In The Lab this week, I described my theory of openings: The atomic material of the story should be present from the very start, and the work of the story is to combine those atoms into a variety of narrative molecules.
Yes, openings also have to hook the reader.
But as a writer, I find it more fun to think about openings as a structural feature.
Whatever it is that will motivate the story should be there from the very first paragraph. You’re constructing a periodic table just for this story. What can you build from there?
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