What's important in an opening?

Seems like everyone complains about openings. Writers don't know what works best for the story. Readers all want something different— action right away to hook them, a short and intriguing stroll through the story's world and laws before the action, heaven forbid it start with a flashback, En Media Res.... and each of the above has its own set of recommendations. It goes on and on. At the end of the day, what should matter most is that it serves as an effective introduction to the story— not a tiring infodump, nor is it keeping essential information hidden away, frustrating us enough to put the book down. But it's a difficult balance.

What are your thoughts? How do you achieve your ideal?

edited 30th Aug '11 8:52:54 PM by snowfoxofdeath

In my opinion, the opening should be as close to the inciting incident as possible while providing enough exposition in between. Also, there should be tension in the opening scene. Even if it isn't an action scene, character interaction could help hook the readers into the story. Also, it's important to introduce the protagonist properly.

Well, the rules are very different for fanfic, but the sorts of openings I would tend to use start in on the interesting bits straight away—this holds especially for fanfic, where you don't have to do any world-building really because the reader theoretically already knows the world. The rule would still hold for original fiction, though, I would imagine—you want to get to plot value relatively soon.

The first few pages are an intense juggling act to balance: characterization; scene setting; conflict; tension; raising questions in the reader's mind; setting mood and tone; and probably a dozen other things.

The most common mistake I see, fan fic or otherwise, is info dumps, info dumps everywhere.

Don't fill me in on the backstory on the very first page. Don't give me the character's life history yet (or ever). Don't explain how the world works, all of it, in one go. You haven't given me a reason to care about what's going on yet.

As a noob writer, I know more of what not to do than how to do it right. How did Frank Herbert put it in Dune? A beginning is a most delicate time.

Edit: most of the time I go back and re-write a beginning completely after I've finished a rough draft. There's too much going on at the start to worry about nailing it when I'm more concerned about surviving the agony of completing the story.

In selecting a starting point for the story, I try to set it as late into the timeline as possible. Beginning at the beginning is for suckers.

edited 30th Aug '11 9:55:39 PM by MildGuy

Two things:

1. A hook.

2. Lots of questions that I'll get around to answering, sooner or later (depending on the story and the questions raised by the reader).

edited 31st Aug '11 12:29:51 PM by Newfable

^^ To expand on that, I think introducing elements of a world is like creating a good tutorial for a video game. You don't front-load all the gameplay elements when some of them won't be necessary until much later—in fact, you may continue to introduce new elements throughout the game. However, you should provide buildup to elements that are hard to handle—before a puzzle that requires dragging a boat onto shore, you need to have earlier puzzles that introduce the concept of dragging. (This is one reason I'm resistant to the concept of serialization—sometimes you think of an interesting concept partway through the story, but you can only put it in if you haven't already posted the beginning, since you need to insert foreshadowing for it.)

edited 31st Aug '11 4:13:19 PM by feotakahari

As a reader I don't mind having to learn things as I go along, it's easier that way anyway, as long as it's not mindscrewingly difficult to even understand what the narrator is saying (looking at you, A Clockwork Orange).

As a writer, I'd like to ask what sort of "hook" you guys prefer.

It depends. I have a hard time with openings. I usually do a prologue, and then some kind of action-packed first chapter. Sometimes—more rarely—the action-packing comes in the prologue itself.

If I haven't killed someone by the end of the first chapter, I'm doing it wrong...

Crap, I didn't kill anyone in a first chapter yet...

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOactually I'm alright with it.

I've read some other writers writing about how to write right, and they usually mention that prologues are a bad idea, not because they're superfluous (though some might argue that point), but because now you've set yourself up to hook your readers twice; seeing as how a hook is usually pretty hard to pull off, most writers will just abandon the idea.

Kudos to anyone who can pull off a prologue well, truly.

@Snow: What do you mean by opening?

The beginning of a work, the first thing we see. What will shape our expectations.

Ah. I asked, not to be difficult, but because—like you said—every reader is looking for different things, and really, you can make a case for every "do" or "don't" on this thread.

Was there something in particular that is bothering you?

What isn't? Mistakes or weirdnesses in the opening can cause people to put the book down or hit the back button.

I'd almost say that you need to tell your story in miniature. Many people do.

Well, it depends on genre, too. I'm all about Speculative Fiction and high-impact genres, so this works fine because I'm going to be killing a lot of people over the course of the book.

I don't really know why I use a prologue. Functionally speaking, it's sometimes just the first chapter, while other times it sets up a story without really being "a part of" that story, if that makes any sense.

Mostly it's just a formality, calling the first and last chapter Prologue and Epilogue, respectively...

I usually prefer to open with a small action scene. It allows you to give the main characters a strong start, it can help point to the main conflict, and establishes the setting, all without infodumping or otherwise boring the readers. (Trust me, I'm getting really good at writing first chapters. The rest of the story? Not so much. I tend to overedit.)

I don't actually care that much what is in an opening. It's my first chance to see the author's writing skill and I expect it to be superb, otherwise I question the quality of the whole rest of the book. That said, it sets the tone of the novel. It tells me what I should expect in the rest of it. Will there be action? Maybe you should give a taste. Will it be a mystery? Make it mysterious.

Three things:

1) A hook as mentioned before. Usually this is attainable via prologue or other attention grabbing scene.

2) A draw. Something to keep them going til later once you've gotten the first attention grab. Usually related to foreshadowing what may come. Alternatively establish something that gets your readers to start guessing.

3) Establishment. Build the basics of your world (but don't do it in a plain, intrusive, or otherwise poorly done way. Exposition can be woven in to relate to a scene in question to establish why that scene and the work in question is happening.), make your characters connect with at least a starting standpoint of who they are, describe the setting, you know the drill. To do this part well you need only make the story flow alongside it like a mountain river cascading through a rocky valley. Sure there will be bumps and intrusions as the world weaves together but like the river once it reaches the plains it provides a base to grow wider and deeper and smoother. As long as nothing is too demanding of the reader to accept this is easily attainable.

Having a hook of some sort is imperative, though it can be an exceptionally subtle one; what it usually boils down to is an unanswered question. Exposition is optional.

My prologue is actually about this, funnily enough.

I would tend to agree with this, though there are exceptions.

edited 1st Sep '11 10:52:14 AM by JHM

I'm going to be the odd duck and say that one should not start with an action scene, especially if it involves magic, specialized fighting techniques, or special terrain. Flinging fireballs might seem exciting, but it often doesn't translate to books because you haven't introduced the mechanism yet and people do not know enough about the characters to care about them yet.

I disagree, because you presume that they have to know the mechanics.

You as the author have to know, but the audience doesn't know. Explaining is all well in good, but, then again, Show, Don't Tell...

The mechanics are what make for interesting literature. Fireballs for the sake of fireballs are not interesting literature. They're stunning visual effects, which, while they work in movies, do not work in books.

We are talking about literature, yes? If we're talking about movies or comics my answer would be completely different.

edited 1st Sep '11 1:54:33 PM by OhSoIntoCats

There exists no trick that can be described in words that you can't do in a book.

If you make it easy enough to visualize, it's basically the same as visual effects. I didn't say don't explain it, I said you can do stuff without immediately explaining it.

Viewers aren't morons. If I show them a big thing with six legs and guns that moves slowly across a battlefield, they know its a walker tank regardless of if I say it or not. I will explain eventually, but I don't have to explain the instant it comes "on-screen," really...

I think JMS' point about hooks asking questions trumps whether or not you should use magic/action at the beginning. Take the first Harry Potter movie (and this would have been a fine opening for the book as well)— we have a strange figure, walking the streets of suburbia England, and he takes out a device that, when clicked, sucks the light out of street lamps. It's a subtle magic, not fireballs, but it's an effective opening because it makes us wonder who this person is and how the heck can he do that.

Basically, if your action can hook the reader, do it. If your action can't hook the reader (because, for instance, they don't know who the two sides are and thus don't care who wins), then don't use it.

For me, personally, there's nothing worse than info dumps and text at the start of a novel. I skip infodumps at the best of times, and at the worst, I stop reading all together. I don't demand fights and explosions, but something has to be happening; the characters have to be doing something, not just thinking about it.

That's one of the main reasons why it was hard for me to read Snow Crash the first time around. The first chapter opens up on a satirical high speed pizza delivery, which is funny and great, but also info dumps about the current state of the world.

Thank God I went back and gave it another shot, but it could get trying.