Comments on: Three Tips and a Reasonable Postponement

By: Patrick Sullivan

Patrick Sullivan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:46:56 +0000

Out of curiosity, how necessary is it to read Lion’s Game first? I’ve been meaning to read more thrillers to spread out my reading from my normal sci-fi/fantasy preference, and DeMille sounds interesting.

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:45:59 +0000

@Katie — that’s a TERRIFIC idea. Thanks for sharing. L.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:32:09 +0000

Thanks Larry, you could also look at books on amazon.com using the search inside feature – you almost always get the opening chapters
Katie

By: Monica

Monica — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:38:21 +0000

“[The first scene] needs to kick-start the story by being about what the story as a whole is about.”

This really put everything in perspective for me. Terrific, timely advice, as always. I’m working on my opening scene this week. Perfect.

Someone just gave me The Lion’s Game. I’ll make a point to read it sooner rather than later.

By: Bernice

Bernice — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:06:05 +0000

Larry,

Thanks so much for the terrific specifics you give us all to improve our writing.

Plum Island (the real one of which I read recently is for sale) made me a DeMille fan.

In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson, an English writer, uses several third person POVs in a chapter, each usually with own scene, and a first person POV that occurs some 40 years earlier. Each POV may show up several times in the same chapter. This is a crime fiction book with several story lines that kept me engaged throughout and in agony the last 20-30 pages as the tension ratcheted up. The POVs kept the story alive on several levels I hadn’t experienced before.

By: Diana

Diana — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:18:47 +0000

Teachers wanted to picket because he alternated between 1st and 3rd? Apparently they were unfamiliar with a nifty little book by Charles Dickens – Bleak House.

Thanks again for the great info you share.

By: Lake

Lake — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:59:51 +0000

Thank you, Larry – I’m so close to starting a new novel… I have a hook, the milestones, a killer character, a sub-plot and absolutely no idea how to begin. So I’m heading to the bookstore this evening to try this exercise and see what comes of it. As always, thank you. L L

By: Martha Miller

Martha Miller — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:58:26 +0000

Larry, my son and daughter-in-law are flying into Maui today. I’ll tell them to look for a tanned writer on the beach . . .
I just checked out the audio version of “The Gate House” by DeMille from the library and couldn’t get beyond the first disc. Nothing happened, just a long ‘telling’ narrative in the way of set-up. I haven’t read DeMille before, and from this most recent post of yours, I presume that’s not his usual style. I’ll give him another try.

By: Shane Arthur

Shane Arthur — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:29:52 +0000

Larry, if you told us you were on a beach in Jersey, we may feel sorry for you and accept your postponement, but Mali?! Can’t do it.

Anyway, I never thought to just read the opening paragraphs, but I will now. Thanks.

Hey, some time back you recommended a book about a New York City reporter. Can’t remember the book or the author, but I remember it had one hell of an opening.

Something along the lines of “I sell smut. I sell murder, drugs, mayham, etc” Do you remember this?