Writing Technique ~ Openings

(because I was tired of looking for pictures)

 

A writer either develops his or her own technique over time or comes by it naturally. I suppose I fall into the "naturally" group. That's not necessarily a good thing. When I began my very first novel I assumed there was a beginning, a middle, and an end. Right? Not so fast. While it might be fine to have an opening line such as, "She got behind the wheel to begin her drive to Grandma's", that's not exactly scintillating. My opening line was similar, in that I began at the beginning, albeit my actual line wasn't quite so pedestrian. The thing is, whether you're submitting your novel to an agent or giving a potential reader a "look inside" peek, a boring opening will probably cause them to reject your book out of hand. 

People don't read the way they used to. For an old codger like me who spent years getting lost in books, the modern preference of get to the action, dammit! is a foreign concept. When I think back to the novels I loved most, I got to know the characters before much even happened. Well, sure, things happened, but not THE THING. 

What I began doing, once I got past the "newbie writer" phase, was try to craft an opening that was not only hook-y, but foreshadowed things to come. Or at least intriguing enough for a reader to want to know what was to come. Sometimes it's worked; sometimes it hasn't. Inn Dreams begins with, "It was so ugly, I had to have it." I actually thought that was a pretty good line. Lies and Love's opening is, "George Washington keeps staring at me." (I think I like that opening the best.) 

Taking a gander at some of my novellas that haven't sold, I wonder if their openings were turn-offs. Take, for example, Find My Way Home: "Don't forget -- it's tonight!" That's actually pretty bad, and maybe not a good idea to start with dialogue. I completely struggled with the opening for Bad Blood and ended up with a sentence that was too long instead of punchy: "I never should have opened the door, but an ingrained sense of duty clouded my judgement." I've never sold a single copy of either of those novellas. Yet, they're not bad stories. I simply blew the openings. (Nope, not going back to change them.)

I wonder if someone could write a very mediocre book, but if the opening was catchy, it would sell anyway. And, of course, the inverse is also true.

Basic examples of good openings can be found here. A couple of them don't apply to fiction, but most would make for far better openings than those I've settled upon. Somehow I got stuck on the "one short declarative sentence" method, when perhaps that's sometimes too gimmicky. The linked article's "sensory description" example is one I wish I could create; it jibes with my reading tastes; but I'm terrible at that kind of writing (unfortunately). I'm willing to give it a try, though.

There's a fine line between being too verbose and too succinct. Like every damn facet of writing, openings are a frustrating puzzle. I don't think an author should poll her readers for the answer, because like reviews, readers' tastes zig-zag all over the place. As with everything, the author has to please herself. Honestly, I never liked Bad Blood's opening and I should have tried harder (although I did experiment a lot). If your gut is telling you something is wrong, something is wrong. 

And all this for just the opening. Then you've got the whole rest of the book to write. Perhaps that's why some of us are willing to settle for a subpar opening ~ we're anxious to get on with it before the story evaporates. Then, once the story is written, we don't even go back and revise because now we're used to it, having re-read the manuscript so many times.

It's not so much that I think a fantastic opening will sell more books. I barely sell the books that have one. It's about taking pride in the writing. So, please yourself, and who knows? Pleasing a reader might be an extra-added bonus.