Elmore Leonard’s famous rules for writers start with, “Never open a book with weather.” The second rule is, “Avoid prologues.” Leonard disdained scene-setting like this, urging authors instead to get into the propulsive, forward-moving action, and to provide any necessary backstory more actively, and less like homework. Last week, the author Marc Laidlaw offered a suggestion that take Leonard’s advice one step further:
While Laidlaw is mostly tossing this out as a parlor game, it’s amazing how much sharper and more evocative the resulting first lines appeared when contrasted by the threat of a shadowy serial killer conspiracy.