Hello friends. Happy New Year to you. I hope you have found a way to focus on something good. As I said last year, in my January essay, I don’t make resolutions, but I never shame anyone who does. You do you, as the saying goes.
Even though there is really only one day difference between December 31 and January 1, we have collectively decided that it is also a new year, and so we think about beginnings, which, since my essay last month was about final chapters, as the year ended, it only made sense to think about first chapters as the year begins.
Do me a favor. Close your eyes and think hard about the most memorable opening lines to a book you love. Think about it so hard that you are able to hear the lines in your head. Seriously. Give it a try.
Got it?
It would likely make sense for mine to be something about a truth being universally acknowledged as the first line of Pride and Prejudice is a classic and I am the writer of The Austen Chronicles. Maybe you thought I would say “If you really want to hear about it…” the opening rant from the angry, lost, and hurt main character in Catcher in the Rye. It would be a good guess. When I did this exercise myself, right after I closed my eyes, the first words I heard were “When I stepped out, into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind…”
For those who know, you know. For those who don’t, those are the opening lines to The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton who was just a kid when she wrote them. In those first few pages, we meet our hero, Ponyboy Curtis, who freely admits to being a hood and a greaser and in a gang. He is earnest. We want to be his friend or at least get him a ride home so he doesn’t have to hitchhike. By the time he confesses, “I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me,” in the final two lines of the first chapter, we are ready to move to Tulsa and we’ve picked sides. Let’s rumble!
First chapters do a lot of work. They tell the reader what the tone is going to be. They give a sense of setting. They often, although not always, introduce the main character or at least the conflict for the main character. Some action books have cold opens. Romances set someone up to fall in love. A good first chapter will keep a reader going until the end, whereas a clunky, uninspired first chapter will invite the reader to shut the book and move on. Life is too short to read crappy books.
Notes From My Bookshelf
Music producer Susan Rogers’ book This is What it Sounds Like is a love letter to music that uses brain science and social science to show us why we love the music we love. She dispels the idea of a “guilty pleasure” and argues, there is only pleasure. I couldn't agree more.
Ruta Sepetys teamed up with Steve Sheinkin to write a YA/Middle-Reader historical fiction mashup called The Bletchley Riddle. It takes place in London during The Blitz. Brilliant siblings must crack codes and solve mysteries to find out if their mother is still alive. It is the best piece of Historical Fiction I’ve read in a while.
Notes From My Keyboard
Book four of the Austen Chronicles is done!!! I have five more chapters to review for my revision. I feel really great about it. This book is more of a New Adult than a Young Adult novel, but I hope that when you finally get to read it, you will be willing to have a conversation with me about what a “coming of age” novel really is. I think we can come of age, at any age.
I finalized the typeset for book three of the Austen Chronicles. That means the presale should happen soon even though the book won't hit shelves until October. Watch this space for a sneak peek of the cover before we reveal it to the world and of course, I will share an ARC link with you so you can get your hands on it early.
Thank you for being a subscriber and please, write back to tell me what book has your favorite first chapter.
ARF