What\u2019s the most important part of a book? Well, it\u2019s either the beginning or the ending, but in commercial terms, you\u2019d probably have to pick out the start, because if that bit flunks, no one will find out what you do later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So beginnings matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And which bit of the novel does a new writer tackle first? Well, duh, the beginning, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the normal way of doing things is that woefully inexperienced writers take on the most important part of their projects first thing. It\u2019s like a newbie architect deciding that he\u2019ll tackle the Dome of St Peter’s as his first build, rather than say, a school toilet block, or a nice little kitchen extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, yes, writing is easier to revise than a large stone dome, but there are some important issues here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, as you all know, I think it\u2019s beyond essential to get a proper concept for your book in place, before you start to write it. I know it\u2019s tempting just to race away when then ideas start fizzing, but it is a disaster to race off west-nor-west, if you\u2019re actually trying to head north. I\u2019ve known a zillion manuscripts where a writer has battled endlessly with trying to get it just right \u2026 and more or less did so. But when the fundamental concept was not saleable, all that work was for nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So get that concept right. Don\u2019t put pen to paper until you\u2019ve done so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s not today\u2019s topic. Let\u2019s assume you have a cracking concept. Let\u2019s assume you have started writing \u2013 the first two or three pages of your new book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the one thing you really need to check before you go any further? What\u2019s the one bit that has to be right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Story? I don\u2019t think so. I\u2019ve written books where nothing much happens in the first chapter. Yes, there\u2019ll be a wriggling hint of an emerging story, but (a) not a lot and (b) it wouldn\u2019t take more than a few lines of editing to get one in there anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Character? Well, yes, that\u2019s a better guess, except that you don\u2019t necessarily start with your main character, and the early-on character reveals are likely to be quite modest anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what I think really matters \u2013 matters so much that it comes second only to basic novel concept \/ pitch \u2013 is voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you start bland \u2013 if you accept bland \u2013 if bland is how you begin your book \u2013 then the entire novel is likely to drive down the Autoroute de Blandeur, the Autobahn von Boring, the Motorway of Mediocre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not that books without voice can\u2019t sell \u2013 they do \u2013 it\u2019s just that they are up against a ton more competition. Why should an agent or publisher pick out your basically cookie-cutter book from the pile? I mean, yes, a strong concept will always help, but you\u2019re giving yourself a huge and needless handicap by taking that route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the openings of a handful of kids\u2019 books:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. The Sword in the Stone, by T. H. White (1938)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology. The governess was always getting muddled with her astrolabe, and when she got specially muddled she would take it out on the Wart by rapping his knuckles. She did not rap Kay\u2019s knuckles because when Kay grew older he would be Sir Kay, and the master of the estate. The Wart was called the Wart because it rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name. Kay had given him the nickname. Kay was not called anything but Kay, because he was too dignified to have a nickname and would have flown into a passion if anybody had tried to give him one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, this text is almost 100 years old and wouldn\u2019t work well today. But it already boils with invention and wit and a bubble of character interplay. You pretty much know from this tiny chunk that you are going to be happy to curl up with this author for the next 300 pages. (He won\u2019t disappoint you.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Jolly Foul Play, Robin Stevens (2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were all looking up, and so we missed the murder.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have never seen Daisy so furious. She has been grinding her teeth (so hard that my teeth ache in sympathy) and saying, \u2018Oh Hazel, how could we not notice it? We were on the spot!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You see, Daisy needs to know things, and see everything, and get in everywhere. Being reminded that despite all the measures she puts in place (having informants in the younger years, ingratiating herself with the older girls and Jones the handyman and the mistresses), there are still things going on at Deepdean that she does not understand – well, that has put her in an even worse mood than the one she’s been in lately.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And, if I am honest, I feel strangely ashamed. The Detective Society has solved three real murder mysteries so far and yet we still missed a murder taking place under our noses.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prose here isn\u2019t bouncing with obvious invention, but it\u2019s slick enough to do the two things it wants to establish immediately. First \u2013 establish that this is a book about some girls solving murders. (Brilliant idea.) Second \u2013 establish that this will be a book about characters and personalities and emotional interplay just as much as it\u2019s about clues and corpses. (There is, in fact, much more of the former than the latter in this small chunk, even though it\u2019s ostensibly about murder.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prose isn\u2019t showy, but it is supple enough to handle all this. When the narrator wants to emphasise quite how much Daisy needs to know things, she gives us a sentence so big, it bulges at the seams. When she wants to address her sense of shame, she does so in fewer than 10 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper (1973)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe remembered Mary had said, \u2018They all speak Welsh, most of the time. Even Aunt Jen.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Oh dear,\u2019 said Will.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Don’t worry,\u2019 his sister said. \u2018Sooner or later they switch to English, if they see you’re there. Just remember to be patient. And they will be extra kind because of your having been ill. At least they were to me after my mumps.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So now Will stood patiently alone on the windy grey platform of the small station of Tywyn, in a thin a drizzle of October rain, waiting while two men in the navy-blue railway uniform argued earnestly in Welsh. One of them was small and wizened, gnome-like; the other had a soft, squashy look, like a man made of dough.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, nothing ostentatious here, but still sophisticated. We learn immediately that this book will be careful where relationships, feelings and morals are concerned \u2013 that\u2019s the message of the first three paragraphs \u2013 whilst the physical description of the last paragraph is original, age-appropriate and interesting, without attempting to be \u201cLOOK AT ME\u201d interesting. It\u2019s carefully judged and spot on. You already believe in the setting, believe in the relationship between the kids \u2013 and believe in the author\u2019s fundamental humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. The Accidental Secret Agent, Tom McLaughlin, (2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018Ladies and gentlemen, we have spent a lifetime hiding in the shadows but today we finally get what we’ve all been waiting for. For today is Judgement Day. I look around this room and it makes me proud.\u2019 Mr X paused to puff on a large cigar.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Look at the great things we’ve already done. We steal, not to make us rich, but because we can. We hurt, not because we’re scared, but because we are courageous. And today, we destroy the world!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing nods rippled round the room which corrupt politicians, ghastly gangsters, and vile villains. <\/em>[sic \u2013 this is how the sentence actually reads.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We are finally ready,\u2019 said Mr X, sitting at the end of a very long table. \u2018All I need to do is press this red button and \u2013\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018PIZZA!\u2019 a chirpy voice interrupted.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is all just shouting. It\u2019s clich\u00e9, but not even clever clich\u00e9. It\u2019s a desperate (and successful) attempt to get publishers and kids to attach to the book by offering maximum volume, maximum knockabout humour from the very first paragraph. What makes it worse, is that all this is just a dream \u2013 as bad a way to start a book as you can find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, I\u2019m not saying you can\u2019t be commercially successful doing that, but (a) you have to fight off a lot more competition and (b) there is not a chance that this book will be read or in print in 50 or 100 years\u2019 time, unlike the books by White and Cooper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n