Laurence
Inkling
I'm currently writing my first chapter and am looking to start at the beginning of the story. No prologue or no framing device.
On occasions you've started this way, or in books you love, do you find the hook needs to happen in the very first paragraph? The way things have panned out plot-wise I'd really like to introduce my character and his surroundings for a page or two before he stumbles across what I think of as the hook (because it's thrilling).
Do you think you would even get that far if you were checking out a book in a store? If not, do you know of any books that've drawn you in from the first paragraph without some thrilling event?
My first paragraph as it stands reads as follows:
Last to exit the mine, Iren let his pry bar and hammer rest in the crook of the rock he had punished so cruelly for the last ten Bright Days. He tramped up the gravel slope of his gallery, bare soles unable to feel the grip of the earth. Dull fingers unable to shake off their clawed position, cold despite the sweat pooling at his naked lower back. His mind too was numb, so why not numb the rest of himself?
On occasions you've started this way, or in books you love, do you find the hook needs to happen in the very first paragraph? The way things have panned out plot-wise I'd really like to introduce my character and his surroundings for a page or two before he stumbles across what I think of as the hook (because it's thrilling).
Do you think you would even get that far if you were checking out a book in a store? If not, do you know of any books that've drawn you in from the first paragraph without some thrilling event?
My first paragraph as it stands reads as follows:
Last to exit the mine, Iren let his pry bar and hammer rest in the crook of the rock he had punished so cruelly for the last ten Bright Days. He tramped up the gravel slope of his gallery, bare soles unable to feel the grip of the earth. Dull fingers unable to shake off their clawed position, cold despite the sweat pooling at his naked lower back. His mind too was numb, so why not numb the rest of himself?