Saved, by a Splash of Genius. ;)

Well, all at once another writing fit swept upon me and Puddleby Lane is saved for the time-being. ;) I re-read it, found it was not at all as bad as I had left it, (that's what a nice break of a month or two will do) and I was so excited to start writing again! :) I love when that happens and I walk around with a silly smile on my face because I'm thinking about what will be happening next. Actually, the chapter I'm working on right now is really fun because I get to describe Puddleby Lane and the three houses on it, as well as Cora's first sight of the Chesapeake Bay, and her meeting with Ann Company, Flounder, and the Captain. :)

Writing can make me ridiculously happy, at times, and tormented at others.

I seem to pick contrary things (and people) to love. My favorite characters are always the black sheep in the family or the naughty children, my favorite animal is a cat, who everyone knows is the most selfish, self-absorbed, arrogant beastie ever to walk to earth, and my hobbies are all contrary as well....writing, sewing, things of that nature....I have a complex. ;)

On another writing-note, I have been using my Writing Ideas Notebook quite a bit recently. And no, I haven't named it anything amazing yet. Yesterday I sat down in our reading nook with a towering stack of classics and copied out the first sentence in each of them. I know I have written on this topic at least once before, but it is often my nemesis. I've yet to write an opening line that captivates me, or, I assume, the reader. :P You can read my former post here.

So I decided that perhaps the best way to learn how to make a stunning opening would be to research what other writers do. :) My favorites are books that start with a powerful punch of humor, like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, (It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.) or C. S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. (There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.) :) I want to be able to write such....unusual openings without laboring over them for eight years. ;)

Well, anyhow, I just thought I'd ease your minds as to the fate of Puddleby Lane....you know...I really think that character interview I did, actually helped me get back into the story and the characters. :) It's amazing how something that weird can truly be a help. :P ~Rachel

The Opening Line: No Once-Upon-A-Times please :)

Elizabeth Gaskell 

I wish I was clever enough to write such captivating openings as I read in famous books! :)

Take the opening paragraph in Wives and Daughters: 

"To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood. In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a little girl;"

Isn't that marvelous? It takes a simple opening, and by throwing in a bit of humor, lifts it to a higher plane of literature. I often find that writing opening lines is one of the hardest things of the book. As many authors will tell you, you may a gorgeous, brilliant line on page two, but if the reader isn't captivated from the time they open the book, they may never get to the second page. 

Readers are a most picky race of people. There is a saying "never judge a book by its cover", but even in my own experience I have found that if nothing catches my eye from flipping through the first few pages, I'm much less likely to read the book. 

But how to connect the reader with the principle character on the first page? You could take some notes from Charles Dicken's Great Expectations:

"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. so, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. 

      I gave Pirrip as my father's family name on the authority of his tombstone and my sister--Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith."

Already in that paragraph you have discovered a quaintness of character in little Pip, a rough concept of his age, the fact that his father is dead, and that his sister is married to a blacksmith. Truly remarkable a feat in only three sentences! :) 

There is, of course, always the style of barging into the story with dialog, like Louisa May Alcott does in her Little Women:

" 'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

'It's so dreadful to be poor," sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress. 

'I don't think it's fair for some girls to have lots of pretty things and others girls nothing at all,' added little Amy with an injured sniff. 

'We've got father and mother, and each other, anyhow,' said Beth, contentedly, from her corner."

Again, with only a short paragraph, you are sympathetic towards the girls in this story, know a little about their family, and their personalities. 

Take stock of your own opening lines sometime, and see if you can't harness the words to work harder for you. If you play around with them long enough, you could very well end up with a glittering opening that will captivate the reader. :) ~Rachel