Friday Focus: Fall out of the plane first

This week's quote reminded me of my difficulty with writing the beginning of ILYU vs. how simple it was to write the beginning of Flora. Not that anything super dramatic happens right away in Flora, but early on in the writing process I was able to get to a point where I'd imagined what happened a few minutes before, and then *boom* - stuck the MC right there in the first chapter.

Anyway. This week's quote. Simply put, lead your readers along - they'll like it. And even if they don't, they'll keep reading to find out why the heck you started out that way in the first place.;)


Make everybody fall out of the plane first, and then explain who they were and why they were in the plane to begin with.
- Nancy Ann Dibble

4 comments:

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Now that's called kicking off the action with a bang!

Robyn Bavati said...

That's a great quote. Too many aspiring writers spend pages and pages on characters and their backstories, only to wonder why publishers seldom bother to persevere.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Love it and so true!

Lila Swann said...

Ah, this is the second time I've seen advice like this! I can't remember where the other piece was, maybe WriteOnCon? It related to how usually you can ALWAYS start a scene later and end a scene sooner. It's definitely something I need to hear more often! By the way, I love these segments. So inspiring! <3