Maybe there are examples of openings with too big of 'bangs', but maybe they are unpublished. When they get to the point of being published, they've probably gone through enough screening to determine that their 'bang' opening works well...I don't know. This is an interesting topic though. I know that people have said it's hard to care about whatever crazy thing is happening to the characters if you do it at the start because you don't yet know or care about the characters... so maybe you don't care about the characters yet, maybe the 'bang' opening just serves to spark your interest in how they got there and the caring about characters can then begin to follow as you build the story. I think in this case, it would serve well for such an opening to be relatively short.
If you start off too big, you have nowhere to go but down. It's just not good storytelling, and you will lose readers as they realize the promise of the first few pages has fizzled. Start strongly enough to grab your readers' interest, but keep in mind you still need to build (in waves, not a flat slope!) to a climax.
Interesting topic. Conflict will always be key. If it's well defined, and we can imagine how difficult it will be for the protagonist to overcome, then we'll read on. I simply cannot imagine a scenario where you could start with "too much" of a bang unless you had not given clear initiative and thought to what the story actually was. The bang must inform the action of the story. I could imagine writing a book where the first chapter introduces us to a happily married couple, a recently demoted FBI agent, and a trio of school teachers all dealing with the perils of their every day life-- and then a nuke goes off in their city. It's a "bang," but it's not a climax. We can relate to the inciting action and wonder what it would be like in that situation. The world around the characters turns to chaos, and conflict could be drawn from the well indefinitely. Our ending must satisfy, but it's the journey that drives us as readers. We always knew Harry Potter would win, right? In answer to your question, go with your gut. We don't have to know who a character is as they die, we just have to know that the other characters cared. Sidenote: loving this forum. Found it the other day and stalked it for a few days before being unable to resist posting.
Alright, I know it's trendy to like him, but an author who's truly great at this sort of thing is Chuck Palahniuk. He makes sure that you are going to read his book by getting you engaged in his rhythm and pace right off the bat. First few lines of Choke... "If you're going to read this, don't bother. After a couple pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while you're still in one piece. Save yourself." Immediately engaged. Survivor... "Testing, testing. One, two, three. Testing, testing. One, two, three. Maybe this is working. I don't know. If you can even hear me, I don't know. But if you can hear me, listen." An example of demanding you to pay attention, intently. Fight Club... "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. For a long time though, Tyler and I were best friends. People are always asking, did I know about Tyler Durden." Now you want to know about Tyler Durden. I've always loved this about him, although I've heard some poor things about his last couple novels.
Heh. Like you, I'm still not convinced it is possible. Most of the criticism seems to be not of the opening itself but what comes after.
I like to set up my novels much like movies. Either with a thought or idea. Or start off with the setting the way movies pan into the setting and then zoom in on the character. Most of my style is directed by thought action. Rather than physical action. Personally I find a philosophical idea much more intriguing than a car exploding any time. There was always an appeal to Edgar Allan Poe, who directed his stories through thought rather than action. A lot of the character was lost if you couldn't read inside their mind.
Start off with a bang. How big a bang is up to you. It could be something like an evil sorceress causing a volcano to spew forth magma and flame, or a detective chomping upon donuts and spilling coffee on the floor, then getting berated by his weary boss. Either way, you have a good opening and *some* character's personalities developed.
Agreeing with most of the above I will add: it's not the bang, as such, it's how it is written. Give the reader something they can relate to and find believable and present it in a way that they can empathise with and you have cracked it. Simple. if only it was that easy. Good luck
