The First 50 Pages by Gerke Jeff

Author:Gerke, Jeff [Gerke, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781599632872
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2011-04-26T14:00:00+00:00

TONE

The last aspect of establishing the normal of your story is to set the tone.

Occasionally I read unpublished manuscripts that mislead the reader as to the book’s tone. The author hasn’t meant to do so. Probably he started writing it when he was in one mood and figured out as he went that what he really wanted to write was this other kind of story over here. You need to work to be sure your tone is consistent and is what you’re intending.

By tone I mean the novel’s sense of seriousness, humor, or irony. Mood and flavor. Contrast the tone of Down With Love with that of Apocalypse Now. Contrast Wag the Dog with The Bourne Identity. Contrast Grease with West Side Story.

You may not even realize you’re creating a tone for your novel, but you are. It has to do with voice, message, and theme, but mainly it’s the feeling you give the story. Your novel’s tone might be gritty or snarky, playful or alarmist, political or optimistic. Or something else entirely.

Whatever it is, you need to establish it in the first fifty pages.

A novel that begins with horrific multiple murders had better not be a musical comedy, you know what I’m saying? Or vice versa. What if Raiders of the Lost Ark had started as it does but then been a dry courtroom drama for the rest of it? What if Lawrence of Arabia had been about a British soldier who trekked across the desert by camel and then took up a career as a stand-up comedian?

The tone you set in your first fifty pages must be the tone you want for the whole book. With this and so much else in this book, you always want to be building your ending into your beginning. So think carefully about what tone you want, and write accordingly. Then maybe have someone else read over what you have so far to be sure you’re achieving the right tone.

Here’s a tip: Find music that puts you in the mood you want the reader to be in when she reads your book, and have that music playing when you write your first fifty pages. If you’re riding the wave of that perfect music while you’re pounding out the words, you’ve got a much higher probability of creating the tone you want.

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