Beginnings
Aug. 26th, 2013 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiOver on FB, azhure posted this about reading short story slush: "Your first paragraph counts a lot. There has to be something to hook me into the story (not something generic like a person walking into a room, waking up etc) - I need some inkling of the plot and main character from the get go in a short story."
I don't read slush, due to a combination of a lack of time and a desire to not want to stab people in the eye more than necessary.
But I do review books, at a clip of about six books a month (four YA, two SF/F/H). I also review five books a year for the ABNA Breakthrough Novelist contest. And in spite of the various levels of gatekeeping, bad stuff slips through. And whatazhure says about short stories applies to longer works, too.
Okay, you might get a little more leeway. For one thing, I'm obligated to read the book no matter what. For another, in 300 pages, the first paragraph represents a much smaller proportion of the overall work. But it's still my gateway into your story. And if it sucks, I'm in a bad mood once you get to the "interesting stuff" (and, incidentally, writers who start their books off poorly are also often unaware of what's actually interesting. Surprise!).
The late, great Elmore Leonard's rules of writing are overquoted and a little silly*, but there's a kernel of truth to them, especially #10: "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." As a reviewer, I'm not going to skip something. But if I feel like I should be skipping that, and you're making me read it anyway, I'm going to hate you a little bit. Or a lot. Now, if that's after 200 pages of really interesting stuff, I'm going to be a little more forgiving than if that's the first five paragraphs of your book**.
Seriously, if I hit page three and I can't keep my eyes open, you're not doing yourself any favors. Nor is your editor.
That doesn't mean I need in media res action. Or an amazing quip. I'm just fine with you violating Leonard's eighth rule, and describing someone as your opener (if you do it well). Or break his ninth one and set a scene for me, but be interesting when you do so. Tell me there was a fucking moocow coming down the road, and I'm intrigued and want more. Tell me that John is a mailman, and he's on his route, and he's bored, and his daydream isn't interesting either, and I'm half-asleep when you get to page six and have his truck collide with a tree.
This has nothing to do with being literary vs being pop, btw. Here's how Faulkner opens The Mansion: The jury said "Guilty" and the Judge said "Life" but he didn't hear them.. Becket's Murphy begins The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.. Sinclair Lewis goes short and sweet: Elmer Gantry was Drunk. Bradbury starts Fahrenheit 451 with It was a pleasure to Burn. Hell, Moby Dick -- quite possibly the most boring novel never written by Thomas Hardy -- has at least one great line, and it's the first one, and there's likely not a person reading this who doesn't know it.
On the pop side, see Gibson. Or see the late Elizabeth George telling us, ""Joel Campbell, eleven years old at the time, began his descent toward murder with a bus ride," in What Came Before He Shot Her. Or Mira Grant in Feed***: Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot - in this case, my brother Shaun - deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens.
No, you don't need an amazing opener. And a good (or great) opener won't cover for other faults (in the end, world-building, characterization, dialogue, etc are what are going to win me over). But if your opener isn't even competent or interesting, you're making it harder for all that other good work you're doing to matter.
(Final note: On re-reading this, I thought I might have been implying that a short and pithy opener is what matters. No. Just make it good. And many short lines are dreadful, although I don't have any examples nearby****.)
*As is any list of absolutes -- tell William Gibson, author of one of the great opening lines in modern literature, that you shouldn't open with a description of the weather.
**Imagine if the Bible began with 600 lines of "begats" before launching into Genesis.
***Yes, I'm on record as not liking this book overall, but its opening is hardly one of its faults.
****Note that I do not consider Bulwer-Lytton's famous line to be a tenth as bad as people say it is.
azhure posted this about reading short story slush: "Your first paragraph counts a lot. There has to be something to hook me into the story (not something generic like a person walking into a room, waking up etc) - I need some inkling of the plot and main character from the get go in a short story."I don't read slush, due to a combination of a lack of time and a desire to not want to stab people in the eye more than necessary.
But I do review books, at a clip of about six books a month (four YA, two SF/F/H). I also review five books a year for the ABNA Breakthrough Novelist contest. And in spite of the various levels of gatekeeping, bad stuff slips through. And what
azhure says about short stories applies to longer works, too. Okay, you might get a little more leeway. For one thing, I'm obligated to read the book no matter what. For another, in 300 pages, the first paragraph represents a much smaller proportion of the overall work. But it's still my gateway into your story. And if it sucks, I'm in a bad mood once you get to the "interesting stuff" (and, incidentally, writers who start their books off poorly are also often unaware of what's actually interesting. Surprise!).
The late, great Elmore Leonard's rules of writing are overquoted and a little silly*, but there's a kernel of truth to them, especially #10: "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." As a reviewer, I'm not going to skip something. But if I feel like I should be skipping that, and you're making me read it anyway, I'm going to hate you a little bit. Or a lot. Now, if that's after 200 pages of really interesting stuff, I'm going to be a little more forgiving than if that's the first five paragraphs of your book**.
Seriously, if I hit page three and I can't keep my eyes open, you're not doing yourself any favors. Nor is your editor.
That doesn't mean I need in media res action. Or an amazing quip. I'm just fine with you violating Leonard's eighth rule, and describing someone as your opener (if you do it well). Or break his ninth one and set a scene for me, but be interesting when you do so. Tell me there was a fucking moocow coming down the road, and I'm intrigued and want more. Tell me that John is a mailman, and he's on his route, and he's bored, and his daydream isn't interesting either, and I'm half-asleep when you get to page six and have his truck collide with a tree.
This has nothing to do with being literary vs being pop, btw. Here's how Faulkner opens The Mansion: The jury said "Guilty" and the Judge said "Life" but he didn't hear them.. Becket's Murphy begins The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.. Sinclair Lewis goes short and sweet: Elmer Gantry was Drunk. Bradbury starts Fahrenheit 451 with It was a pleasure to Burn. Hell, Moby Dick -- quite possibly the most boring novel never written by Thomas Hardy -- has at least one great line, and it's the first one, and there's likely not a person reading this who doesn't know it.
On the pop side, see Gibson. Or see the late Elizabeth George telling us, ""Joel Campbell, eleven years old at the time, began his descent toward murder with a bus ride," in What Came Before He Shot Her. Or Mira Grant in Feed***: Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot - in this case, my brother Shaun - deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens.
No, you don't need an amazing opener. And a good (or great) opener won't cover for other faults (in the end, world-building, characterization, dialogue, etc are what are going to win me over). But if your opener isn't even competent or interesting, you're making it harder for all that other good work you're doing to matter.
(Final note: On re-reading this, I thought I might have been implying that a short and pithy opener is what matters. No. Just make it good. And many short lines are dreadful, although I don't have any examples nearby****.)
*As is any list of absolutes -- tell William Gibson, author of one of the great opening lines in modern literature, that you shouldn't open with a description of the weather.
**Imagine if the Bible began with 600 lines of "begats" before launching into Genesis.
***Yes, I'm on record as not liking this book overall, but its opening is hardly one of its faults.
****Note that I do not consider Bulwer-Lytton's famous line to be a tenth as bad as people say it is.