Notes from recent workshop

During the Emerald City Conference I gave a workshop called Where to Begin: Six Sure-Fired Ways to Start Your Book. My workshop was at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, the last day of the conference so I made 30 copies of my handouts, figuring only about 10 people would show up.

Well, I was gratified -- and embarrassed -- when loyal attendees did show up to fill the room with about 60 people! My thanks to all those wonderful writers who turned out.

So I am putting up the two handouts on my blog as well as emailing all those who didn't get copies. If you have any questions, email me at bjdaniels@mtintouch.net

So here they are:
WHERE TO BEGIN: Six Sure-fired Ways to Start Your Book
by author B.J. Daniels
http://www.bjdaniels.com/

What a good beginning does:
1) Sets the tone of the book
2) Kicks the story off
3) Hints at what kind of story this is going to be
4) Establishes the writer’s style
5) Sets the pace
6) Introduces a character or characters
7) Establishes viewpoint
8) Suggests the setting
9) Introduces the opening conflict
10) Hooks the reader and makes a promise

Where to begin. Six options:

1) Setting – Think of it as one of the characters. A sense of place gives a foundation to your story. It can also set the tone of your book and hook your reader instantly.

2) Conflict – A must. Beginning with conflict jumpstarts your book. Always a good hook.

3) Dialogue – Another great jumping-right-in way to begin. Hooks reader if the dialogue is catchy or clever.

4) Character – Introducing the characters sets the stage. Readers want to know who the story is about quickly.

5) Prologue – Only if you must and only if it is short and grabs the reader.

6) Narration – Okay, but it had better be good.



EXAMPLES:

DIALOGUE:
“You really shouldn’t have done that.”
It’s probably a bad idea to slap your husband’s lover – especially when she’d holding a gun on you, but I wasn’t letting her take Jake without a fight.
I looked into those ice-blue eyes, past the pretty, and hoped the gun was just an accessory to her expensive tailored outfit.
“You’ll have my husband over my dead body,” I said, sounding like a bad Country-Western song.
Tiffany Cross laughed as she flipped off the gun’s safety. “You read my mind.”

CHARACTER:
What do you wear to meet your husband’s mistress? I’d changed my clothes a half dozen times. Being a stay-at-home wife and mother, six clean changes were really all I had.
I settled on blue jeans and a blouse, dabbed on what makeup I could find in the bathroom drawer and wore the earrings Jake had given me on our first date.
I don’t know why I bothered to dress up. Tiffany Cross didn’t even seem to notice. She was too busy digging the pistol out of her purse.

SETTING:
It began to snow as I pulled up in front of the cabin next to a vintage Mercedes. So, my husband’s mistress was already here. The wind groaned in the tall pines and made the chimes on the weathered porch tinkle. The lake beyond the cabin was rough, the wind kicking up whitecaps. She came around the edge of the cabin. A woman wearing a bright red coat. The color of blood.

SUSPENSE/CONFLICT:
I jumped at the tap on my side car window. I’d lost track of the time waiting for her and was surprised how dark it was. All my instincts told me to run. This dark isolated spot was no place to meet my husband’s mistress.
I felt the small weapon, heavy in my jacket pocket, as I opened the door and came face to face with Tiffany Cross, the woman who thought I’d asked her here so we could discuss how she was going to steal my husband.