"How Not to Start Your Novel"

Some writers stress over how to open a novel, for understandable reasons, and questionable advice that doesn't consider different types of stories, or how real people read books, doesn't help. Hopefully this video helps at least a little, and provides some encouragement. 1. Opening 0:00 2. The Email 2:30 3. Red Flag: "First 7 words" 7:05 4. Red Flag: Not citing the examples 15:33 5. Different openings for different genres 21:29 6. Different openings within the same genre 23:40 7. Different openings within the same series 27:39 8. Writing advice vs. How real people read books 33:14 9. Counterexamples of "forgettable" opening lines 41:24 10. Read less writing advice, read more writing 47:48 Bluesky: / comptonwrites IG: / comptonwrites production by Johnny Compton post-production by Christopher Tracy #books #novel #writing #writingtips