imglorp
Kurt Vonnegut advocated for writers to throw away the
first chapter of their book. He liked to drop the reader
into the thick of it immediately.
|
> ofalkaed
Second chapter becomes the first chapter if you throw
away the first chapter, should you also throw that
away? I guess Zeno would approve. Vonnegut's advice
and most if not all of the common advice given to
aspiring writers has truth in it but it tends to be
too pithy for its own good. The first chapter needs to
lay the groundwork for everything that follows and
this applies for everything from genre and essays to
the complicated and experimental works of literary
fiction. Why should the reader care?Vonnegut is
ultimately pushing back against the old saw of the
captivating first sentence, many aspiring writers fall
into the trap of trying start their book by trying to
captivate the reader at cost of laying that
foundation; if I can just word this opening paragraph
perfectly, the readers will be hooked. It is a fairly
dishonest way to go about things. Everything the
reader needs to know about what you are writing needs
to be covered in that first chapter or paragraph or
chapters or section or whatever metric applies to what
you are writing, the trick is that you need to present
it in a way that does not spoil everything to come.If
you get fixated on captivating the reader with the
opening, tossing the first chapter and reworking the
second is decent advice, but it might be better to
just rework the first. All of these pithy bits of
writing advice have truth in them and have a great
deal to teach you but far too many aspiring writers
tend to accept them as dogma.
|
> the__alchemist
It's first chapters all the way down!
|
> TeeMassive
Seriously.Why would "A blue Ford just parked in front
of the door. Jim still hasn't truly fully woken up but
he was already making breakfast..." incite me to read
the book?Compare that to The Poppy War which I just
discovered:"Take your clothes off. Rin blinked. What?
Cheating prevention protocol."
|
aarvin_roshin
Unrelated to the idea, but this website strangely blocks
`Alt+←` and `Alt+→` to cycle through browser
history.Edit: It seems the website overrides the `←` and
`→` arrow keys specifically, and using
`event.preventDefault()` causes the problem. I think it's
good practice to ignore keys with modifiers in such a
situation.
|
> embedding-shape
It's not "blocked", the person implementing it just
forgo any sort of browser history usage when creating
the website/"app", and the entire thing is controlled
100% in their own JS code. I guess author only had
their specific mobile use in mind when creating it?
Maybe swiping for back/forward works if you view it on
the phone?
|
EagleEdge
I always follow the rule in the book "How to Read a Book":
give the book a superficial reading to decide if it is
worth reading deeply and carefully.
|
> BeetleB
Would not recommend for fiction - at least not mass
market fiction. But Mortimer probably felt those were
not reading, and the method would work for him :-)When
I read How To Read a Book, I was quite impressed. In
practice ... it's not very useful for the types of
book I read. Likely better for deeper, philosophical
books (including fiction of that category).For a lot
of fiction books, my rule is to read the first 50
pages. If I'm not engaged, move on. Life is short. I
believe Stephen King also used that heuristic. It's
fine if you miss out on some great books. You're not
going to get to read all of them anyway.
|
> > GarnetFloride
I use Mortimer's system for non-fiction works,
which is where it makes the most sense.I would
also use it if I was doing a really deep dive in a
fiction work.For most fiction that I am reading
for entertainment, the first 50ish pages will tell
me if its worth finishing.
|
> aeon_ai
Can't recommend the book enough, taught me a lot of
tricks
|
> > EagleEdge
Yes. It fundamentally changed how I read a book. I
go back to it every once a while and always find
new things to apply every time.
|
stephen_cagle
Ignoring whether this is a good business, I feel like this
is a pretty terrible way to judge a book. If it took off
it would result in everyone just starting their book with
a real hook, which only works for a small number of genres
and only if nothing else needs to be setup before
"hooking" (simple "nothing is unfamiliar" stories).I've
read plenty of books on recommendation that I think are
great, but they were not the kind of books that could
start with a hook I think.But, the counterargument to this
is if it helps people start books, then who cares if it is
an effective strategy or not.
|
> spankibalt
> But, the counterargument to this is if it helps
people start books, [...].It certainly doesn't. Not
that it matters to people who love reading books, for
they know judging a whole book by its first page(s),
or based on some formula extracted from one of those
silly self-improvement tomes, is just ridiculous
(especially the latter reminiscent of "Pritchard's
graph" from Dead Poets Society).
|
> andrewflnr
Still better than judging by the cover. Also, it is
important to know that there aren't any deal breakers
in the author's style.
|
happytoexplain
When I visit a bookstore, I will look for things I
recognize/want. But I also will open random books and read
the first page to see if anything hooks me. I try to come
away from any bookstore visit with one book I've never
heard of and may have never been recommended otherwise.
This is a nice recreation of that experience (sans the
paper smell).
|
> stuxf
exactly my thoughts too, this is a great way to
digitally recreate the bookstore experience :)
|
needSomeCoffee
Clicked the link. Selected "Literary". First sample was
quite good. Vaguely caught the name of the author. Closed
page. Then decided to go back. Could not find the first
sample which I decided I might want to read. Got just
enough of the author name to get Google to find "Colson
Whitehead" when I entered "Colston". The book was "Cool
Machine". Went to borrow it from Sno-Isle.org. Placed a
hold on the physical book. Number 51 in the hold line (all
time record for my holds -- got plenty to read until its
likely availability). Glad I found this site, but on my
second visit did not find any "Literary" first pages that
resonated. Blind luck. Good site idea though. HTH, NSC
|
sva_
I don't know, I think some books like for example Frank
Herbert's need a couple more pages to set up the
scene.Also, some of the best tv shows I watched need a
couple episodes build up to get a nice payout.
|
> BeetleB
I don't think the site is claiming otherwise.And as
for Frank Herbert's Dune, I gave it a try. I read the
first two books, and was 20% of my way through the
third when I realized that "No, this whole story is
not going to get good ever."Should have just stopped
after a few pages of the first book :-)
|
> > andrewflnr
Ha, I love Dune personally, but it definitely
doesn't get better after that.
|
> > sva_
It's a good thing that people have different
preferences
|
grimgrin
maybe it is mostly books, but the first one it served me
was a /r/aita posthttps://uncovered.ink/?b=9781538704448
|
> happytoexplain
Yeah, same for me. I was confused.But click "Reveal".
This is in fact a book.
|
> kiddico
I believe that's a fiction/in universe reddit post
|
> aarvin_roshin
The button on the homepage is hardcoded to this book,
which I find extremely strange. Why not choose a
random book, and why pick such a confusing quote?
|
scotty79
I think the reveal button is counted as an upvote for the
book because it supposedly discovered my taste and it was
based on th books I revealed, but not bookmarked.
|
> happytoexplain
That makes sense. "I read some and wanted to read
more" is a useful metric like an upvote (it doesn't
have to mean "I know I like this" to be useful).
|
> ndarray
If that is true, it's bad design. The site definitely
needs a dislike button too, while we're at it...
|
rao-v
The world needs more delightful websites that do one
clever thing well like this. Turns out I need to read
Percival Everett!
|
lofaszvanitt
If the book is boring after the 40th page then it's not
for you.
|
ndarray
This is basically an ad for recent books the maker likes
or gets paid to promote and the selection is hot garbage
|
spankibalt
Another day, another rotten candy apple for giggling
postliterates.
|