{"id":8362,"date":"2020-01-28T07:34:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8362"},"modified":"2020-01-28T07:34:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T12:34:41","slug":"writing-tips-strong-openings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8362","title":{"rendered":"Writing Tips: Strong Openings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jane Friedman\u2019s writing advice is always welcome, and a recent column, \u201cFive Common Story Openings to Avoid<\/a>,\u201d has that irresistible (\u201cIf I only do THAT . . .\u201d) specificity. Skipping ahead to the bottom line, she confirms that almost any story opening can work if it\u2019s done well enough, but she cautions against assuming your story will be the exception. You may be handing some overwhelmed agent\/editor\/publisher an excuse to say \u201cno.\u201d In general, then, here\u2019s my take on her examples of weak openings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. A waking up scene \u2013 These don\u2019t make for very compelling reading, Jane says, even if the character is awakening on an important day. The reader doesn\u2019t know that yet. There\u2019s a lot readers don\u2019t know at the beginning of a book, of course, but the opener probably needs to provide more than the quotidian to keep their interest. Gregor Samsa\u2019s waking up to find he\u2019s turned into a bug is compelling, but Kafka snagged that one. <\/li>
  2. A transit scene \u2013 Scenes that describe a character moving from one place to another typically lack engaging drama, Jane says. Regular commuting hassles don\u2019t cut it, but a strong voice or compelling situation may. The wonderful novel The Never-Open Desert Diner<\/a> by James Anderson is hardly anything but transit, the 100-mile trip a local delivery man makes, back and forth, back and forth, along a single road in rural Utah and the indelible characters that people his route. Deon Meyer\u2019s thriller Fever<\/a>, set in a post-apocalyptic Africa, starts with a dangerous trip to a highly uncertain future.<\/li>
  3. A \u201crocking chair scene\u201d \u2013 This is where a character is alone, mulling over their life or recent events. If this is necessary backstory, there are more dynamic ways to introduce it, she suggests. And preferably in manageable bites. I have a tendency to write a couple of paragraphs to rev my engines before the action of the story begins. The fix is easy. When I edit, I chop off those paragraphs and get going.<\/li>
  4. A crisis scene \u2013 Jane says opening a story in the middle of a crisis may seem dramatic, but often doesn\u2019t raise interesting questions. Readers have too little information to appreciate the stakes. She calls this \u201cfalse suspense.\u201d Similarly, I\u2019m not engaged by openings that use ostensibly dramatic dialog, such as \u201cOh, no!\u201d Katie cried, \u201cThis is the worst day of my life!\u201d As a reader, I don’t know anything about Katie yet, so her \u201cworst day\u201d assessment carries no weight. I\u2019d call this \u201cfalse excitement.\u201d<\/li>
  5. A dream sequence \u2013 \u201cA common trope and a tired one,\u201d she says. The problem with this opener is that, in a dream, anything can happen, whereas, to be interesting, characters need to be responding to their situation, making decisions, and coping with the consequences. A dream doesn\u2019t offer true choices or raise valid story questions. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    A common thread among several of these openings is that characters are alone, and when they are, the lack of interaction with others doesn\u2019t give the reader a useful second perspective, or a view of how characters relate to others. Sometimes that\u2019s on purpose, as when you gradually realize the narrator you\u2019ve come to trust is unreliable. Editor Ray Rhamey has a nine-point checklist<\/a> for the first page of a novel, which \u00a0is a useful way to make sure your first page does everything it needs to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Related content:<\/strong> <\/em>
    First Line Mondays<\/a>, getting off to a good start
    \u201cCome in, Sit down . . .\u201d<\/a>, how Stephen King opens his books<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Photo: Free-Photos from Pixabay<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Jane Friedman\u2019s writing advice is always welcome, and a recent column, \u201cFive Common Story Openings to Avoid,\u201d has that irresistible (\u201cIf I only do THAT . . .\u201d) specificity. Skipping ahead to the bottom line, she confirms that almost any … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Writing Tips: Strong Openings - what makes readers (including agents, editors, and publishers) stop turning pages. You can probably think of more examples too!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,29],"tags":[1696,1694],"class_list":["post-8362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-ray-rhamey","tag-story-openings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/pencil.jpg?fit=302%2C415&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2aS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8364,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362\/revisions\/8364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}