Figuring It All Out

For the moment, I think I'm gonna try focusing more on one story and keep a few others as background/distractions. I know I've said before I was gonna choose a few stories to work on, but I figured that that wasn't quite enough. Having so many, going from one to another isn't going to exactly speed up the process if I'm just jumping between projects. So one will be the main goal while the others are there to bounce off of until the main one gets its issues together.

As for what story gets that headliner treatment; well, thinking on what I have, its really down to two projects, either Tigress, which already has its basic storyline worked out, or Butterfly Massacre, which I think I have enough to really go at and make headway on. The side stuff, I'll figure it out when I get to a road block.

Ever since tangledaxon posted it on a links list post, I've been combing through the Slushpile. There's a lot there that's good to know, and it's done with personality and not just deadpanned. When she reviews books, one feature she mentions is the first line, and how important it can be to both the author, reader, and the agent queried. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's average, and sometimes it's just a sentence.

As always, there's never one way to go about it, but she does say it's better to have a good first one if you can. To that end, I've been thinking about some of my first sentences and how they play out. Most of 'em suck eggs. One (luckily I no longer have) I remember from a seventh grade writing project was so bad it would've been eligible for the "Dark and Stormy Night" opening sentence contest it was so over rot.

But I've been thinking and I believe I may have come up with one for Butterfly:

When I got myself sent to Hell, it was under false pretenses.

Sets up quite a bit; the character is in Hell, she condemned herself, knowingly, and that it was because of a mistake. The problem with that is, to me, I risk revealing why she went to Hell too early. While you can easily find out by clicking on the link above, story-wise it's not something I want to put out there in the first chapter, let alone the first page. It's a decision she's extremely bitter over, and a cause of a lot her selfinduced downward spiral to becoming a demon in the first place. I like the sentence, but now I'm staring at it trying to make sure I don't blow my literary wad early before it really means something (sorry about that mental image there).

She knows why she was sent to hell, but she didn't know how wrong she got her reasoning. It's a very stark and hard moment (limiinal even said it gave her a small jolt when she read it) and I love the power behind it; but it's a power that I want to keep hidden. And the first sentence of the story, as good as I think it may be, may also be too much a lead in to explaining it before it has that same power behind it.

Something to sleep on I guess, I'm not ready to dive into major wordage yet anyway. More outlining to be done; I need to not hate the potential love interest enough to make sure I don't kill him off... maybe. Yet. Too soon to tell, he's an annoying little bugger and I don't really have a strong reason to keep him around beyond the Twilight/paranormal romance/stalker boyfriend joke he's meant to be.

...

Shit.

I just thought of reason.