Beginings

One of the first things that we learn as writers is that beginnings are very important. Whether we are writing a short story or a novel, we know that we need to start with a strong narrative hook. It’s essential to grab our readers’ attention or arouse their curiosity straight away.  

As fiction writers, we tend to do that by jumping straight into the action. New writers often make the mistake of explaining the background. True, we need a few deft words to give us some idea of the setting near the start, but having to wade through paragraphs of description of the weather or the location does not inspire today’s reader. By the same token, it’s far better to discover things about the characters from their actions than try to remember vast chunks of each character’s history before we’ve even got to know them.

One of my pet hates is being introduced to various characters by name and in some detail in the first few paragraphs who turnout to have no further significance in the story. My own preference, certainly in my short stories, is that the main character is always the first to be named even if they’re not the first person on the scene.

Sometimes we read on because the first sentence has piqued our interest. Take for example the opening of C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Trader – “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrub, and he almost deserved it.” I defy anyone not to carry on reading to find out why the poor lad warranted his name.

It’s important to get in appreciation of the type of novel were reading from the outset.

From the opening line of his The Girl who Played with Fire – “She lay on her back fastened by leather straps to a narrow bed with a steel frame” – we know exactly what sort of novel Stieg Larsson has lined up for us.

In the same way, Rose Macaulay, in her The Towers of Trebizond lets us know from the very beginning that we’re about to read a comic novel. “Take my camel, dear,’ said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.”

Openings are very much on my mind at the moment as I have recently written the first chapters in my new travel mystery series. Beginning with a dramatic opening was very much on my mind and I began with finding a dead body. Now I’m faced with the problem of illustrating the dead person’s character. I’ve discovered that writing in the first person makes flashbacks far more tricky. No section of a novel is rewritten more often than the opening scene. nonetheless sorting out the first few chapters will be a task for later – probably not until the first draught of my novel is complete.

Writing the opening of any novel is one of the most exhilarating experiences for any novelist. Enthusiasm is high, the story is fresh and new and there’s a conviction that this is going to be the best book yet!  However, no doubt like all other novelists, I write far more opening chapters that I have to discard at some point, but now it’s time to move on and get on with the rest of the novel and get the first draft written before I tackle the opening again.