The First Sentence

 Hello everyone! If you're new, welcome to the Homestead! Today we're talking about how to start writing once you have the motivation and the idea. The infamous first page, but more importantly. The first sentence/paragraph. 

The first paragraph determines the sale. Imagine you’re in a bookstore. A book cover catches your eye and you pick it up. The back of the book sounds intriguing and the book is enticing, but you crack open the first page and read the first sentence. It feels uninspired or doesn't grab your attention the way other books do. You frown, then set it down and move on. Why did this happen? There are a few reasons, the major one being personal taste. This isn't a fail-safe to solidify more sales, but it helps. There are 3 things that are going to lose readers in the first 5 words. 

1: Lore dumping

Landing in a new book is always disorienting for the reader and the worst thing you can do is start the novel with information about heritage, lineage, or history. It's easy to give into the temptation “Well they won't understand anything else if they don't know this” in that case, it's good to put it in the first chapter, but not the opening. I'm not a fan of the saying “show don't tell” because sometimes you need narration to balance the action and dialogue, so instead I advise new writers to explore not explain. You want to explore the surroundings and the personality through your character instead of explaining it to the reader. You want to start with a strong action or character that can cement the readers into this new world

2. Opening with dialogue

Now don't misunderstand me, there are some really good books that open with dialogue! If done well it can be a great opening, but you'll need to establish characters with the dialogue. Opening with a powerful zinger without a tag line will leave readers confused. You'll want to establish a setting or give your readers a grounding point. 

3. Trying to establish Mystery

Mystery is essential to a good opening. It ensures that the reader will want to continue reading. It's essential to balance mystery with reward. The enigma surrounding setting, plot, or characters must be skillfully crafted to not pose a question, but infer a question. Readers will wonder to themselves “Hm. I wonder what this means” and then two sentences later when you answer their question, they feel fulfilled and satisfied that they have found the answer. It's all about keeping them engaged. 

Those are my three tips for writing the first sentence/paragraph, tune in next week for a surface dive into plotting out a novel and what has helped me stay organized. As always, thank you for reading, you can contact me on my socials, or view my novel, The King's Actors, on Amazon! Thank you for visiting the Homestead and as always, stay tuned!