Thread: How do author's start out their books without it sounding immature?

You know like the first few sentences. How do they make them so the reader wants to keep on reading? How do they make it sound mature and like you're reading a book, written by an adult? Any tips?

This would normally be called a lead, or a hook. Its the first part of a book that gets the readers attention and makes them want to read more. Just look in any books you have, find ones where the first sentence interests you, and study them... most of them are short, some of them are long, some have big words, others don't, some are simple and others are complex. Some are even just one word. The point it this : THE LEAD MUST make the reader feels he knows something but at the same time he must be asking questions. He must be wondering something, he must feel in control but at the same time knows he;s vulnerable and therefore must keep reading to keep himself unvulnerable...

Or it must get their curiosity and make them entertianed, in the point of curiosity it means they have questions, where as in the point of entertainment you must have done something they liked, and give them more.

So, yeah, normally you can tell when you have a good lead or not, it just sounds right.

An example of a lead is as follows:

It was a pleasure to burn. - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry.

It makes you wonder, what is it he burns? Why does he like to burn? But at the same tome you've made a statement, the reader already knows someone is happy, but why is he happy, he knows the is some kind of action, hence the verb burn, and therefore there is movement in the sentence. It leads you to the next sentence.

Good luck, and I hope this helped... as far as sounding mature, that just comes with age, but anyone can sound mature... its just a matter of opinion, normally if you start with, "I farted loudly, it could be heard from across the room." That would would be a little immature to start a book off with.