{"id":4668,"date":"2018-08-30T15:59:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/?p=4668"},"modified":"2018-08-30T15:59:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:59:02","slug":"first-lines-the-culling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/30\/first-lines-the-culling\/","title":{"rendered":"First Lines: The Culling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First lines are just about as hard for me as titles. Seriously. I can spend hours pondering both (and don&#8217;t even get me started on character names).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/book\/the-culling\/\">The Culling<\/a> went through at least half a dozen first lines before I settled on the final one.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4669\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/30\/first-lines-the-culling\/theculling_teaser\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"800,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"theculling_teaser\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4669\" src=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser.jpg 800w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/theculling_teaser-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But it wasn\u2019t that easy. First, I had to decide what kind of opening I wanted, and for that, I looked to a handy little book that is solely focused on creating compelling openings to your stories.<\/p>\n<p>Want to find out more? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/21086568\">Head to my Patreon<\/a> for more on what I did to craft an opening that not only hooks readers from the beginning, but that keeps them around to that final lasting image.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?c=86420\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4349\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/06\/idea-overload\/patreon_banner\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/patreon_banner.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"320,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"patreon_banner\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/patreon_banner.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/patreon_banner.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4349\" src=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/patreon_banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/patreon_banner.jpg 320w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/patreon_banner-288x270.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find out how I came up with the opening to The Culling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[324,458,426,394,282],"class_list":["post-4668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-writing","tag-patreon","tag-story-extras","tag-the-culling","tag-tips","tag-writing-tips"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - 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When the overbearing boys start throwing their weight around, Gemma bites her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/category\/books-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/The-Culling.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/The-Culling.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/The-Culling.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/The-Culling.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/The-Culling.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/The-Culling.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4662,"url":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/24\/notes-from-the-writing-nook-august\/","url_meta":{"origin":4668,"position":1},"title":"Notes From The Writing Nook &#8211; August","author":"Mary","date":"August 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"How does one write a story with dialects and accents without going overboard?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;On Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"On Writing","link":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/category\/on-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/notesfromthewritingnook_log-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4629,"url":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/15\/new-release-the-culling\/","url_meta":{"origin":4668,"position":2},"title":"New Release: The Culling","author":"Mary","date":"August 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"All the details you need to know about The Culling and upcoming story bonus content!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;On Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"On Writing","link":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/category\/on-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4652,"url":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/23\/breeding-ground-the-culling\/","url_meta":{"origin":4668,"position":3},"title":"Breeding Ground: The Culling","author":"Mary","date":"August 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What started as a tale about sibling rivalry soon took a chilling turn. Wondering how a seemingly innocent video of a chattering starling inspired my story? Read this behind-the-scenes look at The Culling. Are you brave enough to read The Culling? 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