5.1: Is the First Page Really That Important?
You may think that people will give your book more of a chance than giving up after only one page. But how often have you been in a bookshop and picked up a book only to discard it moments later after reading the first page? This doesn't just happen with readers, but with publishers and editors too. If you want to have any chance of being published, your first page will need to stand out. It's almost like an audition between you and the reader or publisher. They are eyeing you up guardedly, seeing what you have to offer, and you need to shout out to them, 'This is what I am capable of! It's good isn't it? You want to keep reading don't you?'. You can start thinking of your first page from the outset as you will probably try out numerous ideas before settling on the perfect way to open your story and grab people's attention.
5.2: How to Write a Captivating First Line
It's all very well saying that your first page has to have wow-factor but how can you actually go about this? Imagine if your story was a movie. How would the opening scene begin? It all begins with captivating your audience from the very first line. If you start by putting some kind of vivid image in a reader's mind, they will be drawn in, wanting to know more. It could be some kind of action or i could just be setting the scene.
A good example of this is from Stephen King's The Gunslinger, which starts with the sentence, 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.' You can instantly picture this scene and yet it leaves plenty of information to be desired. Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? Why is the gunslinger following him?
Another way to grab people's attention is to use a unique character voice to begin your tale. It could be an opinion or thought which is relevant to the story and will also lure in your readers to want to find out more about your characters. In Alice in Wonderland we immediately gain an insight to Lewis Carroll's main character as she discloses to us her disinterest in books without pictures or conversation, and the fact that she is growing restless to be sitting with her sister. The reader empathizes with her being bored and having nothing to do, and wonders what she will do next. In the fantasy genre a really great way to grab a reader's interest and attention from the word go is to throw in something unusual and surprising. For example, George Orwell's 1984 starts in just this way; It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.'
Immediately and with such a simple twist we are transported to a strange time and place which we are obviously not familiar with. Another good example is from J.M. Barrie who starts the children's classic Peter Pan with the words, 'All children, except one, grow up.' We instantly want to know more. Who is this unique child who never grew up?
5.3: From First Line to First Page
Having decided upon an epic first line, you need to complete the rest of your first page. You've successfully lured the reader in and now you need to satisfy a little, but not all, of their curiosity. They need to get enough information to whet their appetite but little enough for them to need to know more and read on. There are a few tricks of the trade in creating a successful first page and they involve divulging just the right amount of background information with a generous helping of tension and an introduction to at least one of the main characters. We need to provide the reader with some important information regarding where they are and approximately what time it is.
They need to feel grounded from the beginning, even if that is only as much as knowing that the book starts in a lilac wood with a lonesome unicorn (from Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn). Adding tension from the first moment adds interest immediately. It doesn't necessarily need to be action, although in the fantasy genre it often tends to be. The reason that tension is so important is that it creates the need for the story in the first place. It could be a terrifying discovery, an epic battle, or simply a confrontation between two characters. On the first page of a book the reader expects to be introduced to at least one main character. And more than this, they expect to know something intimate about this character. You need to reveal some personality trait or secret thought that the reader will feel privileged to know and that will increase their curiosity about the character.
5.4: Revealing the Setting of Your Novel
As part of the first page of your book you want to let your readers know a little about where they are. If it's a world different to the one we're in you'll want them to realize this as soon as possible. After the initial tempter about this strange new realm they're about to delve into, information will need to be given little by little throughout the novel. And in order to be able to do this confidently and successfully, you'll need to know your world inside out. If you're planning on writing a low fantasy novel where the setting is somewhere on Earth then you'll need to choose somewhere that you know well or are prepared to research well. It's annoying to read a book set in your home town only to realize that the author has quite clearly never been there. If your novel is to be set in the past then you should research how the location has changed over the years. A good way to come up with a clear vision of your setting and what it should look and feel like is to imagine it as a film set. You can order people around as much as you want and get the set to look exactly as you want. Then describe how it would look. Go back to this initial description while writing the book, and add to it whenever you think of any further details.
5.5: Back to the Art of World Building
We covered a little about world building in the first module of this course but we're coming back to the skill now to emphasize how important it is to know everything there is to know about your new land. You should think about and plan everything and consider different regions, if there are big towns and cities, who lives there, what they wear, what language they speak, who is in charge, etc. You will also need to think about the topology of the land, if it's easy to travel from one part to another, what transport is used, what the climate is like, whether there are any differences in the natural laws of physics. These are just a few of the long list of things you will need to determine about your new land. You may wonder if you need to come up with all the intricate details before even starting your novel, and this is really up to you. If your new world evolves as you write then you will need to be really careful about being consistent and not contradicting yourself because of not having clearly defined rules. If a reader notices any discrepancies they will lose faith in you and may not wish to continue reading. For instance if the climate is fifty below zero even in summer, you will need to talk about how people deal with this. Have they evolved to withstand lower temperatures or what special clothing do they wear? How do they manage to maintain a supply of water in such conditions? Where do they get their food from? Once you start making decisions about your world you need to think about the consequences and whether you can explain yourself realistically enough to be believable to the reader.
5.6: But How Do You Choose Your Setting?
With fantasy writing your choice of location is pretty open because well, it stretches to whatever your imagination can come up with! Most authors have a fairly clear idea of what kind of setting they want, or at the least whether their novel will take place on Earth or not. A different approach to building a world is to start with your characters and build a world that suits them, or choose a location that matches them well. If your story ideas have so far been about characters with no specific location then, use them to build the perfect location. As previously mentioned, be careful when inventing your setting. If you choose ridiculous conditions like freezing weather or no gravity, be prepared to come up with a lot of theory and believable explanations (which are not given to readers in an info dump), as well as to deal with many more problems that your characters will have to face due to such an environment. Some amount of suffering and inconvenience is interesting but you don't need to take it to the extremes. You also need to make sure that your setting fits in with your chosen subgenres. If you have chosen Gaslamp fantasy then you can't have your setting in outer space in the year 3000. Similarly if urban fantasy is one of your subgenres you'll need to choose a setting that respects this.
5.7: Introducing the Supernatural
While creating the setting for your novel you will no doubt be thinking about the supernatural side of things as well and how that will fit into your chosen setting. Magic systems, new laws of physics and special powers are all elements of the supernatural that you may need to include. However, without rules and limits the reader will make no sense of the purpose of your novel. Again you need to ask yourself many questions about who has special or magic powers, whether they are a help or a hindrance, why they have powers, etc. Maybe a certain blood line has always had a particular power, or maybe everyone has powers but in different strengths. Similar to world building, having a well thought out magic system will save problems down the line. Any changes to people's powers or blips in your country's laws of physics will certainly be picked up by readers. Keep your readers on your side by being consistent with your use of the supernatural.
Module Summary
Lessons Learned First impressions when it comes to books are extremely important and even if you shouldn't judge a book from its cover, you can expect people to judge one from its first page. If you want to grab the attention of readers and publishers then your first line and first page are extremely important. Another important decision for an author to make is where to set the story, whether it be in some strange unknown land or a quaint Victorian village. If you're struggling to come up with a setting that you're happy with, try looking at your characters and building them first and then using them to help build your world.
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