Friday, March 9, 2012
How to Lose a Reader in Ten Pages or Less by Teresa Kennedy
Few writers really understand just how important the
beginning of a novel can be. Sure, they’ll read all that stuff about a grabber
opening line, the pros and cons of prologues, how NOT to begin chapter one with
dialogue, or background, or from somewhere inside your protagonist’s head, but
almost inevitably, every unpublished writer commits any or all of those
mistakes in the first ten pages of their book.
As valid as those rules of thumb might be, each is only
partially true. A good prologue can work just fine if it draws the reader into
the world of the story. So can dialogue, if it’s bright and engaging, and while
excess background doesn’t belong in that first paragraph, it’s equally
important to set the scene and include what’s relevant as the story opens. By
the same token, many great novels begin inside the protagonist’s mind, but it
only works when it’s a truly compelling character.
So why are so many novels doomed to the slush heap because
prospective readers, editors or agents don’t read past your sample? Because
most writers fail to understand one simple truth: You don’t understand anything
about how to begin your novel until you’ve written the end of it. Instead,
writers tend to begin a story with a head full of questions and keep on writing
until they discover how to answer them. As a result, I’ve seen literally
hundreds of manuscripts where it’s all too obvious just how many pages in they
were before the story really began.
Only but the most dedicated and savvy authors among us
actually go back and gut renovate their opening pages from the perspective of
one who knows how the book ends. Fact is, though, there’s no one better
equipped to create a truly compelling opening. And once you know the end of the
tale, your task is to go back to that beginning and use it to plant some
relevant questions in the reader’s mind—“Why does every woman in the world fall
for this guy except her?” “What does he mean—nobody wants to be born in
Pennsylvania?” Or even, “Why do vampires
have to go to high school, anyway?”
Whether your opening evokes obvious or subtle questions in
your reader’s mind, they serve as the principle means of getting us engaged in
the story you have to tell. Questions keep us reading, and when we stop
reading, chances are it’s because you’re telling us too much about all sorts of
things that are essentially irrelevant. Nobody needs to know how old your
character is, or talk about the weather or suddenly learn that Biff has hated
Brussels sprouts since that time at Grandma’s and drives a Lexus if those
things don’t have any bearing on what’s going on in the moment. Great novel
openings keep to the essentials; they establish your authority to tell the
story and do it in such a way that they raise questions and spark a reader’s
curiosity. If your opening doesn’t do those things, it’s time to give it
another look.
It is true that opening lines in novels are just as
important as they are anywhere else, but even the best opening line isn’t going
to mean much if the paragraphs that follow don’t flow naturally from it, or
worse, revert to the dull or non-essential. So let’s consider some of the
approaches to a great opening by category.
The importance of IT.
Usually presented as “It is” or It was…”, the all important It gives a writer a
certain amount of authority combined with some flexibility. You can follow
through with a scene or setting, a summary or even more abstract imagery that
allows you to establish some questions in the reader’s mind. “It was a bright cold day in April and the
clocks were striking thirteen.” Orwell’s "1984" does both handily. The danger
of It lies only in the temptation to cliché—“ It was a dark and stormy whatever…”
The Omniscient View. The
omniscient approach is wonderfully useful because it provides the reader with
an instant frame of reference.Happy
families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Novels that begin with blanket statements like
we find in Tolstoy’s "Anna Karenina," also establish the narrator’s authority,
and pique the reader’s curiosity with a subtler series of questions—what does
he mean by that? Who is unhappy? How? End result? We keep reading.
Beginning in the Middle. With this approach, you begin in the middle—of the action anyhow, and if well done, it serves to draw the reader in quite directly. Frequently, this approach challenges the reader, sometimes
through the use of direct address, as in "The Color Purple": “You better not never tell
nobody but God.”
Dialogue. Is very similar to beginning in the
middle, because it also draws the reader immediately into the action, only this
time, the action is in the form of dialogue. The key to its effectiveness as an
opening however, is whether or not your dialogue ( and any attributions
thereto) is actually interesting enough to keep us reading in addition to
raising those questions. “Take my camel,
dear,” said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return
from High Mass.” Rose McCauley, "The Towers of Trebizon."
Meet and Greet. Character introductions can serve a
novel’s opening both in a third or in a first person narration, but they’re not
going to really be compelling enough to keep us reading unless you’re somehow
deft enough to be able to fully establish a character and raise questions about
that character at the same time. Consider C.S. Lewis’ "The Dawn Treader": “ There was a boy called Eustace Clarence
Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Or, from a first person perspective,
John Barth’s:In a sense, I am Jacob
Horner.”
Whatever your
approach to what you thought was a great opening when you first sat down to
write, chances are it’s not going to look as good by the time the novel is
finished, so take a good long look, get another pair of eyes if need be and
don’t be afraid to begin again—at the beginning, of course.
Need help?
Check out our critique services at http://villagegreenpressLLC.com
Price for a critique of your first 25 pages? Just $35.
Priceless.
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Great post!
ReplyDeleteUh-oh - don't begin chapter one with dialogue? I think I need some VGP critiquing!
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