Bloggy Bits
![[Email Subscription]](email/email2.png "Subscribe by email"){kind=small}
![[Kindle Edition]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle-blogs/images/kindle-logo._V248941350_.gif "Kindle Edition"){kind=logo}
How To Improve Your Speculative Fiction Openings - Amazing Research
Mar 25, 2012 [permalink]
This is cool — I think you're really going to like this. In what is actually ReAnimus Press's first publication of a new, previously-unpublished work, we have, aptly, a work by a Critter member about writing:
This is a landmark piece of work. New writers are always looking for The Secret to becoming a professional author. It's extremely rare to find actual shards of any such Secret—many claim there is no such thing—but here is one.
Its 60 pages is filled with tons of examples of what worked, what didn't, and why, presented in a way that will help you sell your work. It's a great first for ReAnimus Press and I'm really tickled it's from a fellow Critter member.
The analysis Robert has done here is hard research. He's dug through a lot of stories from pros and hopeful authors and found something previously unknown in the openings of those stories that uniquely separates the pros from the mass of unpublished authors. He's basically found a slice of that long-sought-after Secret to what makes pro selling stories work.
If you want to be a professional writer, you have to read this piece. Following the advice and examples herein is not a guarantee of selling to pro markets, of course. You still have to do everything else that makes a compelling story with beloved characters, but your story openings are your doorway to sales—either open or closed. Many otherwise salable stories may well have never been read by editors or first readers simply because they never got past the opening.
I love it when someone applies the principles of scientific analyses to learn new truths, so it's with great pleasure that I present to you a critical shard of The Secret. Use it well, and get those tales published.
I hope you find it useful!