Post #1561574

#WritersCoffeeClub 20. What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend? that 'hook the reader' does not mean 'fling us into a violent fight scene with zero context or reason to care.' so many times, i've scrolled past aggressive opening lines involving fists colliding with faces and spears stabbing into creatures with no prior setup, and it isn't exciting. it's monotonous, and infantile. i don't need to see a gun getting shoved into someone's face in the opening line to maintain my interest. some of the best stories i've ever read started with something like 'The primroses were over' (Watership Down), 'The river flowed both ways' (The Diviners), or 'His tiny, tightly permed maternal grandmother, Anita Moody, had never liked him' (Son of a Trickster). even Jurassic Park opens with a description of the weather. i kept reading past those opening lines, because 1. i knew already from the synopsis that the story was going to get interesting, 2. curiosity is more a more compelling hook than generic sword-fighting.