The following transcript is not verbatim and has been revised for clarity and intent.

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Oliver: Welcome everyone to OutFoxed It! I’m Oliver Evensen.

Taryn: And I’m Taryn Brewer.

Levi: [Awkward silence] I’m Levi Graham.

Hayden: And I’m Hayden Wilson.

Oliver: We have n excellent podcast for you today. We will be discussing a few important questions that you should be asking yourself. Today we’ll start off with, “Why do you want to be a writer?” I’d like to go ahead and get started. When I first thought about why I want to be a writer the first thing that pops into my head is Money! And I thought to myself, well it’s not about money right? Money is more easily earned in countless other professions. The next thing that came into my mind was fame. You know it’s cool to be a writer, but the truth is—and you guys know this about me—I tend to prefer the shadows. At least I used to. The shadows are filled with intriguing plots and schemes, and I have never really enjoyed being in front of people on display. That wasn’t my thing growing up. And so, Fame really wasn’t clicking with me ether. You know, as a young writer, I had D’s in English. D’s and F’s actually. I felt like I couldn’t hack it as a writer. I was often told I was foolish for even trying. And so, a part of what drove me to write for some time was to prove “the haters” wrong. I wanted to show them all that I could write. Still, I feel like I had to dig deeper. When I was in middle school, my brother, Ethan, took me to the library and convinced me to borrow a copy of The Sword of Shannara by Terry brooks. It’s hardly my favorite fantasy book anymore, but this novel really revealed to me a new world that was full of exciting new emotions and adventures. For the first time, I felt I was truly enchanted with magical books. At that point, I really knew I wanted to write them. I felt like I wanted to help others feel the way I felt about books particularly fantasy books. I also wanted to explore a new world, create exciting new characters experiencing amazing trials and thrilling emotions and show people just how amazing it is to read these books. Honestly, that’s why I’m a writer. What are your guys’ thoughts? Why are you all writers?

Hayden: I’ll go ahead. Well, because I don’t want to work a desk job my whole life. I don’t want to work in a cubicle. Even though technically you write you write on a desk. [Laughs] Jokes Aside. Kind of a similar situation as you Oliver. I’ve always loved stories. I’ve always written stories. I remember way back when I was 8 years old writing a crummy Harry Potter fan flick. I just love the concept of taking thoughts, ideas, and imagination and sharing it with other people. I’ve always loved hearing stories, especially campfire stories. Where you sit around and tell scary stories. I love horror, and writing just always stuck with me you know. It’s just something that has been lifelong to me and it’s something that gets me excited every time I sit behind a notebook or word processor on my computer. It’s like, “Alright let’s get these things out of my head and put them on paper.”

Taryn: I think I’ll jump in next. This concept is something that I’ve been thinking about a bit. Why do I want to be a writer? I know for myself I’ve worked a few different jobs over my somewhat short life span, and I’ve just realized that I’m happiest when I’m being creative. Growing up as a kid I was always the odd kid. I was always the kid that did the drawings and stuff. And as I got older, I just shifted more to writing, because I realized that even with my art, I was telling stories. I always had stories growing in my head. So, as I got older like high school, I decided I was more interested in the English aspect of storytelling than I was just the art. So, in college, that’s when I decided that was going to be my major. So, for me, that’s why I want to be a writer. You know, being famous and having your name in a book or sitting in like piles of money or whatever it is you think writers do. I think a lot of it is just, I want that creative outlet and to constantly have that creative outlet. Because that’s where I find I’m the happiest.

Oliver: Oh, I like that. I feel like the money and the fame, if that comes, and that is an “if”. If that comes that’s like icing on the cake. It’s great to have, but really, it’s that creative process right. The opportunity to create something new and to bring someone into a new world. They can feel emotions that really, they’ve never really felt before. It’s vicarious living. 

Levi: I guess that I’m the only one who has yet to speak right. I guess my situation is a little bit unique too. I have a good-paying job. I work pretty good hours. I pretty much set my own schedule. For me, money is not my motivating factor at all. For me, I would do write for free and sell them on Amazon. Fame doesn’t apply to me necessarily either. For me, it’s kind of an itch. My mind gets all these ideas and if don’t put them down on paper it burdens me. Sometimes I walk to work from the front runner and my entire walk I’m just imagining stories, scenarios, things that I cannot let go of. Every time I follow a certain path, every time I go somewhere, every time I drive home, every time I go to do anything, there is this constant itch that will not live me alone until I put what is in my mind on paper. For me, writing is also a joy, but it’s also like is settling an itch. Once it’s on paper. Once it’s out of my head it allows my mind to settle and focus on the next task at hand, which I feel is kind of like an addict in a sense where yeah, you got your one fix, but that won’t settle it because a week later I have another idea, or I need to go back to what I was working on because I have a new approach, a new idea to throw in to give my characters. For me, it’s kind of a need, a necessity, and an addiction to get the thing out of my mind and into the minds of others.

Oliver: I love that. Not all writers experience that itch. I have heard that before. There is certainly a brand of writers where the desire to write, the itch to write, is what drives them and keeps them going. I think we kind of talked about the joy of creating an itch to write and for me the exciting journey of creating a new world. I love creating and sharing emotions. That brings out a lot of the joy of writing. When it comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter what your why is, so long as you know why you want to be a writer. And if it takes a minute, ten minutes, or longer, what’s important is that you discover your true compelling reason why you want to write a book. I think once you know your why it becomes your motivation to write. It should drive you to keep going and to keep writing. Thank you all for your comments. It’s time to jump into our book critique. We are going to be reading and discussing The Prologue and the first line of chapter 1 of Elantris. If you are anything like me, often you will skip the prologue and jump into the first chapter, so we are going to use that method with the first line of chapter 1. We will jump back and discuss the prologue in a minute and then discuss why it works or why it doesn’t work. Here is the first line:

“Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity.” Okay, I’m going to open it up, what are your guy’s thoughts on that sentence…

Taryn: I think for me it hooks me. I’m not a huge Brandon Sanderson fan like you guys. I haven’t read all his books yet. I have not read the joy of the Cosmere as I should have. Maybe someday, I will repent but it is not this day. But this is a book I did read, and I remember that it was this sentence that hooked me. The prologue actually didn’t really pull me in. Prologues are kind of a give and take for me. They kind of just set a scene like an opening scene in a film but that hook really got me when I was reading it as compared to say to Sanderson’s Mistborn series. I read Mistborn first, and I remember it didn’t have that strong of a hook. The whole series was great, but  I really liked the hook sentence in Elantris. When I read it, I instantly wanted to read more. 

Oliver: Yeah, I mean from a writer’s perspective, this is very clearly like grabbing you and pulling you into the story. You are curious and instead, you ask yourself why she has always been down for eternity. You’ve read the prologue which will get into it, but you will see why that sentence really connects well with the prologue. I’m interested Taryn, did you read the prologue first or you jumped into the first chapter

Taryn: For me, if there’s a prologue, I will always read it first. I consider it as a part of the book. I take it that there’s a reason why they write it. That said, sometimes when I get through the prologue, I’m like well that was a sad waste of time, but most of the time I get what they are trying to do with it, and this is one prologue that isn’t too long, so it doesn’t feel dry. Some people drag it on. 

Oliver: Yeah. Robert Jordan anyone? 

Taryn: Exactly. 

Levi: I think that first line is very powerful. It’s an obvious hook for the reader. It’s almost like you know they are supposed to hook you in, but the fish is waiting for bait and you can see that hook, but that bait looks so good, you just cannot say no. You go in and take a bite and instantly you are just in. Jumping back to the prologue, I love how short it is. It’s brief. It exists to set up the world that readers are going to live in. The book is literally is called Elantris, and the first word is Elantris. It just flows really well to me it’s beautiful. The prologue is great because it’s a promise of things to come. Essentially, I don’t think Elantris is as much of an action fantasy as it is a mystery and that literally goes into that first prologue. It’s saying that there’s something that went wrong, and nobody knows what happened. 

Oliver: Well, it’s interesting too, that first sentence “Elantris was beautiful once.” Elantris was beautiful. If you just take that first sentence alone it’s not that interesting but as soon as you see that comma and add the “once”. It’s like, “Oh, wait, it was once beautiful?” You immediately start to ask yourself questions. There’s the introduction and the mystery in the very first line of the book. And then Sanderson literally dives us into the fantasy, which is the biggest learning curve for fantasy novels. Getting into the mystery and the setting in the world immediately dives us in there, with short sentences and an interesting summary that doesn’t drag on. It sets us up, he sets the stage of the entire book and what’s going on in just a few paragraphs. That’s what I love about the beginning of Elantris. It was once beautiful. Then it ends with eternity ended ten years ago. And that eternity is key because what happens in the first line of the sentence in chapter one is that it also ends with damned for all eternity. And so just that little connection there, for me it’s just like whoa! That’s so simple but it works well, so I guess to break it down the things I have seen that Sanderson has done well is that he has used short but very powerful sentences. He has introduced the magic system very earlier on, and it’s all done so simply. Hayden, I haven’t heard much from you so do you have anything you want to add here.

Hayden: “Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity.” Damn! That’s what I thought reading that first line because I was like Shoot! That’s intense. That’s a strong opener, I think. It’s like Okay how’s he going to get undamned? Will he ever get undamned? And that’s going to make me find out what’s going on. I read the prologue and I see what this serves as. It does mention a lot of interesting details about this world, but I think it serves purely to set the dissonance, to purely set the stage of what life in Elantris once was, versus now. It’s the opposite here, and the reader gets in to go and find out why.

Oliver: It hooks you on that mystery and makes you want to find out why therefore you keep reading and keeps you turning on the page. One more thing I want to note about this before we jump off the next thing, it’s very common for me to begin with the character at the end of the scene waking up. Oh yeah, I think I do that more often than I should. It’s funny in that first chapter with Raoden, that’s the first thing he does. He wakes up. This is a common thing we see at the beginning of chapters and scenes. Once again the first half of that sentence isn’t really all that interesting by itself. It’s the second half of that sentence, that first part makes the whole thing so interesting. I just want to kind of drawback to the first sentence. In the prologue “Elantris was beautiful.” This is really kind of a mundane sentence and until he adds that comma with the word “once.” To me I think that’s really kind of interesting, it’s almost like it’s not quite the same thing but it seems to me there’s some sort of technique in there. I’m not sure it’s what to call it but you guys what do you think?

Hayden: I’m going to kind of jump in there I have got a little thingy in here, it kind of goes all along with my point. When I sing the tune [sings the tune of the final countdown] what does it want you to do? 

Oliver: [sings the tune to final countdown], Right?

Hayden: Precisely, in music when there is a kind of certain progression to the notes that are played. There are “questions” and  “answers.” So, it’s kind of designed to bring you along and expect the next part to come right after it. When I look that the first lines of the prologue and chapter 1, it’s kind of like that setup. So, it’s the comma that causes you to pause. It adds on that extra detail. It gives that expectation it gives the reader a way to wait on that with bated breath. The reader may think, “Wait what? There’s more? What’s going to happen? And then have it be a complete reversal of everything that happened and that dizziness and that juxtaposition and that description that causes all the entry because we always want to figure out the source of the problem. 

Oliver: Thank you, Hayden. We are running out of time. We have about five minutes left. So let’s talk about our writing homework. So, you may have noticed that today we focused on beginnings. So, the exercise I want you to practice is practice writing hooks. Basically, what I want you to do is come up with ten interesting lines then choose the one you like best and finish either the first scene, the first chapter, or the prologue whatever that is. You want to decide. If you find the story interesting, you can continue with that story and go ahead and use it. If you don’t find it interesting, set it aside and save it. I don’t care if you don’t like it. Just save what you wrote.  Somewhere in the future, you might change your mind. One little pitfall I want to remind you about is avoiding flat exposition. What that means is anything that’s not interesting. If you’re not enjoying writing the hook or the beginning of the book then it’s not going to hook your reader.  Remember the beginning is designed to hook the reader. If you’re hooked and you like it, then that’s a pretty good indicator that you’re doing something right. That’s it! Thank you all for coming.