Catchy opening paragraphs?

[MarlowBunny]

The only thing that hung me up is the overuse of 50-cent words. It sort of seemed like a vocabulary-building exercise.

Try using the really good words more sparingly. For example:

When combs failed to constrain her lustrous black hair under caps or hoods, common folk chancing a glimpse in the Wood thought they saw a fairy. If they were less imaginative, they assumed she was a young boy in woodsman's clothes. A bare five feet tall, her slight but feminine frame was always hidden, and with the exception of one lucky journeyman, no mortal had ever seen her unclothed.

Yes? No? Just a thought.

Very nice. Yes.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Most people read at 8th grade level, so 1-2 syllables is par for the course. Frank Lloyd Wright said a cottage is harder to design than a hotel.

Well duh, the rooms in a hotel are all the same and in a cottage each room is different and must have it's own character.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Well duh, the rooms in a hotel are all the same and in a cottage each room is different and must have it's own character.

No. Character has nuthin to do with it. The whole problem in a nutshell is the illusion of space and the manipulation of space. A well designed cottage expresses an illusion of plenty as in ten pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. The cottage must look and feel like a ten pound bag.