Novelist Michael David Lukas talks about just how one begins
Award-winning novelist and writing instructor Michael David Lukas will join me for a chat about those critical first pages.
You hear all the time about the importance of first pages. When your book hits the agent's desk, when it hits the editor's, when someone finally opens your book in a bookstore, these are the only pages they'll ever read—unless. Unless you can promise them story.
There are checklists everywhere pronouncing the how. Here's one from a popular website for writers:
Introduce the main character
Make us care enough to go on a journey with that character
Set tone - think of this as mood or soundtrack
Let us know the theme
Let us know where we are
Introduce the antagonist
Ignite conflict—the overarching tension that will drive the plot
Give us a goal: tell us what your protagonist wants
Present an exciting, life-changing inciting incident
Introduce the other major characters
—AnneRAllen.com
They're very useful, I think. But they don't quite capture the alchemy of it, the magic that you have to evoke. Only twice have I thought, Ah, that's it. Once on reading Zadie Smith's That Crafty Feeling, in which she says: It occurs mainly in the first 20 pages. It’s a kind of existential drama, a long answer to the short question, What kind of a novel am I writing?...Worrying over the first 20 pages is a way of working on the whole novel, a way of finding its structure, its plot, its characters—all of which, for a Micro Manager, are contained in the sensibility of a sentence.
The sensibility of a sentence. Yes, that's it.
The other time was when I heard Michael David Lukas give a seminar on openings. I remember feeling Ah, that's it then too, and trying to make notes which could now be scattered anywhere between three addresses.
Luckily for me, Michael and I are friends. And he knows many of you too. So he has graciously accepted an invitation to chat about first pages and give a Q&A on Sunday, May 17th, from 2:30pm to 3:30pm. I am allowed to record our discussion for posterity, and to invite a Zoom studio audience of twenty.
Here’s your link to the recording!
If you didn't make it into the studio audience of last week's chat with debut novelist Carole Stivers, she was disarmingly candid about how her extraordinary achievement of a book launch in 15 countries and a movie option with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment was not —and continues not to be—a cakewalk. Here’s another chance to listen to some great insights into the publishing and movie-optioning process.
One last thing before I end, and my apologies that this is only for the ladies:
There's a Call for Submissions for an anthology on women's experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, to be brought out by Pact Press, with a deadline of May 22nd. You will find full details here. I encourage you to submit.
I hope you make use of all the opportunities above!
Most importantly,
Happy writing!
Shirin