First Sentence

[Kaa]

Something just occurred to me to ask the group in general:

Do you think the first sentence is as all-important in audio fiction as it is in the written version?

I've always heard/learned that you had to make your first sentence as "hooky" as possible to grab your readers and compel them to read sentences 2 and 3 and....

But I wonder if the same is true for Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Podcastle.  Do you stop listening if the first couple of sentences out of the mouth of the reader don't "grab" you, or do you feel compelled to keep listening even if the first sentence isn't stellar?

My own feeling is that it's different because of what I'm doing when I'm listening as opposed to reading.  When I'm listening, I'm generally driving, flying, or doing something else where I'm a "captive audience."  When I'm reading, I'm generally only reading and am otherwise unoccupied.  I once listened to an entire audiobook I LOATHED from the first half of the first chapter because I had nothing else to listen to (this was pre-iPod days) and it was better than the radio.  Had I been reading the book, I would have stopped after about one paragraph.  As for Escape Pod, Pseudopod and Podcastle, I find that even the stories I don't particularly love, I listen to anyway, because it's already on the iPod, I'm busy doing something more important, and it'll be over in xx minutes, anyway.  And several times, I've found that if I kept listening, I wound up liking the story anyway.  If I were reading The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I would have just turned to the next story.

I'm just wondering if others feel the same.

[Windup]

Do you think the first sentence is as all-important in audio fiction as it is in the written version?....My own feeling is that it's different because of what I'm doing when I'm listening as opposed to reading.  When I'm listening, I'm generally driving, flying, or doing something else where I'm a "captive audience." 

For me, it's not, though once I start to read something, I will usually persevere to the end -- Heinlein's The Number of the Beast being a notable exception.  Though in a venue like a magazine, I'll frequently skip an unpromising story or article and move on to another.  Like you, I am usually doing something else when I'm listening to a podcast, and if the podcast isn't going well, I just zone out more or focus on the task at hand, but usually don't quit. 

I do occasionally bail on podcasts -- I tried two episodes of Air Out My Shorts and didn't make it through the introduction on either one.  And I will frequently hit the skip button on a Cato Daily Podcast once I can see where it's going, and that's taking less time the more of them I listen to. But most of the time, I make it all the way through, one way or another. 

[eytanz]

I find myself occasionally giving up on EP/PP episodes (hasn't happened to PC yet, but it's early), but never after a few sentences. Sometimes if I listen for 10 minutes or so and am not engaged, or actively disliking the story, I'll fast forward to the end of the story (I like knowing how things ended), and I always listen to the outro. This happened maybe 5-6 times over both podcasts so far. I think once, the ending was surprising enough that I rewound and listened to the rest of the story, but I don't remember which story that was.

[CompiledTom]

Something just occurred to me to ask the group in general:

Do you think the first sentence is as all-important in audio fiction as it is in the written version?

I don't think it's hugely important in either form of writing. Or rather, I think too many people spend so much time trying to create a hook in the first sentence that they actually make it corny. I think the key is that every sentence should add to the story, the first sentence being no exception.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

If I'm not engaged by an audio story, I sometimes won't notice until I get to work.  "Oh, yeah... the iPod's still on!"

Of course, I sometimes like those stories, too, because the daydreaming gives me good stories of my own.

[Liminal]

Wow - the synergy of it all! I was just pondering this question on my way into work today.

I find myself turning off a podcast faster because of production values or issues with the readers voice. I definitely have listened to stories I didn't like and that, if I were reading, I probably would have stopped reading after the first page or two.

Part of that is my commute and my job and just wanting to have something to distract me and I find storytelling to be one of the more enjoyable distractions (in addition to making me think, exciting my imagination, etc.). I am willing to forgive a weaker story than I am a weak telling.

[Listener]

I'd be more concerned with the first page, rather than the first sentence.  For audio, perhaps the first 30-150 seconds are critical.  Visually, it's closer to 30.  IMO.

[davedoty]

I agree that I rarely bail on book or audiobook after a single sentence.  I almost always read at least a few paragraphs of a book until I give up.  And I rarely make a conscious decision to stop listening to an audiobook.  I usually only cut it off when I realized that my mind has wandered and that I'm no longer listening to it anyway.

[DKT]

I'd be more concerned with the first page, rather than the first sentence.  For audio, perhaps the first 30-150 seconds are critical.  Visually, it's closer to 30.  IMO.

I totally agree with Listener.  Don't get me wrong, you want to lead off with a great first sentence that completely hooks your read into reading the next paragraph, and then the next page.  But I don't think I've ever bailed on a story, audio or print, after the first sentence.  It usually takes a couple pages (or minutes).  There are times when I've read a sentence that just jumps out and grabs my attention, and won't let me go until the story's over.  But at the same time, I think it's more of a pacing thing that *just* a killer opening line.  Usually, I can't tell whether or not I like the story until I'm a few pages into it.

[Kaa]

One of my favorite books begins thusly:

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.  I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.  In newspaper photos of missing girls from the seventies, most looked like me: white girls with mousy brown hair.  This was before kids of all races and genders started appearing on milk cartons or in the daily mail.  It was still back when people believed things like that didn't happen.

That's the opening paragraph of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.  I picked up the book in the book store because I'd been hearing people gush about how good it was, but I knew nothing about the book.  The third word of the first sentence hooked me and the second sentence reeled me in.  I read the first two chapters standing there in the book store before being forced to put it down (read: purchase it) and move on because of time constraints.

[stePH]

The third word of the first sentence hooked me ...

"was" ? 

[Kaa]

The third word of the first sentence hooked me ...

"was" ? 

People do not normally introduce themselves by saying "My name was Kaa."  The "was" stood out and made me wonder why it was past-tense. The second sentence explained that quite thoroughly.  From then on, I was the big-mouth bass and the book was the hook.

[Audita Sum]

I have a lot more tolerance for the spoken word than for the written word, and have never given up on any of the Escape Artists podcasts. I've liked every episode enough to keep listening, though I would've stopped reading at some point in a few of them. I have, however, given up on many Starship Sofa episodes, and thought about giving up on a few Well Told Tales stories, so I'd say that Escape Artists appeals more to my tastes than a lot of things anyway.

[corporatewhore]

Yeah, I tend to put myself in situations where I'm "stuck" with an audiobook (or podcast). This is usually because I listen to them when on the bus, biking or walking. Because of that I am more likely to give it a higher tolerance then standing at the bookstore.

Even still, a bad book will catch up with me eventually, I'll notice when I'm no longer paying attention to chapters at a time and spending more time day dreaming instead of listening.

[wherethewild]

Podcasts get about 10 minutes from me and I think that's generous. If I don't like the story, the writing or the voice reading it I delete it from my library and unsubscribe as soon as I'm back at my computer. I have done that to EscapePod before *shock, gasp*, I've done it to numerous podcasts and podiobooks. I've even unsubscribed from books because the second episode carries too much shit before the story gets going (see the thread in Podcast Pedantry for that) and I have no desire to sit through that twenty-seven times before the end of the book.

I'm generally someone who exists in silence- no music, radio or tv on in the background and I spend most of my waking hours these days just in the company of my dog. I don't have noise on just for the sake of it and don't tolerate stuff I don't enjoy hammering up my ears.

[Creeperz]

I'm generally someone who exists in silence- no music, radio or tv on in the background and I spend most of my waking hours these days just in the company of my dog. I don't have noise on just for the sake of it and don't tolerate stuff I don't enjoy hammering up my ears.

Wow I'm totally the opposite of you I must have something going in the background for me that is how i control my personal ADD.

When it comes to books sometimes it needs to hook me in the first page.  I can sometimes go till the end of the first chapter.

When it come to Audio I'm way more forgiving I can give a audio book way more time I have gone 2 3 hours in to a book before I have gone "this is just boring the hell out of me" and turning it off

when it come to podcast I will give most 30 mins to hook.

 

[birdless]

When it comes to audio, I'll just tune it out before I realize it if it's not captivating. I couldn't say how long I give it before I tune out, though, and there have even been times where I tuned out and then the narrative somehow caught me up again so I had to rewind.

As for books, though, I mainly need character development early on. One of my favorite books, Tad Williams's The Dragonbone Chair, starts off pretty slow for the first 100 pages or so, but there is enough character development that it made me want to keep company with them (after that initial slow start, it became extremely difficult to put down!). Contrast that to Dennis L. McKiernan's Eye of the Hunter, in which I haven't been able to invest myself in the characters, so I've never been able to get very far in it before losing interest (I don't even remember if there was much action in it or not).

Mods, feel free to EPize the links
Moderator:  Would have done it anyways.