What Great Novels Do In Their Openings (Yours Should Too!)

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  • Опубліковано 19 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 21

  • @thirdspacemaker9141
    @thirdspacemaker9141 День тому +1

    “Retroactively predictable” Excellent term. I have always said that my favorite reads told me what was going to happen, but I didn’t believe them.

  • @dianahaugh7521
    @dianahaugh7521 20 днів тому +22

    Novel finished, edited and polished and now having anxiety attacks about opening scene

    • @StephenSinclair-d6n
      @StephenSinclair-d6n 19 днів тому +5

      Hope you have massive success. My first one is out next year. I'm up on a few YT channels. Once again - from someone who doesn't know you - congratulations 🎊 and good luck.

  • @tamjg
    @tamjg 20 днів тому +14

    "Hi!' to Carl's cat's butt.

  • @melissajill6174
    @melissajill6174 17 днів тому +4

    The cat convinced me to subscribe. Looks a lot like my dear Domino, a boy who was sadly gone too soon after a valiant battle against GI lymphoma. I still have his sister (black and white tuxie) and other cats, too.

  • @useeee616
    @useeee616 20 днів тому +6

    CARL DUNCAN EVERYBODY!!!!!

  • @radrabbit6946
    @radrabbit6946 18 днів тому +2

    Opening dad joke, totally hooked.

  • @matheusmariani3108
    @matheusmariani3108 20 днів тому +6

    "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect"
    If this doesn't promise something great, I dunno what does.

  • @PaulRWorthington
    @PaulRWorthington 20 днів тому +11

    It was a surprise twist that this channel now features a big cat in the foreground…
    But you set that up well by long ago making the cat face your avatar.

  • @Scantronimus466
    @Scantronimus466 20 днів тому +4

    My novel starts with a train going off the tracks, knocking on the protagonist’s door, and pulling a gun on her.
    The story ends with her killing God.

    • @tamjg
      @tamjg 19 днів тому

      In today's market, it would be a best-seller.

    • @geordiejones5618
      @geordiejones5618 19 днів тому

      ​@@tamjgno one cares about ideas. Everything has been done it's all about execution.

    • @SuperL1nk
      @SuperL1nk 9 днів тому

      @@geordiejones5618what about a schizophrenic going on a fantastical quest through the past? (Literally speaking tho)

    • @amos_comedies742
      @amos_comedies742 15 годин тому

      😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

  • @SleepParty30
    @SleepParty30 16 днів тому +1

    What tips do you have about seeking literary agents?

  • @hardnewstakenharder
    @hardnewstakenharder 20 днів тому +3

    I'm on revisions with my editor now and my intro still needs work 😭 thank you for this, Carl. All your vídeos are so on point for me.

  • @marikothecheetah9342
    @marikothecheetah9342 2 дні тому

    Charles Dickens "Great Expectations" - title. 🤣

  • @francinem4944
    @francinem4944 20 днів тому +1

    Love your insights and delivery ❤

  • @useeee616
    @useeee616 20 днів тому

    I truly believe The Ancient World 24-book universe is…. The future of the next generations novel obsession.
    The first chapter of my book outlines the boy and old man walking down the mountain, the hatred the boy feels towards his guardian, the boy is bound because he keeps running away, the make it down the mountain, they make peace and become friends. They make it to the forest, old man has a PTSD episode, boy runs away and steals the sword. Cyclops smells boy in forest, attacks, old man rushes to boy. Cyclops kills old man, boy loses his own sense of protection and safety. The boys spirit animal finds the boy and attacks the cyclops. The boy thinks the beast is going to kill him too, unaware its his spirit protector. The animal attacks the second cyclops. The boy finds the old mans body, cries, takes the gear, and sneaks away as the giant beast and cyclops battle it out. The boy makes it to a safe place near a river down the hill from the meadow where the battles took place. He finds himself huddled at the base of a dead tree, no sense of belonging, no friend, no family. The stupid old man who supposedly was protecting him died on the boy. It is as though he was meant to die, at least in the boys heart he knows he’d be better off dead.
    End Chapter One.
    Chalter two is the boy essentially pulling himself together. A minotaur scout shows up, tries to kill the boy, his spirit animal intervenes. The boy and animal bond a bit, he realizes the animal is trying to protect him and communicate with him.
    The third chapter is where shit gets wild. Two of the Chilren are out scouting, but they both know they are just sneaking away to be alone with each other, discovering romance and their first crush as teens. As the end of chapter 3…. The two children spot a boy in the wilderness-where there should be zero human life.
    Chapter 3 is like a super important moment that fans wont realize… how important it is! The children find the boy. Such a huge pivot point in the book series. Then the rest is as Carl says, predictable. The boy and the children grow up together in the broken world they are left to survive in, hopefully to defeat Beltax the villian who caused a fantasy-comparison of the most powerful nuclear bomb going off. Its called a Bire. A bire is like a stone of energy-similar to that light crystal Gandalf uses in Morea-but you can increase a Bire with dark magic. And Beltax uses a death ritual to create Sanuxe’s Bire that essentially grows with every dead body near it. So, Beltax killed half a continent, creating a Bire the size of a mini sun only a few thousand feet above the surface, and he realized the Bire’s force acting as a nuclear power. The entire continent falls into nuclear apocalyptic waste.
    Mind you, all that happens-The Great Fall-in the 6-book prequel series, Chronicum 1-3 and Bar’Bariy 1-3.

  • @normajdennis
    @normajdennis 20 днів тому

    Yay! Cat scratch fever!!!

  • @Barklord
    @Barklord 20 днів тому +5

    This was great. My takeaway: The ending completes the arc that began where all the best beginnings begin - ţĥę beginning.