ELEMENTS OF FICTION

To Start at the Very Beginning …

MAKING AN ENTRANCE

Before the advent of self-publishing, our writing had to capture the attention of conventional editors and publishers long before reaching an audience. This took time.

With self-publishing platforms, we might have more immediate access to our audience but when story openings aren’t working, our readers can click away all too easily …

Before looking at story opening techniques let’s look at why story openings deserve such special attention.

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Opening paragraphs can be a make-or-break minefield.

Even from our first few sentences, our audience needs to know that we know we’re in control.

We have to make an entrance!

Absolutely no pressure! Put the kettle on. When you’ve come back from brewing your chamomile tea, and lashed up the extra cream you’ve poured onto your blueberry muffin(s), (works for me) let’s begin.

We’ve all looked at a story that we thought might appeal to us, seated ourselves comfortably, and commenced reading … only to sigh, ‘I just can’t get into it, I’m not feeling it, it’s dragging, nothing’s happening …’

None of us wants to write that story! None of us wants to write that book! We may have a fantastic plot, a charismatic set of characters, and a great twist at closure, but the craft of fiction writing is where (particularly for new writers) first impressions really DO count.

Screenwriter Stephen Bocho talked of ‘getting the attention’ of an audience ‘in a very crowded landscape’. We may only ‘have one and a half to two minutes to grab their attention’, says Bocho, or ‘the zapper goes’. Ouch!

In an age of competing ‘fast fixes’, publishing platforms, blogs, YouTube, TikTok, gaming, you name it, if your opening words aren’t working, your audience isn’t going to just persevere until they get to the ‘good bits’.

🖋️ AUDIENCE BENEFITS?

As human beings, we have always been fascinated by the storyteller, with folklore handed down from generation to generation. We’ve always been thrilled with fantastical adventures, quests, or battles in faraway lands. We love to be swept off our feet by a good ‘yarn’, a tragic love story, tales of mystery and suspense, or even ghost stories around a campfire.

We listen to anecdotes and read other people’s accounts of the world around them (whether wildly exaggerated or not). We want to be entertained and inspired. We want to escape our everyday humdrum. We want to gain insight into ourselves as well as the world around us.

🖋️ AUTHOR BENEFITS?

As storytellers we want our audience to stay with us, we want them to get to the ‘best bits’ but we have to charm our readers in order to have them get to the best bits!

So, how do we grab our reader’s attention?

How can we intrigue them, draw them into the world of our creation where they immediately feel involved and want to know what happens next, how do we seduce our readers and have them fall in love with our story?

We can start … at the very beginning …

🖋️ THE FUNCTION BIT

Story openings set the stage to propel the main character (the ‘protagonist’) on a journey to overcome all manner of odds to achieve their desires.

Opening paragraphs reveal the urgency of just what is at stake. We, as the author, have to make a decision about the words we choose and what order we put them in to convey what is at stake.

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A strong opening has to introduce a focus point (i.e. the protagonist) for the reader to care about (it may not necessarily be someone they identify with);

A strong opening has to raise game-changing complications for our protagonist to resolve;

These complications will escalate, twist, and turn right up to the point of climax and resolution.

Our reader has to feel invested in our protagonist’s failures and triumphs (and gain a sense of satisfaction from sharing in them);

And … from a commercial point of view, a strong opening will increase page-turning velocity. Win-Win.

🖋️ SO MUCH TO DO — SO LITTLE SPACE

From an opening sentence to an opening paragraph, we are walking a tightrope in an effort to gain and sustain a reader’s undivided attention.

Writing a good story opening is not necessarily straightforward (with genre to take into consideration) but there’s nothing to stop us from experimenting with many techniques to see what works.

Whatever method we use, we must get things moving quickly.

🖋️ STORY OPENING TECHNIQUES

Before commencing an opening paragraph it’s advisable to have some awareness of who our story is about, what conflict is faced, and how it will be responded to.

Our opening paragraphs have the job of laying the foundations of our story through the introduction of a compelling character, complication, and setting.

Our opening sentence will not necessarily be able to fulfill all the functions of an opening paragraph but it must nevertheless do its work. We must make an entrance.

SO, SOME TECHNIQUES … 📚

★ TALK TALK — INSTANT DIALOGUE

‘You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘what I am about to tell you.’

(The Woman Warrior — Maxine Hong Kingston)

Analysis: An opening that launches straight into dialogue creates a sense of immediacy and draws the reader in …

★ INTO THE DEEP

He screamed from all his mouths, then covered all his ears.

(Monkey See, Monkey Deduce — Jonathan Laden)

Analysis: A provocative opening. What’s with ‘mouths’ and ‘all’ his ears?! This opening commences at a crucial point of action, or, for those of us who love a bit of Latin, ‘in media res’;

★ WHAT DID HE SAY? THE OPENING STATEMENT:

Vaughan died yesterday in his last car crash.

(Crash — J G Ballard)

Analysis: An intriguing statement inviting reader curiosity …

AND SO …

Story openings can be quiet and compelling or shocking and abrupt.

We may truly begin a story without knowing what the second word is after the first, or we may be the writer who is hugely organised, down to the last full stop!

Whatever our style, openings deserve special attention because they have to establish everything that follows.

We want our readers to have at least as much passion in reading our story as we did when writing it. Let’s make our entrance one to remember.

Happy writing! ★｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

© 2023 Susi Moore. All Rights Reserved.

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