A strong introductory arc is a critical part in writing a book. As mentioned in previous assignments, your beginning not only needs to be as close to the ending of the book as possible, it needs to be a critical event or decision that directly results in the lead character(s) heading for the story’s final destination.
I’ve completely scrapped what I started with, and I’ve made the decision to completely revamp how I’m going to open Rise of the Rift King. Boo hoo, oh well. This is a part of the process.
Of course, this is part of the process that most people don’t actually get to see.
This is why some of the assignments have been very much about having the courage to scrap and redo stuff. Often, the first idea you come up with for a story simply is not the best idea.
For me, some books come out with the core starting idea ready to rumble. Rise of the Rift King is not cooperating in such a fashion.
This is, in part, due to how extensively I’m charging the core of the story.
I have several characters that are getting so completely overhauled that the original bits in the story simply cannot work; the core events will remain, but how the characters will deal with those events is drastically different.
That’s okay. It does mean that while some people are surely in later chapters, I’m wallowing about in my opening scene, revamping, revising, and rewriting until I have that strong and solid opening arc that becomes the foundation for the rest of the book.
This is a lesson that every author needs to learn.
Your first idea is rarely your best idea, and there absolutely does come a time where you have to admit, acknowledge, and address your shortcomings as a creative.
Today’s assignment, which will likely take you a few days, is to take a long and hard look at what you’ve written and ask yourself a few questions.
1: How can I make these characters stronger? What personality quirks can I add to make them feel more real? How can I transform these pieces of text into people readers can understand?
2: Do the descriptions I’ve written serve the book? Are these necessary for tone, vibe, and establishing mental pictures? (More often than not, less is more, so try to balance tightly written descriptions with providing the colors needed for readers to paint with. This is a very difficult skill to master. For the record, I’m usually too sparse even after extensive edits.)
That is something I’m going to struggle with for Rise of the Rift King.
3: How do these events/interactions influence the end of the story? You’ve surely heard the phrase “kill your darlings”; this touches on what it means. Darlings are tidbits of any sort that the author includes to be more self-serving than story-serving.
Think of the darlings as things that the author wish served but don’t. Killing those darlings very often leads to a significantly stronger book.
4: Check for crutch words. We all have them. Crutches are phrases or words that you go back to often. Eliminating crutch words really helps make the book sound better.
Note: standard articles, etc, cannot be crutch words. “Lush” as a word to describe grass, used more than a few times in the entire novel is a crutch, just as an example.
They’re words that readers will pick up on, uncommon enough, that take away from the story overall.
If I catch a crutch that my editors do not, I tease them for at least a week about it. (It’s a game for us at this point.)
This assignment serves several purposes. First, it strengthens the start of the book. Second, it begins the process of making you mentally capable of accepting and using criticism. (If you can’t self-criticize, you’re going to have a devil of a time accepting criticism from others.)
Finally, it starts putting you in a mindset to work on making a better book.
One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn is that it’s very difficult to keep working on a project that you feel is just bad. This methodology helps conquer that, as you are actively working to improve the book every step of the way.
So, this weekend, begin working on strengthening your introduction. If you need to rewrite something, do it. Writing a book is just like building a house.
If you build your foundation on sand, it will inevitably crumble away as you’re building it.
Make your foundation strong–and yes, that takes a lot of work and effort to make it happen.
Natural talent can only take you so far.
Those who have developed the ability to work hard will almost always beat natural talent… and then you have the true masters, those who have the natural talent and have learned how to work hard.
And you can’t figure out where you land until you get your hands dirty and start trying.
Natural talent is almost always hidden behind ignorance. You can’t really discover if you have talent until you start digging in and putting in the hard work.
All talent does is raise the ceiling for how far you can go.
I’ll see you all on Monday, so I hope you have a fabulous weekend and that you start making an excellent foundation for your fledgling book!
Monday, I will be doing an analysis on what went wrong for me while starting Rise of the Rift King so that you can hopefully learn from my fumbling about.
And yes, I’ve written over seven million words of published book material, and I still manage to flail around the start of a novel with all the grace of a toddler taking her first steps.
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