5 Ways to Write Stronger Opening Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The opening scene can make or break your novel, so make sure you write a strong one.

There’s a wide range of advice when it comes to writing opening scenes. Many say not to worry about it, because odds are the real opening is several pages (or scenes) into the book and you’ll toss the opening anyway.

Others say you won’t really know the right opening scene until you’ve written then ending, and then you’ll go back and rewrite it.

Then there are those who can’t write the book until they get the right opening scene, and it won’t need to be changed later.

I agree with all of this, because every writer is different. You might need the “throat clearing” a throwaway opening scene gives you, or you might like to start off strong and build from there. Whatever works for you, works. I’m a “get it right the first time” writer myself and can spend weeks (or longer) just coming up with the perfect opening line.

Four Pillars Linking Character to Plot

By Jeff Seymour, @realjeffseymour

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: First chapters carry an extra challenge for writers--they need to make someone want to read the rest of the book. Please help me welcome Jeff Seymour to the lecture hall today, who's here to share some thoughts on first chapters and help us create stronger openings.

Jeff Seymour writes hopeful, heartfelt fantasy that blends modern characters with timeless plots and offers something new and fantastic on every page. His debut middle-grade novel, Nadya Skylung and the Cloudship Rescue, was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on May 15, 2018. In his day job as a freelance editor, Jeff helps shape and clean up stories for a talented roster of bestselling sci-fi and fantasy authors as well as newcomers to the business. In his free time, he serves as support team to a wife with an incredible career of her own, pretends he knows anything about raising children, and gathers ideas for stories everywhere he goes.

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Take it away Jeff...

How Much Really Needs to Be in Your Novel’s Opening Sentence?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Writers hear it all the time—your opening sentence has to be perfect. It will make or break your novel. It must contain [random writing technique or aspect that supports whatever point the article is trying to make]. If it doesn’t, your writing career is over.

For new writers, this can be terrifying. That’s a huge amount of pressure to put on a dozen or so words. Even for established writers it can be intimidating. They might wonder, “Is that why I keep getting rejected?” “I that why my e-book isn’t selling on Amazon?”

If you’ve worried about this, you can relax. Yes, the opening line of your novel is important, but the only thing it has to do is this:

Make someone want to read the second line.

That’s it.

Studying the Waking Up Scene: Is it Really That Bad?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

One of the things on the common list of writing “nevers” is starting a scene with someone waking up—especially if it’s the opening scene. At first glance it doesn’t seem like it should be so taboo. After all, it’s a clear start to a day or a situation, and it gives both readers and writers a leaping off point for the story.

Like the don't use adverbs advice, this is a “rule” that is quoted frequently, but doesn’t always come with solid reasons as to why it’s bad. So let’s look a little closer at this all-too-common scene and study why writing pros advise against it.

Need to Know: Opening Your Story

By Michael J. Martinez @mikemartinez72

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Beginnings make or break a story. If you can't grab a reader, they won't keep reading, no matter how good your story is "once it gets going." Michael J. Martinez visits the lecture hall today to share some tips on creating openings that hook your readers and keep them reading to the end.

Michael has spent 20 years in journalism and communications writing other people's stories. A few years ago, in a moment of blinding hubris, he thought he'd try to write one of his own. So far, it's working out far better than he expected. Mike currently lives in northern New Jersey with his wonderful wife, amazing daughter, two cats and several chickens. He's an avid traveler and homebrewer, and since nobody has told him to stop yet, he continues to write fiction. He is a proud member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and International Thriller Writers (ITW).

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Take it away Michael...

Overcoming False Starts on Your First Chapter

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Many writers struggling with getting that first chapter just right. Here are some tips to help you write the perfect opening chapter.

It's all too easy to get stuck in chapter-one-rewrite-mode and never move beyond it. You reach the end of that important first chapter, but it just feels wrong, so you go back and rewrite it. And it still feels off. So you do it again. And again. Pretty soon, you're questioning your whole novel and if you even have what it takes to write one. You start thinking if you can't get the first chapter right, what hope do you have of crafting a good novel?

That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself, and on your brand-new novel before it has a chance to become a novel. If you find yourself stuck here, step back and look at the novel objectively. Ask:

Hooking Your Reader in 3 Easy Steps

By Sally Apokedak, @sally_apokedak

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: No matter what type of stories we write, we want to grab our readers and not let go. Literary agent Sally Apokedak visits the lecture hall today to share a few tips on capturing a reader's attention that are sure to get our attention (and help us write more compelling openings).

Sally is a literary agent with the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency and is a popular speaker at writer's conferences around the country. She teaches students from 84 different country through her online courses at Udemy, and you can also find her in all the usual places: blogging about writing and publishing and the new book review blog (if you write for kids, be sure to send her some books to review).

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Take it away Sally...

Set Up or Start Up? Making Critical Character Traits Part of Your Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Every protagonist has something unique about them, otherwise we wouldn’t have picked them as our protagonist. This "thing" is often what gets them into trouble and makes the story happen. It’s central to who they are, which means there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be on the cover copy or in the query. Readers will know what it is before they open the book. Which leads to a bit of a quandary.

How do you show that important trait in the opening without it sounding like setup or infodump?

Readers of The Shifter know my protagonist can heal by shifting pain--it says so right there on the cover. Had I started the novel with an example of Nya just using her ability, it probably would have bored folks and they’d have wanted to know when the story was going to start. Instead, I put Nya in a situation where readers could see the trait in action, but the goal of the scene was something that had nothing to do with that ability. And that’s the key to showing important character traits.

Common First Page Issues

By Ava Jae, @Ava_Jae

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: I'm delighted to have one of my favorite bloggers, Ava Jae, visit the lecture hall this week. Aside from her usual great advice and perspectives on writing, she holds a monthly giveaway for a first page critique (similar to my Real Life Diagnostics without the question), and today she'll share some insights and tips gleaned from her Fixing the First Page series.

Ava is a YA and NA writer, an Assistant Editor at Entangled Publishing, and is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. Her YA Sci-Fi debut, BEYOND THE RED, is releasing March 2016 from Sky Pony Press. When she’s not writing about kissing, superpowers, explosions, and aliens, you can find her with her nose buried in a book, nerding out over the latest X-Men news, or hanging out on her social media sites.

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Take it away Ava...

Seven Deadly Sins (If You're a First Chapter)

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The one benefit to first chapters being the most-read of all chapters (even if we decide we don't like the book we at least read the beginning), is that there's a lot of data on what works and what doesn't out there. If we get stuck or we know something is off and don't know what, there's bound to be multiple articles written to help up solve the puzzle and get back on track.

One such article is about seven reasons agents stop reading your first chapter,  sent to me by a friend several years ago. It's a great breakdown of common problems, so let's look at those reasons and explore ways to fix them. 

Setting the Stage: How I Hook Readers From Page One

By Stafanie Gaither, @stefaniegaither 

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Hooking a reader is a vital part of any story--if they don't care, they won't read, so as writers, we need to make our readers curious about our stories. Please help me welcome Stefanie Gaither to the lecture hall today to share some tips on how she hooks readers from the first line.

After owning and co-managing a coffee shop for several years while simultaneously earning her BA in English, Stefanie Gaither left the small-business world behind to focus on her author career instead. Now, in addition to penning YA novels, she also works part-time as a copywriter for an advertising agency. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and an incredibly spoiled Shih Tzu. Visit her at StefanieGaither.com.

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Take it away Stefanie...

Painting Your Story World

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Just like the color of a room affects what people think and feel when they walk in, details in a scene affect how a reader experiences your world. The wrong details can create false assumptions and cause a disconnect between your reader and your world. The right details can start both reader and story off on the same page.

Set up Your Story in the First Paragraphs

By Jodie Renner, @JodieRennerEd

Part of the How They Do It Series   

JH: I'd like to welcome back Jodie Renner to the blog today, to chat with us about that oh-so-important beginning, and offer tips on how your story can get off to a great start.

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor, specializing in thrillers and other crime fiction. Her craft-of-fiction articles appear here and on 5 other blogs. To find out more about Jodie’s services, please visit her website at www.JodieRennerEditing.com. 

Take it away Jodie...

On Your Mark. Get Set. Go! Writing the First Line of Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A while back I talked a bit about openings and shared an experience I had at a conference concerning first lines. First lines are critical to me, because I'm the type of writer who just can't get off on the right foot (or is that, write foot?) if I don't have a strong opening line. I admire folks who can jump in and write away and go back and edit those opening lines. Once I get past the first few pages, then I can go back and edit, but those first lines need to be more than placeholders for me to really get anywhere.

There's a lot of pressure on the first line of a book. We've all read the terrifying articles and posts about how agents never get past the first line or paragraph when going through submissions. I wish I could say this is a myth, but your opening line can make or break you.

It's a Start: The First Line

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Several years ago, I was sitting in a room with a bunch of other writers at the Surrey International Writers Conference. We were all waiting for agent Donald Maass to begin his workshop on creating tension in our writing. He walked in, asked someone in the audience for the first page of their manuscript, and read the first line. Then he asked one of the scariest question you can ask.

By show of hands, how many people want to hear the second line?

Start With the Protagonist, or the Circumstance?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A reader asked...

My protagonist was kidnapped as a child and I wanted the first chapter to be about that. He was a baby then so will not be speaking and won’t have much of a personality. The cast in the kidnapping scene will be saying and doing stuff that will be significant to the rest of the story. I need these things done and said early because in the next chapter my Protag is 15 years old. Can I start a book this way, and if not, how/where can I place this important scene in the book?

Note: I asked this because everyone who writes about writing says to introduce your protagonist right away. Well, in my story, I’m sort of introducing you to his circumstances first.

It depends. (Yeah, I know, lousy answer, but it's true)

I don't actually see this as a protagonist first situation, because the protagonist is in the opening, even if he's just a baby. You're not really introducing readers to another character and making them think that's the protagonist and then yanking them to another person. Those are the false starts you have to be wary of. This is more of a "do I use a prologue?" situation. You have information you feel needs to start the story and you're not sure if you should.

In most cases, prologues that set up the protagonist's situation are usually a bad idea. That information is better shown slipped into the actual story. But this is a special circumstance and it might be a good idea to start with the kidnapping. An event that changes how a reader sees the story is a good reason for a prologue. I can't say yay or nay based on this small bit of information, though. You'd have to look at several factors and then decide how this chapter would serve your story.

1. Is the kidnapping a secret to the reader?

If the boy doesn't know he's been kidnapped, and revealing this secret at some point in the book is meant to surprise the reader (and the boy), then telling the reader right away would steal your tension. If a big drive of the book is to find out what happened to this boy, I'd probably skip the kidnapping chapter. Don't give away the big secret, even if your kidnapping scene is "you don't know who the boy is." Readers are smart and they'll figure it out fast.

When to reveal a past secret can be tough in any story, because if the whole point of the story is to uncover that secret, then as soon as the reader figures it out, the story can drag. That's why movies with huge one-shot reveals are hardly ever re-watchable. Once you know the secret, who cares? It's even worse if the reader figures it out long before the characters does. Then there's no tension to keep the story moving and the reader might get bored and start skimming. So...

2. Do you want the reader to be surprised that the boy was kidnapped?

If yes, skip the chapter. If no, maybe keep it.

3. Is the kidnapping a secret to the boy?

If the reader knows about the kidnapping, and the drive of the story is to show the boy discovering this, then having that information from the start could also sap the tension. However, starting with a kidnapping chapter could work well if the reader is looking at everything from a different perspective and that changes things, such as, if it's a "raised by his kidnappers" type situation.

Dramatic irony is when the reader knows information the characters don't, and half the fun is the anticipation of what will happen when the character finally discovers the truth. It works great when the character is acting on bad information and the reader knows something horrible is going to come as a result. "Learning a horrible truth" usually isn't enough to carry the plot in this situation. It's the results of learning that truth. And what is done because of the lie or misinformation.

If the reader knows something from the start, and a good portion of the book is spent on getting the protagonist to the point when they learn it, there's a risk that everything up to that point can feel like set up. The story hasn't actually started yet in the reader's mind.

If the point is something else, and knowing the boy was kidnapped makes everything that happens mean more on multiple levels because of the truth/lie, then you can create some really great conflicts. 

4. Does knowing the boy was kidnapped make the reader see the story in a new and compelling way, seeing the real meaning to otherwise benign situations that add to the overall tension? 

If yes, keep the chapter. If no, skip it.

In the end you have to look at it and decide if it adds to the story or not. You can do anything you want, break any rule you want, if it serves the story and makes it better. If it hooks the reader and keeps them reading and wondering what will happen next, then it's a good idea.

What do you think?

Looking for tips on planning, writing, or revising your novel? Check out one of my books on writing:  Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, your step-by-step guide to revising a novel, and the first book in my Skill Builders Series (and Amazon bestseller), Understanding Show Don't Tell (And Really Getting It).

A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her novels include The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book. It was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and The Truman Award in 2011.

Janice is also the founder of Fiction University, a site dedicated to helping writers improve their craft. Her popular Foundations of Fiction series includes Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, your step-by-step guide to revising a novel, and the first book in her Skill Builders Series, the Amazon bestseller, Understanding Show Don't Tell (And Really Getting It).  

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