What is the Incipit?
For the reader:
When choosing a book, you can do 5 things:
read the back cover;
look at the author's biography and see if it arouses interest in you;
reading the pitch (what is the pitch? We will talk about it in the next chapter)
read the reviews.
listen to the advice of the bookseller.
I personally love looking at book covers so I often let myself be enchanted, but after admiring it I open the book and read the incipit.
The incipit it is the most important part of a novel , because it is the beginning of a story, yours! But it is also a promise because it is the beginning of the narrative pact between writer and reader. It is like a business card, it must arouse interest and involve from the first words.
For the writer:
When you decide to tell a story, you have to choose what information to give to the reader (I usually prefer to give a little), focus on what you really want to tell.
Authors often use effective phrases, it is an excellent starting point especially for demanding readers, in fact if you do not immediately gain the reader's trust it is difficult for them to arrive further, in fact many give a time to the book, only one possibility: first fifty pages, if they are not involved they abandon it.
Personally I am more generous, I usually give the benefit of a hundred pages, even if the opening words - which are usually around ten pages - don't win me over, that's how I am.
Since the incipit is the beginning of the story, do not get anxious, you can always decide to see it again at a later time, usually when the plot is already written, I often write paragraphs that inspire me at that moment and then I join them to the rest of the novel, so you can do it even at the end of the writing, rewrite the incipit and make it truly unique.
The pitch
What is the pitch?
One day I was talking to my friend V. and she said to me: "Imagine finding a famous publisher in the elevator, maybe you will have a minute to present your book to him, what are you doing?"
"I'll tell him the story," I replied.
"No, you show him your pitch and if he gets caught, he'll ask you to tell him the story."
“ What is Pitch? "I replied.
At the beginning I didn't know many things that can make your life easier, that's why it's important to study and understand.
The pitch is the exposition of the idea that supports the story we have written, its essence, a nucleus of ideas and inspiration that triggers the desire to tell our story in a few lines, we can say that it is the basis, because , we will have to use something very incisive and choose the words well.
It will be useful when the time comes to propose our novel and present it to publishing houses , but also to talk about it to a friend or an acquaintance, to whom we would like to tell our work without giving him a crazy boob. Our interlocutor must not get bored but rather be captured by it. A few minutes available to arouse interest.
So get to work!
Usually it does not exceed ten lines, it must therefore be concise and captivating, it must arouse passion and not be self-congratulatory, authors often fall in love with what they write and are not objective, in this case it is better to talk about it in a concrete way and look to convey its essence.
When I had to write my first pitch it was difficult, think that there are real courses for Pitch writing, at the beginning I wrote about twenty of them, I reasoned for hours because I could not grasp the idea until rereading the novel I found a sentence that expressed exactly the concept of everything: Kisses are like nectar, you are never satisfied with it, and this is the Grant effect.
Of course it doesn't apply to all novels so my advice is to focus on the main elements of the story and start from there.
Characters
The creation of the characters is one of my favorite parts but also one of the most difficult, you have to establish how many characters will enter the story and how they will interact with each other. Each character must be unique, with special characteristics, both physical and character.
The physical description is stimulating because I can range, if the male protagonist is positive I usually also associate it with beauty, or in any case with qualities that have struck me in someone. Same thing goes for women, not necessarily beautiful but definitely sensual and interesting, character is fundamental for me.
If, on the other hand, it is a question of negative characters, you have to carefully choose the peculiarities, for example in my new novel the protagonist is a man with a strong dark side, a control freak, very handsome, dark with marked features and one of the sides that I highlight is the gaze , or jaw twitch to express disappointment.
If you do not know where to start, think about the story and create the first character, then as the others will come out, try not to be superficial in the characterization because the reader wants to know more sides of the character but also the secrets, this creates a lot of complicity and sympathy .
The originality
I n these days I'm reading a book that I like and above all that I feel mine: "The Writer's Job" by Haruki Murakami , it's a strange thing empathy can happen even if you don't know a person, you can appreciate his thought or simply understand what lives deep inside.
If it comes to writing then it is difficult to find someone who thinks just like you, but with this author I felt very close. In this biography (which I have not yet concluded) he expresses opinions and not judgments on some fundamental issues concerning writing.
I decided to transcribe a piece from the fourth chapter which is about originality. Originality understood as a fundamental characteristic of an author, but what does it mean to express oneself with originality?
I wondered about this for a long time and Haruki replied in the simplest way:
“To say that a particular individual expresses himself with originality, in my opinion he must meet these basic criteria.
Distinguish yourself from all the others and have your own style […] a style that makes him immediately recognized as the author of a work, to those who see, read or listen to it.
Knowing how to improve your style. Make it evolve. It cannot always remain stationary in the same place, it must possess a spontaneous innovative strength.
His individual style over time must take on the value of "classic" and be adopted by the public as one of the possible evaluation criteria. That is, it must be a rich source of inspiration for the creators of the next generation.
Of course, it is not necessary to satisfy every single point. There are very strong creators regarding points 1 and 3, but weak in 2; others who excel in 2 and 3, but are somewhat lacking in 1. However, to be original, I believe that to a greater or lesser extent it is necessary to possess these three fundamental requirements. "
If you have any doubts you can write me in chat.
Good day
Aurora
