Do you agonize over the opening of your novel? Do you rewrite and rewrite until you barely recognize the first paragraph you wrote just minutes ago? With all the emphasis on captivating or hooking your readers, moreso your agent, most writers really sweat over that first paragraph.

To get some idea as to what the experts consider captivating, I took Leads and Story Openings by Robert Walker off my bookshelf. It’s a book I purchased when I first began writing seriously. According to Walker, your lead should

Get Attention
Set tone of the piece
Create an interest factor

In other words, make you want to read the book. Let’s look at two examples Walker gave. The first of each is a poor to average attention getter; the second is the better one.

The last flight to Cuzco was due to leave in an hour and a half. Yet our tickets had not yet arrived. What were we to do?

Here’s the better lead according to Walker:

“No tickets!There are no tickets, no reservation under your name. Please step aside for the next customer,” she said.

Here’s another example:

One night while I was working late at the church office, a man knocked on the door. He appeared distressed and had a woman with him whom I recognized as a member of our congregation.

The better one:
“I’ve just kidnapped this girl,” the man shouted. Waving a gun he stood before me with his captive, a young woman I recognized as Delissa, a member of our church.

From these two examples, Walker seems to favor a lead that begins with some type of dialog. In his own words: Note the techniques: direct quotes, narrative-type lead, clear description of the scene and its people. However, if you take a look at some of the most famous opening paragraphs, you will see that none of these elements are present.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens (1859)

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
“The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger (1951)

Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along the fence. Luster came away from the flower tree and we went along the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass.
“The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner (1929)

These are three of the more famous openers that have remained on the iconic list throughout the ages. What do you think of them? Do they really spur you to read the book, or does the opening impress you after you have read the last line? Drop me a line and share your thoughts. Next post I will deal with a few contemporary opening paragraphs.

This question came to my mind the other day as I listened to my car radio while driving to work. The announcer said that all tweets are stored in the Library of Congress. Huh? Why would they go to all the trouble to collect and store all those inane lines we send into cyberspace. According to the announcer, the folks at that prestigious institution want to know our thoughts. Well, I thought, if they want my one-liners why not give them my masterpiece as well?

But seriously, copyright is serious business. Copyright infringement can send you before the courts. As an author, you probably know the meaning of copyright. In case you don’t, here it is: it is the protection of an author’s original work whether published or unpublished. This protection is obtained by registering your work with the US Copyright Office.

You must be aware that anything you create – school paper, books, music, any intellectual property – is automatically copyrighted. You don’t have to write the copyright symbol or the year for it to be copyrighted. However, if you want to protect your work from being used, copied, distributed or infringed upon by others, it is wise to copyright it. Doing so gives you certain advantages under the Copyright Act, among them the freedom to file a lawsuit against the person who committed the infringement. Here are some other facts concerning copyright:

What is The Poor Man’s Copyright

It’s a myth, that’s what it is. When I first began writing, I heard a lot about this. Writers thought it a good idea to do this in order to avoid expensive fees. But as you will see later on, the fees are not at all expensive. The Poor Man’s Copyright involves mailing a copy of your work to yourself and not opening it in order to establish the date of its existence. There is no protection with this method since your work is not registered with the US Copyright Office.

What is Fair Use

According to the US Copyright office, it is permissible to use “limited portions of a work including quotes” for certain purposes laid out in the Copyright Act, such as criticism, teaching, news reporting and research. So don’t assume because something is on the internet it is fair use. However, there are no legal stipulations as to the number of words you can use. Each case is examined on a case-by-case basis to determine whether infringement occurred.

Public Domain

This is different from Fair Use. When a work is in public domain, it has no copyright protection. As a rule of thumb, works created before 1923 are now in the public domain. Other works that are in the public domain are:

Works created by the US government
A work whose copyright has expired
The work was donated to the public domain by the owner
Certain Bible translations

Using Copyrighted materials in my book

If you wish to use someone’s work in your book, you must obtain their permission, preferably in writing. And don’t wait until a couple months before your book goes into print. If you don’t know who owns the copyright, you can do a search at the US Copyright’s website or office. All records from January 1978 to the present are available. For more info see http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdf. If you want the staff to conduct the search you will have to fork over $165 an hour for a 2-hour minimum search.

By now you may be thinking, it does make sense to copyright my work. You can now file electronically for a small fee of $35.00 (http://www.copyright.gov/eco/). This is a fast and secure method and costs the least. If you prefer to use a paper form, the cost is $65.00 payable by check or money order. As an author you will request form TX.

As authors we can be easily exposed to liability by being unaware of legal matters. You can find this and more information at http://www.copyright.gov or at www.LegalWritePublications.com.