Novel Weak ways to start a novel

It's not about what you write. It's about how you write it. Always.

A skilled writer can make pretty much anything sound interesting.

But do understand that there is no such thing as 'the reader'. There's an ocean of readers out there, with a wide range of different educational and cultural backgrounds, all with their own personal reading preferences. You can't expect to please them all. You really can't. Know your audience.

Cheers,
Rob

 

Personally, I like to read, and write, stories that have a bit of action at the start then answer 2 questions: Why did that happen? and What is the MC going to do about it?

 

if you must start with a cemetery visit, keep it brief... make it impactful, dramatic, and containing at least a hint to what the story will be, so there's something for the readers to look forward to, since they won't care who's died, or how the character at the grave feels about it...

 

You know, there are plenty of openings that are neither brief nor dramatic, and that work just fine. There's nothing about a cemetery visit that requires it to be brief or dramatic, though of course it could be. Such an opening can be perfectly satisfactory for the reader without necessarily caring for the person who has died or how the character at the grave feels. It's all about how it's written.

Cheers,
Rob

 

Thanks everyone. This is great advice. I'm not too sure how it's going to look as of now, but I've got two ideas. : )

 

Consider your other scene with his girlfriend and the magician. Let most of the events play out until you get to the build-up of this sequence. Then begin writing. We have no clue about your MC having left the army, or what is wrong with the sick girl. We just see the tension in the room while the magician is working and the MC is struggling with thoughts in his head. The background of the event can wait.

Not knowing what is actually going on or who the people are is what triggers our curiosity as readers and keep us reading. It's similar to walking in on a conversation mid-way...aren't you just dying to know what everyone's laughing at? What did you miss? That's a good effect to trigger.

 

Reading through this thread reminded me of the beginning of Interview with a vampire. When Louis starts out giving his story to the reporter he begins "I was born, I grew up..." Most stories don't start at the very beginning of anyone's life. In this case Louis story didn't start until after he was in his twenties, which is where he starts the story, when his wife died in child birth and he was in the throws of a deep depression, that's when he meets Lestat. Then he was born again into the life of the night.

Where to begin the story is an important decision. If you start it too early then the reader is likely to get bored before you get to the good stuff. If you start it too late, then you have to go back and do too much explaining to catch the reader up. It's like Goldielocks, it has to be just right. You have to find the place that isn't too far back to bore the reader, or too far forward forcing yourself to do too much telling to get the reader to where they need to be.

This means you have to start somewhere between when your MC was born and the beginning of their adventure. How you begin your opening to make it make the reader want to read the story happens in the first line, then the first paragraph. Those few lines have to compel the reader to want to read beyond the first page, beyond the first chapter, because they have to find out what is going on and how the character will be effected by these events.

When I buy a new book, unless I have read many reviews and want to see what all the talk is about, I generally read the first page of the book to see if it is something I am going to want to read. If I feel like I HAVE to keep reading I buy it. If it doesn't grab me, then I put it back.

No one can tell you how to write a good opening. You have to decide that on your own.

From what I understand, you are opening with the eulogy. This might be a little late in the story to have as the opening. As some have pointed out, the characters aren't developed and the reader has no opinion on whether it is moving or not. Getting the reader into the MC head before he starts his speech might be the better way to go. Starting from maybe that morning before the funeral, his interactions with family, his thoughts while preparing for the funeral. His memories of his father...practicing the parts of the speech in the mirror... (this is also a good way to not have to do the whole speech later on too.)

Starting with a speech isn't probably the best way to grab the reader. It might be better as the ending of the first chapter...or in the middle of the chapter, but not as the opening. You have to feel sucked into the story before you bring an emotional cresting. The giving of the speech would be the emotional high after the lead up...then you'd have the character going back down the hill leading to the next conflict/cliff hanger at the end of the chapter.

So you need to start at the bottom of the hill leading up to the emotional high at the end of the climb. This would mean you need to start earlier than the speech at the beginning of the book.

Does that make sense?

 

The thing is about eulogies, is that you as the writer know the dead character, who he was, why he was important. All the reader knows is what you tell him through the eulogy. So you, as the writer, who knows how the plot is going to be played out, know the significance of the character and the eulogy as it happens, where for the reader, this is their first glimpse at what is going on.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, because you're writing the story, it seems significant to you because you know why when you read it.