John Beresford on Nostr: npub10n9kw…dtjug All of the above, but the most recent was a holiday read I picked ...

npub10n9kwhemskr7uzjrp7ltr4nj9j6fdl5vkv0u8vc56u9tsfwh84hsrdtjug (npub10n9…tjug) All of the above, but the most recent was a holiday read I picked up from the resort's lending library. I made it to page 2 of the "New York Times bestselling author" 's work. Two pages of solid backstory exposition disguised as the worst kind of clunky dialogue between two characters who must by definition have known everything they were telling each other.

As writers we're always being told we need to grab the reader on the first page, nay the first paragraph, nay the first sentence. This was like being "grabbed" by the cold, flabby arms of a corpse that had been floating in a foetid lake for a fortnight.