Hello, writers. Write On! has returned now to the 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific timeslot that we had previously. I hope that will be more convenient for the West Coast folks.
I mentioned last week that I've been looking at a lot of unpublished manuscripts lately. This has got me thinking about beginnings (often all the further one gets in reading a manuscript). It seems to me that beginnings need, to a certain extent, to reflect the manuscript's genre.
Of course, they don't have the sole job of telling us what the genre is. When a manuscript is out on submission, the agent or editor usually has already been told, via a query or cover letter, who the target audience is and what sort of story it is. When a book is published and in the bookstore, it's sitting next to other books in its genre.
(By the way, I can't stress this enough: If it's not clear where in the bookstore a book would be shelved, it will be nearly impossible to get a publisher to take it on.)
A romance doesn't begin the same way a horror story does. If there's rain at the opening of a Regency romance, it's ruining a) the heroine's plan to escape from the confines of Society by becoming a highwaywoman or b) the hero's carefully sculptured cravat. If there's rain at the beginning of a horror story, something's hiding in it and it's gonna getcha.
This week on the Internets, I ran across the following image, which I'm going to try to post and if that doesn't work I'll link to it:
Cheez-Its
There's obviously a story there.
But what kind of story? Romance, horror, murder mystery, scifi, action thriller, fantasy replete with unicorns?
It's up to you to decide, in tonight's challenge.
Write the opening paragraph of the tale of the Cheez-Its.
Make it one of the following genres:
contemporary romance
regency romance
science fiction
steampunk
fantasy
horror
thriller
literary
mystery
dystopian YA
middle grade contemporary
Limit yourself to 100 words.
Then, for an extra challenge, pick a second genre and do it again.
The Write On! timeslot has returned to Thursdays at 8 pm ET (5 pm Pacific).
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.