McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Beginnings
terioncalling:
Since someone just posted the opening lines from a NIPP (mine are only in perpetual progress cause I keep getting ideas for other bloody stories), here's the opening from one of mine.
A town burned.
It had been a quaint little place, just a small town out in the middle of nowhere. Everyone there had known each other by sight if not by name and there was little crime. They’d been content in their lives.
Now they were all dead. And their killers stalked the streets where they had once walked.
That's my story involving Heaven, Hell, a demon/angel friendship (wherein the angel drinks far too much alcohol), and a 12 year-old girl who's inhabited by a disembodied devil assassin.
Then there's the story I've been working on for...oh, since 2001 or so. I created a whole thing of vampires, slayer, witches, werewolves, and etc that run around NYC and create havoc. It's gone under three rewrites as of now (at least the first story has) and has a role-playing message board that's slowly dying a second death except for me and two friends just continuing on with our characters storylines. Here's the new opening, written from the main character Darien O'Connell's (a 300+ year-old vampire) point of view.
Remember when you were young and your mother always told you a bedtime story? Princes, castles, dragons, valiant knights, damsels in distress – the general pish and posh.
Or maybe you were one of those rare children who wanted the scary tales; the ones your mother never wanted to tell you and your father wanted to but couldn’t tell a story to save his life. Y’know – the boogeyman, werewolves, Freddie Krueger, Jason. The regular scare-the-piss-out-of-you stuff.
You might right now be asking yourself if there’s a point to all of this clatter. Yeah, there is. A sharp point lies at the end of this railway tunnel, so get a tighter grip on the rail of the caboose.
That was written after I started reading Dresden.
But back to topic...I suppose the opening line is usually what snags me in a story. Though its usually the first few paragraphs or so - that's what grabbed me about Fool Moon, first Dresden book I picked up...well, that and it was about werewolves and I LOVE werewolf stories. But nice catchy opening lines are good.
And what about this opening line?
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. :)
terroja:
--- Quote from: DanielleJD on September 01, 2006, 12:30:38 AM ---What's your NIPP (mines the same way) about?
--- End quote ---
Two people have used NIPP now. I wonder if that will become a popular term among writers on the internet and I'll know for the rest of my life that I created it. If that does transpire, I hope it's not the most significant achievement in my life!
*inhales*
Anyway, to answer your question, my book is entitled The Plague Of Meaning and is the story of a young thief of galactic renown on a quest to uncover the truth behind the destruction of his entire species at the hands of the human race. All the evidence points to the metacorporation, Sradkur Mediations Inc. and their president, The Exalted--a being of supposedly flawless rationality--being responsible, but if he is, then the question becomes: is one person's revenge worth the probable economic collapse and social upheaval that the death of such an important person would trigger?
The parallel story is that of a homeless beggar with little recollection of his past who discovers, after an attempt on his life by local authorities, that he has both an unquenchable hatred for all living things and the power to do something about it. He goes on a killing spree, murdering indiscriminately with his nearly endless powers.
Allow me a lame tageline:
That which ties their destinies together, may tear their souls apart.
Then, I throw in a giant sentient lizard with a penchant for eating people whole, a samurai, numerous implausibly large-breasted girls and women, a black fog made of pure despair that sucks the ife out of anyone it touches, a faceless creature with an elastic body and fingers sharper than a razorblade, psychics, bounty hunters, cannibals, an array of neat gadgets and drawn out descriptions of the most gruesome deaths my mind can imagine.
And hopefully the whole thing's got heart. I hate reading books without heart.
weever:
Personally I love NIPPs. I plan to add it to my vocabulary and throw it at any writing class or group in hopes to be a part creating a new term.
As long as we're on the topic of NIPP openings, I'll throw mine into the mix:
Living on the third floor made life a little more interesting once Jake decided never to use the front door. A back door would have been convenient, even a fire escape.
The next line, as written, I don't like and currently re-writing.
I would like to read more opening NIPPs. Post 'em.
fjeastman:
I wouldn't say this is a NIPP. More like a NIRP.
First paragraph:
--- Quote ---I thought getting fired twelve times in two years had prepared me for losing my job. (I had once even managed to get canned twice in less than twenty-four hours.) No one, however, is really prepared to have their place of work blown down and lit on fire by an angry witch. Maybe I was better able to handle it than most - at least she wasn’t angry with me.
--- End quote ---
It is, essentially, "a book I wanted to read, about things I wanted to read about, that nobody has written yet, and which I hope others will likewise enjoy".
--fje
terioncalling:
--- Quote from: fjeastman on September 11, 2006, 04:30:27 AM ---I wouldn't say this is a NIPP. More like a NIRP.
First paragraph:
--- Quote ---I thought getting fired twelve times in two years had prepared me for losing my job. (I had once even managed to get canned twice in less than twenty-four hours.) No one, however, is really prepared to have their place of work blown down and lit on fire by an angry witch. Maybe I was better able to handle it than most - at least she wasn’t angry with me.
--- End quote ---
It is, essentially, "a book I wanted to read, about things I wanted to read about, that nobody has written yet, and which I hope others will likewise enjoy".
--fje
--- End quote ---
Sounds like a Dresdenish opening! I'm intruiged... ;D
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