I've blogged many times about the importance of a good opening hook. You can see my post about strong beginnings in First Impression and Lasting Impact. So how did I begin my NaNoWriMo novel today?
With two characters discussing the weather. Yep. This went on for about three pages. It was utter rubbish.
But...
It doesn't matter. There's a good argument for writing weak beginnings and material to just be scrapped later; it's a first draft. I had a rough idea of my plot planned out, but I wasn't prepared to spend time working out exactly where the story should start. I got about six pages done today and I think my story will actually begin about page three (which was Chekov's exact prediction - write your story, then throw out the first three pages). Plus, I was sticking to my theory, if you can't think of anything to write... write anyway (I include this as a tip on writing when you're stuck in Thinking About Writing)
After a long bout of weather-chatting, today my protagonist was merrily digging away and discovered a... severed hand! Yuck enough for most, but for her, even more so. When she touches dead things, she gets a flash of how they died. Turns out the hand was not an accidental death by misadventure caught up in the land explosives clearing dirt. She was murdered.
Anywhoos, I was happy with my word count, I hit 2,634 and will probably get a few words down tonight before bed. Did you start your novel today (I know we're all on different time zones)? How'd you go? Love it or Hate it?
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