HEART 2 HEART ~ "Novel Beginnings"

Hi all,

Hope this day, this week, and this year to date ... are treating you nothing short of wonderful!

I'm at a "novel beginning" and am in a mood to "blog" about it. Interesting, isn't it, how we start a book we've thought about for months and months, not to mention collected so much research we can hardly find a seat in our little office chair!

I remember beginnings and endings, in books and poety ... at least of my favorites. I'm mad about Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte`, and Robert Frost, just so you'll know. Of course THE most memorable beginning to me is from Dickins' TALE OF TWO CITIES. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." is engrained in all our brains, no matter what we like to read. And of course most fairy tales of old end with "... and they lived happily ever after." Don't you just love "happily ever afters?" I sure do. But not all in life, love, and books has a fairy tale ending. Despite the fact that I write historical romance (usually requiring the wished-for "happily ever after" ending), my stories must be credible. I have to do the history homework and even see if a happy ending is a possibility.

If a writer DOES his/her history homework, there's a lot there from which the protagonists can choose. The characters have credible options, credible roads which they may or may not go down. Maybe it will be possible for the hero and heroine to make a life together ... or maybe not. It's all in the history. We as writers have to find it. Sometimes easily done, and sometimes not so easy.

I say this because my "novel beginnings," with each book I write, take on more and more importance. Yes, I want to hook any potential reader on the story to follow, but because I ever strive to write credible heroines of substance into my historical romances, the opening lines seem to matter more now. I've come up with a theory here. Tell me what you think.

I think it's possible that the first line of a story, long or short, just might be the "first thought" a writer has, albeit subconsciously, that led the writer to well ... write down the story in the first place. Put yourself to the test. Look back at some of your "first lines" and see if they reflect your "first thought" in penning the tale. I know that some of us angst over first lines and some of us just start writing. For me it's the latter, which leads me to think the line was floating around in my subconscience all the while. No matter whether you angst or "just do it" I think it's fascinating, not to mention telling (excuse the pun) to go back and study our Novel Beginnings.

I think we'll all find our beginnings take us right into the action of our stories, and right into that credible place where our story needs to be for readers. We want to hook our readers, but we find that what we really need is to find the pulse of our story and stay with it, eager to discover if there will be a happily ever after ... or not. What we also might discover, too, is that characters are born into our stories that we never planned on. How much fun is that!

"Willa, whaccha think bein' a free man means?"

This is the beginning of my next novel(s), THE QUAKER AND THE CONFEDERATE, Hearts Divided, Hearts Persuaded, set in Civil War, Virginia. I'd been researching a long time, planning things (which never stays the same with me) when I opened up my computer to start ??? and this first line came out. Of course, I had to set it down and begin following the story.

Happy Writing and Happy Reading everyone!

Jo(anne) Gregg Sundell
www.joannesundell.com
www.myspace.com/joannesundell

MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER
A...MY NAME'S AMELIA
THE PARLOR HOUSE DAUGHTER
MEGGIE'S REMAINS