Your First Novel~Teaser Tuesday

Hosted by MizB at should be reading.

Here's how to play:

*Grab your current read,

*Open to a random page,

*Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page,

*Please no spoilers!

*Share the title and author.

I am on the Oregon Coast this week at my twice yearly writing retreat (Colonyhouse) and ecstatic to tell you that I have finally finished the last chapter of the first draft of my novel. So my pick this Teaser Tuesday is a book I brought with me called Your First Novel: a published author and a top agent share the keys to achieving your dream by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb (and I'm sorry to say I cannot seem to copy the book to share the cover with you.)  Ann Rittenberg is president of her literary agency by the same name and Laura Whitcomb is the author of  another writing book, Novel Shortcuts: Ten Techniques That Ensure a Great First Draft and the novels A Certain Slant of Light and Fetch.

I loved this section (p. 69) partly because it includes an excerpt from Toni Morrison's Beloved:

     "Try to include exposition and back story in the most natural way you can. Sometimes you can sneak it into dialogue if your character is meeting someone new, but be careful you aren't forcing characters to say things they wouldn't say naturally..."

     "...Here's an example of back story revealed through dialogue from Toni Morrison's Beloved: Both the fact that Sethe, the second speaker in the example below, was scarred in a near fatal beating, and the fact that she is now able to talk about her life as a slave with such calm, show the reader a great deal about her past and who she has become. 

     'What tree on your back? Is something growing on your back? I don't see nothing growing on your back.'

     'It's there all the same.'

     'Who told you that?'

     'Whitegirl. That's what she called it. I've never seen it and never will. But that's what she said it looked like. A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves. Tiny little chokecherry leaves. But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know.'"

I'm off to read more from the book since I will spend the rest of my week delving into ways to work my 2nd draft. What an adventure this book-writing process.  Hope you're all having a spectacular week !