posted
Nothing is fully free in the competitiveness of writing. Don't mistake 'free' for 'throwaway.' The first paragraph of a novel is freer than the first paragraph of a short story in which every word takes on greater significance, not only the first paragraph.
'Free' can mean you take the opportunity to set the scene rather than get into the action, maybe even set up a frame, where the beginning and ending paragraphs are totally out of sync with the body of the story, or maybe you introduce a narrator. 'Free,' to me, means anything other than getting into the meat of the story.
posted
The first paragraph is free is something OSC told us at bootcamp. You can break POV, tense, and voice of the rest of the story freely. The job of the first paragraph is to grab the reader's attention.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
If you use a prologue in a novel, you have to begin the story twice. The prologue is a separate unit from the rest of the novel. Just because you grabbed someone's attention in a prologue does not mean you don't have to do the same in chapter 1. people might not even read the prologue. (Although I find they usually do in fantasy.)
So any rules for beginnings apply to both and must be used on both.
As to the free paragraph -- use this rule cautiously. If I say your first paragraph sucks and didn't grab my attention (which I might say more diplomatically ) then your response can't be, "But it's my free paragraph." On the other hand, if I tell you that your POV didn't get established until the second paragraph you could ask as a follow-up, "Did the first paragraph grab your attention?" Actually, you can never use excuses no matter what in responding to critiques...it's just not the way to do it. But hopefully you took my meaning.
posted
Well, I think I understand what you are saying, insomuch as I can understand the whole theory. For the most part, my brain is disregarding the idea. My question was placed both because it is on topic here and also to help me better grasp how a prologue is viewed. Being that editors primarily view a submission by the first 13 lines, and those 13 lines usually contain the first paragraph... well, it's circular logic anyway.
[This message has been edited by JmariC (edited August 02, 2005).]
posted
Just as an aside, many people are not convinced by the free paragraph, even when used correctly. I use it sometimes...cautionsly, but I find that in writing short stories it is always safer to find a way to get right in. The free paragraph comes when it is impossible to start "normally." Here is an example of something that could be a free paragraph...
Something stirred on the winds of fate. It came from the east, where hordes of Langari troops posed to strike, but it did not begin there. It came from the west, where scores of peasant refugees stumbled blindly forward in their desperation, but it did not begin there. It came from the north, where the peace-loving trees burned in magical fires, but it did not begin there. It came from the south, where Fate herself studied her skein, trying to determine what had gone wrong, but it did not begin there, either.
[This message has been edited by Christine (edited August 02, 2005).]
posted
Just don't go thinking that "the first paragraph is free" means "therefore, you can write any old boring crap and no one will hold it against you."
The first paragraph still needs to be *good* even if you need to write it differently than the rest of the piece for some reason.
posted
Basically, the reader has no expectations in the first paragraph, which means that you can use Omni there and then stick with 3rd person Limited the rest of the way through.
On the other hand, if you drop that same paragraph of Omni into the middle of the second page it'll totally throw the reader out of the story.
The first paragraph is free, is an OSC saying, but I think that out of context it's often misinterpreted. As others have said, the first paragraph still has to be interesting.
[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited August 02, 2005).]
posted
I'd go with MR's interpretation. The first paragraph is ad lib, might be a better way to put it. It is "free" in the sense that your readers will probably read the whole thing (if it's less than 13 lines) before deciding to not read further.
But if you look at it the other way, the first paragraph is what "binds" the second paragraph and all later paragraphs. It's freedom comes at a heavy cost to the rest of the story. You know what they say, "freedom isn't free" and "with great power comes great responsibility" and "eternal vigilance" and all that.
In the end, your first paragraph is only "free" in the same sense that your entire story is "free". Free, because you don't have to pay anyone for it (if it's yours, I mean). Free, because you can write whatever you want. Free, because you're a writer, and this is what you do.
posted
Mary is right. OSC's definition of free in this context is that the reader is free of expectations. You can make the first paragraph do its job. it doesn't mean it's free to goof off, or make stupid mistakes, or be lazy.
OSC also specifically said that the first paragraph is free in a short story. That implies that novels are a completely different animal.
In my own mind, the first sentence of the first paragraph is freer than the rest of the paragraph. In fact, to me, the first paragraph has a freeness gradient from start to end.
I disagree that Christine's paragraph is an example of a good free first paragraph. It doesn't do the job of pulling in at least one reader (me). Here are some good examples of a free first paragraph.
Harlan Ellison, I'm Looking for Kadak
quote:You'll pardon me but my name is Evsise and I'm standing here in the middle of sand, talking to a butterfly, and if I sound like I'm talking to myself, again you'll pardon but what can I tell you. A grown person standing talking to a butterfly. In sand.
David Gerrold, A Wish for Smish (actually makes liberal use of this because there are paragraph breaks between three of the first four sentences.)
quote:Do you know why they call it slime? Because the name Smish was already taken. Lennie Smish was a lawyer. A Hollywood lawyer. Let me explain that.
Larry Niven, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex
quote:At the ripe old age of forty, Kal-El (alias Superman, alias Clark Kent) is still unmarried. Almost certainly he is still a virgin. This is a serious matter. The species itself is in danger!
Learn from masters.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited August 04, 2005).]
posted
Spaceman, I'm not sure if any of those paragraphs you quoted are free paragraphs at all. It's hard to tell without the second paragraph, but they seem to set up point of view, voice, character, and story. I'm not seeing the free.
[This message has been edited by Christine (edited August 04, 2005).]
posted
Exactly my point in my interpretation of the free paragraph. They break form with the rest of the story to a certain degree, and that degree doesn't necessarily have to be large. (And you're right, it is difficult to judge without the rest of the story). In any event, you can break some of the rules, but with a purpose. The really good short story writers ( by this, I mean the pros who have sold dozens of stories in the big 'zines) make liberal use of the free paragraph, but they are so very skilled and experienced that it becomes transparent.
In many ways, it's like jazz improvisation. There are a great many musicians who can improvise a great riff, but it takes a true master like Louis Armstrong to make it sound like the improvisation is written in the sheet music. Armstrong rarely went into the arpeggiated riffs of most jazz musicians, but you'd be very hard pressed to find anyone who knows jazz that will say he wasn't one of the best.
My point is that the free paragraph in the hands of a grand master level talent never looks out of place, and you must really study the piece to even notice that the writer is doing it. The writers probably don't even recognize it themselves in many cases. They just know what works. That's why openings (and endings for taht matter) are so difficult to get right.
The truth is, I don't usually use free pragraphs. My example above was pulled out of my butt and was intended to represent a generic (and cliched) fantasy opening. I find free paragraphs (as I thknk of them) as a chance to set the stage before the actors come on. Or, to use a movie reference, like a camera zooming in on the opening scene, but starting from a distance.
Basically, I think if there is any other way, that the free paragraph needs to go.
It's just that EVERY SO OFTEN it takes a while for the main character to become aware of the main action...this is uaually for clunky reasons that represent poor story-telling (ie the author feels the need to go through a "typical morning" for us so we have a baseline and understand their world). But as I said, EVERY SO OFTEN there is a good reason, or at least a fairly artistic one. I'd say in my lifetime I've read a handful of such paragraphs that work. Most of the time when pepole start in omni, they're describing leaves and forests and showing us their main character from a distance before snapping into his head...bad bad bad form. There is absolutely no good reason to do that.
What have I just said here? Oh yeah, that I permit a certain amount of artistic lisence in that first paragraph, but that I highly recommend not using it, especially to beginners.
posted
I have to say, I think that Christine's paragraph is a much better example of the kind of freedom we're talking about. At first, it is only apparent that it is breaking a good many "rules". No POV, cliche terms like "winds of fate", and a really vague subject, "something". As we go a little further, a pattern begins to emerge. By the end of the paragraph, we have a pretty good idea of the scale of the nebulous entity referred to in the first line, and it sounds interesting even though we still have no idea what it is.
By contrast, the other openings are "standard". We have a first person narrative opening and a first person expositive opening, then a simple expositive opening to an essay.
Of course, nobody forced these authors to use these "standard" openings. You can regard it a bit like a game of go. There isn't actually any possible wrong move on the first turn, though there are definitely strong moves and less strong moves. The stronger moves tend to be regarded as "standard", in a sense. And since the best players tend to use them, most early games look pretty similar. But a strong player could use any first move at all if the opponent were someone like me.
The situation is different from a game in that the reader is at a fundamental disadvantage, and is dependent on the writer. If the reader doesn't like the way the story is written, he simply has to forego it altogether. So the intelligent reader accepts reading the first paragraph to figure out whether reading further is warrented.
posted
All of this subject to opinion, of course. This kind of thing is very subjective. I think all three of us (Christine, Survivor, and I) make valid cases for our own position on this topic. That's what makes writing and reading so much fun. You can be wrong and still be right, you can be right and still be wrong. And the writer still gets to decide in the end.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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) then your response can't be, "But it's my free paragraph." On the other hand, if I tell you that your POV didn't get established until the second paragraph you could ask as a follow-up, "Did the first paragraph grab your attention?" Actually, you can never use excuses no matter what in responding to critiques...it's just not the way to do it. But hopefully you took my meaning.
