The Linchpin Writer, Paragraphs

Eureka!

How I happened upon John Matthew Fox I can’t explain. I’m not well versed in the YouTube algorithmic universe but then there he was. I clicked on a video and my jaw dropped after a few minutes. Then I watched three more of his videos. Then I realized I had done everything wrong. I contacted him and bought his book.

            Just like I can’t explain how I happened upon Bookfox I can’t explain why it never occurred to me to buy a writer’s manual to learn the technical side of fiction. You learn to write just like you learn to do anything else so instruction is key. I hadn’t realized I was drifting without a paddle. John’s videos had such an impact that I halted my manuscript 20.000 words into it. After a horrid half day depression, I knew I could write a much better book and set out to do so.

            My first application of The Linchpin Writer came from the chapter Writing Your First Paragraph. The instructions said to read the first paragraph of books. It sounded easy enough. I took a bunch of some books off my shelf in different genres and read the first paragraphs. The Colour Purple (Alice Walker), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Michael Chabon), The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky), One Good Turn (Kate Atkinson), Purge (Sofi Oksanen). They were all wonderful examples, and I was planning on reading through many more books, but then I opened a sixth book; Bring Up the Bodies (Hilary Mantel). This is the first line of the first paragraph:

            His children are falling from the sky.

            I stared at the line wondering if I had ever read it before. Yes, I had read it before, but I had never stopped to let it sink in. Not to analyse it, because I don’t know how to do so technically, but just to let the feeling sink in. As I read the paragraph I was there in a field in the sixteenth century with a hawk on my glove. The paragraph is a painting of words and sensations. Mrs. Mantel is no longer with us but she gifted the world thousands of pages in which we can immerse ourselves. And she started all her stories with a paragraph.

            Back to my ‘eureka’ moment. The exclamation was for two things. First, finally understanding that I need help on this journey. Second, because I may have finally found the first line of my first paragraph. I have a lot of work to do.