A few weeks back, when Covid first struck, we ran a lockdown-friendly 14-day free membership offer. You could sign up for free and, if you liked it (and were wise and decisive), you could convert to a full membership. As an extra little sprinkle of stardust, we offered the converters a quick review of their opening pages.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s always an interesting exercise, reminding one of the astonishing breadth of fiction. And one of the opening pages that floated my way – this one from a writer called Karen – opened with this brilliant opening phrase (referring, by the way, to a sack of tiny monkeys):<\/p>\n
Won from a fellow tar on the turn of a knave \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n You know instantly that you\u2019re in the hands of an accomplished writer there, with poetry and vigour right there in the first dozen or so words. You also recognise that the voice is going to be distinctive, which it duly is. Here are some other lovely bits from Karen’s first page:<\/p>\n Earl reminded him sharply with a blow from his fist. The old dog would reap a bright forget-me-not on his temple as a reprimand.<\/em><\/p>\n And what about this:<\/p>\n Experience had taught him that encouragement in the softest of tones invariably succeeded in calming a frightened creature. Horse, woman, whatever.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Part of the joy of these openings is the delicious realisation that we are about to witness a voice, and a character, that lies several standard deviations away from normal. You might think of published books like Jonathan Safran Foer\u2019s Everything Is Illuminated<\/em>:<\/p>\n My legal name is Alexander Perchov. But all of my many friends dub me Alex, because that is a more flaccid-to-utter version of my legal name. My mother dubs me Alex-stop-spleening-me!, because I am always spleening her.<\/em><\/p>\n That first sentence lulls you into a sense of security. Then my \u2018friends dub me Alex\u2019 catches you out and forces you to pay close attention to what\u2019s coming. And then \u2013 bim-a-bam-bosh \u2013 you get your reward with the delightfully barmy phrase \u2018a more flaccid-to-utter version\u2026\u2019.<\/p>\n We\u2019re just two sentences into the book and, if you were browsing in a bookstore, you\u2019ve already made up your mind to make the purchase.<\/p>\n Or how about this:<\/p>\n Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s the opening of Where the Crawdads Sing<\/em> and it combines poetry with an immediately distinctive presence.<\/p>\n In all these cases, the book announces itself with something distinctive, something that rejoices in language, something that doesn\u2019t sound anything like the book next to it in the shop or online.<\/p>\n And that sort of sounds like a recipe for success: invent something distinctive and glittery for the first page. Get the sale. Then tell the story.<\/p>\n Except that to succeed, to really succeed, the distinctive thing you offer has to be baked into the story at the very deepest level. The Crawdads\u00a0<\/em>opening makes a promise about place and mood that the entire book lives up to. The Safran Foer opening likewise makes a big, bold splashy promise that the book also amply lives up to. (That book is multi-voiced, so there are multiple promises, in fact.)<\/p>\n So maybe the right way to think about these distinctive voices is that they perfectly align everything about the book. Genre, mood, setting, character. Those things line up so that the reader ends up reading some perfectly presented whole. It feels impossible to detach any one part of the book, so completely is everything integrated.<\/p>\n And that in turn means: no cheating. No shortcuts.<\/p>\n A flashy opening sentence or vignette is fine, but if the flash dissolves into something without a coherent original vision, you haven\u2019t necessarily gained yourself much.<\/p>\n That kind of originality is hard to do. It took me five novels and nine or more books before I\u2019d really nailed it. And of course, you can be a highly competent writer writing highly competent books without the bolt of inspiration that elevates your work to a whole different level. You never quite know how an idea will turn out until you\u2019ve written the damn book.<\/p>\n But this I think you can do: you can take what is original and distinctive in your voice or concept and lean into it. Encourage it. Invite it to display itself to the full. You need to stay disciplined, of course. (No sloppy phrases, no weak writing.) But even the act of inviting that voice to unfurl to its fullest extent is an act of bravery.<\/p>\n And your bravery will be rewarded. Always. If you keep the discipline, then always.<\/p>\n Find the heart of what you have, the most distinctive strand of your story-DNA and lean into that thing. Make the most of it. Put it at the very heart of what you do.<\/p>\n I\u2019d love to see snippets of text from anyone who thinks they are writing with a distinctive voice or an unusual, strong-flavoured character. If you reckon your text qualifies, then let\u2019s share.<\/p>\n Meanwhile \u2013 Stay safe and keep writing.<\/p>\n Oh yes. And I\u2019m going to have something AMAZING to tell you about next week. Stay tuned for that.<\/p>\n Is your name flaccid-to-utter? Or are you just spleening me? If you’ve got something you want to share, then share it below. Nowhere like Townhouse for winning a monkey on the turn of a knave.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few weeks back, when Covid first struck, we ran a lockdown-friendly 14-day free membership offer. You could sign up for free and, if you liked it (and were wise and decisive), you could convert to a full membership. 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