Great examples and lots to add to my TBR! Great first lines and first pages really make a difference. One of my favs is Naomi Novik’s Uprooted: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley.” The whole first paragraph drags you in.
Loved this—especially the reminder that even a slower start needs to sparkle. Do you think there’s more room for slow burns in literary fiction, or is everyone kind of expected to dive right in these days?
I enjoy books that build up a little before the catalyst arrives, and this gave me a few options for how to hook the reader without sacrificing that. Thanks for your work!
This is great. I love a strong lede, as we say in journalism. I also just today was saying that I wish the book I'm currently reading had a prologue. It's trotting through a lot of characters' backstories and details, and I know (hope?) they're going to collide in some catastrophic way, but I've found the first several chapters quite trying because I don't know for sure that we're getting somewhere.
Love this! Thanks so much for including We Were Never Here!!
Great examples and lots to add to my TBR! Great first lines and first pages really make a difference. One of my favs is Naomi Novik’s Uprooted: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley.” The whole first paragraph drags you in.
Loved this—especially the reminder that even a slower start needs to sparkle. Do you think there’s more room for slow burns in literary fiction, or is everyone kind of expected to dive right in these days?
I enjoy books that build up a little before the catalyst arrives, and this gave me a few options for how to hook the reader without sacrificing that. Thanks for your work!
This is great. I love a strong lede, as we say in journalism. I also just today was saying that I wish the book I'm currently reading had a prologue. It's trotting through a lot of characters' backstories and details, and I know (hope?) they're going to collide in some catastrophic way, but I've found the first several chapters quite trying because I don't know for sure that we're getting somewhere.
This is SO HELPFUL, thank you! Love the examples you chose.
THE PLOT and THE SEQUEL are amazing, and so is THE LAST ROOM ON THE LEFT.