Tag Archive - first page elements

The True Essence of Character

shrek

While we’re pausing a bit in this in-depth look at your first scene to examine how you introduce your protagonist, I want to add in some insights and prod your thinking about the aspects of your character’s personality. Writing instructor and screenwriter Michael Hague enriches the traditional three-act structure (his is a six-act structure) by overlaying the progressive journey of the protagonist. I found his take quite eye-opening, for although I understood the concept of a character portraying himself to the world one way while underneath he’s really a different person at heart, I never thought about the process of revealing this “inner man” until I took a workshop from him. Continue Reading…

Ordinary People Are Just Plain Boring

superhero

I want to talk a little about the introduction of your protagonist. The opening of your book presents a key moment that gives a first glimpse or impression of your main character. You know what they say about first impressions—they tend to stick with you and are hard to erase. If someone rubs you the wrong way when you meet them, it’s sometimes hard to get past that initial feeling. It almost feels a bit embedded in concrete. So it is with your characters as they walk upon the stage of your novel. If you’re at a party and you meet someone dull and completely unappealing, you’re not likely to pay much attention to them from that point on. So too with your characters. You don’t want them to come across boring. Of course, if you need a character to be a bore, make them an interesting one. The key always is to make your characters a bit larger than life. But, I don’t want to go off on tangents into character development. There will be time for that in future posts. Continue Reading…

Hook ‘Em on the First Cast

fish on hook

If you look at your first page checklist , you’ll see that the first three elements I discussed last week—introduction of your protagonist, a catalyst or incident to put them in that showcases her, and a hint of her core need (linked to her visible plot goal)—actually cover a few more things on the checklist. I haven’t talked about the hook, and rather than thumb through some great books and give you a long list, I would encourage you to do that and think about how effective these first lines are. But I will give you a couple of “catchy hooks” (sorry about the pun) that stick out in my mind (below). Continue Reading…

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