By Susan Gray Foster
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| New Clubs by jayniebell |
Although there are no hard and fast rules, generally speaking, opening
chapters must introduce the reader to a main character they will care about, ground
the reader in a setting, and establish conflict and tension, and the writer
must do all this with an engaging voice,
using a tone that is appropriate to the novel, without resorting to exposition,
info dumps, or chunks of back-story.
It’s kind of like juggling: To open a novel, a writer must throw a
lot of balls into the air at once and keep them there.
Some writing advice suggests that openings must show the main character
in their “normal world” before an inciting incident occurs. Others suggest that
a novel should begin when something changes for the main character. The opening
scenes of two of my favorite YA novels, ELEANOR
AND PARK and ALL
THE BRIGHT PLACES, do both of these things at once:
Rainbow Rowell’s ELEANOR
AND PARK opens with Park’s normal life; he’s on a bus, heading for high
school in 1980s middle-America. Within the opening paragraphs we learn that
Park tries to “keep his head down” to avoid unwanted attention from the mean-spirited
“popular” teens who sit at the back of the bus. Tension and conflict occur
immediately as the popular kids pester him and make ignorant, demeaning comments
about Park and his Korean mother, but Park is adept at navigating the high
school cliques, and at tuning them out by listening to the era’s edgy new music on
his headphones.
Then change happens: Eleanor gets on the bus. We empathize with Park as
he desperately avoids offering a seat to the awkward, attracts-attention-in-all-the-wrong-ways
new girl, and then does it anyway, setting the story in motion.
ALL
THE BRIGHT PLACES, by Jennifer Niven, opens with the male protagonist,
Theo, asking, “Is today a good day to die?” This opening line hits with an
unexpected punch, and it hooks, compelling the reader to find out what sort of
person would ask this question and why. In the next few sentences, we learn
that Theo asks himself this question continually within the context of his
day-to-day life as a high school student. And we discover that he is asking
himself that question now, as he stands on the ledge of a tall building at his
high school. We have a main character with a unique, engaging voice, we have a
setting, and we have tension and conflict as Theo struggles with suicidal urges,
all within a couple hundred words.
As Theo teeters on the ledge of the bell tower, we learn that his
classmates refer to him as, “Theodore Freak,” and that they have become so desensitized
to his strange, reckless behavior, they virtually ignore his precarious
situation. This is Theo’s normal life. Information and back-story are woven seamlessly
into a compelling scene taking place at present.
A few pages in, Theo discovers that he is not alone on the ledge of the
tower. This will lead him to take action in a way that sets the story in
motion. For Theo, something has changed.
Where to begin
When writing a first draft, trying to create a great opening scene with
all the right elements, like the ones in these examples, would probably drive most
writers insane and they would never get words down on paper. Everyone’s writing
process is unique, but many find it works best to just start somewhere and
write. Later, when the writer has a better handle on the important aspects of their
novel, they can go back and rework the opening scene (usually, multiple times(!),
with the help of good beta readers and critique partners.
… Or you can just throw everything in the air and try to juggle! ;)
For some other takes on openings, check out Where to Start Your Story,
by #Pitch Wars mentor, Kes Trester, and How
to Write a First Line that Hooks, by #Pitch Wars mentor, Stephanie Scott.
Thoughts on strong openings and how to write them? Please share in the
comments below!
