I'm going to backtrack from Bethany's post yesterday....waaaaay back...all the way to the beginning. I know we've spent a lot of time talking about beginnings, specifically hooks, but I want to take a different look at your opening. Not so much the hook itself, but where your story really starts.This is a biggie for me. I struggle over openings, not so much hooks. I can come up with a clever first line to get the reader engaged. What I agonize over is the right place to open my book. The scene, the inciting incident, the point where the story really opens with a bang.
If any of you have read Vogler's Writer's Journey, you know he suggests starting with the "ordinary world" then transitioning into the problem. The issue I see with this - and what seems to come up more these days in fiction - is that readers don't want to see a whole lot of that "ordinary world". They want the bing-bang-boom opening that sucks you in. Drops you smack dab in the middle of the problem. Is it because of the fast-paced TV world we live in these days? Probably. Readers want action right off the bat. Too much "ordinary world" to get through and they get bored. However, in my opinion, you have to have enough ordinary world in your opening to ground the reader in the scene.
Confused yet? Heck, I am.
So where do you start?
My last book opened with my heroine - an archaeologist - in a cave. Doesn't sound very ordinary, but that's her ordinary world. The problem? She's looking for something she can't find. I have about a page of her searching one part of the cave before the real problem - the cave caving in on her - occurs. Could I have started with the cave falling in right off the bat? Sure, but then the reader wouldn't have been grounded in the scene. So in this instance, taking a tiny step back - just a few moments in time - worked to my advantage. And it fits Vogler's model. I actually agonized over this scene because I was worried it wasn't starting in enough of the problem. No one who's read it (agent included) have had a problem with it. Of course, it still hasn't sold yet, so take this whole post for what it's worth. ;)
My WIP starts in a similar situation. My heroine's breaking into a famous auction house, moments before a special collection is about to be auctioned off. Her ordinary world is filled with secrets and shadows, which is evident in the first page. The problem, which starts on page two, are the roadblocks she encounters as she's breaking in.
I think both of these stories start in the right place, but starting points are something I really stress over. The last book I worked on - the one I shelved - kept giving me fits because I couldn't find the right starting place. I tried lots of different ones and finally realized until I work it through in my head, writing it isn't doing me any good. It was only frustrating me. Sometimes my brain has to work through all the starting point options before I can go with one.
When I judge contests or give critiques, the biggest thing I see from new writers is not starting in the right place. I'm not talking about opening hooks here, but the real opening of the story. Great writing is good, but if you open in the wrong place, no one's going to want to read more. Slow openings, pages and pages of descriptions or "ordinary world" don't pull readers in. They want the problem, they want action, and they want to get to know your characters as they work through that first main obstacle.
I have a book I finished last year that I absolutely love. I was talking to my agent about it the other day and she said if it was as good as my last book, to send it on to her. I adore the characters in this story, love the plot (which is one we story magicked at Paty's a long time ago). The writing is good, and the emotions are deep, but right now, I'm not sending it. Why? It doesn't open in the right place. It's bugged me for a very long time, and it wasn't until recently that I figured out just what was bothering me about this book. If the opening isn't right, no one's going to read to chapter seven and care about what happens to these characters. You can't "wait" to get to the meat of the book and hope readers will hang with you that long.
So on this snowy morning, I challenge you to look at your wip and ask yourself, "Where does my story really start?" Divorce yourself from the opening you've already written. Odds are pretty good that's not the real start to your story. Even the big-wig published authors will tell you they go back and rework their openings. And if you're having trouble with your opening (like I always do), tell us where you've started and what options you've thought about as alternate openings. And if not...then please, share your wisdom about where to start a story. I'd love to hear how you craft that "opening".
20 comments:
My WIP starts with a funeral--it's the moment when hero and heroine meet after several years apart and the moment when her life starts to go to hell in a handbasket. Originally, I had started further in the story--with him already established as her roommate and her crisis more in full swing, but I decided to begin with the funeral because it presents that first spark of attraction and establishes motivation for what happens later. However, this may all change on editing. Grrrrrrrrr.
"Begin where the action starts" is good advice, but the hard part can be deciding WHAT action to start with. For me, I ask myself if the alternate opening would require much more backstory--that's a clue that it's not the right place to start. Would it require a huge jump forward to the real story? That's better as a prologue then. Starting with the meeting is pretty par the course in romance, but as authors we have the ability to manipulate when that meeting occurs.
Great blog! And you do have a hang up on beginnings don't you! LOL
I like to start with the inciting incident (I too have Vogler's book and it's about the only "How To" writing book I've understood)
I am currently working on three projects.
The contemporary - Starts with a nanny on a rancher's doorstep saying he hired her when he didn't.
Second Petticoat book - Starts with the heroine announcing to the hero they are cousins (when they have been courting he's smitten beyond words with her).
First Spirit book - I have changed this beginning many times - and Danita just recently pointed out it needs to start differently yet again. I wanted to set the ordinary world in the reader's head before the inciting incident happened, but I am now starting it with the action right before the inciting incident.
Okay, I guess I have four books in the works - Sheesh, someone slap me, please!
The second spirit book - starts with the heroine trying to drown herself and the hero pulls her out of the lake.
A book doesn't have to start with a bang for me to keep reading, but it does have to capture my attention either with the characters or the circumstances to keep me reading.
Great blog.
I love a hook as much as the next writer, but often that is a matter of tweaking. I think you are spot on with the question being when a book really starts. And I think some writers co-mingle "hook" with "start" and mean about the same thing.
Where are the characters, what are they doing, who gets the first POV, who shows up, all of that. Good to know other writers struggle with this, too.
I like to start at the moment where things begin to change. I think that's the most interesting time. I go back and forth, more on some books than others. It just depends.
I like a man waiting for a plane to land. A bride running away from her wedding. A bride that doesn't show up leaving the groom stranded. A bride whose groom has disappeared. (all part of my bride period). A woman waking up in an alley. I like a funeral, Wavy, what a start at the ending and that's neat. A cave is excellent, too. Paty's beginnings all sound great.
You know, I don't there is any aspect of writing that is easy. Or predictable. Every story comes with its own integrity, and kudos to you, Eli, for waiting to find that moment of zen when your book is meant to begin before sending it out.
It almost seems like it should start the way it ends, with an announcement:
The beginning
yadda, yadda, yadda.
The End
Alice
Alice, you and I posted at the same time! And we even said a lot of the same things. Hee hee!
Karen
Karen--I tried logging on to that site and couldn't get there. Rats.
Alice
Oh, well, Alice. I can't even access that blog anymore anyway. It crashes my FireFox browser. But it's the Swimming Kangaroo Books blog that the publisher keeps. They did a request one day a few weeks ago for beginning pages to critique and I took them up on it.
Karen
I think funerals are a good starting place, Wavy, for the reason Alice gave. It's unique - ending point, starting point. Very cool. I like that you started there because that's where the real problem seems to start (from what I'm reading).
Yes, Paty. We call it being neurotic.
Four WIPs? You're nuts. And yanno...if you'd have made it over the mountain, I could have slapped you in person. Go think about that one. ;)
LOL, Alice. If only the book would just magically "tell" me where to start, then all this angst could be avoided.
I'm too busy working on the WIP and contemplating this new book idea to go back adn rework the beginning of that book I like so much, but I will. I can't just let it sit there when I know it's a good story.
I did have foreshadowing in that opening, Karen. Good point. I hadn't thought of that.
BTW...I read your submission...great work there, and wonderful comments from the blog host. It occurs to me that you mac users seem to be the ones unable to access that site. Hmmm....another issue with macs. ;)
Thanks for linking that, Karen!
As I sit here watching the snow fall, I think, Dang, I could have been at McMennamin's hashing out beginnings with Eli and getting slapped! LOL
I think every writer takes a trial and error method of where to start their stories. Some writer by rewriting the beginning a few times and others let it slosh around in their heads for a while. :)
I've given a few of the submissions to Cactus some ideas of where to start their stories. They had too much ordinary world or just starting at a part that could be woven in as backstory.
Backstory is a wonderful thing when done right!
Eli and Alice--the book is actually bookended by two funerals, both of fathers--I'm hoping this device works as well as I hope.
Bookending dead dads! What could be finer??? LOL
Alice
I remember this guy in my critique group some years ago who was a real rule monger. He was a Bickam and Swain disciple, and he had this thing against scenes that had only one character in them. He said "it was wrong." Pfft. He even had a name for it, called it SCS -- Single Character on Stage. He'd go on and on about it, even did workshops for beginning writers, can you believe it? Talk about damaging. It's true that a scene will be more dramatic if there's character interaction, asometimes the story situation may call for just one character on stage. He was especially adamant about opening pages, that you NEVER have only one character on stage in an opening scene.
Anyway, he and I got into a huge argument -- yes, I do get angry every once in a great while and when I do, look out -- over several nit-picky things he was harrassing a less experienced writer in our group about. It got ugly.
My point is there's no right or wrong way to start a story, it just needs to work by compelling the reader to keep reading.
Karen
KAREN--BOOK THIS GUY AS A FUTURE SPEAKER. HE SOUNDS LIKE FUN!
alice
I usually just plunge into the story and start writing. The first two or three chapters usually get scrapped, because chapter 3 or 4 is actually the best place to start. This works for me because I get to know my characters, their habits, their world a little bit while I'm writing all those extra words. And some of what I've written and scrapped gets dropped in here and there later as backstory.
Beginnings are tough. They are so important. I never get tired of talking about them.
Thanks, Eli, oh snow kick-boxer queen. Ha.
And if I get bumped off this damn site one more time, I may throw in my blogging towel....
Danita--so glad you made it on to the blog!!! Wahoo!! Don't ever give up because of a machine!
Alice
the sick one
Oh, and Danita, I know what you mean about those extra chapters that reveal back story and come in oh so handy for filling in later!
Alice
Glad to see you made it to the blog, too, Danita! Was missing you.
Great point about the extra chapters. (grumble, grumble)
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels like she's "wasting" time by doing all that extra writing....
Now, as is often my way, I'm-better-late-than-never off to post a comment on Bethany's last blog...
Post a Comment