“The first draft reveals the art; revision reveals the artist.” — Michael Lee
I've been a writer all my life, and I've been studying the art of writing for over 15 years. There are certain things I'm really good at and one of them is opening pages.
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. — Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)
I can uncover the overarching ideas and themes—the subtext—that you'll want to weave throughout your work in the first pages. I can help you hone and strengthen the voice of your narrator and characters..
Areas of Focus:
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Readability
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Voice, Tone, Dialogue
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Tonal Dynamics
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Focus and Point Of View
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Tense
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Pace, and Setting
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Plot, Story, Sub-text
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Writing: Use of Language, Economy of Words, Sentence Structure
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Copy-editing
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Proofreading
Email me and we'll discuss how I can help you and ensure your writing is the best it can be.
The First Pages
Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
How often have you gone into a bookstore, opened a book, read the first paragraph, and put it back on the shelf?
Yeah, me too.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
You want the reader to keep reading. You want them to buy your book. To talk about your book. To never forget your book. So, how do you do that?
You gotta hook the reader. Right away. And then you gotta keep 'em hooked.
"Yeah," you're probably asking yourself, "so how do I do that?" It's tricky. The internet has checklist after checklist, rule upon rule of how to do this. And still, it's hard to do. On top of that, it's easy to point out what might have improved the first pages of other books, but it's a lot harder when it comes to our own work. Sometimes, you need another eye.
It's not just the beginning but the end of a page or a chapter. You want them to turn that page and keep reading.
A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
I have a knack for first pages. I know a good sentence when I read it or write it. That's what it's about, sentences.
But it's not just the first sentences; it's also the last ones—those sentences that will ensure your reader turns to the next page.
Whether the first page of a chapter or the first page of the book, I can help you write it well.