You know those people, who within thirty seconds of you first meeting them, are giving you their life history.
Well, I think some of them write TG fiction, and make the mistake of starting their stories in the same way.
OK, I can't deny I made the title a little controversial to get attention. But getting the right kind of beginning for a story is imperative in attracting readers to start the story and then read on. And starting to detail one's life history within the first few paragraphs is incredibly - yawn - well, not to put too fine a point on it - boring.
That's not to say that the author should not have already have worked out the background, but simply that it needs to be kept back from the reader until it's absolutely needed, and then only given in small doses. Far too many authors put the background in the immediate foreground of a story, and I'm afraid they turn me, and probably many others, right off the story.
Comments
The Hook
It's called, 'the hook'. Stories of all types since the mid seventies (for the most part) start off with an action scene, or a dramatic scene, something to bring the reader's interest and hold it through the boring (informative, info dumps) parts at the beginning of a book.
I often read about three or four paragraphs into a story and toss it aside because it doesn't hold my interest, or is so cliche that it's unreadable. There's lots of things that make me give it up, but the one above all else is the first sentence. If it even starts with anything like, "It was a dark and stormy night", I don't even bother and hit the big red X. It was declared the worst opening line in literary history for a reason.
There were ways around setting a scene. I mean which would you rather read.
1. It was a dark and stormy night.
or
2. Their skin glistened with rain as they rolled on the freshly cut grass that night, grasping at each other in a heated embrace, not concerned at all with the lightning crashing only minutes away.
Personally I'd pick number two.
~Lili
Blog: http://lilithlangtree.tglibrary.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lilith_langtree
~Lili
Write the story that you most desperately want to read.
It was a dark and stormy night...
It was a dark and stormy night. The sex was awesome. They never noticed the aliens until it was too late.
This is why I'm not a writer...
Actually...
you start with the hook, throw in the seeming non sequitur and then end with the groaner
They never noticed the aliens until it was too late. The sex was great. And by the way...it was a dark and stormy night!
SuZie ;)
SuZie
2nd try...
2. Their skin glistened with rain as they rolled on the freshly cut grass that night, grasping at each other in a heated embrace, not concerned at all with the lightning crashing only minutes away.
With a sudden crash that rivaled the thunder, the front door was flung wide. A tall figure loomed in the doorway, ominous and threatening, silhouetted by the light inside.
"DAMN YOU KIDS! GET OFF MY LAWN!"
Nobody noticed the aliens until it was too late.
The Bulwer-Lytton awards...
My personal favorite (okay, ONE of them):
How About . . .
You can always do what aviators do when they start their stories;
"There I was . . ."
Nancy Cole
(From the old joke; What's the difference between a fairy tale and a fighter pilot's story? A fairy tale starts, 'Once upon a time.' A fighter pilot's story starts, 'There I was.')
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
There I was . . .
On my back at thirty thousand feet, then the pilot turned on the "Fasten seatbelt" sign. ;-)
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
It's actually, 'No shit,
It's actually, 'No shit, there I was...'
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times to
call me Ishmael; it was a wrong number that started it, and all this happened, more or less...in the beginning, I sometimes left messages in the street. Psychics can see the color of time; it's blue...and the past is a foreign country...they do things differently there, after all, it was a dark and stormy night." Well it was!
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Possa Dio riccamente vi benedica, tutto il mio amore, Andrea
Love, Andrea Lena
Howzabout...
...IN THE BEGINNING...:)
Sorry, I couldn't resist........... :D
Your Lil' Brat Strikes again?
Bored too, thrill gone...
From a psychological point of view, many of the stories here are fantasy based, and the content of the stories is about as close as many authors will ever get to being women. And after 5 years, something is happening to me. I have no idea if I have just gotten tired of reading about the first time a man has put on a bra, or if my body is simply shutting down; preparing to die.
I have been quite ill for several weeks and will hopefully get the answer Friday. I find myself only reading a few authors who I know will put some meat in the stories. I have also noticed a sad tendency for really good authors to come here, write like mad for a while, burn out and leave.
If I continue to feel this way, I will leave. My stories are mostly ignored, and writing just isn't fun any more for me. There are only so many ways to ladder panty hose. I won't do any drama queen bullshit like deleting my stories, but if yall get ta needing the hard disk space, you can, and I probably won't even notice.
I had fun while I was here and I thank the people that made that posible from the bottom of my heart. I am determined to move on and have a regular life, go stealth, and enjoy myself whether it be a few weeks or several years.
Best wishes to you all.
Khadijah Gwen
Laddering panty hose
There's the old one, of course:
Man to woman: "That was great! But if I had known you were a virgin, I'd have taken longer."
Woman to man: "If I had known you were going to take longer, I'd have taken my tights off."
Penny
Personally,
I wouldn't read any of those.
Angharad
Angharad