Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha *manic laugh* I am awful at this blogging twice a week. So until I have trained myself to look at this computer on a regular basis and not flip between this, homework, TV and other such unavoidable distractions for myself I will be doing this now only once a week (I'm sorry people, I tried).
I will now move onto this week’s topic of conversation: introductions.
Introducing a reader to a story is like fishing with the right bait, you want to get them hooked. At least that is how I like to go about things. There are different options for doing this certainly: with a funny situation, with a dramatic scene, in the middle of the story so that the reader has to figure out how the protagonist got to that point, and so on. I have attempted all of these and I always like to try and be captivating within the first page and keep it that way. Of course it is a task to try and not let the reading become monotonous after the exciting intro that would just plain suck.
When I do my own writing personally I find once I have a rhythm it usually works. However, I have only written short stories so this doesn’t apply overall yet. How can I keep my first book from becoming to dry or unappealing to the reader. Truth is I don’t know yet. I am reading books currently and attempting to pay attention to see what catches my attention and what doesn’t. As I have learned from reading The Satanic Verses by Salaman Rushdie big words don’t do it for me. I have a vocabulary but Rushdie had an entire dictionary. This may be reading I’d appreciate later down the road when I can look up every other word but it did not make me want to finish the book. I can’t even remember at this time what the introduction was really like, that’s bad.
At this point I have started off stories in the rain, with conversation, during sex, basically just a little of everything. I’m sure there is some formula I could find and keep repeating it but I don’t want to. For now I enjoy the flexibility of my writing and I may start one way but who knows what will come next, I certainly don’t’. For the time being I am going to just make a note to one day go down the current best sellers list for fiction and pay attention to how they all start. This seems like a good start to discovering new ways to introduce my books or short stories.
What follows now is the introduction to a story that struck me during a moment I was…indisposed. I decided to write it down because hey, no idea is a bad idea (until you put it into action and everything goes to hell, then it’s a bad idea). Anyway, I figure it is a pretty captivating intro because I feel it makes you ask, so what happens next? I don’t know yet how to develop the idea to this so I really don’t have any explanation for where the story is going. It was actually a piece written in reflection of a pretty dark moment for me and remembrance of someone I knew who worked a similar job. He unfortunately didn’t overcome his demons but maybe I can write this piece as a salute to him and others who were in situations parallel to his. Either way this is not for anyone who has dealt with suicide so I don’t suggest reading further if you have a weak disposition when it comes to this topic. Currently it is titled A Day in the Life, subject to change but for now I like it.
It’s the thought of being stuck; dealing with the same people day in and out that puts this gun to his mouth. It’s the idea that of having one more screeching customer in his ear that has him reflecting on his choices. He ponders momentarily on the bullets in the gun as his thumb pulls back on the hammer. Will it hurt, was this the cowards way out? His finger rests on the trigger of the Smith and Wesson now, careful he doesn’t pull it too soon. Life is supposed to be warm, people aren’t’ cold blooded like this gun. That doesn’t change the fact that it is because of people he finds himself locked up in the bathroom of his home sitting on the toilet preparing to end it all…
This is a work in progress. It may never go anywhere but I had fun writing it and felt it was really intense. Is this something to captivate your imagination? Does anyone have a favorite opening they’d like to share. I would love to know so that maybe I can take a closer look at how that writer does it. Back to my school work for now, new semester started. For those reading, thanks.
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