I wondered what people think about an issue that came up recently in relation to a crit.

We constantly hear about the importance of a 'grabby' opening. The first chapter is, we are told, (if we're lucky!) is as far as most agents and editors will get with reading our submission. So we need to make it not simply as good as we can but also distinctive. Yes, it should be characteristic of what follows, it should show our own particular 'voice' - but it also needs to stand out from the mass of other competent, professionally written manuscripts. It needs a hook. It needs ooomph. It needs to be unusual - unique, even.


But what if this advice meant writing a first chapter which isn't the 'natural' or 'right' one for our story, just to get noticed. That can't be right, can it? What if the natural place for a book to begin, from the point of view of its internal strructure and story arc, is with some mundane scene - something everyday, something wholly lacking in dramatic incident, hilarity, blood, mayhem...? What if our book and our characters demand a quiet opening? A traditional opening? A reflective opening? A descriptive opening?

Should we sacrifice the first scene or chapter which feels authentic, in order to begin somewhere else where there is more of a natural bang, likely to attract attention in the slush pile - or stick with what feels right for our book?

Rosy


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And, yes, I know that the aim might well be not to make it an either/or. But sometimes it just will inescapably be the case that the natural place to start isn't an exciting bit.

There are a lot of very good memoirs that open with an wholly domestic and finely nuanced scene that would grace the start of any novel, so it can be done.
The problem with most 'quiet' opening chapters is not the fact they are 'quiet', it is the fact they are simply boring.


- NaomiM

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I'm currently reading one of Joan Kent's memoirs - Haywains & Cherry Ale; Binder Twine & Rabbit Stew.
The Introduction is a single page where she describes the fortunes and misfortunes of a skein of green beads and beautifully sums up her rural childhood.

Oh, this topic is such a relevant one for me at the moment. My novel is the story of a cold, distant, emotionally crippled woman. During the course of the story events force her to change (in so far as any of us do really) but at the beginning of the novel I start with her in her work situation where she is reasonably successful. This is to set up a contrast with her personal life where she is a disaster (and where the vast majority of the novel is located). Several people have said that it's not 'grabby' enough but it feels like the right place to start for me. It's hard to know now if I'm just being stubborn or if i'm right.

Personally I don't really like 'grabby' openings in the books I read as they give me the impression of being 'show-offy'.

I would suggest keeping a 'quiet' opening chapter short. Being 'quiet' it will seem longer than a pacier opening chapter.

I'd instinctively opt for the opening that is right for the story. An assured opening will pull a reader in. When browsing bookstores I fall on books with quiet openings in relief. They make me trust the author to tell a story straight. I put back books that open with sentences like: 'Had it not been for the tomato the Pope would have died that day,' because they're the literary equivalent of being cornered by charity clipboard people. I feel like saying: yes I know you're unmissable but I still don't want to spend time with you.

Do you have a quiet opening in mind?

This is a constant problem for me. I started off writing my novels for something to do, but as I became more involved in attempting to flog them I have felt that I have to be more snappy at the beginning.

I sort of feel like I am 'selling out' if I intentionally jazz up the first three chapters, and want to believe that if I develop my own authentic writing style and keep at it, then I will succeed.

But all the 'how to write and sell a first novel' advice disagrees with me!

I have read novels that are very slow at the beginning - I wouldn't mind betting that they are third or fourth books, not the intial one that got the agent and contract!! Actually that will do for the subject for this afternoon's procrastination exercise in the name of research

I am beginning to see that this writing lark isn't just about writing, it's about using every possible transferable skill you have ever attained and focussing it on one project. This involved writing, reading, marketing, critiquing, editing, IT skills, research skills, analysis, diplomacy, negotialtion, customer services and possibly relaxation techniques!

Karris xx

I think this is maybe something where you have to separate what you're doing from how you're doing it.

'Quiet' so often means 'dull', as Naomi says, and yet written right it needn't. The difficulty is to sow the timebombs in those opening page/s so that we're aware of them, however quiet and habitual it all is for the character. No reason for a body on page one, if you can write picking a flower really well, so we wonder if there's a worm in the heart of it. What is it in others' reactions that she doesn't pick up on? What seems normal to her but telegraphs some oddness, out-of-kilterness, to us, that we'll be waiting to grow into something significant through the next pages?

You do have a built-in advantage in the knowingness of readers: if something is overtly happy and peaceful they'll be waiting for the bomb (or at least the other shoe) to drop. But you don't get long before they just switch to boredom, so it had better drop soon...

But I guess in the end, if it's quiet it had better be exceptionally well and tightly written, every word doing at least two things, not a single one surplus to requirements.

Emma

These extracts are from Nathan Bransford's blog following a competition where writers submitted the first page of their ms:

http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-on-finalists-and-naysayers.html

A first page really can do (basically) four things: reveal the setting, reveal the characters, reveal the plot, and/or reveal the style. There were many first pages (just as there are many wonderful books) that started off with a wonderfully evocative setting, there were many that started off with wonderful characters, an intriguing plot and/or an interesting style. You could find all sorts of wonderful books that start with a combination of one, two, three, or four of these elements (ATONENMENT, for instance, begins with a fascinating character, Briony, organizing a play with McEwan's intricate style).

He then went on to pick out a handful of shortlisted writers who were very good at at least one of the above:

I also found myself drawn to works with a high degree of difficulty. As I mentioned in the comments of the voting thread, at first blush, some of these finalists might seem very straightforward, but it is VERY difficult to capture a pitch perfect voice and a historical setting like Heather!Anne! did (she even used the word reckon well, which is nearly impossible to do), it's VERY difficult to ease the reader into a world while building some spine-tingling suspense like terryd, VERY difficult to simultaneously introduce a strange futuristic world while at the same time eliciting a response like "yup, I know this family" like luc, VERY difficult to master the impeccable flow of kari's first page and then bring a smile to the reader's face with that dialogue, VERY difficult to elicit a sense of place like Charlotte, and such an impeccable and precisely-constructed mood like Julianne.

- NaomiM

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To repeat Emma's points; part of the problem with some 'quiet' openings, is they only do one thing, eg, they only introduce a character (or maybe two) then the chapter moves on to set the scene, while the plot engine remains at idle. A character has to be very interesting to keep one's attention, and that is usually achieved by having them do something intriquing, to hook the reader.

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ATONENMENT, for instance, begins with a fascinating character, Briony, organizing a play

It takes all sorts. That opening chapter stopped me in my tracks. Personally I found her and her actions as dull as ditchwater.

That's good advice, Emma. Thanks. It's important to make sure that the opening has the seeds of the story from the beginning. Maybe mine doesn't have enough.

That's a fascinating link, Naomi, thanks.

With any first page, the question you have to ask yourself is, not only is this the right place in the story to open the novel, and does it introduce the character/setting/voice well, but also, what on this first page will make my reader turn the page to the second? It has to be something. It might not be the bomb in the babycarriage, it might just be the voice, for example - funny, surprising, cynical: an engaging take on the quiet day and the ordinary life. But it has to be something.

I see a lot of the 'My perfect life, then it fell apart/I fell in love/child fell in the river,' style of WF through Writers' Workshop. When the opening doesn't work it's usually because it's so busy telling me how perfect everything is that there's neither anything interesting in the texture of the world I'm being shown - it's bland like an interiors magazine - nor anything to hook me into the narrator's personality and voice and make me want to go along for the ride whatever happens, nor something that makes me think 'Hmm. Something's up...'.

Emma

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"they only introduce a character (or maybe two) then the chapter moves on to set the scene, while the plot engine remains at idle."

Beautifully put!

The opening of I Capture the Castle is a classic of absolutely nothing happening - reams of description and outright Tell (tho' 'tell' in the voice of a character is always sort-of 'show) which would get you chucked out of many of the more doctrinaire kind of writing class. But it's absolutely brilliant, purely because Cassandra's voice is completely irresistible.

I see a lot of the 'My perfect life, then it fell apart/I fell in love/child fell in the river,' style of WF through Writers' Workshop.

In Children's fiction there's the almost obligatory bullying scene: If the scene opens in a school yard or classroom or allyway, you just know what's coming next.

Sometimes I wonder if an opening doesn't work because the scene setting sets up certain expectations in a reader, and they are disappointed if it doesn't pan out:
The cocktail party where the reader expects to hear a secret/juicy piece of gossip.
The daughter going into her late mother's room where the reader expects them to find the letter.
The lone swimmer or fisherman usually equates to a body or two.
The singles party where opposites attract.
It's fine to change the anticipated into a surprising twist, but leave it out all together and the reader is going to look for their jollies elsewhere.


- NaomiM

The 'grabby' opening is at least as old as Homer - 'in media res' and all that. The Aeneid is a great example, Virgil begins the story in the middle of a shipwreck and then flash-backs. I don't think you have to play all your cards up front, but you do have to be interesting, and this can be as little as stating the character's problem, opening with an intriguing setting or framing the story in a way that engages us.
I always had The Owl Service in my mind as a very slow and quiet book, but when I looked at it again the other day, I realised that in fact, he sets up the plot within the first two pages. Grabby can also be quiet.

It's fine to change the anticipated into a surprising twist, but leave it out all together and the reader is going to look for their jollies elsewhere.

Yes, and no, I think. It's probably one of those things where it depends a lot how firmly in the middle of a particular genre you are. It's such a fine line (and as a not-really-genre writer I'm not the best person to draw it either) between the familiar satisfactions of your genre of choice, and things just being predictable.

Emma

The quiet opening line/scene/chapter can work so long as it sets up questions in the readers’ minds. Who is this character? What are they talking about? Why are they doing that? Make the questions intriguing enough and the reader will keep turning the pages to find the answers. A grabby, sensational opening is fine, but the rest of the ms has to match up, otherwise it looks so obvious that the first chapters have been groomed to get over that first hurdle.

I put back books that open with sentences like: 'Had it not been for the tomato the Pope would have died that day,' because they're the literary equivalent of being cornered by charity clipboard people.

LOL! But you're right. I tend to avoid them too, because they either don’t maintain that pace and I feel let down – or they do and are just too exhausting to read. I think they work in short stories, but not novels.

Dee

Whenever this topic comes up among writers there are always lots of examples cited of 'quiet' openings to fantastic books.
However, the truth of the matter is that agents receive so many books every day that if your work is to stand out it must do just that.
I agree that there doesn't need to be an explosion or a volcano erupting but there has to be something that grabs the attention.
As a crime writer it's easier for me as there is always going to be something horrid to deal with, but even quiet novels can 'hook.' Afterall they're usually about the human condition and what's more fascinating than that?
HB x