First Lines: Make them count

Doesn't it seem like everytime you go to write your first line your mind goes static-clingy and you pick up every one else's super fantastic first lines and it's hard to come up with something original? Almost like you want to be apart of someone else's brilliance. (That is IF you have done your homework and read a lot).

Here's the thing, everytime we write we have eccos of someone else's work roaming around our subconsious. It's hard to step away from what we know or subconsiously know and create something comepletely unique to us, or our work.

To come up with a brand-spanking-new first line, we need to come up with something that is ONE: Orinignal. TWO: Catches the reader's attention. THREE: Makes the reader want to continue reading. And FOUR: Give us a sense or feel for what the book is going to be about.

Start out quirky, thoughtful, happy, silly, scared, mind-blowing, but DON'T start out boring or

blasé.  Numerous people have given advice on this. Like, don't talk about the weather. Don't start so full of action that it gives the reader whiplash. Don't start off with the character alone, thinking...the list goes on and on and on and on. 

Something that helps me is to think about my VOICE. What do I want that to sound like in this book? It really helps me (for my own vices in writing) not to take myself too seriously. Even if I want my book to be serious in nature (which I tend to do more than I think I probably should), I should step back and relax. When I'm loose, my writing is actually more fluid and fun. And definitely more interesting. Sometimes I think writers, particularly new ones, take it SOOO seriously that they can't have fun with it. They (and I include myself in this) tend to write so crisp and try to be so perfect that they end up being anything but. AND in the process write the same thing over and over again (check your work and admit I'm right). The same sentance structure, the same prose. They have TICKS.

Yeah, this kitten is supposed to be talking, but I couldn't think of what it should say.

So, Give it voice, give it love, humor, horror. JUST GIVE IT FEELING and DEPTH.

And if you can't capture it on the first try. Don't sweat it. Try and try again until you get that perfection you crave. Read other people's work, get inspiration, but then come back with that inspiration and forget everything you read. It may sound tricky, but trust me, with enough practice you can do it!

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It's all about VOICE

Just a thought on voice today. While I was 'trying' to go to sleep last night, ideas came for my book (which is always the case whenever I'm NOT in front of my computer to put them into my MS) and an idea on what VOICE actually means to me. Well, I thought back to my first book and how I'd want to put the random thought  or sequence into a scene. Later I realized this was implementing voice, (and would have been a good idea) at the time I thought I was just a dork for wanting to write some of the things I did and that everyone would think I was lame.

Wrong.

It was those little nuances that I should have been putting throughout my MS, not just at the beginning when things weren't as tense.

To me VOICE is HONESTY. All those moments when you think about the real-to-life thoughts you would have in certain situations, any situation whether dramatic or mundaine, are the things needed to make a story more real, more honest. What goes through your head when you are doing a mundaine task? Voice can take this mundaine task and add humor to it. Or make a scary scene even more scary.

For instance, I know that even as an adult I get scared of the dark. Yes, a lot of honesty here. And it was those fears, down to the very detail of what I was affraid would happen, that I decided I needed to put into a certain scene of my book to make it more intense. I began with a scene where a girl is going to bed at night...but what if I put in her thoughts about what might happen. Seems obvious, right? Well, with so many other things going on at the beginnig of the scene I didn't think of it. But why not? If I put her (my) thoughts about this (being in a strange place/bed) into it, it will add drama, even if nothing ends up happening, the reader doesn't know that and it keeps them on edge. Now that may not sound obviously like VOICE, but it's the way you do it that is. When I put it into my own language (or characters) in such a realistic way, I think that's when I discover my voice. Whether I have silly thoughts, or snarky. Whatever REAL thoughts a person has, that is VOICE. It isn't just about getting plot down on the page, having the MC go through the motions. They have to think, feel, observe and relate it all to the reader in a way that makes it feel like they are actually there.

I don't know why it is that when I have a unique situation in my own life I think other people won't be interested and yet if I apply it to my story it may just be the thing that makes my story more realistic and actually less cliche. Because, I think, many situations in our lives are NOT cliche. What do you think? Yes, there are things that happen to each and everyone one of us, but do we overlook them because they are ordinary, or do we use them to full advantage and put more of ourselves into our books? Sometimes I think it's the small things that people can relate to that make a character likeable and real.

So, this post is pretty scatterbrained because I thought it all out last night and should have ran down here to type it out when I would have been more suave with my wording (now it's a little hazy), but, you know, it was around 1am and I was tired =).

What are your thoughts on voice? What makes a voice a good voice? Or a story real to you?

Voice

So, a lot of people have been talking about 'Voice' lately in the blogosphere. It is a dilemma that many a beginning writer faces developing or even understanding. In the beginning I was extremely confused about how my 'voice' should sound, or if I even had the confidence to 'be myself' when writing. I studied and studied other author voices and after a while I thought, "What if my voice sounds like someone else's and not my own?" I banned ALL reading until I finished with my second draft. (which was really a better first draft =).

That was when I read an article written by an agent (sorry, I forget which one…probably in one of my revision books) who said that it is ridiculous to think that you should lose your voice when reading others’. Instead, others should inspire you, not diminish you. Otherwise, you really don't have your own voice at all. This really struck me as profound. Was I being myself? I was still confused.

Now, after reading so many articles and blogs and write-write-writing, I am there. And the best way I can explain a “Voice” is just to BE YOUR SELF! If you read books by authors that you are familiar with, you can pick out their work from everyone else’s. If you were to read your friends’ work, you could definitely tell who wrote it. At least I could.

When reading my brother’s, husband’s, cousin’s work, whether for a book or school assignment or just something silly they were trying out (a letter, even), I could see their personality jump off the page. My cousin and brother have brilliant senses of humor (is that right? senses? =) They each have their take on things. Now, for them, it would completely work if they would just write a book like they would speak. They are so hilarious. For me, I never thought I had that sense of humor. When I wrote, I would take the most serious parts of myself and put it down in prose. But now, as I am revising, I have decided that the parts people have liked the most in my book where places that I really let my hair down. I was myself. I let my sense of humor take over and let caution go with the wind. So, this is my idea of a voice. Just be yourself. Let your quirky views of life really hit the page and reflect back into the reader’s eyes. Don’t be ashamed of who you are (this is more advice for myself).

Now, sometimes this doesn’t work for every reader. Some people just won’t ‘get’ you at all. That is obvious when I started having new beta readers read my work. But for the audience I was writing for, they really enjoyed my eccentricity and nonconformity. That’s all that matters to me. I will write what I like, be myself, and I will find my audience. SO THERE! =) jk, I mean, not, but okay, you get the point. LOL.

Yes, well, these are my aunts, many many years ago, showing their silliness =). Imagine what this would be like on paper...

Greatness here people!

Oh yes, I am serious. =0