#21763 - 02/07/12 04:23 PM
Re: Opening Paragraphs
[Re: Anonymous]
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timster
old hand
Registered: 09/28/02
Posts: 1134
Loc: Iowa
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A start to one of mine, still needs a bit of work...
My feet fall in front of one another, quicker than before, as it draws closer. The pounding of my heart races into the confines of my ears, pounding, pounding. The beast draws closer, even as I move faster through the woods.
Obstacles litter my path of escape; branches, trees, mounds of dirt, all slow my tract, yet the beast still closes. I leap over the branches, dodge trees, stumble, yet keep my balance, it would surely catch me if I fell. Faster I move, still it closes in on me. I do not see it; yet feel its presence, consuming my thoughts and fear.
A cliff hangs in front of my path. Either I will be ripped apart by the beast or fall to death in the fall. I chose the fall and make a mighty leap. My stomach feels sick as I watch the ground below me grow closer. The beast did not follow my out of control flight, yet its eyes capture mine for a moment. Just a few more seconds…
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#21766 - 02/07/12 04:39 PM
Re: Opening Paragraphs
[Re: Cyrano]
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Ravenwood
member
Registered: 11/11/08
Posts: 170
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Most every writer is schooled on the importance of the contents of a short story’s opening. But does that mean only the opening paragraph? The paragraph cited above contains 122 words. Is not every story then, allowed a sufficient number of words to attract the reader, even when there may be a handful of paragraphs before 100 or 122 total words have been reached? (And what would make any number a magic cut-off point? I would say until the volume, itself, is more of a hindrance than a help.) A paragraph may be but one word. mmmExample:
“Blood?”
“It is, Dilwiggers,” the junior detective affirmed.
Dilwiggers winced. A week until retirement, and a case that could sit on his desk, unsolved. Crap! The one thing he’d sworn he would avoid.
“Start it then, Murph.”
It would be the clearing and marking of the area. The call to forensics. Pictures. Measurements. Questionings. Time... all of it taking time
‘Damn’, thought the older detective. ‘Could it be worse than this?’
“I’m sorry, Sir,” Murphy consoled.
“Eh?”
Murphy realized that his senior officer, preoccupied with retiring, had failed to note the address was the new apartment of Dilwiggers’ own granddaughter.
Here we have nine paragraphs to open the story, yet less than 100 words. Are not the nine the story’s opening? Is the writer to be criticized for an opening paragraph that is not all-inclusive?
A second importance to an opening, at least equally important to informing/enticing the reader, is to demonstrate that the writer has the skills and the willingness to write well. My openings, alas, too often fail at one of those, or both. My titles, too, flop. My sentence structure. My vocabulary. Jeepers, why am I doing this? 
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#21770 - 02/07/12 04:58 PM
Re: Opening Paragraphs
[Re: Ravenwood]
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lori32wf
addict
Registered: 11/18/02
Posts: 465
Loc: Louisiana
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Ravenwood, I agree with you. An opening paragraph doesn't have to be limited to a guideline. And what you've typed up could very well be the first page of a VERY interesting book.
Here's what I was once taught. Grab them by the horns. Make them stand up and take notice. Make them desire to keep reading. And above all cut the needless words.
If you can caught the reader (like you did with the word "Blood) you have them hooked. They want to know who's blood it is, how'd it get there, and who's the culprit in the end.
So, no I don't think it has to be an all-inclusive first paragraph. But, then again, I'm one of those people who don't like to follow the rules. Hence why I do poetry ;-).
Though I will say there ARE rules with poetry, I'm still a freewriter. I don't claim to be a poetress. The only so-called claim to fame I have is the ability to write my heart on the page. If someone relates to it then I did my job. If I can make someone cry though, now THAT is the reward LOL.
It doesn't take perfection to be a writer. It takes heart and skill. Like you, Ravenwood, I more often than not can't title my own pieces, am constantly reaching for a thesaurus, cheating by using an online rhyming dictionary, and getting lost in too long of a line.
BUT the last question in your post is the easiest to answer LOL. We keep doing it because it feels SO good to have written. Writing is easy. It's what's been written that's different to get across sometimes.
_________________________
I don't write my dreams or nightmares. I write my own reality.
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