Writing a great opening

EileenG

Writing a great opening is hard. I haven't cracked it yet, but I have found some things that help, and some things that definitely don't.

Your opening has to do a lot of different things. It has to establish the setting. Think of this as the camera planing over the outside of the spaceship or across the crowded ballroom.

In recent threads here, reference to a doctor's surgery set the scene. If the story was set in the past, "a doctor's surgery lit by gas light" would do the job. Similarly, a character dreading a journey on an American Airways flight from Calgary establishes the story in modern day Canada.

Of course, your opening has to introduce your main character. You don't have to go into details, but you need enough to show if the MC is male or female, old or young, and ideally, give an idea of their personality.

The opening has to show or at least hint at, the inciting incident, the problem that starts the story for the MC.

Most important, your opening has to grab the reader. Very few people have the patience to wade through pages of description before the action starts. Work on the first paragraph, and particularly the first line until no-one can resist reading on.

So, a few ways to get it wrong.

Don't start with backstory. No-one except the author is really interested in your character's backstory. The reader wants to see what is happening now. Whatever backstory is really necessary can be woven into the main story.

Don't start with flashback, it's just a different form of flashback.

Don't start with dialogue. Normally, dialogue is great and really lifts a story, but if you don't have any idea about the characters that are talking, it won't work. One line of speech can work. For instance "All cars proceed immediately to Grafton Street. Major riot in progress." establishes the setting and gives a lot of hints about the MC.

Don't start with prologue. It's backstory in disguise.

Don't start with philosophy.

Yes, there are some great authors out there who manage to break all those rules in style, but for most of us, it's a great way to be round filed.

pickarooney

What's 'round filed'?

I'd disagree about dialogue, but it does need to be very succinct. Done properly, one or two lines of direct speech can set the scene, tell us about the character and kick-start the plot.

"Stawwry bud?"
We're in modern Dublin's north inner city, the speaker is a young male from an underprivileged background, there will most likely be some kind of confrontation in the next couple of seconds...

EileenG

pickarooney wrote: »

"Stawwry bud?"

This is something else to be very careful with. Phonetic spelling of accents can turn a great story into an unreadable one. If it start with phonetic spelling, your reader may finish at that point.

Unless the reader knows exactly how to pronounce the words as you have spelled them, and actually knows the accent you are aiming for, it won't work.

I'm from the Northside, and I have no idea what you have written.

Round filed = waste paper bin.

pickarooney

EileenG wrote: »

This is something else to be very careful with. Phonetic spelling of accents can turn a great story into an unreadable one. If it start with phonetic spelling, your reader may finish at that point.

It never did Irvine Welsh any harm. Or maybe it did, his non-native readership figures might be quite low. Some of the best writers (and I realise that's highly subjective) did prety much everything they could not to pander to readers' expectations.

mikom

EileenG wrote: »

I'm from the Northside, and I have no idea what you have written.

Seriously?

EileenG

pickarooney wrote: »

It never did Irvine Welsh any harm. Or maybe it did, his non-native readership figures might be quite low. Some of the best writers (and I realise that's highly subjective) did prety much everything they could not to pander to readers' expectations.

That's what I mean about some very experienced writers doing it well and getting away with it. But in general, it doesn't work.

Also, there is a difference between "literature" writers and the rest of us. Someone with a couple of Booker awards under his belt can do things that would get the average writer a form rejection letter.

And no, I really have no idea what you said in the quote.

PS. I just asked my 13 year old daughter, a Northside born and bred, to read the quote, and she has no idea what it means.

pickarooney

EileenG wrote: »

That's what I mean about some very experienced writers doing it well and getting away with it. But in general, it doesn't work.

Trainspotting was Welsh's first novel. He went from an unknown to a major literary figure on the back of a book written almost entirely in Edinburgh council estate patois. I don't know if it's deliberate, but "getting away with it" makes it sound like the writer is doing something wrong. Would you say Joyce "got away with" writing Finnegan's Wake? It would be a fair point as to many, myself included, it's unreadable, but I wouldn't begrudge him for breaking the mould.

EileenG wrote: »

Also, there is a difference between "literature" writers and the rest of us. Someone with a couple of Booker awards under his belt can do things that would get the average writer a form rejection letter.

I don't understand what you mean by a 'literature' writer unless as opposed to a journalist or biographer, but I would think most people on here write fiction.

EileenG wrote: »

And no, I really have no idea what you said in the quote.

PS. I just asked my 13 year old daughter, a Northside born and bred, to read the quote, and she has no idea what it means.

And would both of you just stop reading right there rather than read on and see what it meant?

A lot of your advice makes sense, but a lot of it also seems to boil down to "don't try anything original or challenging because you don't have the talent", no?

There was a lot of similar advice in the guardian article linked in the sticky, along the lines of "only good writers can do this, so don't try" which I find really counter-productive.

EileenG

Of course I don't mean don't try anything original or different, but you do have to do it very well.

If the first line of a story I picked up was in a form or language I didn't understand, no, I wouldn't keep reading. If I'm already hooked by a great opening, and I meet that same line on the third page, I would probably see what it was about.

Don't forget, your reader doesn't know if "Strawwy bud" is a different language, or an accent, or just someone who is off his head. If you want to set your story on the Northside, with a gurrier who wants to start something, there are better ways of doing it.

pickarooney

EileenG wrote: »

Of course I don't mean don't try anything original or different, but you do have to do it very well.

I agree with that, certainly, but I would consider that whatever you write, you should strive to do it very well and there's a world of difference between saying that and saying "Don't do it".

EileenG wrote: »

If the first line of a story I picked up was in a form or language I didn't understand, no, I wouldn't keep reading.

Fair enough, but not everyone would react the same way

EileenG wrote: »

Don't forget, your reader doesn't know if "Strawwy bud" is a different language, or an accent, or just someone who is off his head.

I'm tempted to make a poll, but can't think of an appropriate forum

EileenG

My point is that your OPENING has to grab the reader. This is where you invite the reader into your story. Once you've got her firmly hooked, you can challenge her in all sorts of ways. But if the opening doesn't want to make her read on, you'll never get to that point.

There are a lot of books out there. The reader has to decide quickly which one she is going to spend her time and money on. She's not going to buy something just because it might get good later on.

This is not just my opinion. I've been asking a lot of editors and a couple of agents what they look for, and they all say the same. You've got to have an opening that sets the scene and makes the reader say "I've got to find out what this is about".

Every editor says the same thing: a weak opening almost always leads to a messy muddled book.

mikom

EileenG wrote: »

Once you've got her firmly hooked, you can challenge her in all sorts of ways. But if the opening doesn't want to make her read on, you'll never get to that point.

So, are we just talkin' females here who stop reading if the first line of a story is in a form/language they don't understand?

EileenG

No, but statistically, the majority of editors and book buyers are female.

And you are missing the point here. Getting your book or story read is a privilege. No-one HAS to read it, the fact that your reader (male or female) is willing to invest the time needed to read it, is a favour to you. If he or she shells out money to read it, even better. So you don't abuse your reader by not doing the best job you can.

EileenG

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13."

"All children, except one, grow up."

"It had been an odd sort of day. We had sausages for breakfast, and we never get sausages on a Tuesday."

"The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel."

"They shoot the white girl first."

"He was so mean that wherever he was standing became the bad part of town."

"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck"

"It can hardly be co-incidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression 'As pretty as an airport'."

"The majority of Terrans are six-legged."

"Damn them. Prince Djetthro-Jason eyed the masked males and the unpleasant array of instruments they were preparing to use on him."

"Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse, I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker."

"They told him he wouldn't feel it when the energy beam ripped him apart. They'd lied."

EileenG

pickarooney wrote: »

It never did Irvine Welsh any harm. Or maybe it did, his non-native readership figures might be quite low. Some of the best writers (and I realise that's highly subjective) did prety much everything they could not to pander to readers' expectations.

And Welsh did not open with phonetic spelling. He started with the memorable "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family."

pickarooney

EileenG wrote: »

And Welsh did not open with phonetic spelling. He started with the memorable "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family."

The film starts with "Choose life..." The book opens with the far less memorable "The sweat was lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling."

dcmu

pickarooney wrote: »

The film starts with "Choose life..." The book opens with the far less memorable "The sweat was lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling."

One of the most engrossing, captivating opening chapters to a book I've ever read, too.

pickarooney

EileenG wrote: »

This is not just my opinion. I've been asking a lot of editors and a couple of agents what they look for, and they all say the same. You've got to have an opening that sets the scene and makes the reader say "I've got to find out what this is about".

Every editor says the same thing: a weak opening almost always leads to a messy muddled book.

I don't think anyone's arguing against writing a good opening, just about what actually constitutes a good opening.

As an aside, I'm not sure that what publishers and agents look for is necessarily a good indication of what makes a good, as opposed to a sellable book. Call me cynical, but I don't think they're that much different to record labels or TV networks whose criteria for picking something up is more often than not based on budget and marketability.

EileenG

Let's not get into the "good" v "salable" thing. I assume we are all writing because we want to sell our books?

If you think you have a masterpiece that is so original that no publisher will pick it up, then go ahead and self-publish. Having talked to people who did this successfully, it sounds like far too much work and hassle for me.

I want to be a commercial success and earn lots of money.

dcmu

EileenG wrote: »

Let's not get into the "good" v "salable" thing. I assume we are all writing because we want to sell our books?

If you think you have a masterpiece that is so original that no publisher will pick it up, then go ahead and self-publish. Having talked to people who did this successfully, it sounds like far too much work and hassle for me.

I want to be a commercial success and earn lots of money.

That's a terrible assumption to make. A lot of people here write because they love to. And these people will refuse to allow their work to be compromised simply so they can shift a few more copies.

My two cent is simple enough: I'm dead set against a catchall template for writing. It's a horrendously stifling concept. Writing is about creativity, not about story-writing by numbers.
I have read many books which break your rules, and it's not because these people are established writers; it's because they are talented, brave and creative writers.

iguana

EileenG wrote: »

My point is that your OPENING has to grab the reader. This is where you invite the reader into your story. Once you've got her firmly hooked, you can challenge her in all sorts of ways. But if the opening doesn't want to make her read on, you'll never get to that point.

There are a lot of books out there. The reader has to decide quickly which one she is going to spend her time and money on. She's not going to buy something just because it might get good later on.

That's not actually true though is it? Pretty much everybody decides to read a book based on either the synopsis on the back cover or a recommendation from someone. If the synopsis sounds intriguing or entertaining people will read at least a couple of chapters unless they are pure muck. Obviously if the first sentence/paragraph is fantastic you feel instantly captivated and are less likely to stop reading, but very few books captivate their audiences instantly.

In fact it's pretty common for a book to take a chapter or two to set up the lives of the characters before launching them into the plot. The idea being that we see what made the character happy and care about them before their lives are turned upside-down.

EileenG

iguana wrote: »

In fact it's pretty common for a book to take a chapter or two to set up the lives of the characters before launching them into the plot. The idea being that we see what made the character happy and care about them before their lives are turned upside-down.

I think this might have been true ten years ago, but not now. Just as fashions in film change (I saw Pretty Woman recently and couldn't believe how slow it was compared to the pace of modern films), so do fashions in books.

Take a look at the books on the best seller list, AND the ones short-listed for the major awards, and you'll find they nearly all jump into the action quickly.

Perhaps as a writer, you look at books differently to the average reader, but I reckon that most readers now want to get to the characters doing interesting stuff as soon as possible, they are not prepared to put up with chapters of set-up first.

Oryx

I read a hell of a lot. These comments are for those who hope to sell, rather than who write purely for the love of it.

I choose a book based on the first paragraph. If the writer doesnt get me there, I dont buy the book. If the paragraph hooks me, Ill flick a bit, read the back cover, and then decide.

I tried and failed to read Trainspotting. Roddy Doyle's trilogy I loved, even though I sometimes struggled with the phonetics in that. So I think phonetic dialogue depends on your cultural background and the amount of effort youre willing to put into the book.

It took me three attempts saying 'Stawwry bud' in my head before I copped what it meant. I dont mind working that hard when reading a book, but standing in a bookshop, it could make me move on to the next title.

Agreed on the prologue, which I generally skip, and then suffer for it.

And for every rule there is, you have rule breakers, who break them well, and set the Next Big Trend. The key thing is though, to be able to do it well.

EileenG, I need to know what books those opening lines are from.

EileenG

Oryx wrote: »

EileenG, I need to know what books those opening lines are from.

Maybe I should make that a competition? Some are famous first lines, some are personal favourites.

EileenG

dcmu wrote: »

That's a terrible assumption to make. A lot of people here write because they love to. And these people will refuse to allow their work to be compromised simply so they can shift a few more copies.

My two cent is simple enough: I'm dead set against a catchall template for writing. It's a horrendously stifling concept. Writing is about creativity, not about story-writing by numbers.
I have read many books which break your rules, and it's not because these people are established writers; it's because they are talented, brave and creative writers.

If you are writing purely for the love of creation, then I apologise for bothering you. Keep working at whatever is making you happy.

Just remember that while you may feel driven to write your book, absolutely nobody feels driven to read it.

pickarooney

(unless it gets put on a college reading list)

dcmu

EileenG wrote: »

Just remember that while you may feel driven to write your book, absolutely nobody feels driven to read it.

Nobody feels driven to read any book Eileen. At least not to the level the writer feels about writing it, regardless of whether or not it follows a generic template for "success".

Kelticweb

mikom wrote: »

Seriously?

It would seem the person is trying to let you know that he/she is from the posh northside as opposed to Darndale, Coolock etc...
Possibly, Malahide or Portmarnock...
The "Story bud" call is heard a lot on the west of dublin...I myself heard a greeting on a 78A bus at one time...many years ago...the dialogue went like this...
"Story bud..." Skang #1
(a pause)
"Story you?" Skand #2
"Story me!" Skang #1
Skang #1 went to sit in a different seat and the journey continued without another word.
I myself was trying to hold back from bursting out laughing...(didn't want to get into a right carfuffle)

Killer_banana

I think the majority of guidelines for writing are for people who want to write ficiton to sell it. If you write simply for the love and never intend to sell it then write want you want and just enjoy the journey. It's lot easier and less unburdened anyway. I persona; write for both reasons, although it is primarily for the love because in the modern market the likelihood of getting published is depressingly slim even if you write a complete masterpiece.

As for a gripping opening, I think it depends on the type of book. If you're writing a thriller then some sort of action or intrigue is required A.S.A.P but for the majority of other books (in my experience) and few chapters stting up the action won't make readers give-up, well depending on the length of the chapters. :P

As for opening with dialogue, I've seen countless books open with dialogue and I think it's quite a good way to start a book as you're suck into the scene striaght away. That said it should be quick dialogue followed by a quick set up of the scene and not a full blown conversation by two faceless characters in a featureless room.

As for 'Stawwry bud' I'm Galway born and bred and know what that means but then again I tend to read aloud (under my breath) rather than in my head so it might make a difference.As for phonetic spelling I htink it is a dodgy choice. It can work brilliantly if done well...but it can be complete disastour if not. I personally loved Wuthering Heights but completely loathed every situation which involved Joseph opening his mouth. :P

EileenG

Killer_banana wrote: »

As for a gripping opening, I think it depends on the type of book. If you're writing a thriller then some sort of action or intrigue is required A.S.A.P but for the majority of other books (in my experience) and few chapters stting up the action won't make readers give-up, well depending on the length of the chapters. :P
:P

I'm sorry, I don't agree. Thrillers are one of the genres I don't read, so I can't comment. But I know that any time I go to a bookshop, I read the first page of anything that looks likely, and if it hasn't grabbed me by the end of the page, I put it back and look for a book that does. There is no way I'd wade through a few chapters waiting for something to happen.

Have you ever watched American Idol or X factor at the audition stage? Then you'll know the way you can usually tell within five notes if the singer is actually able to sing and is likely to go through. It's the same with writing. Any writer who can't manage a decent opening is not likely to get much better a hundred pages on.

Okay, there's an exception: text books and reference books. I'm prepared to put up with dry openings there for the sake of the information in it. Not in a novel.

pickarooney

American Idol? You're going just a bit too far down the road of catering for the attention-span-deficient methinks.

You also keep coming back to equating a 'good' opening with a narrow definition of something attention-grabbing. A good jacket design could prove at least as important a factor to browsers who don't want to give a book a fair shot.

Fair enough, if the first couple of paragraphs are excrutiatingly poorly written it would be reasonable to assume you're dealing with a bad writer. But then, millions have bought a book with begins with:

The Da Vinci Code wrote:

Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.

It's action-packed, to give it its due, but it's a horrible piece of prose.

A quick straw-poll suggests that not everyone picks up a book, reads the first page and discards/buys it.

shqipshume

I heard a famous author say,Do not take creative writing classes avoid it at all cost and write raw.When you start just write it like you would see it walking through the character or characters, and imagine family friends as them people doing the things you wish them to do in the book.

I would love time to write a Book.I was and avid writer of children's stories and mysteries.But sadly lost the patience.