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Joined: 4/3/2011
Posts: 66
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I started a book with a house falling on my mother, yet no takers. Who knew people didn't like that idea.
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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Re: Sinnie: Heh-heh! I think that could be a brilliant way of opening a novel: sardonic, wry, serio-comedic. Anything can work, right? I could see John Irving or Michael Chabon trying that . . .
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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@Johnny - you can take that too far, though.
Example - I've got a story start with a mad scientist test piloting a jet propelled hang glider, with a wing ripping off by the end of page one (or middle of page two, depending on pagination). I had a (fairly articulate) student say 'this bores me'. When asked why, her response was 'nobody has died yet, and it's not bloody'.
Personally, if I don't have some reason to care about the characters, I can get really bored by constant action
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Robert. When I asked my son what books he likes, he tells me "Books where things blow up." He's fourteen. I know at fourteen my tastes were a little more nuanced than that. But the sad fact is, he just doesn't like books very much at all. He likes TV shows and video games.
Could be your articulate student is the same way.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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Yes and no.
On the 'not going to hell in a handbasket' side, she reads Patterson books like they're Pez.
On the 'Okay, line my handbasket with soft fluffy things for the ride, please' side, she's a HUGE gore flick / fiction fan.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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That one is funny, Robert. Don't worry about cheating, you aren't the first.
I have a great story about finding out that my brother has nuanced taste in books. He was grounded once for 9 weeks. My mother took away all his electronics. Instead of throwing a fit like most teenagers at the age of 16 would, he read. We never knew my brother could soar through books with miniscule font and an 800 page count. The weird thing is that even though the books involve war and death (the previously mentioned Warhammer 40k books), he looks for good writing and strong character development because apparently that keeps his attention. (He actually has one specific writer that he prefers above the rest for these books.) When asked what his favorite book he read in school was, he said, "Of Mice and Men. I really enjoyed it." My mother's reaction was priceless.
As for once being a young teenage girl, I had to stop reading YA because most of the books drove me crazy with the sappiness and bad plots. I guess that's what I get for having a college reading level at 10. I still remember looking my older friend in the eyes and saying, "I'm never listening to you again. Blood and Chocolate sucked." I think I was 14.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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Thanks to this thread I just rewrote the first chapter of Salem. Again. It starts in the middle of the night (timing is key) and the hero is sixteen so I had him being shoved awake.
Now he's sneaking in the house from a night out with his friends. *mutters*
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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I think the 'waking up' thing is like anything else. If you're doing it for a very specific reason, be it plot or otherwise, it can work. If you're doing it because you have no better way to open the story, it needs to go.
As a hypothetical forex, if you've got a character who is narcoleptic, you might actually start *every chapter* with her waking up. The entire 'falls asleep at inappropriate moments' could wind up driving the story. As another forex, if the story is the old 'framed man' chestnut, the subgenre practically demands he wakes up next to the corpse, doesn't it?
My point here is the same one I made in the thread about cliches, really. It's like an Olympic skater using a really simple move in a routine: it better be executed perfectly, and there better be a reason for it being there.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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Robert, I am lucky that this is a cliche I'm able to avoid. My character is busted sneaking in past curfew now instead of sleeping. I like this beginning better because it shows the reader that the character is in the habit of bending rules right from the start.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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See, there you go. Better characterization by not sleeping. If you woke him up specifically to show that he's a rule-follower, that could work for that type of character, but...
Yeah, you see where I'm going.
Actually, I'm now wondering how a 'main character wakes up' that winds up with them not being awake could be played out. Yeah, it's a dream sequence thing, but looked at from a certain angle Iron Dragon's Daughter was a dream sequence thing, and it rocked mightily.
I just realized something about myself - I find just as much challenge in executing a hoary old trope so perfectly it's enjoyable as I do in writing something truly original. Then again, 'unique' I've never had a problem with. 'Well executed'? That's another story. 
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Here's one more opening that annoys me: the huge recap. There's one writer in particular I used to read who tended to recap the preceding volumes in his series in a single huge chunk of the first scene. It got to the point where I could instinctively recognise when this was coming and I could skim ahead.
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