Beginning a Story With a Flash Forward

Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by RabidChipmunk, Apr 15, 2012.

  1. RabidChipmunk

    RabidChipmunk Member

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    Yeah, you're probably right. My main concern isn't that the beginning is "boring" so much as it is "not interesting enough to hook the reader." I was hoping that if I could promise good times further on, curiosity would do a better job luring in readers while I get them through the stuff not as interesting.

    But I'll try to find a way to introduce my main character and the MacGuffin. I thought about explaining the process by which the MacGuffin was actually lost and made its way to earth, but my instincts keep telling me not to do it. I don't want the audience to learn anything about it before my main character does, and I don't want to write the story from another character's perspective at any point -- after all, this is her story. But I'll find something to work with. Still, if you have anymore bits of advice you're willing to dispense, I'd be more than happy to hear them.
     
  2. Show

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    Gotta love the "first page hook" advice. Repeated so much and yet I still feel it's probably one of the most useless pieces of advice to give unless you have a specific first page in front of you.

    You think? lol Most writing "rules" are taken a little too seriously by those who give advice. Those who are actually publishing books don't seem to care much for these rules at all. At least, not from what I've seen from looking at published books.

    And of course, the moment you question one absolute, the person adhering to it immediately tries to paint you as believing in the radical opposite. I think the first page should hook but I also feel that there are so many ways to do that,. You'll never know if a first page is gonna hook until you actually write it. No unwritten first page is gonna hook.
     
  3. Nakhti

    Nakhti Banned

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    Useless because it doesn't include a fool proof formula for actually doing it? Well of course not. That would be cheating ;)

    What's your basis for this statement? Looking at other published books and assuming that, because some of them break the 'rules', that agents and publishers don't actually give a toss about these unspoken 'rules'? Believe me, they do. It's just that every now and then something comes along that 'just works' despite refusing to conform to tried and tested forumlas for success, and no one can really explain why. But it is false logic to extrapolate this to mean that breaking the rules is a good thing, especially for inexperienced writers.

    I'm not saying you believe the exact opposite. We seem to agree on the same thing: if you don't hook your reader on the first page, then the rest of the book is redundant. Agents and publishers will generally give you ten lines or less. It doesn't have to hook with action, it can be a beautiful image or an intriguing setting, or just the most exquisitely lyrical language they've ever read... but you've got to show them your book is worth sticking with, because at the outset they have no good will for you at all, no compunction about putting your book back on the shelf if it doesn't capture their 10 second attention span.
     
  4. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    I'm totally with you on everything you say here.
     
  5. Show

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    @nakhi: Useless because it's meaningless advice that's often interpreted (and misinterpreted) a lot of ways. Most general advice is like that. lol Kinda like saying "Eat Healthy." Good advice on the surface? Sure. Does it really mean all that much? Not really. I feel a lot of the "writing rules" are like this.

    It seems to me unless your story is the "every now and then" book, you probably won't get published at all no matter how good you think your first page is. lol I am not saying that "breaking" rules is a good thing. I am saying that a lot of advice givers like to make rules that are only quasi-followed by actual writers, at best. (I love how we're supposed to read to find out what good writing is until we come across something that goes against what these all-knowing people who give advice on writing forums say, and then we're supposed to disregard what we saw cause there are different rules for published authors.) IMO, vague and aimless rules like "start with a bang"/"hook your reader on the first page" really tell the author absolutely nothing.

    Most people do try to paint you as that though. If you don't believe that you need the book's entire plot spelled out by the end of page 1, they start going on about having pages and pages of purple prose about the lake. And look, right there, you've already shown a difference with somebody else on here. You say that an intriguing setting can hook and others say you gotta have the main conflict spelled out. Everybody says to hook the reader, yet everybody seems to have incompatible parameters about what CAN do that. Call me a rebel but writing "rules" like this seem to do more harm than good. I'm more the type to have somebody write it out and see if their vision works. Cause having them second-guess their vision before they even write it seems destined to lead to incomplete works.

    Write the story. If you want a flashforward, go for it! :D Start with a book? Hook the reader in the first ten lines? You really want to do this? You want to hook me as a reader? Then tell me your story and stop worrying about whether or not it meets the rules checklists that people give you.
     
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