Effective Opening Paragraphs from Novels

 From the incomparable English writer Mary Stewart, who passed away in 2014, the opening of The Moonspinners, available where you buy your novels or ebooks. 

Short Story Coaching, Advice, Guidelines

 From The Writer's Digest Handbook of Short Story Writing: Preface by Joyce Carol Oates. "How will [my students] know they are writing their true subjects? By the ease with which they write. By their reluctance to stop writing. By the headachy, even guilty, joyous sensation of having done something that must be done, having confessed emotions thought of as unconfessable, having said what had seemed should remain unsaid."