Good prose can salvage a bland beginning, and an interesting beginning can bolster dry prose, but if nothing interesting has been said or done by chapter 3 you’ll be hard pressed to read anything further.
If it starts interesting then has a dry patch there’s at least that promise of things to come, a precedence set by that rich opening that adds color to the dry spell. Or if the use of language is a delight to read in itself you can get away with writing about nearly anything, for a while at least. If there’s neither, though, that’s just an open invitation to find something better to read.
Above all else a good beginning should strive to demonstrate that the main character and premise can and will be entertaining.
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Author: benjamindempsey
Benjamin Dempsey was born in Tasmania and grew up in the city of Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia. There, his parents ran a small white goods store. After graduating highschool he studied computer science at TAFE for a year before moving to Newcastle to attend University. He studied a bachelor of arts majoring in Creative Writing, while also taking classes on Psychology, Philosophy, Religion, Film Studies and Literature. When an opportunity to move to Sydney opened up, he took it with little hesitation and enrolled at the University of Sydney to continue his studies. However, financial reasons forced him to leave university before he could graduate. This did not deter him from finishing his first book, Draconian Symphony.
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