Monday, December 15, 2008

First Paragraph Woes

If you read this blog last week, you saw me complain about my woefully inadequate first paragraph. Then I had my own brainstorming/hair pulling contest to try to improve my paragraph. More woe - I gave up too easily.

Today, Nathan Bransford explains what is great about the six paragraphs that made the finals. Then - here's the woe part - he describes the most common losing paragraphs. Mine falls securely in class #2. Yep, I have a lot of details and too much setting. My shocking sentence is only eyebrow raising. Woe is me!

I find it very easy to write an intriguing first paragraph for novel ideas that are merely shadows and moonlight in my head. Once the novel solidifies, the first paragraph dies a dull death.

Back to the drawing board.

2 comments:

Jacqui said...

"I find it very easy to write an intriguing first paragraph for novel ideas that are merely shadows and moonlight in my head."

I have to start with only the shadow of an idea. Then I fill in the rest of the novel. My first pages rarely change at all. Maybe you should write the beginnings before you figure out the rest of the book?

Ann Finkelstein said...

Maybe I should go back and see what I first wrote for my first page.