PhotobucketSo last week, I posted the first excerpt from The One That I Want, which is out next June, up on my blog. Whoo boy was I nervous about this. You see, this book was more labor than love for me, and well, I’m at that point with it where I simply cannot be objective about it anymore: I’ve read it too many times, edited it too many times, wanted to throw it out the window (along with perhaps myself) too many times for me to have any idea if readers will like it.

But I put it up and fortunately, many readers chimed in with strong words of encouragement. Phew! But the most satisfying comment came from a readers who specifically singled out the opening paragraph of that first chapter. And why was this so satisfying? Because I have rewritten – and rewritten – that single opening paragraph at least ten times, probably more. And why bother? Because I firmly believe that if you don’t grab readers from the literal first sentence, your book is more or less dead meat. Not always – I often give a book 25 to 50 pages and then put it down if it feels like drudgery, but yeah, a lot of times, that first graph is make or break. Think of all the people who flip through your book in the bookstore, think of the people who read a quick excerpt on Amazon. Our attention spans are too short and our wallets are too thin and our time is too valuable these days for people to read that intro and think, “Eh, it’s not so great, but maybe it will get better.” Because they won’t give you that benefit of the doubt. They’ll just put the book back on the shelves and go on their way.

I learned this lesson with my debut book, The Department of Lost and Found. After writing what I thought was a brilliant first draft (har), my agent said, “Hmmm, well, yes, I kind of like it but think the first 99 pages are unnecessary.” SAY WHAT???? But after tucking my tail in between my legs, I went back and reread, and it turned out, she was right: my opening paragraph was right there on page 99. The voice, the action, the energy – that was it, that’s what I needed to kick off the story correctly, to get readers sucked in and to bring them up to speed.

With Time of My Life, I nailed it on the first try – I knew that those first few moments were exactly what I was looking for, but with The One That I Want…I just…couldn’t pin it down. So I went through revision after revision, telling myself not to push it, letting myself marinate in the emotion of what my character was trying to say, let her voice seep into me rather than pushing myself – and my deadlines – into her. And then, one day, two days before my line edits were due, there it was. My opening graph.

I handed in the draft to my editor who wrote me shortly thereafter (unprompted) to tell me that while she hadn’t had time to read the ms yet, she HAD read the opening, and that “she loved it! That it captured exactly what the book needed.” From there, I knew we were in good shape. So my point – the entire point of this post – is to suggest that you’re careful with where your book begins and just as careful as how it begins. Throw the reader right into the thick of things, don’t dawdle around, and be sure that both the action and the emotion propel the reader forward. That’s the goal, after all, to not only make them take the book up to the register and plunk down their credit cards, but to have them turning those pages again and again until they get to The End.

Photo courtesy Flickr’s lepiaf.geo

Allison Winn Scotch
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