Great first pages

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And there you have matters of opinion. I don't like the opening to The Martian. IMO too much exposition, too much explaining. I find it disengaging, but then again I don't read sci fi.

You're too right, Hannah, we do all have different tastes :) Respect! For me, I adored The Martian. It started with conflict and just pushed the envelope until the end. No fat :) And I'm not a Sci fi reader.

And that website looks fab @Robinne Weiss. Thx! I'm bookmarking that :)
 
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And there you have matters of opinion. I don't like the opening to The Martian. IMO too much exposition, too much explaining. I find it disengaging, but then again I don't read sci fi.
Yep. And we can all take heart from this--no matter what our writing style, there's an audience out there for us. :) I absolutely loved The Martian from the first sentence. We read it aloud as our family storytime book (when the kids were 14 and 16 years old--wouldn't have been able to do it earlier, for all the swearing). A bunch of science geeks, we ate it up!
 
Great read and oddly after coming back to the colony I too had already bookmarked the site. I see others have done the same.

There's a link I spotted to the dissection of a prologue - Pete's favourite writing device :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing: - of what apparently is, and please forgive my ignorance of the genre as I've never heard of it, some well known book called Eragon?

Ouch! ;)

I will check out some of the podcasts which sound interesting. Irrespective of our own writing genres there seems to be a heck of a lot of good general information and knowledge there.

Thanks @Robinne Weiss for the heads up.
 
Ugh! Eragon! We read that series aloud to the kids, too. Kudos to Paolini for cranking out four billion words at the age of 16, but the kid needed a proper editor! I saw a recent book by him in the bookshop the other day, and it was a huge tome like each of the Eragon books was. He must still have the same editor... As much as I disliked Eragon and its sequels, my teenage son loved them, so I bought the new one for him. I'll be curious to see what he says about it. I have to say I will not be reading it (except maybe the first few pages, to see how Paolini's developed as a writer--he's significantly older now).
 
Ugh! Eragon! We read that series aloud to the kids, too. Kudos to Paolini for cranking out four billion words at the age of 16, but the kid needed a proper editor! I saw a recent book by him in the bookshop the other day, and it was a huge tome like each of the Eragon books was. He must still have the same editor... As much as I disliked Eragon and its sequels, my teenage son loved them, so I bought the new one for him. I'll be curious to see what he says about it. I have to say I will not be reading it (except maybe the first few pages, to see how Paolini's developed as a writer--he's significantly older now).
I admire him. Syntax, grammatical errors, tropes etc, yes, but I would never have been able to publish books like that at 16!
 
I came across the article as well! It was a great break-down of those opening pages in The Martian.

As for Eragon, I've heard that one/both of Paolini's parents were professional editors, which is why he was able to publish as young as he did. I feel like they must've really worked on it with him and still... Probably could've been better. That said, my younger brother really enjoyed it when it came out. I think I was too old at the time and the story felt too derivative, but it was certainly popular.

The site also has a really great critique of Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind (another popular epic fantasy and a favourite of mine). They absolutely tear the opening chapters to pieces, which I found strangely heartening. It goes to show that a book can have massive flaws, yet still go on to be a bestseller that is beloved by many. A reminder to write what you love and not obsess too much over the flaws of your writing? Who knows.
 
The site also has a really great critique of Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind (another popular epic fantasy and a favourite of mine). They absolutely tear the opening chapters to pieces, which I found strangely heartening. It goes to show that a book can have massive flaws, yet still go on to be a bestseller that is beloved by many

I struggled with the beginning of that, loved the middle, and was really disappointed with the end. He just gave me something really different from what he promised. But gorgeous writing :)
 
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