Came across some wonderful writing advice from writer Alan Gurganus in the Iowa Writer's Workshop newsletter that I wanted to share.
"If a novelist mentions the name of a color in her first or second paragraph, the chance of a reader's staying put is instantly enlarged. Not just 'red' but 'wet-slate gray,' or 'pea-soup green.' Some trance occurs when your reader helps concoct a very specific color from the black-and-white page."
Every book I'm reading follows this advice so I'm off to check the opening pages of my novel in progress.
2 comments:
I am at this moment checking the openings of the two novels I am working on.
An interesting piece of advice! I'm checking the openings of mine too! Plus thinking up some good descriptions of colours!
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