Not Your Daddy's Undead! (Possibly Your Great-great-great-granddaddy's Undead!)

by G Dean Manuel

Have you noticed that only some undead beasts are ever represented in any meaningful way? Vampires, of course. You can't spit without hitting someone writing a vampire story. Zombies are popular. But what about variety? Shouldn't we see more undead than the few that are represented on the big screen or the pages of a book? Here are a few that I think we should give a resurgence to:

Banshee- the wailing woman. A banshee's keening denotes the death of a family member. Several banshees keening foretells the death of someone particularly important or holy. A banshee's wailing can also warn that death is likely from a current endeavor.

Why are these creatures feared? They warn us against bad happenings. Now modern retellings say that hearing a banshee's keening leads to death. Older tales don't support this. Banshees, while called fairy, banshee literally meaning “woman of the fairy mound”, are not technically fairies. They are the ghosts of women who have: a.) died in childbirth b.) have been murdered. Some banshees have been known to attach themselves to family lines, particularly those of Milesian stock (those whose names begin with O' or Mac'). Here are some ideas for stories with banshees:

You have never seen your family banshee in such a state. Something has made it go absolutely bonkers. It didn't even act this way when Gran died.

You are visited nightly by a woman that looks upon you sadly and wails such a heartbreaking tune. You know that she is trying to warn you about something but you can't for the life of you figure out what.

You must gather up the sisters for a most hated duty. The Bishop has died. You and your sisters must keen his lament. But one refuses to go. A dark secret is revealed.






Dullahan- is a headless horseman! And you thought it was just a story by Washington Irving. Dullahans are members of the Unseelie Court. In fact, they were created by the court. They are either human or fey sacrifice. Heads are lopped off by golden ax and through rituals turned into a Dullahan. Such creatures typically ride a black horse and are followed by a wagon filled with accouterments of death. Their heads are said to be the consistency and color of moldy cheese and bear a ghastly, idiotic grin from one side to the other. They hold them under one arm, with mouths constantly working and eyes continually searching the night.

It is said that there is no way to bar a road against a Dullahan and wherever a Dullahan stops, someone will die. Usually, they stop and say a person's name and that person drops dead on the spot. Here are some story ideas that include Dullahan:

What if a Dullahan kills a person only to find out it killed the wrong person? Crazy antics ensue as they try to rectify their mistake!

An opportunistic mage is using a Dullahan as an unwitting assassin. Altering its assignments and giving it names of people that he would like dead.

A woman is visited by a Dullahan. She breaks down and tears and thanks him. He doesn't know what to do.


                                                    



Lich- A lich is a creature of such indomitable will that its life continued on to undeath. A lich can be almost anyone in life but is normally a person of arcane power. Sorcerers and warlocks. Through arcane rituals or demonic deals, they beat death itself and live on as a lich. Liches are commonly seen as commanders of hordes of undead minions. As such they make a great antagonist for stories! What are some ideas?



A young man finds a broach in an open-aired market while on a trip to Dubai. He intends to give it to his girlfriend as a gift. Unknown to him, it is actually a lich's phylactery (a receptacle for the lich's lifeforce). The lich will stop at nothing to recover the phylactery.

Does a lich always have to be mad? I say no. A family suffers from a terrifying curse that is passed upon the death of one cursed to the youngest living relative. To stop the curse, one member becomes a lich, so that there is no true death.

An ancient evil arises in the land and the only person with information needed to stop the creature is the man who was around the last time he was here but he may be just as evil as it. The MC must deal with a lich to find out how to defeat the ancient evil.






Wights- or revenant. Or a host of other creatures. From the draugir of Norse mythology to the barrow wights of the English myths, these are creatures of fascinating legends and dark curses. A wight is a creature brought back from death to fulfill some action. Be that to guard a barrow or tomb, to hunt down a murderer, etc... These creatures are undead killing machines. Don't get these confused with ghouls or other undead, that hunt humans for sustenance. Wights don't require sustenance. They are driven by an unholy need to fulfill their goal. They have wide and varied looks, but most are the desiccated corpse of once living, reanimated flesh. Barrow-wights might come with old armor and weapons. Here are some story ideas:



Using the revenant aspect, the returned, the undead returns to seek vengeance upon those who killed it and its son.

A barrow wight guards the tomb of its once-beloved lord through eternity. Can bonds of duty and love hold against the inexorable trudge of time?






Black Dog- Legends of black dogs originated in the British Isles. These dogs are described as spectral or demonic, larger than a normal dog, and having glowing eyes. They are almost always thought of as harbingers of death, even when they are thought of benevolently. This could be due to the fact that dogs have been seen as guardians of the Underworld for some time. Look at the different depictions of dog-like beings in such a position: Anubis(Egyptian), Gramr(Norse), and Cerberus(Greek. Sometimes they are associated with the Devil.



You can find them in a modern day setting on Supernatural, where they are called either black dogs or hellhounds. Here they work directly for Hell and come to collect souls from those who have made demon deals. In this instance, they are invisible unless you are being hunted or you have magical means with which to view them.

You can find them in literature in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Spoilers ahead. Now, while the hound in question was not a black dog, Doyle made use of the legend in the setting up of the murder.

So, what can we do to revitalize the black dog?

Well, you could use a black dog in a humorous way. They were known as familiars to witches and warlocks. What if a young witch had a pony-sized black dog as her familiar? Called him Fluffy?

How about black dogs as part of an Underworld Spirit Retrieval Unit? That could be fun.They track down rogue spirits that have found ways to escape the Underworld and seek to bring them back into custody.

What about a black dog as a central figure? What if, for the purpose of the storyline, is the spirit of a dog that died after some form of torment or abuse. The black dog is sent to collect the soul of someone who it once knew. One of its abusers. But when there, it sees the abuser's son who had been its only friend on the mortal plane. Decides to befriend the boy and break the cycle that got it trapped into an eternity of collecting souls for the Underworld.

Are there undead that you think should be on this list? Leave a comment and tell me and maybe I'll write them up in a future article!

Writing Flash Fiction!

by G Dean Manuel

What is Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction goes by many names and encompasses many different styles. There is the ever popular 6-word story that clog up group feeds. The 140 characters story/twitterature that goes on, you guessed it, Twitter. Though, now that Twitter allows 280 characters, those stories have doubled in size. There is the minisage, also known as the dribble, that is contained in 50 words or less. Who could forget the drabble or microfiction? These stories are comprised of 100 words or less. Finally we have the heavyweights of the flash fiction world: sudden fiction/immediate fiction/short-shorts (750 words), flash fiction(1000 words), nano-tale, and micro-story.

But what does that mean?

Well, flash fiction is a story contained within 1500 words or less. That means it has a beginning, middle, and end. It isn't just an excerpt of a bigger piece. It isn't just a scene that you made. Flash fiction is a completely self-contained story.

Why Write Flash Fiction?

There are many reasons to write flash fiction. It helps you become a better writer. In today's market, flash ficiton stories are becoming more and more popular, so there is a good market for your stories. Flash fiction is quick to write, edit, and read.

How does a flash ficiton story help you become a better writer? To begin with, it helps your writing become more concise. Flash fiction doesn't leave room for flabby sentences. Everything sentence must be a Venice Beach weightlifter. With each piece you are flexing fiction muscles you didn't know you had. Suddenly, you are doing things like using stronger nouns and verbs unconciously. Secondly, it is a great confidence boost. Don't underestimate the power of a finsihed story on your confidence. Flash fiction is a great springboard to motivate you to finishing up bigger works of fiction.

Flash fiction isn't just for practice though. There are many magazines and online journals that deal in flash fiction. One of the biggest, Flash Fiction Online, deals exclusively in flash fiction. (As if you couldn't tell be the title!) That means your work can get out there! This is important for any author trying to build a platform.

It is quick to write, edit, and read. This is another important aspect to flash fiction. In this day and age of quick consumption, flash fiction can be your introduction to an audience that will be slavering to consume more of your lengthier word count stories. Because of its shorter format, it is more likely to be read. Also, when connecting to other authors, a flash fiction piece is more likely to be critiqued over a longer work. This can help you forge connections that you otherwise wouldn't have working solely on your novel length work.

How Do I Write Flash Ficiton?

"Brevity is the soul of wit." Nothing shows that truer than a piece of flash fiction. But why does it have to be so hard? Like any writing, there are no tried and true formulas that will grant you success automatically. But I can give you a few tips that may increase your chances!

Start in the middle of the story: Unlike types of fiction with meatier word counts, flash fiction can't have much set up. It is better to start your story inside the action and reserve your word count for pushing the story forward instead of infodumping.

Show rather than tell: I know we say this all the time but we don't often follow this rule. In flash fiction this rule is very important! Everything must economical, so things like descriptions of characters or setting must be done in action. That way you are going to get more bang per word!

Take out all unneccesary words: Once you begin writing, you will find that 1000 words isn't that much. You must treat each paragraph as if it is a tweet. Take out all the filler and leave yourself with a boiled down sentence that is concise and impactful.

Adjectives and adverbs are the enemy: Use stronger nouns and verbs in place of adjectives and adverbs. This is another rule that we ignore in bigger fiction but is absolutely imperative in flash fiction.

Don't use too many scenes: Honestly, you should probably only have one. Two at the most. Otherwise your narrative will be too diluted.

Not too many characters, either: Beyond the MC, there shouldn't be a host of characters to introduce. Otherwise, you will be spending your word count on introducing characters and not have much left for your story.

POV matters: Most flash fiction should be done in first person or third person limited. This will narrow the lens of focus to inside your MC's head, conserving your word count.

End in the middle: Don't put the resolution of your plot at the end. Put it in the middle, giving the reader time to contemplate its impact before the story finishes.

Don't overreach with your idea: You can't have a story that is too BIG. An epic quest to destroy a ring for the survival of your world is too much to write in 1000 words. But a story of a hero facing the fact that he won't survive the battle with the Big Bad can be done.

Don't forget that your character should grow: Just because you are limited in word count doesn't mean that your characters shouldn't grow. Don't forget to put in a character arc to develop your character!

Just say no to subplots: One conflict, focus on it!

Take these tips to heart and you may end up with quite a piece of short fiction!

Where Do You Go From Here?

Well, hopefully writing! I want to stress something to you before you go. Flash fiction isn't just practice writing. It is an art form in and of itself. If you think it is easy, I challenge you to write some. Then send it in to Flash Fiction Online. See how quickly slapping 1000 words on a page without true respect for this literary form will get you rejected!

To all those who are interested in trying this form, have fun! At the beginning, it will seem daunting but with practice it becomes less so.

G Dean Manuel is a multi-genre writer and helper of people. If you would like to know more about G Dean Manuel, click here.

Rejection Journey

By G Dean Manuel

So, we survived 2017! It was a bit touch and go there but I think we all made it to 2018 relatively intact. So, we are going to talk about something every writer must face sometime in their career: rejection. Actually, we are not just going to talk about it, we are going to put together an actionable plan. Let's start with some facts.

Towards the end of the year, I went on a spree of submissions mostly prompted by writing a couple of stories for an anthology called "Heart of the Child." So let's look at some numbers:

Since starting in October, I have had:

• Stories submitted: 12
• Stories accepted: 3
• Stories rejected: 12
• Stories currently in submission: 4

Now, on the poetry side of things:

• Poems submitted: 11
• Poems accepted: 2
• Poems rejected: 9
• Poems ready for submission: 24

But what does this all mean? Does it mean that all my stories and poems suck? Well, the easy answer is no. It doesn't mean anything of the sort. It means, at the time I submitted, the editor didn't think my story or poem fit what they were publishing. Even doing all the research about each that I could, I can't account for everything. The editor might have found a common theme among submissions that they liked and mine didn't follow that common thread. They simply could have not liked the story or poem. One editor's opinion on a story or poem doesn't mean that it sucks. It means it: a). needs work OR b). needs to find another home.

And that's what I did with a few of my submissions if you do the math. Submitted them to other places when they were rejected. I'll be updating you guys when I get a rejection or an acceptance. Mostly because I want you to see that perseverance pays off.

Happy writing!

G Dean Manuel is a multi-genre writer and helper of people. If you would like to know more about G Dean Manuel, click here.

Submitting a Story!

Going to take a slight detour this week and talk about making submissions. For those of you that have been reading my series on crafting a story, I'm not done. This is more of my side piece. One that my main piece is totally aware of and cool with because my main piece knows that I'll always come back to it.

Anyways, making submissions.

You took a much-needed break from your novel and wrote yourself a short story. Awesome! Now you want to submit that story to a magazine? What are some things you should know about before submitting a piece to a magazine? Glad you asked! Let's look at your story first...

Does your story have the 'it' factor?

When you are writing to submit to a magazine (or literary journal, e-zine, website, etc..), keep in mind some basic difference between short story writing and novel writing. These are important if you wish to get a short story published.

Short stories are shorter than novels. I know, you are saying, "Duuuuuuh." A short story is shorter but must still contain the essential parts of a story! Short stories aren't just scenes cut out of larger works, they must stand on their own. A short story must have a narrative arc that reaches some sort of resolution. If you are simply writing scenes, then the chances of your story being published are very slim.

First lines of short stories are much more important! You must grab a reader's (and magazine editor's) attention from the beginning and take them along for a ride. Editors have slush piles of unsolicited manuscripts and you are kidding yourself if you believe that most of them will always read the whole manuscript, every time. Most will give you a page, a paragraph, even maybe a sentence to grab their attention and make them want to keep journeying down the road with you. Make sure that your first line is an attention grabber.

After the first line, you gotta keep it going! No time to waste on boring stuff! Gotta spit hot fire. What does that mean? It means, unlike novel writing where there is an ebb and flow, short stories are more condensed. You don't have time to lose a reader for a paragraph so you can describe the effort she makes when painting her toes. No three chapters describing how your protagonist buried a cat. THIS IS SHORT STORY WRITING! (Sorry, channeled my inner King Leonidas.) You have to make sure there are no wasted words in your submission! Condense, make sure every word counts towards the end goal: Taking your reader for a wild ride.

I'm going to use a quote from Highlander to explain how your story should be: IT IS BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY - Kurgan

Burn us with your brightness!

A Note on Editing and Beta reading...

If you are saying to yourself, just because this is a short story, I don't need to get it edited or have it beta read then you are wrong. Don't think that you are someone so special that an editor will not put down your story in deference to your brilliance. While most magazines will make minor edits, mostly in format, they will not accept a piece that is full of grammatical errors. Just like anything else you write, let someone else read it, several someones if you can swing it, get their opinions, incorporate the ones that you think are needed, then have a final run through with an editor.

Okay, our Story Sparkles... What's Next?

After making sure that our story is submission quality, now we need to find a magazine that will take our piece of writing. Time to do some research! You can Google markets where your submission would be welcome, spending hours slogging through the different websites to figure out which one to submit to... or you could cheat.

I'm going to suggest two websites, one paid and one free, for making finding a place to submit easier. The free website is Submission Grinder. In the website's own words "The Grinder is a submission tracker and market database for writers of fiction and poetry".A search engine specifically geared towards markets to submit your work! Now Duotrope is much the same but a pay to use version. Supposedly, because you are paying for it, it is more up-to-date but I don't see much of a difference in the two in my opinion.

It tells you all sorts of cool stuff, like if a magazine is even active anymore!

As far as choosing one, familiarize yourself with the content of each magazine. Websites usually have one or two sample stories that give you a rough estimate of the stories that they publish. Don't skip this step! It is a waste of time, both for you and the editor, if you submit something that they wouldn't dream of publishing.

We're ready to submit now, right?

At this point, with the magazine in mind, it is time to go over their submission guidelines. What? You're ready to send it off, it has been beta read and edited, it's perfect? Hold on! Submission guidelines give you information about formatting and information the editor wishes included in your submission. This is one of those points you can be auto-rejected before someone has even read your story. Follow their guidelines!

Remember, you are submitting to their publication. You follow their rules. That simple. Now usually, a good rule of thumb, is to include your name and contact info in the upper left of your manuscript and the word count (rounded to the nearest hundred) in the upper right.

Some websites, those ones that wish to support your further work, will want you to send in a bio. This should be done in the third person and give readers a way to follow you. Don't overdo it with your credits. Limit yourself to three relevant publishing credits. An example:

Badass Writer lives in Extraordinaire City with his wife and 1.5 kids. He is a multi-genre writer who enjoys skydiving in is off time. His sci-fi story "I'm a Teenage Ninja Toaster" was published in Cool Story Online. For the ladies, his romance story, "I'm Pretty Hunky, Aren't I?" was published by Random Romance publishing. You can follow him on Twitter @youwishyouwereme or on Facebook @badasswriterspeaks.

Now, after you've read their guidelines and have your story formatted the way they want it, now it is time to submit! Find out how they want you to submit: email, snail mail, Submittable (or some other analogous online submission system). Do your thing!

Notes for after you've submitted

You've submitted, now comes the most dreaded part. Being patient. Unfortunately, there is no getting around this part. The average time that your submission kicks around the system? Probably around two months. Unless otherwise noted on their website, ninety days is the industry accepted length of time one should wait before querying about their story. That is only if their website doesn't state something different. Don't annoy an editor if their website clearly states that they can take up to six months to get back on submissions.

Two terms you should familiarize yourself with are simultaneous submission and multiple submission. The former tells you whether the magazine allows you to submit the same story to other magazines. This is done with the understanding that you will immediately inform the magazine if your story has been accepted somewhere else. When a magazine allows multiple submissions, it means you don't have to wait until you hear back from a submission before you submit again. Many magazines do not allow for this, so make sure before you do this. If you don't see it, don't assume! Query the editor with any questions.

You should use some form of tracking for your submissions. It is very important! That way you aren't sending the same story out to places you've already sent it to and you aren't simultaneously submitting unless that is your intention and the places you're submitting to allow it. Most publications do not allow resubmission of rejected stories. Many don't want simultaneous submissions.

If you are rejected and it is a form letter rejection, don't take it personally! Most publication editors don't have the time to write a personalized rejection to each and every individual that sends a story into their publication. That would be insane. Rejections are part of the game, get rejected with class. Say thank you and move on. There is a right place for your story, it just might take a while to find it.

One final note, be careful where you post your work. Most publications will not accept work that has been in some way available to the public. That means if you post a story to Facebook or your blog, then you are disqualifying it from a majority of publishers out there.

Crafting a Story, Part ONE

So starts a journey that I will endeavor to bring you along. I will be plotting, writing, then editing a story that will eventually be posted to this blog. In these series of posts, I will be detailing the steps I take to writing the story. Hopefully, you will enjoy the ride and find it helpful!

Inspiration

Where do we get inspiration? Well, for this story, the bolt of mental lightning came in the form of a conversation with one of my local librarians, Lisa. I find that the local library staff is a wonderful resource of information and underused by the vast majority of writers. It may be worth the trip to the local library to chum it up with your local staff.

Lisa loves to keep me abreast of novels that are coming out and tell about the newer ones that she's read. My eureka moment didn't come as she was detailing the plot of a story but when she told me the name of a book that she had seen, "Words on Bathroom Walls".

Bazinga!

(For those of you that don't understand, that's the sound of mental lightning.)

What was the idea, you ask? Well, it was a really simple one: Young girl finds prophecy on a bathroom wall. That's it, now let's see where we take it.

Developing the Idea!

Ok, the first step in developing the idea beyond its nascent stage is to flesh it out a bit. Let's expand!

First of all, we need to decide what kind of story we are writing. Science Fiction? Literary fiction? Well, we have a prophecy, so probably Fantasy is best. I decide to go with Urban Fantasy. That gives me a guiding principle. Now, there needs to be conflict. We can use the prophecy to set this up. What does the prophecy say and what does it motivate the main character to do? I start with asking myself some simple questions. What form does the prophecy take? What does it reveal?

I've decided that I want my prophecy in the form of a poem. It will be broken up into six quatrains, with every two lines dealing with a different time from one to twelve. So the prophecy will be heavily laden with the concept of time passing. This means that I will have to infiltrate my story with the concept of time: clocks, watches, people talking about it, etc.

Now that we have the form of the prophecy construct, we move on to the content of the poem. What does it show that the main character must do? My prophecy is counting towards an awakening. Each hour is metaphorical, not an actual hour. It tells of a seal that is breaking because of the dying of the warden and the need for a replacement. So, that's our main character.

So, now we have our conflict: Girl finds prophecy scrawled on a bathroom wall that starts her on a quest to replace a dying warden before a seal can be broken and an ancient evil returned to the world.

Characters

So, the last thing we will work on today is characters.

So, let's start with a little bit about the process. I've taken the day and just thought about the characters. Really brought them up in my head. My usual process is having a conversation with them. I find that it is illuminating when I talk to my characters, I find out all sort of fun stuff about them. Along the way, if they come up with something I don't know about, I familiarize myself with it. I don't hold with "write what you know", I hold with "write what you've researched well".

While those characters are brewing inside my head, this is where I'll start my plotting spreadsheet. First page: Characters.

I set it up to contain five points for every character in this story. These are character name, physical desciption, character motivation, powers, and notes. So, we start with the main characters. Well, she's a girl that reads some writing on a bathroom wall. What else is there about her?

I started with her name. Given that we are dealing with fantasy, I wanted to give her a normal name, because I have an inkling we are going to be dealing with Fey and there will be odd names aplenty. I settled on Theresa "Terry" Smith. I proceeded to give her a character description and motivations. One of the things I decided was to make her a teenager. She just turned sixteen. Also, to make her relatable, I decided that would spend a lot of time online because she suffers from social anxiety.

Now, someone needs to come to motivate Terry to follow the prophecy. So, I create my half-faerie warrior. I fall back on faeries because it is a subject that I'm well versed in. I like the idea of a half-faerie warrior, something that symbolizes the joining of two worlds, the mystical and the modern. His name should not be normal, I decided. I settle on the name Ghost Dog. I not only like the name but it will also be integral to one of the literary devices I will be using later. What powers can I give him that will make him stand out? He can't just be a warrior. Well, he could but I want to go for broke. How about a warrior with the power of tattoos? I describe him as being covered head to toe in Pictish runes and the tattoos of six animals. Under powers, I further define what each tattoo does and their limitations.

I create a few side characters. Friends of Theresa, Ghost Dog's campatriots and contacts, the faerie king he must deliver Theresa to, and my antagonist. Now, this will not be a complete list. I will continue to work on characters throughout plotting and may even find myself adding to the character list as I'm writing, but this gives me a good character structure from which to pull from. Decisions have to be made. Like, how many friends does Theresa have? She's a shy girl but also a teenager. I decide that in the real world, she'll have two. Online, she'll have several more but other than maybe one, they'll just be online monikers. I will not be detailing those here, I want to leave something of a surprise. I don't spend a lot of time, just getting the protagonists, the antagonists, and a few essential characters out of they way. When I start plotting out the actual story, more characters will make themselves known to me.

I will tell you one thing, the main antagonist of the story will be a guy named Gary. I decided that I wasn't going to name him anything crazy and would avoid the letters V, S, and Z. Apparently there are way too many villain names that start with those letters. Ok, we've got our basics, tomorrow we will start plotting!

A sample of my character spreadsheet.

The Power of the First Line

The first line.

Yup, I really just made my first line 'The first line'. It is like a handshake with our readers. So, what makes a good first line? Well, there are a few things that you have to do.

• Capture your readers attention!
• Set the tone for your novel.
• Introduce readers to your 'voice'.
• Hook your audience (I know that is the same as the first. It bears repeating.)

So, why should you start out with a bang? Most publishers and editors say that they decide within the first three pages. The truth is much worse than that. You may have the first few paragraphs. Worse still, you may have only one sentence!

Make it count.

So, how do we start a novel off running instead of walking? Well, let's look at some of great writers for guidance.

A first line should make readers ask questions

The strongest openings always make a reader question. Let's take Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451". Its first line is: It was a pleasure to burn. Immediately as a reader, I'm asking myself what is a pleasure to burn? Why is it? Wait, is the narrator the one burning? And bam! I'm down the rabbit hole. With such a simple line, he's captured my attention in so many ways.

It can give us universal concept

In Leo Tolstoy's classic "Anna Karenina", we are given this concept: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Not only are you given something to chew on, the line sets the tone for the novel to come. Be careful! Make sure that the plot supports the concept. This would not have been such a great line if Anna had been happily married in the book.

Be surprising!

In J D Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", we are treated to: 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, if you want to know the truth. Why is this line so great? It introduces us to the voice of the narrator in style. We are surprised by the narrator's candor when telling us he doesn't really want to go into it.

Start it by being meta!

You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. In this, we are treated by the main character talking about a book he was in! Woah! Makes his character kind of jump off the page, doesn't it?

Hook 'em with a joke!

I don’t know how other men feel about their wives walking out on them, but I helped mine pack. That is the opening line from "Breaking Up" by Bill Manville. It is irreverent. It pokes fun about a sensitive subject. Most of all, it stays on task. We laugh and we get the tone the narrator is going to take the story.

Drop us right in the middle

This one is harder to show from an opening line. But you start it right in the middle of the story. The inciting incident is behind everything that is happening but we never cover it. Neil Gaimen's "American Gods" is a good example. The story starts with: Shadow had done three years in prison.

So, hook them high, hook them hard! Get them into your story so that all those words you have after the first line aren't going to waste. There are certainly more ways to start a story than I've shown here but these are a few to get you started. Happy writing!