Chapter One is extremely important. Do I
really need to tell you this? In both commercial and literary novels, this is
where you have to hook readers and reel them into your story. It should include
a motivating incident (a.k.a. the catalytic event); the problem or at least a
hint of the problem that the main character has to deal with; the main
character’s response; and the conflict (internal or external) that the problem creates
for the main character.
When you consider your main character’s
response, you should ask yourself, “What is this person’s goal(s)? What does he
or she want? Everybody wants something. I want to be paid for writing this
blog, but I’m not holding my breath. The goal can be explicit or implicit, the
latter being an intimation, a glimmer, or a hint that readers with an I.Q.
higher than room temperature will sense.
Why is at least an inkling of the
protagonist’s goal so important? Because without a goal the protagonist will
take no action and experience no conflict as he/she strives to reach the goal.
And without conflict your story will be snore fest.
In short:
Goal ➔ Conflict ➔ Struggle ➔ Drama ➔ Emotions ➔ Readability
Before you introduce the components of
scene-setting, you should have an attention-getting first line in order to pull
readers into your story. This is one of my favorites from John D. MacDonald’s Darker than Amber:
“We were about to give up and call it a night when
somebody threw the girl off the
bridge.”
How could you not be
sucked into a story that begins with that line?
From a much newer novel, Head Games by Craig McDonald, the first
line is:
“We were sitting in a backroom of a cantina on the
outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, three drinks in, when Bill Wade reached into the
dusty duffle bag he had tucked under the table and plunked down the Mexican
general’s head.”
The severed head of a dead Mexican
general? That gets your attention. Notice how much scene-setting info the
author includes in this first line. He tells us that there are at least two
characters in this scene, probably male, where the scene takes place, and what
happens. The sentence does double duty—grabbing the reader’s attention and dropping
him into the fictional scene.
You can find many notable first lines by
googling that subject. Here’s one good site:
I have read far too many uninspiring
openings written by inexperienced novelists. Often they begin with backstory.
They set up the story by downloading
a ton of info to readers instead of getting right into the action of the story.
In other cases the writer makes a minimal effort to get the story moving by
beginning with a dull bit of commonplace action, soon followed by backstory,
something like this:
“When Julia woke up, her bedroom was still dark. She
shuffled to the bathroom and looked at her tired face in the mirror.”
Then the writer has to tell us why she’s tired, what
color her hair and eyes are, how old she is, where she was born, where she went
to college, where she lives now, where she works, what guy she has just broken
up with, why she’s anorexic, why her mother hates her (or vice versa), her
favorite color, the name of her best friend, and how she and her BFF bonded at
age six after that day in the bathroom. Etcetera. I’m exaggerating so you get
the idea.
This doth not a compelling opening make.
Beginning a story with the main character waking up in the morning is one of
the worst ways to start a novel. It’s beyond cliché.
Writing a reader-grabbing first line,
first graf, and first chapter takes a lot of thought and experimentation. I
urge you to read the beginning of a truckload of novels, analyze them, and
determine what works and what doesn’t. Before long you will get the hang of it.
Tip: If reading the first page induces a
coma, that’s not the way you should
write.
Paul Thayer
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