Scales and chord structure are tools, in my book, not rules. Mozart, on the other hand, was born with musical theory hard-wired into his DNA. They are classical musicians of a certain classical school, the “rules” for which they bent to the point of breaking to create something new. I recognize a Bernstein piece when I hear it. I’m not a student of Gershwin, but I certainly recognize a Gershwin piece when I hear it. But I put your three rules more into the category of principles, in the same vein, for example, as to say that a rule of a profitable business is to be profitable. That said, I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I’ve adjusted it accordingly.Īs you know, I am an enthusiastic beater of the no-rules drum. They wanted more bonding with the character first. But I will say in a WIP I sent out to beta readers recently, I’d started with a violent action in the first line. If the first paragraph is a “hail of bullets,” you can get into the character’s head immediately after and let us know what’s going on.ĭean Koontz started Dragon Tears with one line explaining that the Lead had to “shoot someone at lunch.” Then he “dropped back” and filled us in. IBut it’s all in the, you’ll pardon the expression, execution. Within this action, we can get some of the Lead’s thoughts about the meeting perhaps. In the hypothetical you posed, if we were inside the Lead’s head as the meeting is about to take place, we can begin to form a bond. If something “bad” happens to a character before we know anything about him, the “bang” of the moment is dissipated somewhat. Does the reader need to know who they are and why they are meeting first? Do they need to form a bond with your Lead before putting them in mortal danger? Or do you start with the hail of bullets and then sprinkle the other details as you go.Ī great question, and maybe one or two of my blogmates will jump in on this.įirst, as a general principle, readers want to know who they’re supposed to care about as soon as possible. For example, say you have as an opening your Lead meeting someone when they are attacked by a gunman and the person the Lead was meeting is killed.
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