In my writing class today, we talked about the story’s promise. A few members brought in novels and read the promise on the first page, often in the first paragraph. I asked if the author followed up with the promise to the end. They assured me the authors did. The examples were across genres, a mystery, a family in danger, an historical novel, and another historical novel mixed with fantasy.
Yesterday I wrote that the Tri-Valley Branch of the California Writers Club will have a book launch for their anthology tomorrow. I searched for the promise in some of the stories in Voices of the Valley: Word for Word.
Jordan Bernal’s A Faerie in the Glen, has this first sentence: “The Faerie Glen on Scotland’s Isle of Skye was reputed to hold secrets…and more.”
Gary Lea’s promise in “Too Small” is in the third paragraph, “Why the shirt, I wondered, why just this one shirt? There were a lot of things that would have reminded me of Dad.”
Anne Koch’s “Christmas Lost and Found” has the promise in the title as well in the first paragraph, first line: “I lost Christmas. How in the world did that happen? I knew it wasn’t all at once. It was more like the slow fading of a black and white photograph.”
My essay titled “Life Support” starts with “My visit to Shelly in the hospital became a routine before I entered her ward.”
The above examples give story promises of secrets, a specific shirt, a lost Christmas, and a hospital visit.
The promises were kept.
Julaina Kleist-Corwin
Editor of Written Across the Genres
Author of Hada’s Fog
Thanks for the great message and the shoutout for tonight’s Book Launch. I hope to see you there.