting with the first sentence. This got me thinking of all of you. I want to write a fantastic first sentence for you. And so, to that end, the first sentence I thought I had written on my new book, is now in the trash. You’re getting a brand-new inspired first line. I hope you’re excited with anticipation. Prepare to be seduced!
One of my favorite first lines is actually from one of my own books, THE MEMORY BOX.
It’s impossible to unknow a secret.
Just curious, how impactful is a first line to you? Do you notice it? Have you ever known by the very first sentence that you’d either love or not love a book? Do tell . . .
Are there any romance writers out there? If so, I’ll be teaching at the Romance Writers of America Traditional Author Weekend this weekend and if you’re still looking for something to do this weekend, check out the lineup of great virtual workshops here. All classes will be recorded for future viewing if you are interested but can’t attend live. I’ll be teaching a class called How To Communicate Like A Publishing Insider. I’ll share three important ways you and your query/submission package can stand out in a crowded playing field. We know it’s harder than ever to get a traditional deal and being prepared by knowing what agents and acquisitions editors are looking for will get you that much closer.
If anyone who’s started a new creative project and has hit a bump in the road and could use a little encouragement, I’ve got something for you. My new essay on Medium, Lessons Learned From the First Bad Review I Received. While my reaction to it was not pretty, I came out of it with surprising gifts.
What am I reading? What are you reading?
From the gorgeous surprising story of THE SAFEKEEP, the dark, mysterious saga of ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, to an engaging fast paced thriller in FAMOUS LAST WORDS, I’ve read some really good ones lately. Just started WORRY. And while you might ask who needs more worry in their world, especially a very accomplished, professional worrier like me, I’m a few pages in and I’ve already laughed a few times! So who knows what’s coming? Send me your recs, please!
I hope you’re all doing well and hanging in there. Go listen to some live music, or see some theater or listen to great music. Art is always good for the soul.
Until next time, wishing you all good reads,
Eva
