"I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign. I'm not lying. He got stuck up there. About nineteen people congregated during the time it took for Norman Strick to walk up to the Courthouse and blow the whistle for the volunteer fire department. They eventually did come with the ladder and haul him down, and he wasn't dead but lost his hearing and in many other ways was never the same afterward. They said he overfilled the tire." The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.
I just LOVE this lead. This is the very first paragraph of this novel and instantly I am engaged and wanting to read more. From the language we get a sense of place, somewhere pretty remote with only a volunteer fire department and I am thinking somewhere down south. The imagery of the man being thrown through the air and hanging in limbo while everyone gathers and watches is so small town. This is the event of the year that everyone will be talking about. Then there is the humor of the fact that he was trying to blow up a tire. It makes me wonder...was he filling his own tire or was he the gas station attendant? Either way, it just seems so UNbelievable that it is believable!! This kind of good writing gives SO much information without giving it. That is what good writing is! It SHOWS us the situation instead of telling us about it. I am right there, in the crowd staring up in disbelief, putting us right in the middle of the action, if you will. It starts us out right in the middle of this scene without any lead up to it, but it works and it works well.
What makes a good lead or beginning? What makes us want to read on? Find an example of a good lead and post it as I have with your thoughts about what makes it a good lead. This can be from any source, a book, a newspaper article, a magazine...what makes you, the reader, want to read on? Look at it with the eyes of a writer and delve into it to discover as you read like a writer, what this writer did to win you over!
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"Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn. He didn't appear to be very old: eighteen, maybe nineteen at most. A rifle protruded from the young man's backpack, but he looked friendly enough; a hitchhiker with a Remington semiautomatic isn't the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the forty-ninth state. Gallien steered his truck onto the shoulder and told the kid to climb in." Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I'm not sure if others would agree that this is a good lead but I know that it got me wanting to read more. The way that Krakauer described the hitchhiker as a kid with a rifle leaves me with so many questions. Why would a kid be hitchhiking on a cold road in Alaska? What was the rifle for- hunting? protection? Is the kid from Alaska or somewhere else? Where is he going and why doesn't he have a car of his own? What's his history? I'm also intrigued by the line that seems to say so much about the place in which the two characters were. Knowing that a hitchhiker on the side of the road with that kind of weapon seemed typical or typical enough "not to give pause" lets me know as a reader that it wouldn't be strange or perhaps even dangerous for Gallien to pull his car over and pick the young man up. It makes me think that this encounter will be a friendly one. I guess the reason I believe this to be a good lead is that I feel this opening scene leaves me wondering both about what happened before this encounter for both characters and what will happen after their paths cross.
“I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn't learned that it can happen so gradually you don't lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. You don't necessarily sense the motion. I've found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap.” This opening paragraph was taken from the book A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton.
I am sure that I have other favorite leads. However, I selected this lead because it is one of the reasons I purchased the book.(That and it reminded me of a song.) While browsing through a used book store, this lead caught my attention. I thought how true. I was thinking that most of the time people hit rock bottom for one big mistake or one bad misfortune. And yet isn’t it more likely that you would come to this dark place as a result of a series of events. Isn’t this the thought of a character that might have her life all together until? What were the events that changed this? I feel drawn into the emotional thinking of the character. I can sense a depth to the narrator. I think Jane Hamilton chooses words that seem poetic … words like fell from grace, stupendous, sense the motion, alter the course, slip around the truth…
When I read a good lead, I sometimes begin to write the story in my head. I imagine how it will continue. I wonder what path will the characters take. I love leads where I can see a character developing.
Good Leads…I have to say that this is a difficult one for me. With this question, I was quickly reminded of how long it has been since I have read a book for pleasure other than magazines and professional books to gain knowledge in a specific area. This brings on a goal as well as a reflection. So up front, I must admit that I called upon a friend who is a frequent book reader to provide me with some materials. She is also an inspiration to me in making more time for myself…baby steps! This lead did suck me into curiosity of what would lie ahead in the pages preceding.
The Lead:
The Secret
By: Rhonda Byrne
A year ago, my life had collapsed around me. I’d worked myself into exhaustion, my father died suddenly, and my relationships with my work colleagues and loved ones were in turmoil. Little did I know at the time, out of my greatest despair was to come the greatest gift.
Wow! The words created a picture in my head of what was happening and allowed me to place myself as the character. It was a real life situation that many of us could live out. It forced me to ask questions that I needed to have answered and the only way to do so was to read to book.
Kim, what a great lead!! This idea of getting right into the middle of a scene truly makes us, as readers, want to know more. I think I am going to have to check out this book!! I also love how you so clearly defined all of the questions that it left you hanging with. When we ask questions we set a purpose for our reading and when we have a purpose, we read with more meaning!
Ronnie, you speak of being "drawn into the emotional thinking of the character." I love this, because for you it created so many connections and thoughts that you just had to know more. Good writing does that. It makes us want more!! One never knows what will grab us, but noticing when something does is a big part of the process of identifying and thinking about the craft of writing! I need to add this to my list as well!
BJ, I appreciate your honesty and am reminded of those days with a new baby and how hard it is to find that time for yourself. I am also impressed that you knew who to call as a resource! Great strategy! This book, is a great read and I would recommmend it, and even more to the point, it is not a thick book with small type, but a small one that is manageable, easy to pick up, put down and come back to, but mostly it is filled with great ideas to really get you thinking!!
Part of this process is to look at ourselves as readers and writers and although I know it is hard, we will all discover just how worthwhile it is as it impacts our teaching dramatically.
Hmmm. Great leads are hard for me too, BJ. It makes me think of sitting in English class in 10th grade discussing, "What makes good literature." We went around and around and finally I thought, maybe its different for everyone! I guess the craft of good leads would be the mechanics of it. But I have to say, I start some books that Oprah LOVES and I can't get into just because I didn't like the lead. :)
I have a favorite children's book: Owen and Mzee by the Hatkoffs. A student gave it to me and it is such a unique look at a nonfiction story. Here's the lead:
"This is the true sotry of two great friends: a baby hippopotamus named Owen and a 130-year-old giant tortoise named Mzee. The hippo was not always friends with the tortoise. He wasn't always known as "Own." and Owen was not always famous the world over. here is how it all happened.
I think I love this lead because for a children's book, its such a different twist on nonfiction. It tells you it will be a story, but then you see a real photograph. Then it tells you everything that isn't so: they weren't friends, they weren't famous, but it somehow is true. The use of the opposite examples is intriguing to me.
"December 23, 2005. This is how it feels when you realize your child is missing. The pit of your stomach freezes fast, while your legs go to jelly. There's on single, blue-bass thud on your heart. The shape of her name, sharp as metal filings, gs caught between your teeth even as you try to force it out in shout. Fear breathes like a monster into your ear: Where did I see her last? Would she have wandered away? Who could have taken her? And then, finally, your throat seals shut, as you swallow the fact that you've made a mistake you will never be able to fix." (Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle". This lead took me right into the book because of the detailed description; I could almost feel what she was describing. It gave me that tense feeling of when I have babysat and one of the children has left my sight for just a moment. I cannot imagine it being my own child. I am also such a huge fan of this author that I knew the lead did not necesarily form what the story would be about. This made me even more curious to see what would come as I read on. I also love that the date is there because I can picture more in my mind of what type of day it might have been and how the characters were dressed.
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okay sorry for the test ones but I lost what I wrote twice!
I found this very hard to do. I am also one who reads to learn more about my passion-teaching. I do read fluff like magazines to try to calm my "always-thinking" mind. My daughters are constantly telling me to:"Put down that teachers book and read something for fun!" Okay, so this summer, my daughters were reading this trilogy of books by a new author who's books were compared to Harry Potter. I think they are different but they begged me to read the first one. So... 3 (600+ pages to each book) later...
"I'd never given much thought to how I would die-though I'd had reason enough in the last few months-but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this. I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked plaeasantly back at me.
Surely, it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble even.
I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision.
When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."
Even though this book was about...yes vampires... I was hooked and I totally let myself get lost in all 3 ! I read them in one week! My daughters were thrilled to see me get lost in a book! It was fun! I haven't read for fun in so long!
"You never meant to kill him.
Your name is Matt Hunter. You are twenty years old. You grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb in northern New Jersey, not far from Manhattan. You live on the pooer side of town, but it's a pretty wealthy town. Your parents work hard and love you unconditionally. You are a middle child. You have an older brother whom you worship, and a younger sister whom you tolerate." (Opening paragraph to "The Innocent" by Harlan Coben)
I love the paradox of the title, The Innocent, and the first line. How can this man be innocent and a killer? This lead hooked me instantly! I had to find out more. I needed the whole story. This man had such and ordinary, “happy” life. Yet something had gone so devastatingly wrong. The author’s use of “you” drew me into the story and I instantly felt empathy for Matt Hunter. I also loved all of the short sentences. It felt almost like I was reading the police report or listening to the detectives spouting off this man’s personal information as they struggled to find his motive.
As much as I love reading, I feel as though I never have enough time to read for pleasure’s sake. Most of my reading revolves around my daughter’s interests or my school life. When I do read for pleasure (mostly in the summer) I don’t want to waste my time on just any book. I am drawn to thrillers, horror, and suspense novels. It must be because the plots in the story are so far from anything in my life. I’m drawn first to the cover. However, great artwork doesn’t always mean great book. Sad, but true! My next decision making step is the first page. I had three potential summer reads in my hand at this particular time. I opened Harlan Coben’s novel first, read the first paragraph, and immediately tossed the other two back on the shelves. It’s amazing how so much can ride on that first paragraph or page.
"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. "Out to the hoghouse," replied Mrs. Arable. "Some pigs were born last night."
Aahhhh! I don't even like animals and I am worried. I know I should of picked an adult book but the truth is, the latest book I read for fun was a Nicholas Sparks book and all of his books are pretty much the same! So here is my vote for great lead. It makes you wonder why there is an ax, who Fern is, what will happen to the pigs, does the ax have to do with the pigs?
Just like with adults, it is so important that the books we give kids have good leads. It is especially critical for the struggler. If the reader is not instantly hooked then there is no point in continuing. Our world is so fast moving and so high tech that books have a hard time competing. Sometimes we only have one chance to hook a reader before they have decided to move on to something else!
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