Why does nobody talk about the old lady who corrected my opening line at a writers conference?

I was at a workshop in Portland last spring pitching a story about a haunted lighthouse, and this woman in her 70s leaned over and whispered, 'You need to start with the fog, not the ghost.' She said the setting should breathe before the plot kicks in. Do you agree with building atmosphere first, or is jumping into action the better hook?

2 comments

2 Comments

david8212mo ago

Man, that is such a solid piece of advice. I've been writing on and off for years, and I totally get what she was saying. Jumping straight into the action can feel like a rush, but if the reader doesn't have a feel for the world yet, it all falls flat. The fog sets the mood and makes the ghost mean something when it shows up. Have you tried rewriting that opening with just the weather and the lighthouse first?

the_seth1mo ago

David, the part where you said "the fog sets the mood and makes the ghost mean something" really hit me. Most people focus on the ghost itself, you know, the big scary payoff. But what if the ghost isn't even the point? What if the real horror is the fog isolating someone, or the lighthouse itself being this creepy, lonely symbol? Nobody's talking about the lighthouse as a character, which feels like a missed chance. Have you ever tried writing it from the lighthouse's perspective, like it's this ancient, tired thing watching people come and go? That might freak people out more than any ghost could.