Forewords
Making Mistakes the Right Way {a writing tip thread}
fore·word
[fawr-wurd, -werd, fohr-] noun
1. a short introductory statement in a published work, as a book, especially when written by someone otherthan the author.
A foreword to a story. Enough said. It's something considered quite important. Correction, the most crucial factor in a story. A foreword is what draws the readers' attention. Now, what I've been noticing is that in the forewords, people misuse them, and instead pretty much tell the entire plot. But that's not how forewords work. Forewords, are supposed to introduce a story, not tell the entire plot. I'm not saying that all stories here do that, however there are quite a bit that do do that. You don't need a long introduction, in fact two sentences, or perhaps even one is absolutely OKAY. Keep it as simple as possible, you know? The more complicated your foreword is, it's possible that the readers might just close your story. I, myself have trouble with forewords especially. (See, I have problems too.) But I'm working hard to perfect my forewords, so hopefully it'll all work out in the end.
Quotes work as a good foreword sometimes, that is, if you know how to use them at the correct time. Maybe a few teaser quotes would act as a good foreword. But...sometimes if quotes are used incorrectly, then that just wrecks your entire foreword. Don't give too much away, or else in pretty much one second, the reader can guess the plot of your story. Quotes exist to make the readers guess what will happen next. So if you give everything away in a quote, the reader will just stop reading. I'm being redundant, aren't I? But I'm trying to make my point clear, so hopefully you can avoid giving too much away.
For forewords, I reccommend being as vague as possible, so that way, readers will be interested and so on.
BAD EXAMPLE:
"Yoon Eunmi was the class nerd, while Kim Myungsoo was the kingka of the school. Complete opposites right? What happens if fate brings them together? They will fall in love, but first, they must hurdle over the obstacle of Kim Myungsoo's queenka girlfriend-Park Jiyeon."
Okay, I pretty much wrote that off the top of my head. I used the kingka & nerd plot line, since that plot is pretty common nowadays. (In fact, it gets a bit overrated sometimes. But I'm not saying that it's bad, cause I read those sometimes...it's just that I always see them everywhere now.)
GOOD EXAMPLE: (SORT OF.)
"Leave me alone," her voice was barely audible as she cowered back in fear when the jet-black haired female cornered her.
"Not until you promise me to leave my boyfriend alone," the girl smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest, "Don't you get it Yoon Eunmi? Myungsoo only sees you as a toy. Nothing else."
"That's....that's not true, Jiyeon," the bottom of Eunmi's lip quivered as she shook her head violently.
Jiyeon laughed, her giggles ringing throughout the bathroom,"Oh, how I wish you weren't lying."
LOOL. Okay, that was an epic fail. Anyways, I hope you get what I'm trying to say here. Don't give away too much. Yeah? Yeah. Alright. I think I'll touch upon the topic of character descriptions and stuff next chapter. c: I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of Myungsoo and Sunggyu.
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