How Do You Write a Story That Nobody Wants to Put Down?
Build tension into your very first line.
How I published as much as I did early on is a mystery, because I ignored one element crucial to good writing.
And most writing doesn’t have it.
That element is tension. The short answer to my question, how to write a story that nobody wants to put down, is: You have to know what tension is, and you have to learn how to build it into a story.
I credit Benjamin Percy’s Thrill Me with opening my eyes. Actually, that book threw a pan of ice-water on me. I’d heard endlessly about tension, of course. But something about the way Percy laid it out woke me up.
People want to know what happens to other people. That’s one of the beauties of us humans. Therefore, once people get engaged in an outcome, they will not. stop. reading. until they find out what happens.
Sometimes we writers get lucky, and tension is inherent in a piece. For example, what is more poignant than a farm family’s life threatened by a coal plant?
Flannery O'Connor talks some about this, about the inherent tension in culture, including in the south a set of manners that belies violence: "A great deal of the Southern writer's work is done for him before (s)he begins," she wrote in Mystery and Manners. Barry Hannah said something similar to me once, as we stood on the banks of Sardis Lake. "You live here in Mississippi, stuff's just handed to you," Barry said.
Sometimes the tension is handed to you. Mostly you have to create it.
Meting information out in morsels is how you do it. You gotta become a tease.
The first line is especially important. Strive for a breath-taking first line that keeps a person going to the second line, then a first paragraph that grabs the reader and mesmerizes them and hypnotizes them and seduces them, so that the reader devours the second paragraph. And so on.
I’m going to give you an example and then let you get on with your goals for today.
Once a friend interviewed me for a piece and then gave me the huge favor of letting me see it before it went to print. She’s a fabulous writer, and her first line read:
Growing up in Baxley, Georgia, writer and environmental advocate Janisse Ray learned early that even when there wasn’t much else of value around, stories about the people and places of her “small, sleepy town” held power.
I asked her if she would cut “wasn’t much else of value around” because I was surrounded by things of value growing up. And I suggested a way she could build tension.
I’m showing it to you just so you can see an example for yourself.
Growing up, writer Janisse Ray learned on the front porches of Baxley, Georgia something that would set the course of her life.
That’s not the greatest first line in the world, but you see what I’m doing. I’m simplifying the sentence and also teasing you so that you want to keep reading and learn what I learned on the front porches of my hometown.
Okay, go do it. Go be a tease. Go back to something you’re working on and figure out how you can revise the first line so that you withhold something that we desperately want to find out.
Once glance tells you that this man has some great first lines. I think this is the Dollar Depot in Midville, GA.
More on Keeping Books Alive
Last week I wrote about the decline of books. I asked for suggestions on ways we could address this, and dozens of ideas arrived. I’ll compile those soon and post this as a handout on The Rhizosphere.
This is obviously a topic on many writers’ minds, because the very next day
, a Canadian publisher whose newsletter “SHuSH”I read & recommend, wrote about it in his excellent essay, “Are we in terminal decline?”Two days after that,
in her newsletter “Notes from a Small Press,” responded with a fascinating critique of Ken’s essay.I don’t want to saddle you with a lot of online reading, but if you want to hear some industry thought-leaders who are NOT in New York talk about book publishing, I’d start here. Trubek talks about how past writers got published: she presents this info:
Most came from wealth and/or had elite education*
Many had a social world of influential friends**
Few could be said to have succeeded mainly on ”hustle” or “merit” ***
(Only one, I think—Toni Morrison—was a mother)
And she points out this beautiful thinking:
—There are far, far, far more options for authors to have their books published today than there were at any time in the past. Self-publishing has made gatekeepers an option rather than a necessity, and offers writers the freedom so many desire. There are far, far, far more small presses, university presses, and non-Big Five presses for authors seeking a different experience than the Big Five.
My Offerings—You Are Invited
🍄 To Lunch & Write Every Wednesday
These are writers co-working sessions, live on Zoom. We’re completely silent, serious about getting the work done. Choose a project, join the Zoom, mute yourself, and get’er done. Absolutely free, always. Here’s the link.
🍄 To the Journaling Earth Grief Course
This is a 5-week course to hold the space to work with solastalgia, or eco-grief. The vibe will not be sorrowful, but serious and matter-of-fact and hopeful. I’m offering this space by donation. Pay what you can. Register via Eventbrite.
🍄 To Join My American Nature Writing Masterclass
I’ve been a nature writer for 30 years and taught nature writing hundreds of times, but this is the first time I’ve put so much information together into a Masterclass. We’ll cover place-based writing, defending what you love, landscapes of the heart, story medicine, climate chaos, community building, and much more. The cost is $600 for 12 weeks (one evening per week) of immersive writing, crafting, creativity, dozens of handouts, emphasis on publishing, and other ways to show up for yourself and your stories. I invite you to join me.
🍄 To Join my Memoir Course Starting in October
Also starting in October is a beginning memoir course that happens on Mondays at the lunch hour. It’s called Write Your Own Story, and that says it all. We’ll work on expressive writing and memoir writing via journaling, creativity exercises, short readings, and tiny presentations on craft. The cost is $225. You can find out more here.
🍄 To Write From Your Archetypes
Are you a sage? A jester? A magician? A creator? Maybe a lover? A caregiver? An explorer? Each of us can claim a primary archetype and a few secondary ones, although many archetypes can be found within us all. In this 2-hour evening workshop we run through a quiz so that you can identify your primary and secondary archetypes. We'll take a turn with each one, to understand how it manifests in you. Then we'll dive into what your archetypes mean in terms of your writing and how they can be put to work on your behalf. You'll get examples of writing from an archetype, as well as ideas on how to proceed. I am over the moon about this evening workshop, and I highly recommend it. The cost is $25, and you register here.
Requests & Opportunities
🌍 Think of Writer Friends
Who do you know who might benefit from a newsletter devoted to becoming better writers? Who do you know who also yearns to get stories down on paper? Would you share this newsletter with them?
🌍 Poetry of the Longleaf Pine
Are you a poet? I’m working with my friend Peter Peteet to put together an anthology of poems about the flora and fauna of the longleaf pine ecosystem. If you are interested in submitting a poem, please be in touch. You’ll need to choose a plant or animal to write about, and I can direct you to the list.
🌍 Have You Taken a Course from Me?
I plan to publish in my newsletter flash essays and micro-memoirs from some of you who have written amazing small-form creative nonfiction in my courses. I can pay $25 for each piece I publish plus link to your website or social media. There are no restrictions on subject matter. You know how to contact me—send me something.
🌍 Ecotone Seeks Submissions on the Moon
“For Ecotone’s fall/winter 2024 issue, we seek work on the theme of the moon. We’re thinking about abundance, harvests, meditation, dreams, discovery, good-nights, gravity, the night shift, wonder, eclipses, telescopes, relativity, myth, spirituality, science, solitude, sentiment and straightforwardness, romance, moon boots, Moon Pies.” Find more info here.
I seriously could go on, but I’m going to duck out so that we can all get to our jobs, whatever they are, and then get our stories written. All the very best to you, as ever.
Your advice is always so simple and helpful. Thanks for this morning. I love the idea of sharing what we are working on at the end of the hour. Hope at some point, I can stick around.
I don't read many psychological thrillers because real-life is honestly enough of a mystery to me. But I just finished a novel by poet Laura Sims entitled, "How Can I Help You?" Laura is a writer and a reference librarian: she builds dramatic tension in her book, by setting up different viewpoints b/t two librarians (one is a killer but no one suspects it except the other). So the different POVs create the tension, along with the descriptions of the quirky characters who populate this small-town library. So oddly enough, I wanted to keep reading because of the contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary! (The mundane and bizarre phone calls to the reference librarians were enough to keep me turning the pages).
Janisse, I truly appreciated your smart revision of the opening sentence in the example above. It's such a strong example so show how fewer words can create more tension! Thanks for this installment!