Last night my eldest son picked a few books to read a chapter from before bed. We read together. I was blown away to find that every single one started in a dream or sleep state.
“Sophie couldn’t sleep.” – The BFG, Roald Dahl
“Qui-Gon Jinn woke with a start.” – Star Wars, The Dark Rival
“It was sometime before dawn when Ruthie Stewart opened her eyes.” – Stealing Magic, Marianne Malone, c. 2011
Here’s a classic favorite as well:
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic vermin.” — Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
And an interesting comment to sum it up:
“In my opinion, EVERYONE thinks EVERYTHING is too cliche these days,
OF course everything is cliche, everything has already been done!” – Yahoo Answers Comment
Overall, I believe good writing is good writing. I cannot say unequivocally that you should not start a novel in a sleep state, although I seem to have read that many times recently.
What’s more curious to me is the tendency to write this type of opener. It’s almost like birth for stories. Sometimes you need to start from birth, when a novel first comes to consciousness, but other times you can skip ahead — what’s important is to start where the story starts.
Back in school, my design mentor used to tell me it’d take a backhoe to pull the stick outta my ass. That’s right, I’ve been known to be a little uptight . . . a teeny, tiny bit of a control freak. Well, writing is stripping that freakness off of me layer by layer — it’s the backhoe I’ve been waiting for all my life. How am I learning humility?
The quality or condition of being humble.
Oh, let me count the ways!
1. Five days after I let my buddy read the MS, when I realize I let someone read the piece of crap MS!
2. Two days after I sent a query letter, only to realize that I HAVE NO BUSINESS sending query letters yet!
3. One minute after my oldest son asks me if I’m going to sell this book for money, and if so I should ask “one hundred dollars.”
4. Thirty seconds after I mistake one contest I entered for another, and say it to the contest runners!!
I mistook their email for another freaking email I’ve been waiting on, and in my excitement, totally earned my dose of humility for today. But the best part is, Pam and Quita gave away query letter feedback with their agents, the absolute rockin-est prize in the universe! Follow them on twitter for a chance at their next contest.
If you haven’t been to visit Wordle yet, check out what it can do. This is a super kick ass word map of my wip, THE SIGHT! Plus, these diagrams aren’t just pretty pictures — they can show you which words you are using way, way too much, or tell you which characters are falling through the cracks.
“So. You’re going to write the next one, right? Cause I don’t want to like tell you all the bad stuff if you won’t write the next one.”
Oh my God, there’s Bad Stuff. I reassure the earnest 13 year old sitting across from me that I will not, in fact, be deterred by her honest feedback.
“Okay. Cool. I just wanted to make sure. Cause I was really upset when I turned the last page and there was nothing more.”
Swoon. Then she hits me with the Bad Stuff:
- The parents don’t act real.
- The first chapter was kindof, well, totally, boring.
- I had to skip a lot of that soccer scene.
- The dance was too short. I want to know what happened. Why didn’t you show it?
- Why does that girl hate the her? I mean, you always have someone you hate, but you know why.
- Why wouldn’t she ask so-and-so what was going on? I would just text him/her.
- When are you going to write the next one?
Well, obviously, that last one wasn’t Bad Stuff. Still, hearing teenage reflections on my novel made me realize I am not a teenager anymore. Really. I have to give that up now. But it also made me realize that I still *get* teens, and that they love it that I do.
que·ry
[kweer-ee] noun, plural -ries, verb, -ried, -ry·ing.
1. a question; an inquiry.
2. mental reservation; doubt.
3. Printing . a question mark (?), especially as added on a manuscript, proof sheet, or the like, indicating doubt as to some point in the text.
4. an inquiry from a writer to an editor of a magazine, newspaper, etc., regarding the acceptability of or interest in an idea for an article, news story, or the like: usually presented in the form of a letter that outlines or describes the projected piece.
5. a torture device
If you find definition number five the most relative, you might want to check out these query resources. I’ve been bookmarking them all over the place, so I figured why not list them for everyone else!
How to write the damn thing:
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