#20 pages and I'm hooked on the first paragraph

[witchcraftingboop]

Uni: Put together an eportfolio of all your college work!

Me: Yeah no problem, I never delete anything anyways

Fall 2019 Me: The statements put forth are directed at the youth, their "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" (Lazarus, 1883). Let the spark of defiance be fostered in the years going forward and our roots lain bear. Revolution has always been at the heart of American history for a reason.

Me: .... so... I'll file this under.... ethics?

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a reading week

11pm, tuesday, feb 20, 2024

hello beloveds. just wrote two increasingly passionate paragraphs about what social media and my use of it over the years has done to benefit my life, and got so genuinely moved that i had to come talk to you about it.

reading really wild mix of reading material of late. surprisingly high amount of YA, because people keep recommending me things and i keep going 'sure, let's try it!' so i'll use that as an organizing principle and save discussing some of the others for a future post. in order of completion:

firekeeper's daughter, angeline boulley, read by isabella lablanc. finished in a rush, very engaged in the last three-four hours. i was never prepared for the next thing this plot threw at me, though in retrospect saw how it all made sense. i didn't know a thing about it going in, which i think actually enriched the experience a lot, but for a novel set in michigan's UP and sugar island, it resonated with a lot of things i associate with ontario after living here for five+ years. the hockey, the ojibwe /anishinaabe names and cultural connections, the murdered and missing indigenous women. but it also mixes in elements reminiscent of, like, braiding sweetgrass (and tangentially mexican gothic) and various fan fiction tropes i recognized in their shape if not their execution. highly recommend the audiobook-- they cast the audiobook's narrator very carefully, and she does a superb job juggling the mix of scientific jargon, teen narrator unreliable/dramatic narrator (loving), and Anishinaabemowin.

castle in the clouds, kerstin gier, translated by romy fursland. maybe 33% through. it's giving grand budapest hotel and somehow also the princess diaries? it's also reminding me somehow of, like, the kind of novel i wanted to write as a second or third grader, which means eva ibbotson, and a particular flavor of plucky, intelligent heroine. i was hooked by the first page+ but have yet to see a ton more of the same high action and suspense, and have let this one slip a little further onto the back burner. it's cute escapism at the moment, though that may change.

fourth wing, by rebecca yarros, read by rebecca soler (and apparently also teddy hamilton, although i haven't gotten to him yet?) about 25% through. trying desperately to give us a gritty, hardcore, new and dangerous and fun take on dragons and their human riders, while also trying to be idk divergent? the hunger games? there's a love triangle, the protagonist has naturally ombre hair, the premise of the novel is brutal training where young adults are all dying in improbable droves due to how cutthroat and brutal it is. a testament to the narrator that i am, despite myself, having a great time. there are a few too many supporting characters who want our main girl straight up dead for me to really find the threats believable, but i'm intrigued by the prospect of alternate versions of this world's history than what she has learned and a potential for discovering how their kingdom has? manipulated them? could be asking too much.

fairest, gail carson levine. finished in a long saturday morning spent reading in bed. i was such an intense and dedicated fan of the original ella enchanted novel that i couldn't read most of levine's other books (exceptions for her short stories made grudgingly) because they weren't sequels and weren't the same and wouldn't be as good. in fairness, reading this now as a much-older-than-the-intended audience, perhaps i was too harsh-- but i think little-me was right to be a little suspicious. it's a snow white retelling, and again i think largely successful in building a more detailed plot in which the elements of the retold fairy tale are embedded, but where the focus in ella was on language and obedience and free will, here we're trying to articulate things about beauty and body image, and it's harder to say that it really succeeds? i like that we gave the Wicked Queen more nuance, positive and negative qualities, moments of sympathy, a name and a precarious political position. i was not nearly as charmed by the romance (fine, fine, it's not ella and char but it couldn't be, it's fine). i still love the use of unfamiliar / fairy-tale languages and how levine puts them on the page in such fun spellings. probably aimed at the youngest audience, of the four titles here, but treats its reader as almost more intelligent than fourth wing, possibly? YA from ~twenty years ago was a different world.

listening graded like twenty quizzes today with just a mess of random panic at the disco bumping in my headphones. it's a hell of a feeling, etc. i'm halfway through this particular round of grading, and they're doing so well, so it's mainly a quick check to make sure they got the basics right and i can jam while doing so.

watching spent a very pleasant ~2 hours yesterday watching as much as we could of the film amadeus with @hematiterings, @pep-squad-lizzie, and @dimir-charmer. love a film that isn't afraid to lean into all its sensory indulgences, and to be a little heavy-handed with its symbolism (the chocolate is about repression!) and to, just generally, spend money on costumes, locations, hiring lots of extras, and so many wigs. there's a live event performance of this film with orchestra + choir being advertised all over our subway right now, so it does very much feel like we're being followed by this guy:

...but what's sticking in my head right now is the costumes.

playing 41+ hours into hollow knight. i have opened half of my stag stations! i have the dream nail, surprisingly early i think! i have saved bretta! i have somehow missed the mantis lords, i think, but have made it to the city, the resting grounds, and have now been throwing myself fruitlessly against the crystal guardian and a soul warrior in alternation. i am...not good at combat. current plan is to grind to get quick focus, and i'm close! also, @spoonierbard stepped in and gave me a much needed morale boost by winning me the final mask shard necessary to get increased lives, which has helped tremendously, and the grubs rewarded me with the grub song charm which has helped tremendously.

making many potential projects, none executed (or even really attempted). soon, hopefully. fallow section for now. does music count? music counts, right? i joined a second choir! enticed by the chance to perform mozart's requiem in full with an orchestra, and finally fulfill the broken promise of 2020. that's my hobby right now. oh i also just cleaned out a ton of storage in my phone + icloud, which felt generative in its own way. besides backing things up better than i have in a while.

working on submitted the travel money application i've been thinking and dithering about since...this time last year? no real expectation of getting it, but it did actually help me consider some next steps in the diss, so that's nice. now prepping to take my class on two fun on-campus field trips next week, one to the manuscript library and one to the medieval collection in our little hidden art museum! i need to write some notes up for the TAs and docents to use, and finish organizing my list of desired manuscripts, like, yesterday. midterm grades posted today, a little late but hopefully not too bad, still well before the drop date. the aforementioned quizzes (i have like 28 more to grade, but they're reasonably painless). plus i was going to work on my fucking dissertation this week, and prep to teach the next few lectures in advance so i'm not scrambling monday nights, plus send a bunch of emails, design a CFP poster, put in some RAship hours so i can speak intelligently in my meeting tomorrow, and....prep for the guest lecture i'm giving on the 28th! it's a reskin of the conference paper i gave this summer, freshly edited, but i need to expand the intro bits to include a useful overview, since these students aren't a conference of celticists.

weirdly at peace with how my work-life balance is balancing right now, though. it's the extra sleep and the increased sunshine, and the little cat who is being so so whiny right now. i must conclude these lines and feed Herself.

[cherryxblossxms]

Pardon me for asking, but what's your writing process like?

I'm trying to write more and the hardest part is just get that first bunch of words on the page

Hello hello!

I totally understand that feeling. Starting a fic can be a struggle, I have a hard time figuring out how to start and how to hook the reader into the story, plus just getting into the groove of things... I ramble so I apologize if anything doesn't make sense 😅

For me, my writing process is typically this: when I think of a fic, most of my thoughts are regarding either the main subject of the fic or the climax of the story. I kind of have to move backwards, starting with where I want the story to go, and then determining how the story gets there. Once I've solidified what exactly I want out of my story, choosing the method in which we get there will become easier.

The best thing I found you can do is make a broad outline of what will happen in your story, almost as if you were writing an essay. Just write any points about your story, with emphasis on the key points that are most important. Once that's done, I like to go in and add any additional notes or even lines that I want to include, whatever stands out in my mind when I think of the story. Seeing this outline established on paper/in a document kind of solidifies the idea in my mind and makes it easier to work out the finer details from there.

In regards to starting the fic/starting off the first paragraph, I usually look for bold statements that might catch someone's attention:

"Mr. X was sure he'd lost his marbles"

I don't like jumping into details yet because it might be confusing, so I start with a simple line first, followed up afterwards with a little bit more elaboration on the statement:

"He had spent 20 minutes walking around his house to no avail"

And then as the paragraph progresses, that's when I start introducing more details, once again elaborating on the issue.

"He was certain that he had left his gloves on the dining table the night prior, but he was stumped when he came down the next morning to find them missing. At first, he did a quick perusal, thinking he'd dropped them on the floor instead. But a quick perusal turned into a 20 minute hunt as he went in circles."

I chose a silly example for a starting sentence, but my point is that I look for something that will catch the reader's eye and draw them in. If you're having a lot of trouble deciding on what to say, don't push it, though. Work on other parts of the fic and revisit later. As the story comes together more, more ideas will come to you naturally, too.

[writing-with-olive]

Hi I'm amateur writer anon and I'm asking this question to the entirety of writer tumblr askboxes (ones where I can ask anonymously) about one of my biggest weaknesses in writing: the first opening sentence/paragraph. Please give me some advices on how to write an intriguing first sentence/paragraph so that the readers can get more into it and i can also get right into writing it :(

Hey anon!

So this is one of the things I haven’t put a ton of thought into yet (I’m in dev edits so polishing any given line/paragraph is less of a priority), but I have found some resources that I think you may like:

HIGHLY RECCOMEND: This video that has 20+ examples that are broken down, both why they’re effective and sorted into catagories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTh5NzLw_dw

This one is like the above, but a little less in-depth if you don’t feel like sitting down for 35 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kPVzmT0jyM

An article from Writer’s Digest: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/7-ways-to-create-a-killer-opening-line-for-your-novel

The second two focus more on just the first line, but as you seem to be getting at in your question, it’s often the first paragraphs that really sell it. As readers, most people aren’t fully hooked with just the first line. It’s how it feeds into the rest of the page that really gets things going. 

Another thing to note is that your first line/paragraph DOES NOT need to be perfect when you start your draft. You’re going to be discovering a lot more about the tone and style of the piece, even if you’ve outlined, just by writing it. Also, you’re probably going to make enough changes that your first line is unlikely to remain your first line through the entire process. While the above tips are useful to really focus in on the beginning of your story, if your main focus is to get into writing it, reader’s opinions about the way things are written are less of a concern. You may just try writing something dramatic and moving on - otherwise it may be hard to ever get past the first page. 

Hopefully these resources are helpful. Happy writing!