A Bad Opening and a Good Ending

Before you ask, no, my writing is not going well.

Don't you love it when you realize that something is far harder than you remember? NaNoWriMo is basically ten days away after this post from being over. So, I'll basically have to ignore the world to meet my quota. My word count is steadily growing, but at the same time, I want to start reading as much as I'm writing. NetGalley is great for this, allowing me to beg publishers for their books before they release them. Of course there is this recurring problem that I'm facing. It keeps showing up while I'm writing and stares me down when I'm reading. These books are great and all. I swear.

It's just too bad that I have to get past the same opening over and over again.

Recently I've begun reading Mystic and Uprooted. At the same time, Hunger Games is still fresh in my mind with the last movie having been released. Each opens with a girl being picked for something that she, as well as her whole villagee, never though she could be picked for. It's like a kid getting a multiple choice test.

What counts as a fruit?

A: Cucumber
B: Bread
C: Gary
D: Tomato

But then the kid goes ahead and makes up his own option, calls it letter E and tells the teacher to deal with it.

E: I don't like fruit

Only the Hunger Games seems to subvert the problem in that Katniss negates the choice already given and offers herself up as tribute, showing a good deal of character in the process. I still don't like the Hunger Games for other reasons, but that scene does stick out and is a defining point of the series for the book and the movies. It played so many times that it was the moment signaling for me to start caring about the plot.

When the trope is played straight, it means that you know what's coming after the girl is picked. Shock, horror, denial and acceptance. Eventually the main character has to accept the call as it is driving force of the plot. Without it, she won't go risking her life by being forced to experience something she would've altogether avoided. I say she because this is typical of woman in YA. Also, the three books I listed all have female protagonist. Can this happen to a boy? Of course! What's different here is that boys in fantasy will most likely jump at the call, salivating at the prospect of leaving his no name village to learn magic and summon dragons.

The whole reason for this is that I said I would discuss my story with you guys. Obviously not chapter by chapter or using the actual plot, but on how I construct it; the typical opening being one of them. For me, I went with what would usually be a waking up chapter. You know how it plays out. The character opens his eyes to a new world. You follow him around for a day. You see his life, village and typical best friend who's always more interesting than him. Wait a few chapters and that village will go up in flames and the adventure will begin. That's the most cliche version of a heroic or epic fantasy opening I could muster on the spot.

First and foremost, it's a little hard doing the above when you're writing science fiction over fantasy. Try to burn something when the great god known as science has invented extinguishers and fire retardant material. I went through three iterations of him waking up in a strange place. I canned them all in minutes. I know how I write well enough to know that I wasn't capturing the scene. Plus, I made it more horror than anything. Throw in a bit of humor and it was a different story entirely. By the third I saw not only how he could be waking up, but how he could recall doing so as he focused on understanding his surroundings.

The chances that I'll keep the scene are minimal right now. In fact I've already written past it and think about it in passing, occasionally going back to see what would be better. What I do know, is what I want the future to feel like in my world. That the future should have technology that at least feels alien to us, much like fantasy does, is a feeling I'm struggling to portray. Conveying that message can be a tough trip and for many writers. In the process of worrying about it, you end up developing a paranoia about the beginning of a book.

An opening chapter has a lot to say in a limited way. Speak too much on setting up the scene and you've lost the reader. Speak too little and the reader doesn't know what you're trying to convey. The three books I listed way back in the beginning prove that the opening won't completely destroy or make your book. What matters is that you give a hint of what's to come. In Uprooted I saw my first hint when the Dragon was more irritable than malevolent. In Mystic I looked past the very cliche beginning to see something growing in the titular myst. Into what it was, I did not know. Hunger Games speaks for itself with its popularity, although I will one day write a post as to why I don't like it as much as I wish I did.

The opening of a book does matter, but what really counts is the rising action. Read your opening to yourself and if the first question you think a reader will ask is about what happens next, then you've got a keeper.