I agree. Let each book open the way they wish. Most of mine isn't in the middle of some epic battle, hell one of them is just two friends talking in a diner! Wow, epic battles fought right there accompanied by ominous Latin choir. Hmm...come to think of it, maybe I could have a movie play on a small TV in the diner, and while the friends are talking, dramatic music is playing and there's screaming and shouting from the TV. "Don't call it!" <ominous Latin choir music plays as the MC stares at the phone with serenity> "Dude, c'mon!" And blue blankets. Always blue blankets. Though my favorite blankets are a healthy, deep green.
All my beginnings so far have immediately locked in on a character doing something that involves some amount of tension and discomfort. To what degree depends on which story it is. For instance, one opens on a girl playing guitar outside, quickly approaching the point at which the words start and struggling with whether to overcome embarrassment and sing or succumb and just hum quietly. Ultimately it's separate from the main conflict but still highly relevant, in that much of the story centers on her performing in public. However, in another story, I open with my main character coming home early from a business trip to find her husband in bed with another woman. Surprise surprise, that's the driving conflict behind the rest of the story--the divorce settlement, child custody battle, emotional turmoil, etc. My most recent idea has me opening on a driver slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting a deer. Further down the road some plot happens. The deer will likely be a recurring symbol or something. Maybe. This one's still in its infancy. Point being, I'm definitely in the camp that disagrees with the "always start with action" sentiment. Hey, if you're writing action, it probably is best to start with action. But if you're not, then it really doesn't make much sense (unless for your particular case it does). Not every conflict has lives at stake. Not every conflict has explosions and car chases. But you know what every conflict does have? Conflict. So start there. Give us the character. Give us the character doing something (she doesn't have to be moving, per se--she could be sitting on her bed holding a razorblade to her wrist, debating how far she's ready to go). Make that something be uncomfortable to some degree. Whether that conflict is part of the central conflict or not doesn't necessarily matter. But it needs to be there, because conflict shows character, and character is what the reader is going to latch onto. All in my humblest of opinions, of course
I start all of my chapters in a similar structure, now that you got me thinking about it, be it the first in the book or not. I put a lot of energy into a catchy first sentence and also a catchy final sentence of the first 1000 words or so, creating a sort of mini-arc right at the beginning. But within this "structure" (which is far from a hard and fast rule, more like a guideline) the content can be anything; flashback/forward, internal monologue, detail montage, action scene, or even just a brief jump in time from the previous chapter. Beginnings are such great opportunities for setting the tone, on any scale, and I like them to have lots of style and momentum. But, I totally agree--there's no blanket answer and no reason to set up massive, action-heavy stakes right from the get-go. I like to get the mind going first, then the pulse.
My WIP: The origin of the universe. (And no it is not a prologue, but it is entirely central for the first 340,000 words or so.) Many of the (later) scenes can be appreciated almost like short stories or finer plot threads which tie together. All of these threads begin with indulging in daily life in the midst of (typically minor) conflicts. Can I change my answer? Let's use one of these and just label it "Slice of [Ibikian] Life".
I think a lot of the advice about starting with a kick comes from reading too many stories that start with backstory, or elaborate scene-setting, or whatever else that isn't actually the start of the story. My favourite advice about openings is to start where your story starts. It seems a bit simple, but... your story doesn't start with backstory - that's already happened. Your story doesn't start with an elaborate scene. It starts when something changes. I don't mean that the change has to come in the first line, or that you can't set any scene whatsoever. But usually my first paragraphs show what has changed in the character's life. My current WIP has a street kid desperately searching for a vet who will help his puppy - everything else in the story happens because of the vet he finds (in the first paragraph). The novel before that started with the lawyers walking into the small town diner my heroine runs. The heroine had done something months earlier that caused the lawyers to come, but I don't need to put that in my first paragraph... the story really starts when things change, and things change when the lawyers walk into the diner.
I try to do something that sums up the whole book, at least in style and tone, if not in content. Then a reader who likes the opening should also like the book... and vice-versa.
Some years ago, I spent some time in a library reading the opening pages of published novels. Novels pulled more or less at random from different genres. This was in response to me seeing many examples of amateur writing where my response to reading was more or less 'get on with it'. I found that none of the published fiction had introductions that felt slow, or that made me feel that I was waiting for something to happen. It wasn't a matter of them all following the same formula, far from it. But every single one of the published novels had first pages that drew me in and left me wanting to read more. Even those that broke rules, e.g. starting with infodumps. They were good infodumps.
*proceeds to write this book immediately* Coyly, is how I started Jack's adventure. I had no choice, given the world he's in and what he's doing there. I know all his secrets, but god damn he doesn't want me telling anyone. As we follow him through the first chapter, I am forced to write ever more carefully. A hint here, a conspicuous object there. An info-dump would be utterly pointless, it would end the book. I admit, I'm attempting to drive my readers mad with curiosity. (Is it working, guys?) But that's the kind of first chapter I would want to read: one that makes me angry because each clue just leads to another, more exciting one and I can't turn the pages fast enough.
Are you a fan of "After London" by Richard Jefferies? The problem with writing longer works is that someone working on shorter fiction can get there first. Here is a 44 word 'story'. (Though, it's NAS as there is no development). Doctor Melanie Philips, in her pristine white coat and dirty black gumboots, gazed at the cows in the trees. She'd told the director time and time again. The country's top agricultural genetic engineering laboratory simply ISN'T a suitable place for inexperienced unpaid interns.
I find that the books I enjoy most involve the reader being thrown into the story. In mine I'm trying to gradually build up the full picture of who my character is so I've tried to open with a situation that will make the reader guess a little bit about what's went wrong in this guys life and hopefully that will encourage people to turn the page and read the rest of it! (that's the idea anyways)
Yes. I remember a comment by an agent a few years ago along the lines of "there's nothing wrong with most first novels you can't fix by cutting the first three chapters." Much unpublished fiction just starts in the wrong place. That said, I think the first Harry Potter book is one exception to the rule. I found the first chapter really dull, and would have put it back on the bookstore shelf if there hadn't been years of hype first. I'm guessing that's why it was rejected so many times before someone read past the first chapter.
As long as I keep being in 3rd-Omni it might make it there. Trying out 3rd Limited is like stabbing yourself in the eye with a broken needle. Everyone says "use less words", but sacrificing context it is not fun and 3rd Omni is just so much more entertaining with non-humans. Have not read it, but I am a fan of Legend of Galactic Heroes by Dr. Yoshiki Tanaka. I very much like layered interactions, conversations, and such where the unspoken depths far exceed the contents of the page.
Today I've been reading famous first lines. Many of these are from the classics, but some list first lines of more recent texts. There are some real brilliant ones. IMHO the best way to start a novel is to start with a brilliant line and then continue on without the quality decreasing.
1984 is one of my favourite opening lines. It's completely mundane until the last word, then suddenly you're not in Kansas any more. Also interesting, because the first draft of the opening is online somewhere, so you can see how much Orwell changed between that and the published novel.
Following the old rule of show, not tell. I'd rather show. But since I have nothing I can show. I'd tell. Always leave them wanting for more, make it fun.
Depends on the tone of the story. If it is serious, then basically plunge the poor unsuspecting reader into the thick of things. For everything else, I try to entice them a bit at a time. Draw them into the story by building up the complexity of it.
In my current WIP it opens with the MC commentating on the morbidity of religion before calmly murdering a priest. It is later revealed that the priest did human sacrifices but it still sets the creepy tone for the rest of the book. I'm not exactly sure that kind of thing is a good hook though, because it's quite off-putting to have the first page be like la de da, lets just kill a priest and then laugh about it. I suppose it's kind of like a warning. If that makes them uncomfortable they probably shouldn't read the rest. In my other WIP, it opens with Mark teleporting into the space-NSA, copying the data from a specific hard drive to another unknown computer via quantum entanglement, before being shot to high hell by a coalition of armed guards. It is later revealed for those of you who do not know, that teleportation does not move an individual, rather it creates a copy of the original so only xerox-Mark died and the original has the data. This, I feel, sets the tone of the rest of the book quite well because its full of plot twists you can see coming if you know enough about science and math. And I agree, using an action packed scene as a hook is only a good idea if it represents what the rest of the book is like. Otherwise it's just false advertising.
In my current WIP (Aliens Don't Bend at the Knees, in case anyone doesn't know by now) I originally—in the first draft—started with a lot of backstory. It didn't work. Over the next six drafts, I slowly pared down the backstory more and more until now, there are only two or three sentences—well spread out—that say anything other than what's going on in the opening scene. And each of those sentences are targeted at revealing character conflict. Something I read a long time ago (and I have no idea who said it) was that the opening paragraph (or two) should convey the mood of the story, (at least) imply the genre, and get the character moving in some direction that will put him/her on a collision course with the inciting incident. In the first 1000 words, I simply try to get the reader interested enough to read on until they get to that inciting incident, which usually doesn't appear until somewhere around page 10 to 20.
My main character is a recent member of a group of high school "superheroes" who go around in costume cleaning graffiti and performing other minor good deeds. I open with her preparing to go on patrol while her guardian tries to reassure himself that they're not doing anything really dangerous and she probably won't get herself hurt. I guess it's an unusual beginning in that nothing directly plot-important happens--everything's character-building, setting-building, and foreshadowing. I do create mystery in the main character's backstory, though, revealing that she was found alive after her parents' murder and still refuses to talk about what happened.
