EP 237 A Perfect Beginning to Your Novel

Pencils&Lipstick podcast

The other day, I heard Mark Hurwitz say that "the beginning of the book (exposition is the literary term) is a bit like a social contract between the reader and the writer. This got me thinking about the different critique groups and contests that we have that focus solely on the beginning phrases of our books. Are they helpful? I’m of the opinion that they aren’t.

So today we are going through a pile of books to see how the beginnings stand up to being social contracts between the writer and the reader.

Books I read from today:

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne

Anxious People by Fredrick Backman

Shadow of the Dragon by Tom Clancy

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

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