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  • Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by NMott at 21:47 on 03 February 2008
    The US based literary agent, Nathan Beresford is currently running a first page competition and has had around 650 first pages submitted by aspiring authors. Out of this he has posted some advice about opening with conflict, on his blog:

    http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/01/shock-and-awe.html

    One of the things you always hear when you're a writer is that you really have to grab an agent with your opening. And this is true -- we read a whole lot of manuscripts, and if we're not grabbed right away we're going to move onto the next project.

    BUT. This does not mean that you have to go out and try and grab the reader by the throat. Perhaps the most common shortcoming I'm seeing in some of the entries is that they try too hard to be surprising or shocking or pulling one over the reader. This is a common problem. Writers I talk to even sometimes tell me that they wanted to start with a more gradual opening, but their writing group said it was too quiet, so they went with the "bigger" opening instead. For instance, at least 7 openings in the SEFPC involve burnt and/or rotting flesh.

    To be sure, this can be done well. But look at the openings of your favorite novels. Herman Melville did not begin MOBY DICK with Ishmael staring at the rotting carcass of a whale, Charles Dickens did not begin A TALE OF TWO CITIES by describing what guillotined heads look like. Even suspense novels that do begin with a shocking opener, like Jeff Abbott's FEAR, which starts with the seriously awesome first line "I killed my best friend.", double-back to gradually reveal details about the characters and world of the book.

    This is because the purpose of an opening isn't to grab a reader and start punching them in the face, but rather to draw them into the world of the book. A "shocking" event in the very beginning isn't usually very shocking because it's not earned -- the reader doesn't yet care enough about the characters or know enough about the world for it to resonate properly -- so it feels more like a parlor trick. Even if it's an action-packed beginning, it's still necessary to orient the reader. So there are some definite dos and don'ts in the beginning, and I'd point you to Kami's great comment from last night's post for a breakdown.

    The purpose of a first page is to begin to get to know a character, world, or plot in such a way that the reader wants to know more. It's a taste. And great characters, a great plot, and/or great setting (and of course great writing) grab me a lot more than an opening that tries too hard to be surprising or shocking.


    <Added>

    Oops, I mean Nathan Bransford
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by EmmaD at 22:03 on 03 February 2008
    Ooh, that's a great piece, Naomi, thanks for truffling it out. And true, too. Bodies on page one are only any use if you can make the reader want to find out why they're there, and as NB says, that's a tall order for a first page.

    get to know a character, world, or plot in such a way that the reader wants to know more.


    That's the key, isn't it. The character and world ones aren't so easy, though - we've all read things which were mildly interesting, but tried our patience by taking too long to get off the starting blocks at all. Although what he says about reading groups is a risk, I do think it's something trusted readers can help with, because you know that all those little details of the room or the bus-journey are built of things that will come to matter later, but the reader doesn't, and needs a rather more compelling reason to keep turning the pages. Doesn't have to be a body, though.

    Emma
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by NMott at 22:36 on 03 February 2008
    Well, there is the rather extreme 'Kurt Vonnegut's rule no. 8' version: Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. but I'd be happy just to have less - or rather, no - opening chapters that feature bullying in Children's fiction. You start feeling like, ok, so the mc's being beaten up, well perhaps the little shit deserves it.

    I have started Pullman's Northern Lights again and his opening pages have so many faults, but what kept me reading was to find out when & how the mc was going to warn Lord Asriel not to drink the poisoned wine....meanwhile, Pullman seemed have bought himself all the time he needs to set the scene.


    - NaomiM
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by susieangela at 06:11 on 04 February 2008
    Naomi thanks for posting this - it makes such a change from the usual 'grab them by the throat' instructions. Of course the writing has to be interesting enough to grab the reader, but equally of course it doesn't have to be 'high drama'.
    Susiex
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by RJH at 08:10 on 04 February 2008
    There's probably a lot of truth in that. Shock openings with rotting flesh, dead children, mass murder & whatnot do tend to grate when they come across as a desperate attempt to grab the reader's attention & hide shortcomings in the writing (reader orientation).

    The only problem I have with the extract you've reproduced is that his examples - Melville, Dickens - are drawn from nineteenth century literature, which does tend to be quieter, more character-based, more leisurely than present-day lit.

    Writers like Melville, Dickens, Hardy, Eliot et al could get away with slower & more detailed beginnings because that's what their readers expected. Also, they were constrained by social taboos - rotting flesh wasn't really an option for those writers.
    That fact forced them to explore character to a greater extent - although it is arguable that character as presented in nineteenth century novels is itself a confidence trick. What is character, exactly?

    We live now in a much more violent, lurid & media-saturated world, with fewer taboos and a horrendous, relentless pace of living. This means readers are often jaded and easily bored if there isn't some immediate excitement in the opening chapters. And at the same time, writers are keener to reflect what they see - especially through the virtual world perhaps - as the lurid quality of the modern world. Also the old concept of character has been eroded to a great extent (e.g. in Amis, Ballard etc).

    My point, I suppose, is that the advice is basically sound but it's understandable & sometimes excusable if it's not followed.
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by NMott at 09:06 on 04 February 2008
    The subject was raised on another forum, RJH, in relation to genre books - namely Crime - which starting with the almost obligatory murder. And I suppose victims are rarely accoded any empathy, the reader is more concerned with finding out who did it, and saves their empathy for the detective or pathologist, who they have already been introduced to in earlier books. The dead body is treated as a mere object of curiosity.
    It is a little more difficult when the crux of the story revolves round an act of violence, eg, a rape, where we are meant to feel sorry for the victim without knowing anything about them. Holly had some sage advice on that score: having the lead up to the violent act, and the aftermath, but not including the actual rape scene - those details can be left until later when we know more about the character.


    - NaomiM
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by helen black at 10:46 on 07 February 2008
    The only thing I would say about this is that grabbing the reader in the first chapter and grabbing an agent are two very different things.
    A buyer of a book has already made their decision to read it.
    But if you're a complete unknown sending an mss to an agent on spec it's going to be one of hundreds - so while an opener doesn't need a massacre it does need to stand out from the crowd both in terms of quality and intrigue.Something that makes a jaded, overworked, junior want to read on.
    My own agent acknowledges that he may reject some very good stuff because he never got past the opener but he only has so many hours in a day and has to wade through his SP as quickly as possible.
    I think one of the biggest compliments I ever received was from my editor who said she took home the first 50 pages of my book ( she does one a night - and this is the stuff that's already made it through the first round - and accepts about twenty a year!!!) and was gutted that she had left the rest at work.
    HB x
  • Re: Conflict in the Opening Chapter
    by NMott at 11:16 on 07 February 2008
    Can't get a better recommendation that that Helen