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First Lines

Posted on by Katie Ganshert
I have to take a minute and brag on my 5th graders, especially since I won’t be able to next year.

My students all wrote fiction stories and we’ve been revising in class. Lately, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of an engaging first line. I read them a bunch of first lines from books 5th graders like (or don’t) and we critiqued them together. Then we answered this question:

What do all good first lines have in common?

Their answer?

They pull the reader into the story by raising a question. 

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty awesome answer. The kids took that bit of advice and rolled with it. They gave me permission to publish some on my blog.

So without further ado…..first lines from America’s next generation of writers:

Many times, stories have characters and characters have goals. Most of the time, characters will reach these goals no matter what stands in their way. But I am different. I didn’t reach my goal. I chose not to. And it all paid off.

-Maggie/10 years old

If you think going to school on your birthday, having a really hard test in every subject, and losing a basketball game 52-2 is a bad day, think again.
-Gretchen/11 years old

I never thought I’d miss a day of school to fall off a bridge, go to another world, meet a queen, find a bird-horse, see my dad again, and live to see the next day. But I did.
-Breanna/11 years old

“Is he going to die?” asked Wendy.

-Claire/11 years old
It was a beautiful afternoon, with the sun glistening in the robin’s-egg blue sky. Birds twittered in the treetops and a gentle breeze rustled the green leaves. It was a day too gorgeous for what was going to happen.
-Caroline/11 years old

Before it happened, I always thought the Switch House was just a fairy tale.

-Isabelle/11 years old

Vandalism. Robberies. I’ve witnessed them all. But nothing could have prepared me for this.

-Ashy/10 years old

Let’s Talk: How would you answer that question? What makes a first good line?removetweetmeme

Two Tips and a Story

Posted on by Katie Ganshert
Since I always used to wonder what kinds of things an author did in the long wait before their book release, I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to these past couple weeks (besides writing, of course).

I received a nine-page author questionnaire.
The questions ran the gamut and many required some serious thought and reflection, especially since my responses will help my publisher market and sell my book.

After filling out the questionnaire, I have one “I’m glad I did this” and one “I wish I would have done this” tip to share:

  • I’m glad I established myself online before I got a book deal. You never want people to think you’re using them for a connection or an endorsement. I connect with people because I’m interested in the person. Period.
  • I wish I would have saved alternative titles for my story! I know I had other ideas for a title, only I didn’t save them. So I had to start from scratch, which wasn’t easy. Especially since I’ve had my working title stuck in my head for two years now. It was like trying to change my two-year old son’s name. What other names might fit him? I don’t know. I’ve always called him Brogan.   
I got book plates in the mail. 
Have you heard of book plates? I never had until a couple months ago. Anyway, they are basically these stickers you sign and send back to your publisher so they can put them on books for promotional purposes.
I felt silly. 
For two reasons.
First, the idea that my signature means something is highly-amusing. But I shall go with it.  
Second, my signature is ugly. Which leads to a story about why my in-laws call me Kate, when everybody else in the world calls me Katie.
If somebody turned the way my husband and I met into a story, it would be cliche. He was the hot delivery guy. I was the enamored receptionist. He would bring me packages and I would sign for them.

So one day, he walks in while I’m getting ready to leave for lunch. We’re riding down the elevator together and he asks me out.

What words escape my mouth but, “Do you even know my name?”
Smooth, huh?
Anyway, he says, “Yeah. I see your signature every day. It’s Kate.”
Close enough.
So I write the name Kate (because this is no time for correction) and my phone number on a gum wrapper (which he still has in his dresser drawer). And ever since, he’s called me Kate. That’s how he introduced me to his family. I actually think it sounds weird when he or his family calls me Katie. 
Not too much later I found out he thought my last name was McGowan. It was actually McGivern. 
So. Yeah. My signature isn’t the neatest.

Time to practice.
Let’s Talk: Do you have any “I wish I would have” or “I’m glad I did this” tips to share? And be honest. Do you ever practice your signature? 

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The Unexpected

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

Sometimes, the writing journey feels like a never-ending slab of cement. Cold. Hard. Monotonous. You send out queries. Nothing happens. You get a request for a partial or a full. Nothing happens. You write and you write and you write and you wait and you wait and you wait. And you wonder.

What if this is it?

What if this never happens?

What if I stand on this cement for ever and ever?

I know those questions. Because I asked them many times. While I stood on my own personal slab of cement, not-knowing if I’d ever get off. Wondering if anything was happening.

But I also learned something. Not once I got a contract. But before. In the midst of the waiting.

God is working.

Maybe in the way we want Him to work. Maybe not. Either way, He’s working. Until eventually you look down and there, growing up from the cracks, is something unexpected. Something that doesn’t belong. Something you didn’t think you’d see until you hopped off your cement onto the green-covered hills of publication.

Maybe it’s a friend you didn’t think you would make. Or a piece of writing that revealed a truth you didn’t grasp until you wrote it. Or that person at work who asked to read your story and when you let her, it left a mark. Maybe it’s simply finding peace in the midst of the unknown. Or the joy that comes when we let go and trust.

That He’s working. He has a purpose for why you are where you are. He has things He wants to show you. Ways He wants to use you. Things He wants to give you. You just have to be willing to look past your expectations and see them.

Let’s Talk: What unexpected gifts have you found on your journey?removetweetmeme