The 7am Novelist

Caroline Leavitt discusses the first pages of her upcoming novel, Days of Wonder , to be released in April. We talk about how and when to provide backstory and how not to answer questions, navigating two timelines and multiple points of views, and how those moments of self doubt and dread about your writing most likely means you’re onto something good. Dalton’s first pages can be found here. Click...

David Heska Wanbli Weiden discusses the first pages of his novel, Winter Counts , how he studied fight scenes to get it right, his best dialog tricks, the vulnerabilities of his tough-guy protagonist, and how to speak to political and social justice issues while staying true to your story. Weiden’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop...

Shilpi Suneja shares the first pages of her debut novel, House of Caravans , how she discovered the core of her story (and therefore where to begin) after several rounds of revising, her use of the omniscient first person and how she transitions between characters’ internal states without losing her reader, and the weight of history both on her book and her psyche as a writer. Suneja’s first pages...

Isa Arsén shares the first pages of her debut novel, Shoot the Moon , which releases in October. We discuss how she broke two cardinal rules of beginnings (and got away with it splendidly), her experience working with her editor, managing time shifts by paying attention to emotion, and how the image of the moon helped her both thematically and structurally. Arsén’s first pages can be found here. H...

Virginia Pye discusses the first pages of her wonderfully smart and imaginative novel, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann . AND, a special gift to our listeners: The ever-brave and generous Ginny also shares with us several paragraphs from her very first “shitty” draft for us to compare (which isn’t so “shitty” after all, but sure makes her published pages look even better). We talk about the...

Charlotte Rixon discusses the first pages of her latest novel, The One That Got Away , how she wanted to create a larger story by beginning the book with a terrifying event, her manipulation of time and point of view, and her best advice for first pages: Just write it. Don’t go back. And keep the faith that it will be okay. Rixon's first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our autho...

Angel Di Zhang discusses the first pages of her debut novel, The Light of Eternal Spring , how her single point-of-view novel grew out of an idea for many more vantage points, her use of photography to help her choose her time period as well as show the progression of time, and how her background as a painter influenced her openness to emotion and character as she allowed her story to change and f...

Rachel Kadish discusses the first pages of her latest novel, The Weight of Ink , how she followed the voice in her first lines to discover her story, the care she took in introducing the reader to a 17th-century voice and point of view (hint: she did it in small pieces), and the importance of “scaffolding” in your early pages and letting that scaffolding go as you revise to find the heart of your...

Paul Rudnick discusses the first pages of his latest novel, Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style , how he discovered Farrell’s character during his writing process, the love story that gave his story its spine, the fever dream of productivity that produced his riveting, rifting style, and how he refuses to take the missteps and messiness of early drafts too seriously. Rudnick’s first pages ca...

Julie Gerstenblatt discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Daughters of Nantucket , how her agent encouraged her omniscient-voiced prologue, her use of repetition to prepare the reader for the “great fire” which becomes the ticking clock of the book, the pleasures of dramatic irony, and how authors might best represent points of view that are unlike their own in terms of race, sexuality, cla...

Sara Johnson Allen discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Down Here We Come Up , and her long road to publication. We talk about the power of the first pages in keeping you going, the importance of place description and how to make it move , how to find the balance between your front story and larger back story, and why it’s often necessary to put a book aside to understand it fully enough...

Alyssa Songsiridej discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Little Rabbit , including her process of moving between longhand and typing her pages, a process which helps her quiet her anxieties and keep her early work private. We also talk about her choice to begin and end with the image that sparked her book, how she wrote to discover her character, and how that discovery offered surprises bo...

Elizabeth L. Silver discusses the first pages of her new novel, The Majority , her decision to combine multiple real-life personas (and her imagination) to create a fictional Supreme Justice, her choice of beginning with a prologue-like first chapter to introduce her reminiscent narrator and set up the stakes, and the power of a great first line. Silver’s first pages can be found here. Help local...

Nancy Crochiere discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Graceland , the importance of goals for each of her three point-of-view characters, the power of a “goal by request,” and how to work in backstory when a story that is so reliant on the secrets about the past is flying forward from the first scene. Crochiere’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buyin...

Hank Phillippi Ryan discusses the first pages of her latest novel, The House Guest , the all important “save the cat” moment, ensuring that her readers are able to “imagine the film” of her scenes through sensory details and getting them to ask the right questions, including the pivotal “What happens next?” Ryan’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this...

Jessica Keener discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Night Swim , recently re-released in a new 10th anniversary edition. We talk about how she straddled the genre line of an adult novel with a young protagonist, the way her frame story helped her understand what the book was all about, and her journey to find her own publisher instead of accepting unwanted changes—only to make the book a...

Neema Avashia discusses the first pages of her essay collection and memoir, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place , the structural power of list-making, the second person, and her twist on the usual advice: write the specific to convey the universal. Avashia’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop. Click he...

Suzanne Berne discusses the first pages of her latest novel, The Blue Window , how her three points of views added interest and tension in the novel (for herself as much as for the reader), her decision to begin with the most unusual of these vantage points to invite mystery and empathy, and her belief in the relief and necessity of humor. Berne’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstor...

Alta Ifland discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Speaking to No. 4 , how she arranged the novel around six conversations that characterized her protagonist, bending our usual ideas about dialog to create scenes inside of scenes, and what it was like to publish a book ten years after she’d written it. Ifland’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buying...

Kelly J. Ford discusses the first pages of her latest novel, The Hunt , how she merged the drafts of two unfinished novels to really make the cook, her love of character and place, and the slips of backstory she inserts from the very beginning to spark our curiosity and keep us invested in the story. Ford’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on...

Allegra Goodman discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Sam , how she discovered the voice of her young protagonist through freewriting, how she complicated that voice as her protagonist aged, the limitations and gifts of writing in the present-tense, 3rd-person limited point of view, and how silence helps a writer stay true to her characters. Goodman’s first pages can be found here. Help l...

EB Moore discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Loose in the Bright Fantastic , how she got Maggie’s voice right with some help from direct interior monologue, and how she sparks our empathy with a character in crisis by playing with time and point of view. Moore’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop. Click here for the audio...

Kirthana Ramisetti discusses the first pages of her latest novel, Advika and the Hollywood Wives , how she played with romance-genre tropes to create something closer to a thriller (and then something closer to an anti-romance), earned our empathies for her main character, and the trio of female friendships that eventually save her. Ramisetti’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookstores...

Maya Shanbhag Lang discusses the first pages of her bestselling memoir, What We Carry , how her prologue hooks the reader by ensuring that what we’re reading matters, how she navigated narrative intrusion, and how she discovered where to begin (again) with some prompting from her editor and her own insight into what her book was really about. Lang’s first pages can be found here. Help local bookst...

Alix Ohlin reads the first pages of her latest novel, Dual Citizens . We discuss how her choice of scene in her prologue prepares the reader thematically for the story of these two sisters as well as the complexities of their relationship, how she played with chronology, and how other writers might navigate the reminiscent narrator. For your own first pages, Ohlin recommends: “Think of your novel...