The Start

In a break from sending out queries to agents. I started writing another book. This is now the fifth on the go. In my opinion, the start is always the best part.

For one, it's difficult. How do you start? Where do you start? How do you instantly catch the reader and not let them go. The easiest way I've found is action, a joke or an unusual observation. Probaby all cliches but who cares. It works.

Spies lies and pies starts: On a scale of going wrong, this had hit ten.
Apart from being meaningless (no scale is defined) it seems to work. People just assume ten is the top end of the scale and something has gone badly wrong.

Some of my other starts are:

Jeffrey was no normal security guard. Sat on his arse eating a cheese sandwich, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was.

If there was one thing Fred hated it was time wasters. He didn't like cushions either, but timewasters, they were the worse.

Watching the huge nosed jogger run by, Bryn pondered the aerodynamics. He knew someone would be researching this. In time, all sprinters will have snouts like the Eiffel Tower.

These are all different to my chosen start to Spies for one reason. The main character is not named. It's passive. So, should I change it?

No. I think writers and wannabe writers punish themselves too much over little things,we all assume it's one word in the wrong place that stops us getting published. Perhaps it's not. Perhaps it's tens of thousands of books being touted in a declining industry that, because it's a business, wants a guarranteed return on it's money.

So, what was the point of this again? Dunno. If you've written the book you wanted to write and no one wants it should you change it or start again on a new one.

I know what I'll be doing.