1. badgerjelly

    badgerjelly Contributor Contributor

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    Novel How to open a novel

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by badgerjelly, Feb 24, 2017.

    I have been chasing my tail for a couple of weeks and starting to think it may be best to forget about the opening page, even the opening chapter, and just write.

    I understand that in the first page I need to hint what my novel is like so that the reader is not expecting something they won't get. If the novel is about war, you open with a mini conflict. If it is about some self discovery, open with someone opening an unexpected gift.

    Are you someone who plans out every part of your novel or are you someone who writes more freely? I am interested in hearing from both types of writers. I class myself as in the latter category.
     
  2. sprirj

    sprirj Senior Member

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    Just write. My original opening chapter became chapter two, once I discovered the direction and conclusion of my story. My new chapter one was so easy and the most fun to write, once I was a third into my book.
     
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  3. zoupskim

    zoupskim Contributor Contributor

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    By the time I was done with my book I had removed the original prologue, and then wrote a whole new chapter in it's place. I had a theme and story arc in mind, and had planned out all the beats and lessons, but multiple scenes could serve the same purpose and I had to figure out which ones worked. Example:

    -I had a scene where the MC was dealing with some stress, and secondary characters helping him through it. The point of the scene is that the MC needs these people.
    -I had another scene where the MC has a stressful encounter, and a little bit of danger happens.

    In the end I combined these two scenes, so the stress IS the danger, and the secondary characters helping is actualized by protecting the MC from the danger. It combined well, clarifies the story, and makes two potentially boring scenes more interesting.

    I say plan it out; know where your story is going, but don't be afraid to improvise.
     
  4. Aaron Smith

    Aaron Smith Banned Contributor

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    In my opinion, a really good opening needs fierce rhetoric to work, unless the story it exposes is far more interesting.
     
  5. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    From what I understand, the character must have a desire. Doesn't have to be all that great and dramatic. My fantasy (in its current version) has my protagonist wishing she could literally be anywhere else but this super important ceremony she has no choice to partake in. What does your character want? It can be the thing that drives the plot along, or just kick it into motion into another plot. For instance, "I have to pee!" turns into "Holy crap, a dragon's attacking the castle! Where's my dog?!" to "Gotta save my dog and get the hell outta here!!" Once the smoke clears, the character goes, "OK, da fuq did that dragon come from and why did it attack??"

    While the character's need to pee isn't really that important in the grand scheme of things, if I opened a book to see a character running down the hall grabbing his/her crotch going, "Oh god, oh god, oh god where's the bathroom!?" then needless to say I'll be sucked into it why? Because for that one moment, the character's desire is evident: he/she needs to go to the bathroom before he/she pisses on the floor.

    If the character has no desire, if they're just going through the motions with no personal investment in the story (aka: the big "Right, and I care about this because...?" question my characters often ask me), then the story wanes.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2017
  6. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    My feeling would be 'just write.' As others have said here, your beginning is very likely to change anyway.

    It's true that you do need a beginning that sucks the reader in, but it doesn't have to be exciting. Just intriguing. Not in the sense of a big mystery that needs solving, but in the sense that your readers will want to know what happens next.

    A desire (or problem) for the introductory character can work a treat to get people involved. However nothing has to start with a bang. In fact, attempting to craft a 'bang' can create a beginning that's way too hyper. The excitement will drop off in the next chapter, creating a sense of anticlimax. That's not the purpose of an opening chapter. The action should start, and begin to rise. Not start at the top and fall down.

    The opener needs to get the reader interested in what happens to the characters or situation they've just encountered. If you start with a heated battle or argument, when we don't yet know the stakes or the characters, that can be a mistake—because we don't yet care who wins. Just the fact that there's a fight going on isn't enough. Somehow the notion that an opening has to be edge-of-the-seat action has become stuck in many new writers' minds, but it's not true. A beginning doesn't have to be exciting. It has to be intriguing.

    By intriguing, I don't mean making a mystery out of everything. (That's another beginner's mistake I've seen a lot recently.) Don't hide your character's identity if you're going to reveal it several paragraphs later. (My current pet peeve.)

    I just read an opening chapter from a new writer which began with 'The seventh president of the United States...' having an important conversation with his Secretary of State. It wasn't till two pages later, that the seventh president turned out to be ...way hey ...Andrew Jackson! There was no need to send me (the reader) to google '7th president' before carrying on with my reading. That was a false mystery that added nothing whatsoever to the story except confusion. Don't create false intrigue by opening with that sort of unnecessary mystery. The tall woman entered the dark room, holding a steel implement—when it's your mom with a spoon in her hand, about to flip on the pantry light.

    You'll have a much better idea of what your beginning needs to be, once you've reached the end of the story. Your beginning not only needs to be intriguing enough to get the reader on board, but it also needs to send the reader off in the right direction. You won't truly know what that direction is, until you've finished your story.

    Don't overwork your beginning AT the beginning. Save that for the edit.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2017
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  7. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    You do need a good opener. But you don't have to be quite so aggressive as to hammer everything into the first line or the first page. In general, yes your opening should conform to the theme of the overall book, give people a taste of what the rest of the book is doing, but in general this isn't actually all that complex. Personally I just try to think about how a movie of the story would start. That's not a perfect way do to it but it's served me fairly well and helps to focus your mind on the right approach. If it's an 'actiony' book then an action scene shows the characters doing action things and that's what the reader came to see. If it's a not so actiony book then jump right into the first plot point and let the characters react to it right up front. In medias res is a bit overused but it's so very useful, especially as an unpublished writer who is trying to headbutt their way to being published, giving a *wham* here is why this book is interesting in the first couple of pages is where you need to be. World building is all well and good but everyone between you and getting published has read a million opening chapters about elder gods and creation myths and how magic in this world is super different you guys.

    Totally agree with @Link the Writer (whose name is ironically not linkable apparently) that desire is a core thing for characters. Personally I look towards the sadness in a character but it's broadly the same thing; things that drive the character and are a big deal to them. That's not always immediately obvious to you as a writer and that's ok, you don't need to know it all to start writing; you're going to go and edit the opening anyway just like everything else you've written, so it's not a big deal. But in the finished version you want to get across that core something of the character. Slap their emotions out on the table and let the character tells us what makes them interesting.

    As a writer of weird, dark romances I consider it a failing to not have a tear jerking moment in the first chapter. Not quite a monstrous emotional whiplash one, but definitely a nice hard tug on the heartstrings that pays off the tension and the angst in the first chapter and show the reader that what they are reading is going dark places, just a sneak peak into all the fucked up stuff that's to come. Mostly I don't need to even manufacture that, it just flows nicely together that the first 'moment' in the book is at the end of that first chapter and recontextualises the content in a sad way.

    This is all a very long way around to say have the character start out by doing what they mostly do in the book, introduce them organically and concisely, then have them run into the first hurdle of the plot. That's how you open.
     
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  8. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    Agree with @jannert. I am a pantser, one who "just writes." The first chapter of the first draft is for you, the writer, and the future reader may never see it. It will focus your mind on what the story is about, who some of the characters are, and gives you a reason for writing chapter 2, rather than staring at a blank screen trying to write the perfect chapter 1 or prologue or whatever, an elusive chimera if there ever was one. Often you won't have the pieces to make a good introduction until you already have the rest of the story in place.
     
  9. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Just write. Odds are that after the novel is written, you'll find that it works best to "cut off its head"--to remove a bunch of setup and find an important moment for the opening. But it's hard to know what that moment is when you're writing the first draft.

    Disclaimer: I say this as someone who has yet to finish a novel. :) But I've READ hundreds of them.
     
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  10. Elven Candy

    Elven Candy Pay no attention to the foot in my mouth Contributor

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    Just keep writing. I'm almost finished with my first draft, and finally I've figured out what I didn't like about my first chapter. And thanks, in part, to this thread for giving me the right inspiration, I know what I want to change it to. Honestly I'd be surprised if anyone's first chapter stayed the same from the first draft to the last.
     
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  11. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    It would be interesting to poll all the writers on this forum who have finished editing their first novel (and had feedback from at least one beta.)

    The question: Is your story's opener still the same as it was when you began writing?

    1) no change (except SPAG tweaks)
    2) minor changes (character names, dates, etc)
    3) changed most of the wording and style
    4) changed focus and emphasis
    5) changed events
    6) opened with a completely different chapter

    I know I'm number 6.
     
  12. D.Q.

    D.Q. New Member

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    I tend to write more freely. I create a basic abstract then I fill in the remaining space as I go by my normal life. Certain things act as stimulus and help me create.
     
  13. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    And I'd be 1)

    As usual, you and I have different approaches, but they both work for each of us!
     
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  14. badgerjelly

    badgerjelly Contributor Contributor

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    I know what I am writing about, but conveying this well in the opening is going to take refining. So I imagine I will be 1&5 haha! (we'll see!)

    I doubt my focus or emphasis will change much, but the events that frame them may. If I was writing a heavg action piece I would imagine certain events would be more rigidly defined.

    It is an interesting thing to think about.
     
  15. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Really? You didn't make any first chapter changes in your first completed novel? Wow. That's pretty cool.

    I assume that as we get better and more experienced at writing novels, we'll probably be able to start off with more confidence and make fewer changes. But the fact you were able to do that right off the bat? You're a very well-organised individual, for sure. That must make your writing a lot less problematic than mine. I take it you're a planner not a pantser? :)

    I'm really good at crafting endings for chapters and the overall story, but man I do struggle with openings! Not so much chapter openings, because I've already laid groundwork in the previous chapter. But opening the story? Yarks. I'm crap at it. I mean I got there eventually, but beginnings don't come naturally to me, even when I know where the story is going. Like I had already finished the damn thing and STILL couldn't decide what the beginning should have been for a long time afterwards.

    Any tips on how to craft a perfect beginning first time?—one you can stick with? What am I missing? I re-wrote mine about a million times, and eventually resorted to cutting all the scenes apart (with scissors ...I literally cut them apart from one another) and spreading them out on the floor till I got them in the order that seemed to work. Even then, I made some changes, after one huge hallelujah moment that made me see something I'd not thought of before. Getting that beginning to work was the biggest problem I had with my novel.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2017
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  16. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I'm a pantser: I'm just really, really stubborn and HATE rewriting! So I'll put myself through whatever contortions are necessary with new writing in order to not have to go back and change something I've already written. (It's entirely possible that I'm not actually a 'writer' in the full sense of the word. I think I may just be a 'drafter'.)

    I'm trying to get over this, to be honest. There are times it would have made way more sense to go back and change things, and sometimes I can force myself to do it, but too often I just insist on continuing and my end product turns out as something quite different than what I anticipated.

    ETA: But in terms of any tip I might have (for what 'works' for me) - I think it's really important to know what the story's about and start writing when that starts happening. I don't give myself scene-setting time beyond maybe a paragraph; I start the story where the story starts.

    So, like, I've got a YA novel about a band of nomads who get dragged into a war. I start that story with the first event that drags them into the war - one or two paragraphs for establishing what life as a nomad has always been, and then BAM, it changed.

    I think having a clear idea of what the story's about really helps me know where I want to start telling it.
     
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  17. rktho

    rktho Contributor Contributor

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    Well, what happens first in your novel? Write about that first.
     
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  18. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    I'm already discovering that with my second novel. I do know exactly where this one is going and I've already written the first four chapters. I'm hoping when I do go back to edit that it won't be the nightmare the first one was.

    I do suspect I'll be making some changes, though. Sometimes as I write, I discover something new, or say something that I might want to foreshadow at the beginning. That was my big breakthrough moment with my first novel's opening, when it dawned on me that a scene that came near the end of the book COULD be foreshadowed right at the start. I'm a lover of 'full circle' stories, and this really worked for me. The foreshadowing seems innocent at the start, but when it does bite at the end I think it makes an impact. And makes the reader remember the beginning as well. I do love those writing moments!

    You are a classic example of a writer with a very good habit. MAKE it work. Dammit. And you can make it work, if you stick to it, can't you?

    I don't have a lot of problem with that approach myself. In fact I enjoy working things out as they come up. However, when it comes to openers, I do get stuck. Or rather I did. Mind you, at the time I knew NOTHING about crafting a book. I didn't even begin to read creative writing books till after I'd finished my first draft. Now I think I know lots more of the tricks. I suspect book two won't be quite the slog the first one was. Here's hoping.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2017
  19. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    Number 6 for me also
     
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  20. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Yes, but that doesn't always work. It's DECIDING what happens first in a novel that can be hard, unless it's the creation myth retold. Where does anybody's story start? Dickens did a good job with David Copperfield. "I Am Born." But you don't always want to start with that, do you? So do you start at the point of change? Do you start with the way things are before a change happens? If so, how far back do you go? It's very easy to get this wrong if you haven't written your story yet.

    I know with mine I started at the point of change—in time-honored fashion. And as my first betas came back to me with feedback on my first finished draft, it turned out they wanted to know more (at the outset) about how the character got to that point in his life. So I had to backtrack and show an inciting incident in his earlier life. However, it wasn't until I started working on my second draft that this need became apparent. It occasioned a complete new 'first chapter.' I started again at the point of change, but it was an earlier change. And then I had to tweak THAT till it worked.

    I could have stuck to my original, basically telling people the mystery would all come clear at the end. But SO many people wanted to know, I gave in. And I feel my story is a lot stronger now. And it's got a different focus.
     
  21. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    I'm a straight up number 1 and have been for everything I've written and edited.

    Not because I'm especially clever (I am, but not at this) just that I come up with ideas by sketching out those intro moments. When I'm thinking of a story or a character or whatever the only thing I care about is if that first moment engages me and makes me want to write it. As a result unless I've failed utterly with both the idea and the execution it's not likely to change. That first moment of engagement is how I know I want to actually finish this story and I've found something that really shines out as being interesting.

    I think this is something that most 'pantser' (we need a better word, can someone please form a committee to find a better word) writers are going to encounter. I suspect that 'planner' writers are the ones who are more focused on a moment or event later in the plot and may not do the intro justice and I can understand that. Whoever you are we all want to write the interesting bits and those are the bits we care about doing justice to. Problem is of course that the intro pretty much has to be interesting and no matter how unimportant it is to the book overall the intro needs to be a high point; it has to hold the reader until they hit the next big beat, which is probably a couple of chapters away.
     
  22. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    That's a really interesting point - I think it works for my writing, too.

    When I start writing something, it's because I have the opening scene in my mind. Like, I know the characters (roughly) and I know the setting (roughly) and I know what the main conflict is (roughly). So... that's the first scene. I wouldn't start writing a story if I didn't have some idea of those three elements, and once I know those three elements, the first scene seems quite obvious.
     
  23. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    Yeah, it's something that seems very obvious if you write a certain way, like what else could you do? But when I was starting out writing I didn't follow that instinct, I put the first scene that I had written where the two leads meet each other a little way in with another introduction before it. At the time I felt that this was necessary, because I wanted something to set up that this book is more of a black comedy and that establishes the world and the conceit of the book. I think as it was I was right, at least with the book as it was. The intro was funny but not very funny and what I really cared about was these big dark beats. I should have just followed my inclination and dropped that first scene first, where one character extorts the others vote from here with the free heroin; that's much more compelling and much more interesting and just a much better indication of what the rest of the book was.

    But we learn these lessons by doing. I never really tried to up my intro game really, I just got better at following my instincts for whats good and notably I stopped trying to write comedy and focused on the bits I was really good at. I just cut the extraneous elements and let myself just write the plot I wanted to write instead of thinking I needed to world build in the real world or introduce characters by showing them 'at rest' because that's just not interesting. Instead start at the start of the actual plot and let the characters show themselves as they come up.
     
  24. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    I write by the seat of pants. :p

    Just put something down and then have it critiqued or beta read to see if it works or not. :)
     
  25. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    I started writing the E&D around 1995 when I read in "The Ancient Mariners" (non-fiction history, not the poem) that the Romans had a presence in the court of China in 166AD. I discussed this with my carpool partner, who asked the key question: "Wow, I wonder what the first trip would have been like." Since we were parked on the Beltway on the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge that morning, we had plenty of time to talk about cultural conflicts etc. That night I knocked off a couple of pages, two Roman soldiers sparring with swords in what appeared to be an oriental Dojon, then after the bout, talking about what a different world this was, the language like a song, wondering if slavery and freedom meant the same here as back in Rome, or if they were even understood at all. It was awkward, because it was a flashback of them there, followed by the two soldiers detaching from their legion in Syria, a little about why they were going. But it introduced me to two of my characters and the historical settings, enough to keep me going while I figured out how to get them there and back, their adventures. The second chapter (legion detachment) stayed, but the first chapter didn't make it to the second edit. In fact, it didn't get that far... I picked this up around 2013 after a 13 year gap, and revised the intro considerably, using information I didn't know twenty years ago, though I reused the sword drill for a much later chapter.

    So yeah, that paragraph got my mind around the big picture in just a few pages, and got me started... it had served its purpose.
     

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