The Writers’ Nook is a place where we, as a group, can provide a safe and positive environment in which to encourage one another and hone our own writing skills.
The Power of the First Page
What’s important about the first page of a book? Is it really important that a first page attracts a potential reader’s attention? Or is that first page merely an introduction to the remainder of the book?
We have collected a series of first pages from a number of different books. This is what we are discussing at the meeting; what’s good about them, what could be improved, and for us writers, what should be our goal when we’re trying to write our first page?
Responses:
Joyce: The Dollmaker, LetUsDescend, Ruby, Upper Country
Kelly: Beach Music, Blue Highways, Ruby, Shantaram
Shirley: Turtle Valley, The Year of the Flood
See the Leave a Reply heading below on this page? This is where we can carry on a conversation with one another — about the work or about the conversation we’ve had during this meeting. Sometimes we think of comments that we wish we’d made during the meeting; well, this is a good place to make them now.
The Challenge
Keeping in mind the conversation at this meeting, start looking for what you feel is a weak first page in a novel. Take a picture of it with your phone or tablet and keep that. Then rewrite it to make it strong. Doesn’t matter if you’ve never read the book — just make it up! Write it so that each one of us, at our next meeting, will say, “I’d love to have read that book!” Then send the new and improved first page to me so I can post it below.