 |
| Robitz. Always cool. |
Showing and telling are the two fundamental elements of any narrative. Dialogue and description. While both elements are necessary to create awesome fiction, one element shines above the other when selling your narrative to your audience. When you’re writing the first few scenes of a story, show, don’t tell. The reason for this is that showing an audience what your character does will create much more understanding, and characterize more powerfully, within those crucial first moments of reading.
Later, dialogue can be used to flesh out more important aspects of a narrative, but at the opening, keep it to a minimum. No one wants to hear a discussion, unless it’s interesting, and I would suggest that no discussion between two characters is interesting enough to open a narrative, at least not until you’re famous: then you can start your work however you want, and people will still read it. The truth is, readers aren’t going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and no matter how deep your work is, it still has to be awesome first. Readers appreciate depth, character development and plot in a narrative, but they will read your book for the awesome factor.
Now, the awesome factor varies from audience to audience, but it’s important to have. In a Christian audience, or a highly religious audience of any kind, this awesome value might be direct communication with God, in which case works like Conversations with God can get away with being almost completely dialogic because the act of dialogue in such a manner, is, in itself, awesome. In the same way, dialogue between the character and the reader is perfectly acceptable, because the awesome value comes in the narrator talking to the real person holding the book. Dialogic openings like this include Rorschach’s opening lines in Watchmen, or Ishmael’s in Moby Dick: “Call me Ishmael.”
Warning: the awesome value may change according to age group and gender. A sexy opening is only going to appeal to those attracted to the gender exuding sexiness in the scene. An action packed opening is only going to appeal to those who appreciate that specific type of action, hence the old saying: know your audience. The point in all of this, however, is that Cliché openings and especially those riddled with dialogue between two characters that we don’t know yet, are a mistake. They say don’t start your story with weather, and I’ll agree with that. Unless it’s a destructive, elemental storm instrumental to the plot (Shakespeare’s The Tempest, I'm looking at you), no one cares if it was raining. I would add, don’t start your story with a conversation. Unless you are sure of this conversation’s ability to grab your reader’s interest, then it is most likely a mistake. So start your work with something awesome, and here’s how to tell if something is awesome:
1) 1) If you have to ask yourself whether it’s awesome, it isn’t.
2) 2) If it takes time to explain why it’s awesome to another human being, it isn’t awesome to them.
3) 3) If you don’t think it’s awesome, it isn’t.
If all else fails, summarize the opening scene in a few sentences, and pitch it to someone who is in your target demographic. If you are selling a teen romance, talk to a teen girl. Tell them it’s a story about a girl and a guy which starts with: *your selling-it scene here*. For instance, I just wrote a short story, which I will be posting this Wednesday that begins with a Ninja fighting Robots. Three words: ninja fighting robots. Ask any guy around the ages of 14-40 and he thinks that’s awesome. No questions asked. Ninjas are cool, robots are cool, and the two fighting must be awesome.
So I challenge you! Go find your awesome, but come back on Wednesday and read my awesome. For free, of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment