{"id":16,"date":"2026-01-22T16:19:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knede687.mywhc.ca\/TheNook\/?p=16"},"modified":"2026-09-13T20:47:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:47:32","slug":"january-27-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/january-27-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"January 27, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Writers\u2019 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of the First Page<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s important about the first page of a book? Is it really important that a first page attracts a potential reader\u2019s attention? Or is that first page merely an introduction to the remainder of the book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have collected a series of first pages from a number of different books. This is what we are discussing at the meeting; what\u2019s good about them, what could be improved, and for us writers, what should be our goal when we\u2019re trying to write our first page?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responses<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joyce: The Dollmaker<\/a>, LetUsDescend<\/a>, Ruby<\/a>, Upper Country<\/a>
Kelly: Beach Music<\/a>, Blue Highways<\/a>, Ruby<\/a>, Shantaram<\/a>
Shirley: Turtle Valley<\/a>, The Year of the Flood<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the Leave a Reply<\/strong> heading below on this page? This is where we can carry on a conversation with one another \u2014 about the work or about the conversation we\u2019ve had during this meeting. Sometimes we think of comments that we wish we\u2019d made during the meeting; well, this is a good place to make them now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve never read the book \u2014 just make it up! Write it so that each one of us, at our next meeting, will say, \u201cI\u2019d love to have read that book!\u201d Then send the new and improved first page to me so I can post it below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Page<\/strong>
What do you look for when you read the first page of a book\u2192<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meetings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66,"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thethirdhouse.ca\/TheNook\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}