Tuesday's Inspiration - Are you readable? #MFRWauthor #Amwriting

Just what does this mean? Are you readable? You need to find a way to suck your readers in like quicksand and holding their attention to the end of the book. I find the first paragraph is the one I work over and over again. I may write the opening sentence a dozen times before i commit myself. I need to catch the reader's attention. What this means to me is beginning the story at a place where there's something that has either happened, is just about to happen or a character is facing the consequences of what has just happened. The thing is if you don't grab them from the beginning, they won't stick until the end.

The story I'm working on starts a very short time before something happens that will change several of the character's life. The heroine's view point is caught in the opening scene. She is brewing poison, not for her to use but for her captors to use in trade. Shortly after this comes the threat to her and she knows she must find a way to escape this place.

For me this is a comfortable place to begin many stories. At that moment when everything seems ordinary and there is a build to the event and the story is off and running. But there can be a problem here. This waiting for the event can take too long and the reader becomes bored.

Other stories start in media res. In the middle of the action and the sentences must show the event in progress. That's an active beginning and will draw the reader in but sustaining the action and the excitement can leave little big events to follow. If you begin with a huge explosion what can you follow with.

The third way is after the event has occurred. A possibility but make sure the characters don't open the story feeling sorry for themselves. There has been an event and they must be in the process of figuring what to do next.