Beginnings and You · 8:09pm Jan 23rd, 2014
You will very rarely have people read another part of your story more than your beginning. When editing, I've come across a few bad beginnings, but what I've come across a whole lot more of is average beginnings. The goal of this post isn't to teach you how not to write a bad beginning, but to teach you how to write a good beginning.
As Hemmingway once didn't say, "Write drunk; edit sober." I don't recommend drinking and writing, not unless you're particularily astute at finding the Ballmer Peak. However, what's good about this quote—rather what can be beneficial about alcohol to writing—is that it loosens your inhibitions. I feel a lot of writers underestimate how big a role confidence plays when writing. When asked at BronyCan last year how I deal with confidence issues, I jokingly said, "I look in a mirror and tell myself how pretty I look."
The role confidence plays is that it gives you, the author, a commanding voice. You meet the reader and you say:
Stop. Listen. Do you hear the church bell? That makes six this month.
And like that, you have their attention. The above opening line is not just passable, it's good. Like any good opening line, it has these two important things:
1) It takes command of the narrative
2) It begs a question
Taking command of the narrative is something very few authors I've read on here can do. When you become good at it, you can make the reader hang on every line and feel as though every detail is important. In a lot of ways, taking command is just about creating atmosphere and tone, and a good opening defines both early on. The above opening is very blunt in both, literally saying, "Stop. Listen." But take for example another opening:
"You must learn, at times, not to pursue things too far," the Princess had told Twilight, but she had to know the truth.
This is a good opening because it can be so heavily extrapolated upon. It begs several questions. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a sentence can be worth many more words than its count.
- What is truth is Twilight pursuing?
- What conversation did Twilight have with the Princess?
- Why is Twilight disobeying the Princess?
But it's not just about how many questions arise from your opening. An opening which asks questions but doesn't provide any information can be bad. Take for example:
It's difficult being stuck between a rock, a hard place, and a gun.
The above is bad because it provides almost no real information. All we know is that there's a gun being pointed at someone. Maybe. Unless that's metaphor, too. This is why it's almost always bad to end a synopsis with some kind of blunt metaphor that states the overarching theme of your fic. Well, that and you're bluntly stating the overarching theme of your fic. In contrast to this example, the earlier example provides a lot of information.
- Twilight is trying to find something out that she shouldn't
- She had a conversation with the Princess about it
- The Princess warned her not to pursue it
- Twilight is going against her wishes
- Whatever it is she's trying to find out, it's important
Being able to load your sentences with more information than there is at a surface level is unbelievably valuable. This applies to all of your story, not just the beginning.
I fear I'm close to going off on a tangent, so let me just say this: you can never undervalue the beginning of your story. If you don't read your opening paragraph and think, "That sounds good. That sounds really good." Go back and try to improve it. And after doing that, take notes on how much information can be extrapolated from your opening paragraph and how many questions arise from it. If you find your notepaper smaller than the opening paragraph itself, you're wasting the reader's time.
I've touched lightly on a few much deeper topics. I'll leave extrapolating the rest up to you.
I actually found this very insightful. I've never heard anybody explain 'taking command' before. Sure, I've seen plenty of writers do it, but I'd never seen it explained as an actual, usable technique. I'd always assumed it was just their writing voice. I understand it now though, and I'm definitely going to try it next time I get the chance.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Beautiful advice. I almost cried when I realized how helpful this will be to many writers (including mahself... but don't tell anyone o.o).
You've earned a Pinkie
However, whats good about this quote—
Found a typo, stopped reading.
Just kidding. This is a very insightful post. The bit about the difference between a commanding opening and a vague metaphor will be especially useful to a bunch of authors, I'm sure.
Also, I didn't realize that was you at BronyCan. I was in the audience for that panel, but I forgot to take note of the names of you and your fellow authors. I'd just like to say that I thought the panel was excellent.
Bonus writing tricks: How many reading this blog assumed that the "Princess" in the above examples was Celestia? Wouldn't it be a twist if at the end of the scene, the Princess in question turns out to be Luna?
Great way of playing around with expectations. (or making the readers think you're being obtuse)
Huh, this blog post deserves quite a bit of attention.
I'm making permanent note of all this.
I've seen stories with good beginnings but halfway through they turn to crap. Fallout Equestria comes to mind.