There is Nothing Wrong with: “It was a dark stormy night”

There is nothing wrong with this much maligned opening line.  The FULL opening line tells a different story.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

The criticism of “It was a dark story night,” was not earned all on its own.  It had help. A LOT of it from the long run on sentence reminiscent of the hook in an agent query letter.  So “It was a dark stormy night” in and of itself is NOT a bad thing. 

What if your story starts out on a dark stormy night?  What if it’s actually an integral part of the opening scene?  I can’t very well have my heroine, running from her abusive husband; put her car into a ditch on a beautiful sunny day can I?  “It was a beautiful sunny day.  The sky was clear to the horizon, and the sun beating down heated the surface of the roadway giving her tires extra grip.  That would make her look incompetent behind the wheel.  You can excuse her if it was dark, it was stormy, and the dirt road had turned into very slippery mud.

This all came to mind because I have been thinking about my third, but as yet unpublished completed novel.  Still working on cover art.  I had an concept, but it just didn’t fit in the vertical format of a book cover.  Back to the old drawing board.  That was all it took for me to wonder if I should give it one more read through.  I hate it when I do that.

Inspiration Strikes

I have had a flash of inspiration lately.  I have found that happens when it comes time to work on promotion.  After creating two rough outlines for my next novel, a pre-post apocalypse story, I didn’t like my sequencing.  My order of peak moments just didn’t work.  The hero's motivations wouldn't work.  I was stumped for a few days.  Then I remembered something I learned at a writing seminar.

The instructor, author Jaimie Engle, spoke about writing techniques. One of them was writing in scenes.  Jaimie said that it doesn’t work for her, but a friend uses it all the time.  She writes her scenes on note cards, and then rearranges them until it suits her.  I've never been a note card kind of guy.  I've been spoiled by the computer.  I need my cut and paste when I write.
 
To that end, I have started a list of scenes, added notes, and in some cases begun filling in the details.  So far so good, but I’m still in the early stages.  At the very least, I will end up with the high points of my story, which I will piece together.  It seems to suit me as I tend to bounce around a lot anyway as the creative juices ebb and flow from one direction to another.  Sometimes working on a particular scene, I am inspired to add a character trait.  Then off I go to my character bios to add them there.  It’s a little ADDish, but it seems to be working.  Hmm, I wonder if that means something.

Beginning my Book Promotions

Advertising isn’t what it used to be.  In days gone by advertisers hit you with a pitch that encouraged you to buy.  It was a sheer numbers game.  Get your ad in front of as many people as possible, and SOME will buy.  The internet alone didn’t change that.  In the early days of the World Wide Web, advertising was still delivered in a similar manner.  But social media changed all of that.  Advertising has become interactive, and to be successful it requires more than just blasting out your sales pitch.  You have to develop an online presence and interact with your audience. 

Developing an online presence isn’t something that happens overnight.  You can’t just set up profiles on all of the social media sites and post “You’ll love my book.  Buy it Now!”  That’s why it’s called “developing.”  Developing takes time.  Building a following takes time.  And the only way to build a following is to give people a reason to follow you, and interact.

At first I looked with dread and the marketing and promotional aspects of my books.  But now I’m excited.  In a moment of self discovery, I realized it was getting started that caused me trepidation.  It seemed like such a huge job, one that had to be repeated for each and every web site on which I wanted to have a presence.  My first instinct was to put it off “until I had more time.”  THAT will never happen.  It’s like in writing, the often heard lament of: “I have this great idea but I don’t have time to write.”

Soooooo, I am starting with Goodreads.com.  It took a little over a week to take possession of my author page.  Sure I would have liked it to be instantaneous, but I know these things can take time.  I’ve filled in most of the profile, wondered if my bio needs work, and realized I can have fun rating and/or reviewing all of the books I have ever read.

Yes, I am looking forward to developing my presence on Goodreads, and adding other sites as well.  And maybe, somewhere, I’ll make the time to work on my next novel.