Beginnings...Genesis Style

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The minister at my church started a new series on Genesis and I was struck by the way God orchestrated the beginning of His creation, the steps He followed and the organization of it all. Writers can learn a lot from the Master Creator, the One who created the most famous book of all time. So what can writers learn about beginnings from Him who began it all?

• Awesome First Lines: What can be better than "In the beginning, God created the heavens and earths."? Seriously, it starts at the beginning of time. Before the beginning of time, if you want to be technical about it. It introduces the main character and it encapsulates in just a few words the magnitutde of God's ability. GREAT first line!

• Each Step Builds Upon Each Other: Each verse in Genesis 1 is a stepping stone to the next, building the story, one building stone at a time. God creates light and makes the day. On the second day, God separates the water from the sky. On the third day He made the land appear and created vegetation. On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day, He made fish and birds. On the sixth day, He created land animals, and then man and woman; it was all very good. These days of creation were all necessary. You can't have animals without vegetation to eat. You can't have fish without water to live in. Building your story in a natural sequence will make your story strong and understandable.

• Climax: Oh yes, there is is a climax in this first chapter. It is the creation of man and there is even a song written about it in verse 27. This is the pinnacle of creation, the making of man in God's very own image. What can you write in your chapter to bring excitement and climax to the scene?

• The End of the Chapter Hangs: The last sentence in Genesis 1 goes like this..."God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day." Not quite the cliff hanger, huh? I mean, it is a good couple of sentences, but the formula is the same as the other verses. God saw that it was good. Just an end to another day. But that makes me wonder what the next verse will bring. Does the next chapter start with another creation? One more fabulous thnt the previous days? Let me turn the page and see...nope...just a day of rest. (one of the most important things EVER...especially on a Sunday afternoon!) Make your chapter ending count. Make the readers want to turn the page a see what's next!

In your daily Bible reading, look for structure to the stories you read. Find the building blocks. Look for awesome first lines. See if chapters end on high note. Is there a climax in the scene? Or a dark moment in the main story? What do you find? 

How does that inspire you to work great beginnings in your own story? 

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This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is a minister's wife and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born and bred Texan, she writes historical romance filled with fun, faith, and forever love.

The Do's and Don'ts of Opening Pages

It was a dark and stormy night...
A familiar opening, right? And maybe a little cliche. No matter what stage we're at in our writing, most of us know that beginning lines, paragraphs, and pages are some of the most important parts of a novel. Not only do you want to draw in readers when they finally get their hands on your books, but you want to draw in that all important agent or editor.

Many agents will give you a chance to wow them with your writing, either with an initial request of the first scene or the first five to ten pages of your manuscript along with your query, or with a request for a partial. This may be the only chance you have to show them what you've got.

Just like the cliche line above, there are other ways of opening a novel that will have a hard time enticing an agent or reader to move on.

Don't:

* Include a prologue that is extremely long or wordy, or ultimately has nothing to do with the novel.

* Get carried away with description of any sort but fail to either make it have purposeful meaning to the story or do it in a unique way.

* Begin with another type of cliche, such as a character going through a scene and then they end up waking up and it was only a dream/nightmare.

* Go on and on about a character doing menial tasks that fail to draw the reader in.

* Have a lot of description, dialogue, or even internal thoughts but fail to give the reader any framework for the story (i.e. no hint of setting, time, etc.)

Those are just a few things to avoid in the beginning of your story. While there's not a perfect formula to writing the beginning lines or paragraphs of a story, there are a few ways to start off a story that will help draw a reader in.

Do:

* Showcase your voice. Give the reader a taste of what your writing style is like. Let them know you can be unique.

* Make the reader want more. Make them want to turn the page to find out what's going to happen.

* Introduce an interesting character or a character who has something at stake. Or create an immediate obstacle.

* Incite questions from a reader, either by adding conflict, tension, or something unusual or funny.

* Create action. Move your characters and their story by jumping in the middle of a scene/conversation with action, and characters being proactive.

Ultimately there's no perfect way to start a story. But you can beef up those first pages by being unique and giving the reader a reason to turn the page.

What kinds of openings have or haven't worked for you? What do you enjoy seeing in first pages?