The First Two Pages of Human Remains

Melissa Yi

“I hate how Miss Marple solves murders and remains completely unaffected by them,” said my friend Jessica. “I like that Hope is real.”

Dr. Hope Sze is real to me, too.

The problem is that Hope has gotten a little too real in my latest book, Human Remains.

After the hostage-taking in Stockholm Syndrome, Hope has post-traumatic stress. Which means I have a few problems, as a writer.

  1. PTSD may not be compelling to read about. Hope is numb and antisocial and angry. Not the cute little pixie detective your average reader might want to get to know.
  2. Hope has a lot of backstory. For starters, I have to mention the hostage-taking and the fact that she has two boyfriends, without too many spoilers.
  3. Normal writer concerns: I try to set up character, setting, and a problem in the first paragraph, ideally in the first sentence. I also need to establish that she’s an Asian female physician and that the story is set in current-day Ottawa, Canada, just before Christmas.

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2 thoughts on “The First Two Pages of Human Remains

  1. B.K. Stevens

    Thanks for contributing this post, Melissa! Coding your opening paragraphs was an interesting way of showing us how you tackled several important writing tasks at the same time.

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