{"id":652,"date":"2015-07-30T02:02:09","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T02:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=652"},"modified":"2015-07-30T02:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T02:03:46","slug":"first-two-pages-two-bad-hamiltons-too-good-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=652","title":{"rendered":"First Two Pages + Two Bad Hamiltons = Too Good a Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AHM515-finalcover\"<\/a>I’m delighted to have a guest post<\/a> over at The First Two Pages<\/a>, a blog run by writer extraordinaire B.K. Stevens. Every week a novelist or story writer takes apart an opening they find instructive: the fits and starts of crafting it, how the hook became sharp, etc. In my case, I’ve taken apart the opening of my\u00a0romp\u00a0“Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson,”<\/a> recently in AHMM<\/a>, <\/em>and I go through how with short fiction two pages can be the entire set-up and beyond. It was years in finding what ultimately worked.<\/p>\n

Go check it out if you liked Vi’s story or\u00a0find the idea intriguing. And if you click over there, check out the many great other self-analyses of writer’s journey to finished product.<\/p>\n

Thanks for having me over, Bonnie!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m delighted to have a guest post over at The First Two Pages, a blog run by writer extraordinaire B.K. Stevens. Every week a novelist or story writer takes apart an opening they find instructive: the fits and starts of crafting it, how the hook became sharp, etc. In my case, I’ve taken apart the… Continue reading First Two Pages + Two Bad Hamiltons = Too Good a Time!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[92,6],"tags":[91,3,81,5],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories","category-this-whole-writing-thing","tag-guest-posts","tag-short-stories","tag-two-bad-hamiltons","tag-writing","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3CG0W-aw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=555","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":0},"title":"Behind: “Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"March 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Violet Celucci is a better angel and\u00a0an inner demon.\u00a0A frigging genius is how Vi might describe herself, a bastion of sanity in a disorderly world, a process improvement-seeking missile.\u00a0An over-obsessed stickler for\u00a0efficiency is how she\u2019d never describe herself.\u00a0Sorry, Vi.\u00a0The truth hurts, and so\u00a0can life. Tough as you are,\u00a0I see the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fleur de lis","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Fleur-de-lis-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":758,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=758","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":1},"title":"Born Under a Bad Sign: Behind “The Cumberland Package”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Vernon Stagg was born\u00a0from a bad book. A manuscript actually, mine sadly, and fortunately for us all I abandoned it before the querying stage. This was 2011, early yet for me\u00a0into This Whole Writing Thing. The manuscript was a sort of Westlake-ian, Hiaasen-ian lovechild romp, and no matter what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_2653 (1) (2)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_2653-1-2-300x185.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1561,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1561","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":2},"title":"Title Fight","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"February 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You can do a lot with fiction. You can remove all narrative or all punctuation. You can go stream of consciousness and remove spelling norms and paragraph breaks. Cormac McCarthy removes the dialogue quotes. Do it right, and you can remove most everything in fiction and still have terrific writing.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1484,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1484","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":3},"title":"Pride Cometh Before the Sale: Behind “Murder on the First Night’s Feast”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"November 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a C.S. Lewis quote about the blindness of the proud. To paraphrase, someone completely full of themselves is so busy looking down their noses that they\u2019re blind to what\u2019s above them. And what\u2019s above them, of course, is the whole, wide world. We\u2019re all prideful. Someway, somehow we\u2019re\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2483,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=2483","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":4},"title":"Bringing the Romance Back","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"August 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in June, a friend did me one heck of a solid. It happened the way such profound things do: by accident. This was at our Sisters in Crime chapter meeting, and the speaker said the first thing about storytelling that surprised me in a while: That great stories needed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiWQEDLeng1yjrC2IJZwLe8lbNpSWBOPhmRyYYuh8WVEb0z380Gqbbx30fiD0pizlpln8Zi7iNch7Ll2QZPVWlzB5eQk8EpxS6oxvMnD66djkuSRp54JVBeMrtXehD1UPRlRuQ0apf0HHDVxZO5VtExFYmpAluxbtqw9iJNCrPzSwlSLYf3GOIOjTo0\/w307-h174\/Presentation1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2322,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=2322","url_meta":{"origin":652,"position":5},"title":"Didion’s Ghost and 7 Other Tests Before Submitting a Story","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"August 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Every manuscript tells two stories. One, how strong the writing is. Two, how professional the writer is. Not sure about the pro part? The story isn\u2019t ready. \u00a0 \u00a0 If your piece isn\u2019t even in manuscript format, or there\u2019s your personal format but not what the market specifies, the story\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Short Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Short Stories","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=92"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-End.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-End.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-End.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-End.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}