Today, my friend Marilyn and I were talking about how to begin a story (over a great lunch at Taco Mesa). I thought, "How to start a story? Hmmmm... what a good post for my new blog!"
Even Lewis Carroll says that in telling stories one should, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Said by the King to the White Rabbit. English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898))
I am definitely of the Dahl school of "grab 'em by the throat with the first sentence and never let 'em go!" I am interested to hear what you think!
As you can well imagine, I like Scary and surprising openings. I love the beginning of Witches. I am still fascinated by Dahl's description of how to discover witches and how witches get rid of smelly kids. It still unnerves me (I love it!).
How about you? What are your favorite story openings? What are your favorite beginnings?
Ta Muchly!
Ev
3 comments:
Compadre, starting the story is feeling the story...knowing the story already, but letting the story itself take you for a ride.
when you're done, you should be like "that was a good turn back there"
ghv (or el gio)
Hey all!
A good friend sent me a link to her site, as well. She is a wonderful illustrator named Veronica Walsh. Her site is:
www.veronicawalsh.net
I encourage all of you to visit it and be amazed.
Ev
The opening sentence or so of Kafka's Metamorphoses - awesome in English or German!
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