The Magnificent First sentence or First Paragraph

Image Source

Don't we all remember the above famous opening line of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?

Many authors manage to grab the attention of their readers right from the opening lines of their book. 

Some begin with a fascinating opening line; some others have a magnificent first paragraph.

Before I buy any book, I read the first paragraph/ page of the book. I know many others who do this as well. 

As a writer, we can always try and follow this technique. I usually work on it during the final edit of my manuscript. 

Many of my author friends emphasize the importance they place on a great opening line as well.

Let us check some examples from some famous works. These are my personal favorites.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

 ~Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

~ Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

So, are you ready to work on your opening lines?

I hope these examples have managed to convince you.

During this A-Z April Challenge, I am exploring the A-Z journey of writing a Novel with examples from Literature.

The Letter of the day is F

Linking this post  to Blogging from A-Z

and Blogchatter

Have you read the Letter A, B, C, D, E ?

How to Explode a Moment in Creative Writing?

E is for Exploding the Moment:

Exploding the moment is the style of descriptive writing where a scene is described as if it were happening in slow motion. 

A single important sentence from your manuscript when exploded transforms into a brilliant paragraph that paints a scene or describes an event.

Exploding a moment helps to slow down the narrative and gives a sensory experience to the reader.

How to explode a moment?

During very important moments in your life, the scenes get imprinted in your memory vividly. You will remember what you spoke, saw, felt, thought, and heard.

 That is exactly what you want your reader to experience through your writing.

Let me try to explain it with an example:

Look at this scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where Harry visits the grave of his parents.

Moment: Harry laid the wreath of Christmas roses, which Hermione had conjured, on his parent’s grave and then walked away with her, unable to stand the grief.

Exploded Moment:

“Hermione had taken his hand again and was gripping it tightly. He could not look at her, but returned the pressure, now taking deep, sharp gulps of the night air, trying to steady himself, trying to regain control. He should have brought something to give them, and he had not thought of it, and every plant in the graveyard was leafless and frozen. But Hermione raised her wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them. Harry caught it and laid it on his parent's grave.

As soon as he stood up he wanted to leave: He did not think he could stand another moment there. He put his arm around Hermione's shoulders, and she put hers around his waist, and they turned in silence and walked away through the snow, past Dumbledore's mother and sister, back toward the dark church and the out-of-sight kissing gate.”

 --- excerpt from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

From this example, you can see how the scene loses its intensity when it is explained using a single sentence. This entire scene would have happened within a few seconds.

What JK Rowling did was to explode the moment by incorporating Harry’s emotions, the descriptions of the graveyard and Hermione’s actions, making the reader experience the entire scene through Harry’s eyes.

If you want to explode a moment, these are the questions that will help you:

• Where is the scene happening?
• What is the character hearing?
• What is the character feeling?
• What is the character doing?
• What is the character saying?

Now, answer these questions using two or more sentences and arrange them according to the sequence it happened. Voila, you have exploded a moment.

Using this technique, describe scenes which are significant to the story.

 It should be something that fleshes out the character, introduces a conflict or something dramatic that will hold the attention of the reader.

 It can be a humorous anecdote, an action scene or an emotional one.

 During this A-Z April Challenge, I am exploring the A-Z journey of writing a Novel with examples from Literature.

The Letter of the day is E

Linking this post  to Blogging from A-Z

and Blogchatter

Have you read the Letters A  B  C D ?

  

Of Dialogues, Drafts, Developments and Dictionaries

Let us look at the various Ds involved in the creation of a novel today.

Dialogue:

Dialogues are an integral part of any novel and help to show rather than tell the story. Through the dialogues, the reader becomes a part of the conversations.

Dialogues can be used effectively to bring about twists in the story, drama, conflict and also hold the reader’s attention. It can be used to portray jokes, emotions and sometimes tell an entire story. 

What are the essentials of a good dialogue?

A dialogue never resembles the recording of an actual speech. It is just a semblance of speech, aiming to take the story forward in an interesting manner.

Dialogues serve their purpose when:

• It introduces or increases the conflict in a story.It reveals the character of the speaker.
• It piques the curiosity of the reader.Brings out details that increase the tension in the story.
• The characters speak according to their status, upbringing, and location. A high-profile businessman, a homeless man, a teacher or a child would speak about similar things in entirely different manners.
• Something should change in the story after the dialogues are exchanged because of the details revealed in them.

Image Source

Don’t we all remember this famous first proposal by Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen? It reveals Darcy’s character as the pompous aristocrat who is struggling hard to reveal his true feelings to a lady of inferior birth with whom he has fallen in love totally against his own wishes and character. Unlike what he had expected, Elizabeth Bennet refuses to accept him and tells him all the reasons as to why she cannot accept him introducing further twists and conflicts in the novel.

The scene is made memorable by the dialogues alone. The entire scene is on fire owing to the dialogues.

Development:

The novel can be developed in many stages.

 There should be a discernable beginning, middle and an ending. You can divide the stories into multiple parts or acts. Each act can deal with a particular phase in the development of the story. Each act can begin with an inciting incident, introduce conflicts, portray interconnected scenes leading to some rising action, a climax, falling action and an ending. Every act following the ABDCE pattern.

Dictionary:

Make use of the dictionary at all stages of writing your story to make your writing crisp and tight.

Synonyms can come in handy to avoid repetitions.

Example: Replace the word look with glance, gaze etc.

Weak verbs combined with adverbs can be replaced by stronger verbs.

Example: run fast can be replaced by dart.

But try to use common words always. We do not want the reader to reach for a dictionary multiple times while reading a single page. There is beauty in simplicity.

Drafts:

So, imagine you have completed the first draft of your novel! Congratulations. But no, you cannot rest now. The major work begins now.

When you finish putting down the story you had in mind on paper, it is called as the first draft and is often crude and unpolished. It will be filled with typos, grammar errors, irregular sentences and even many plot holes. So, the next step would be to work on it and improve it. For this, you have to now put on your editor’s cap, scrutinize it and look it through the eyes of a reader.

 Rename the file and save as a second draft before editing because it is always a good idea to retain the original first draft. You might be amazed by how many changes the drafts undergo. And even if you edit out entire paragraphs or scenes from it, these might come handy later in another book.

Once you complete multiple rounds of edits and corrections, renaming and saving the file as a different draft after each round, go over it again. When it is done, send it to your beta readers. Edit again if you want to incorporate some of their feedbacks. Keeping all the drafts together in one folder will help you re-examine the story line progress anytime.

When a publisher accepts your work, they will assign an editor to you who will make you go through all these stages yet again. This time though, they will do the majority of the work. It is after the book goes through N number of drafts, N number of edits, copy editing and proofreading that it finally gets published.

It is a long process, but the entire journey is beautiful.

During this A-Z April Challenge, I am exploring the A-Z journey of writing a Novel with examples from Literature.

The Letter of the day is D

Linking this post  to Blogging from A-Z

and Blogchatter

Have you read the Letters A and B and C ?

Importance of Building a Routine, Backstories, Beta-readers and Backup

Let us explore some of the B elements involved in writing a Novel today!

Did you know that most of the writers who start writing a novel give up after the first few chapters?

A novel requires the writer to be regular in their writing habits. If you start writing daily, showing up at your work desk with an enthusiasm to match, your novel will soon see the light of the day.

But if you are plagued by doubts, or you are busy being busy, you might not show up daily to write and your writing would suffer.

Build a routine:

Build a routine by virtue of which whatever happens you would add to your word count daily. Even if it is a single sentence, a single paragraph or 100 words. Do it regularly and you will be able to move towards your goal of completing your novel.

Commit yourselves to spend a few minutes towards this passion that you have. Create a writing routine.

Spend the first 30 minutes after you wake up to write.

Or

Spend the last 30 minutes before you sleep to write.

Set small goals. A 500-word count daily would add up to 15K words at the end of one month. Do the math and you will realize how much you can achieve in six months’ time or in a year. The average word count of a novel is between 50K-80K words.

Backstories:

Invent backstories for your main characters to flesh out your characters. What incidents in their past have defined their present.

You might not use them all in your book. But you will get a better picture of this character you have created. But practice moderation while using them in your manuscript.

Beta-reader:

A beta-reader is someone who reads your manuscript before it is published. Beta-readers give useful insights that help the writer to understand how a reader will react to their book. You can ask someone to read every chapter you write immediately after you complete one. This will give you a regular feedback regarding how your book is progressing.

In the initial stages of your writing, choose a well-wisher or fellow writer friend to beta read. A negative feedback when you are just beginning will not help in any way.

Once you finish your first draft, you should ask a different person (not your first beta reader) to read it. If he/she is a professional, better.

He/she should be someone who loves reading the genre you are writing in. Select one who will encourage you and give constructive criticism.

 Not someone who claims they will be brutally honest. People who claim they are brutally honest are usually just brutal, never honest. So run for your life if someone tells you that.

Don’t send the manuscript of your romance novel to a person who reads only thrillers. They might just discourage you by saying your book is too mushy.

Similarly, show your work only to persons you can trust. In this age, plagiarism is very much rampant. People don’t hesitate to steal other’s work and pass it off as theirs.

Backup:

If you are writing on your PC or laptop, always remember to create a backup file for your manuscript. Electronic devices can crash anytime and your months of work can vanish in a second.

Though they are methods to recover files from crashed hard disks, it always helps to be on the safer side. Create multiple backups for every important word file you create.

Email them to yourself. Store them on cloud storage or Google drives. Or on external hard disks.

If you are writing in longhand, take photocopies whenever possible.

During this A-Z April Challenge, I am exploring the A-Z journey of writing a Novel with examples from Literature.

The Letter of the day is B

Linking this post  to Blogging from A-Z

and Blogchatter

Have you read the Letter A ?

How to Plot your Novel using the ABDCE Formula

A is for the ABDCE formula:

You have this story playing non-stop in your mind’s eye, begging to be put on paper.

 There are multiple scenes that come to you. You have only a vague idea of what happens to your characters. 

Out of the many questions that troubles most writers, the one that requires an answer first is where to begin?

 The timeline of your novel might be a few decades or years or days. Where should you begin the story?

Next will be what all details should be included?

How should the story end?

Should you plot the novel or write it as it comes to you?

In my experience, when I plot I am able to write faster. It is like laying down a strong foundation before constructing a building.

The easiest way to plot is the ABDCE formula. In the ABDCE structure for plotting a story/novel developed by Alice Adams, the story begins with an Action or an inciting incident.

Image Source

The Formula:

• Action: This is the inciting incident which sets off the story in motion.
• Background: What happened to the characters in the past that made them what they are today.
• Development: The course of the story where the characters chase their goals.
• Climax: This is the point where the goals are achieved with dramatic consequences.
• Ending: All the loose threads in the plot are tied up.

Let me try and explain this with an example:

‘Harry Potter and philosopher’s stone’ by JK Rowling tells the tale of Harry Potter, an orphan who is left at the doorstep of his only living relatives, the Dursleys at Private Drive. He is ill-treated by his cruel uncle, aunt, and cousin on every occasion.

Action: Harry starts receiving mysterious letters that are snatched away from him by his uncle just before his 11^th birthday. He tries in every way to read the letter but never succeeds.  

Background: Rubeus Hagrid who hand delivers the letter from the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry tells him his story. He learns that he is a wizard who is quite famous in the wizarding world. Harry’s parents were Aurors who had died facing the dark wizard Lord Voldemort who had mysteriously vanished when he had tried to kill Harry. 

Development: Harry reaches Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor House. The various characters are introduced. Ron and Hermione become his best friends. The rest of his adventures at Hogwarts in his first year, his dilemmas and his achievements constitute the chapters which fall under the category of development. This is where the characters undergo change. More adventures follow. Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspect that professor Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone which they believe is being guarded by the four-headed monster dog in one of the forbidden corridors in the school.

Climax: Solving the various puzzles and overcoming the hurdles that the team of teachers had created to guard the Philosophers stone, Harry finds that it is professor Quirrel, someone he had not suspected at all, who is trying to steal the stone. Lord Voldemort who had lost his body is possessing Quirrel. Harry faces Voldemort’s wrath when he refuses to help them find the stone.

Ending: Harry wakes up in the hospital wing of the school and learns from Dumbledore that Voldemort has vanished again after killing Quirrel. Griffindor lifts the house Cup after a last-minute awarding of house points to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville for their role in protecting the Philosopher's stone. Harry returns to Private Drive determined not to tell the Dursleys that he cannot use magic outside of Hogwarts.

Those of you who have read this book will notice how many chapters fall under these categories. The majority of the story happens in the Development category. The rest of the structure is mostly one or two chapters each.  

It is now your turn to decide upon the ‘Action’ that is going to capture the attention of your reader the most. Begin there.

During this A-Z April Challenge, I am exploring the A-Z journey of writing a Novel with examples from Literature.

The Letter of the day is A

Linking this post  to Blogging from A-Z

and Blogchatter

Click here to read B

V is for Valediction: A Short Story

Years ago, beneath this grand old Banyan tree, which had witnessed many a heartbreaks and valedictions, had sat a couple. The girl had tears pouring down rapidly and the boy was trying to blink away the tears that were clouding his eyes.

It was not the era of mobile phones or the internet. The elite prided in the possession of telephones but mailbox was the lone cupid. Vacations had been bitter pills and this moment of valediction was toxic.

Hand-in-hand, they watched their merry classmates exchange mementos and pose to capture the last moments of togetherness.

It all seemed final, this last day of college, this ceremony of goodbyes. They weren’t ready for it yet.

Their story was not such, about which poets wrote or films made. Theirs was a love that had blossomed with time. They had progressed from being to classmates, to friends and then to being lovers very gradually. They never knew when they had fallen in love. It was not an incident or a single glance that had triggered love. It was just time.

The same time was now sounding the alarm bells that told them their time together was ending. Like migrating birds they were about to fly to different destinations.

She had to return to her parents who had already begun the hunt for a groom for their very own lady- doctor.

He was preparing for his post graduation abroad.

In the conservative Brahmin family to which she belonged, marriage to a lower caste boy would never be approved. Being the loving and dutiful daughter that she was, she didn’t want to go against her parents either.

Therefore, this moment of valediction seemed like the final line of the last chapter of their love story.

“Then what happened to that couple mom?” ask my eager teenage daughter perched near to me on the bench beneath the banyan tree of my Alma-mater.I slip again into the rosy lanes of memory.

“As they say, true love always finds a way,” I say fondly.

Valedictions necessitate actions, and that too immediate. The thought of never being able to be together goaded them into action, which preceded all thoughts of wisdom.

They secretly had a court marriage in the presence of a few friends. Then they broke the news to their families together. There were clouds of anger, flashes of temper and rains of tears. However, in the end, the sun shone on them brightly. Both parents warmed up to the their love.

“And they lived happily ever after?” ask my smiling daughter.

“Yes..almost always. Except when their naughty daughter threw tantrums,” say my husband tweaking her ears.

 She hug us both tight, snickering and shouting “So you both were the couple?!!”

 This story is a part of Blogging from A-Z April Challenge.

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge was first held in 2010. The challenge is that we have to post every day of April, except on the four Sundays. April 1st is a theme with letter A, 2nd with letter B and so on till April 30th which will be Z themed. My theme is #Learning Everyday, I post about new random things every day.

Memories of a Happy Month

'

When I decided to sign up for the April A-Z challenge, I had thought that it would be an easy challenge. After all, I only had post everyday for a month and in addition, the prompt to write was just an alphabet. Didn’t I become an expert in them, way back in Kindergarten itself?

How wrong I was?!!!

I decide to theme it as ‘learning everyday’ by posting about things I wanted my tell my readers every day. I hadn’t decided on anything particular even when the first day of April dawned. I called upon all the gods and Angels to help me begin and aha, I had my A post. A is for Angels.

U is for Unlucky : A Short Story

Every one told Sita that she was unlucky.

Hadn't she killed her mother right on the day of her birth?

 Wasn't it because of the fault in her stars that her father took his own life two days before her third birthday?

By the time she passed high school, the blame for the death of two of her closest friends in a drowning incident and the car accident that crippled her aunt who was her guardian, had also been added to long list of woes.

Her education had ended at eighteen when her uncle believing in all the rumors abound, refused to waste money on a no-good cause. Her dreams of becoming a teacher had died an early death that day.

At the age of twenty, a nomad scrap-dealer Raghu, fell in love with her and her uncle quickly married her off to him. After all, none of the youth in their village wanted a bad omen entering their lives.

On the day of their marriage, when a teary-eyed Sita confessed to Raghu, that he had unknowingly damaged his luck by marrying her, he laughed it off good-humouredly.

“Do you know that I make a fortune out of what other people consider useless? They don’t know the value of things they throw away as waste. In my eyes, they are gold. No one is ever born unlucky Sita. Understand that. Luck is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of thoughts and choice. You are my love and my lucky charm from today. Remember that.”

Raghu treated her like a queen and Sita became happier day after day.

Raghu enrolled her in the nearby college for degree and Sita started giving tuition to kids in the neighborhood to add to their earnings. She quickly became the favorite with all the students.

Just how much her life had changed became evident to Sita when Priya, her student and neighbour came one night to her house.

“Sita Aunty, Tomorrow is my mathematics board exam. First thing in the morning, I want to see your face. You are my lucky charm.”

“No Priya…See your mothers face and go,”repled Sita still unsure of her luck.

“No Aunty.Believe me. Whenever I behold you, my day passes charmingly. I saw you yesterday and my science paper was just awesome. I feared it the most you know,” declared Priya.

“Sita, Listen to her. You are a lucky charm indeed. See how much Raghu prospered and how happy he is now after you came into his life.” It was Priya’s mom.

Sita smiled partly in happiness and partly with relief.

Luck was indeed just a matter of thought and choices as Raghu said. She never would say or believe she was unlucky again.

 Years later, when her daughter-in-law passed away after childbirth, she took the child and embraced it lovingly, ready to confront anyone who wanted to brand the child as being unlucky.

 A smiling Raghu, her two daughters and son soon came in to watch her expertly calming down the wailing child.

 This story is a part of Blogging from A-Z April Challenge.

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge was first held in 2010. The challenge is that we have to post every day of April, except on the four Sundays. April 1st is a theme with letter A, 2nd with letter B and so on till April 30th which will be Z themed. My theme is #Learning Everyday, I post about new random things every day.

T is for Thinking Straight: A Short Story

How long? How many hours, how many days more was this turmoil going to last?

I snap out of my reverie when my phone pings with another message. There it was, proof that my dilemma was never going to end, a message from Manav.

Manav always drove me crazy. One day, he will be the sweetest person I had ever seen and the next day, he will be back being the grouchy snob who never failed to irritate me.

We go back a long way- Manav and me. We had joined this company on the same day five years ago. Being on the same daily- grind brought us closer and we gloriously bitched about our common enemies over cups of coffee during weekends.

I do not know when but soon his presence had become an addiction I could not rid of. Each passing day deepened my infatuation. I eagerly awaited to see the smile on his face when we met accidentally or over coffee.

That weekend when I rushed to our usual café with an eager heart racing at an abnormal pace, I had decided to open up about how I really felt.

“Reshmi, I have a surprise for you,” Manav had said immediately after we sat down for coffee. The surprise had turned out to be an arranged marriage that he had agreed to. The photo of the pretty girl on his phone taunted me. I laughed merrily teasing him about his impending marriage even as my heart broke silently into a thousand pieces.

My only solace was that my secret had remained.

Soon after his marriage, a project in New York for which he was selected had relieved me from the pain of beholding him every day.

Three years and a disastrous marriage later, Manav have come back to me again, but at the most inappropriate time.

I am engaged to Kishore, who is heads over heels in love with me. Kishore had made me fall in love with him by his ardent devotion. His parents too made me feel like one of their own.

A week ago, Manav declared that he loved me, had always loved me but had succumbed to parental pressure and agreed to a marriage of their liking. I had confessed to him then about my engagement with Kishore.

Ever since that day, my inbox is flooded with his sob stories, requests and from yesterday threats that he will end his life.

Manav was my first love, but now he has come back to me with an emotional baggage he refuses to dispose. Every now and then, he became moody and started comparing me with Sneha his ex-wife. But first loves were hard to be forgotten.

Do I need this? How am I going to deal with this?

My phone buzzed again with an incoming mail. It was a newsletter that I had subscribed to from a relationship website. It had a quote that gave an answer to my queries.

I knew it was time to think straight.

This story is a part of Blogging from A-Z April Challenge.

 The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge was first held in 2010. The challenge is that we have to post every day of April, except on the four Sundays. April 1st is a theme with letter A, 2nd with letter B and so on till April 30th which will be Z themed. My theme is #Learning Everyday, I post about new random things every day.