Great Beginnings

The beginning of a story is also called the hook. Why? It is akin to fishing. You hook a fish and then reel them in. Same thing with the beginning of a story. If you hook a reader, they'll want to keep turning pages and hopefully you gain a loyal fan. If you can't hook a reader from the git-go, then you'll lose them as a potential reader. They aren't going to stick around for the "good part." Your goal as a writer is to grab that reader's attention so you've got them hook, line, and sinker.

Why do I bring this up? A week ago I found James Dashner's The Journal of Curious Letters (Book 1 of the 13th Reality Series) on audio CD. Best of all, it was only five bucks!!! It is a book I've wanted to pick up for a while since I like Dashner, both as a writer and a person. I also figured I'd have something to listen to in the car for a while.

After finishing the first disk I pondered how the beginning really grabbed me. He enthralled me with a great, whimsical voice that I instantly identified with. The characters where eccentric and interesting. There was a great mystery afoot from the beginning, making me desire to continue listening and find out about the letters being mailed from Alaska. And I instantly liked the protagonist right from the start.

Dashner hooked me! I can't wait to continue on to disk 2.

I was trying to remember the last time I was so thrilled by the beginning of a story. Then I remembered The Maze Runner and how it hooked me just as well, if not more. From page one it had this great mystery and I refused to put the book down until I had some answers. I'm sure most of you know where I'm going with this, but it seriously took me a little bit to make the obvious connection. The Maze Runner was written by James Dashner!!

So I tip my hat and monocle in his general direction. Well done, James. I hope some day I can start off a story as well as you.

Differences Between Your and You're

I haven't done a writing lesson in a while, and I actually got a request for this one, so here is how to remember whether to use "your" or "you're" in your writing.

It makes sense when you understand what an apostrophe is for. It is used in contractions (e.g., shouldn't, can't, and you'll) and for showing possession for a noun (e.g., Tom's diner, Bob's hardware, and Simba's tail). The key word there is noun. This does not apply to pronouns. Possessive pronouns NEVER, EVER use an apostrophe.

Your

Your is a possessive pronouns, meaning that it is the pronoun "you" that owns something.

Your cats. Your homework. Your problems.

Notice the lack of the apostrophe. If you use the apostrophe you get another word and meaning. You get...

You're

You're is a contraction for "you are."

You're here. You're beautiful; you're not fat. You're late!

The Test

If you are confused, the trick is to say "you are" to test if you got it right or not. If it works, then you use "you're", if it doesn't, then you use the word "your".

You are cats. You are homework. You are problems.

You are here. You are beautiful; you are not fat. You are late!

The first group does not make sense, so you use the word "your". The second group does make sense, so you use the word "you're".

Thanks everybody for visiting, you're awesome!

LDS Storymakers

I'm back from LDS Storymakes and already have next year's event marked on the calendar. Best of all they moved it up a week (2nd weekend of May) which frees me to do something I've been forced to skip the first week of May the last two years.

More on that later.

Anyways, I felt like I was neglecting this blog since the A to Z Challenge. I didn't post anything on the conference because I was tweeting like crazy throughout the weekend. You do follow me on Twitter, right?

But I did want to pop in and let you know I'm still alive. I did blog briefly on the experience on LDS Writers Blogck. But since then I have been editing and writing. That's right, you heard me right, I've been doing what I should have been doing the last year.

I complained during the A to Z Challenge that the daily blog posts were interfering with my writing. Since May 1st rolled around I've been so much more productive and it hurts how often I blog. But, truth be told, I would rather be writing than blogging. Not that I don't still love you guys, but wouldn't you rather be reading my book?

Rest assured, I will blog about the conference in more depth in the coming days.