Interviewer: What has to happen on page one, and in chapter one, to make for a successful book that urges you to read on?
Jess Walter: Of course, nothing has to happen. Anything can happen. The sound is what I’m aware of in the beginning—announcing to myself the voice of this book, like the opening riff of a song. I keep tinkering and tinkering until it sounds right. That’s all that has to happen: you just have to love the way it sounds.
Full interview with Walter (Beautiful Ruins) here.
(Today I read his fantastic short story, “Anything Helps,” from the most recent Best American Short Stories.)