Beginnings are always hard. No matter if it’s a novel, short story, or essay. As a writer, the mission is to beguile, coax, hook, and yes, seduce—manipulate, if you will—agents, editors, publishers, and readers to open our books, turn the pages, and never stop until “The End.”
Easy, right? Not really.
If all it took were stringing words together that make sense, the world of writers would multiply exponentially. But like F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “I don’t want just words. If that’s all you have for me, you’d better go.”
So, if a writer really doesn’t want to let go of the goal to be published, no matter if fiction or nonfiction, effective writing—the craft of writing—must be learned and practiced. Voice, tone, figurative language, sound elements, dialogue, sentence structure, POV, mood, tone, emotion, and style must be mastered and used creatively—not only to write a good story but also to reach the goal of publication.
Think as a reader. Better yet, don an agent, editor, or publisher’s hat. Imagine you have hundreds of thousands of manuscripts stacked in front of you to read, and your goal is to find a manuscript you can sell. That is a key difference between a writer’s creative mission and an agent’s pursuit to sell a manuscript.
Competition Is Fierce, So Start Strong!
Another important thing to always remember and never forget: Competition is Fierce! Every writer, hoping to get the coveted, “Sign on the dotted line, please!”, must put their very best writing foot forward from the beginning all the way to the end to rise above the din. Otherwise, forget it. In essence, the opening pages of a story are the first—and possibly only—chance to open that door to publication.
It goes without saying that first impressions matter. So...start strong! In those first pages, readers will fall in love with your protagonist and story. Or they won’t. They’ll be intrigued with what’s happening. Or they won’t. They’ll turn the page. Or they won’t. And if they don’t, your manuscript may be kicked to the curb or tossed into the trash. Harsh realization, to be sure. But it is imperative that every writer understand this.
So how does a writer start strong? Create intrigue. Ground your reader in the story. Impose questions in a reader’s mind.
Create Intrigue
Consider the opening lines of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Although the antagonist, Jada, the White Witch, is not yet introduced, Lewis intrigues and hooks the reader in only sixty-one words and even creates questions in the reader’s mind they probably want answered. Questions the writer answers continually throughout the story.
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest post office.
In short order, the reader starts to learn who the protagonists are (the children), what happened to them (they were sent away), where the story takes place (in the heart of the country) as well as when (during the war), why (because of the air raids), how they were sent away (by train), and to whom (an old Professor). Interestingly, by way of omission, Lewis creates intrigue in the peril of the children. (This story is about something that happened to them). What better way to lure a reader to turn the page? What better way to have them turn the page over and over again to find who or what they will encounter that turns the characters’ lives topsy-turvy?
Next: Enter the antagonist. Granted, some antagonists are not introduced immediately. Even so, grounding the reader in a story, along with enough intrigue so they want to find out who or what is preventing the protagonist(s) from meeting their goal, is paramount in hooking the reader.
Such is the case of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Jada, The White Witch, who froze Narnia in the Hundred Years' Winter isn’t introduced until near the end of chapter three. This is still plenty early in the story, of course. Here, too, Lewis capitalizes on other literary techniques to enhance the plot, like mood, tone, and description: Edmund “did not much like being alone in this strange, cold, quiet place.”
Like Edmund, the reader is put on edge. Fearful. Other questions arise as well. Why does Edmund not like being there? Why is it strange? Instinctively, too, the reader knows this description is foreshadowing things to come. As such, tension amps up, and the reader wants to know what will happen next.
Next, Lewis manipulates the scene with the dialogue between Edmund and the “Queen of Narnia” and puts the reader in medias res—in the middle of the action. This, in turn, creates intrigue and tension, raises the stakes for Edmund and his siblings, and thus, enhances the desires and objectives of Edmund and eventually his sisters and brother. Dialogue can move the plot along and reveal details about a character (e.g., snarky, off-putting, quiet, angry). The dialogue between characters also can reveal the mood of the scene or the story overall. Many times, what is spoken out loud by a character is in direct contrast to what they meant and indicates an undercurrent between them. As an expert in his craft, Lewis uses intrigue throughout the first few chapters in his description and dialogue as well as the characters’ lives to keep readers turning the pages.
Ground Your Reader in the Story with Point of View (POV)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is told in third-person omniscient POV. The narrator knows everything about all the characters—their thoughts, feelings, and so on. In comparison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel, The Great Gatsby, chose first-person narrator Nick Carraway to immerse the reader in the story. The story is more intimate told from his POV, thus simultaneously creating empathy for him. Also, if Gatsby had been the one to tell the story, we would miss much from Nick’s perspective.
By the same token, from the opening of the novel, Nick wants the reader to believe he is reliable in his view of Gatsby and the other characters—as well as himself. For example, the story begins as Nick says:
In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.”
So readers may question, having lived an advantageous life (as compared to possibly Gatsby’s early life), do we trust Nick’s viewpoint? Even so, as Nick begins the story, he pulls the reader into his world and lays the foundation for his view of Gatsby and his life—plus how it has affected Nick. Readers become grounded in Nick’s reality and beliefs.
Further on, as he talks of going to the East “to learn the bond business,” he states he will become a “well-rounded man, [which] isn’t just an epigram—life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.”
Like Lewis in the above example, Fitzgerald also creates intrigue while he draws us in with Nick’s storytelling and personality. One thing does become clear—the story is as much about Nick Carraway as Jay Gatsby—and readers will continue to race to the end to find out more.
Present Questions to the Reader
One last tip for strong beginnings is leaving your dear reader with questions they must have answered by the end of the book. These questions keep them reading. For example, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the author creates intrigue about what will happen to the kids. In The Great Gatsby, first-person narrator Nick Carraway pulls the reader in and grounds them in his world of wealth.
Another example of a strong beginning, where the author presents questions for the reader, is Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. The story is told in first-person POV, from the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who struggles with depression and finding her place in a 1950’s man’s world.
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenburgs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.
Another excerpt:
I was supposed to be having the time of my life.
In the very first sentence, Plath uses descriptions of the weather and time of year (queer, sultry summer), where Esther was (New York), what took place (an execution), and who was killed (the Rosenbergs) to create questions that need to be answered. Esther wonders about her own reason for being in New York, which, in turn, intrigues the reader to find the answers about New York and why the summer was queer. Manipulation at its finest!
Things to Remember...
Always, always, always...read and remember at least the first stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “I Keep Six Honest Serving Men.”
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
These questions are basic to every story. They create interest, curiosity, concern, and nosiness in readers. (Read the poem here). For that reason, without serving these fellows to your reader in the beginning, you will lose them. Guaranteed.
All in all, when drafting beginnings, like relationships, they are often messy, complicated, confusing, and tangled with unknowns. Even so, this is a necessary part of writing every story. Then many, many drafts later, the writer can buckle down and “craft” the rest of the story.
Start strong! Stay strong! And be the Fierce Competition others want to emulate.
***
Donna Judith Essner lives and writes in sunny Florida’s sandy-beach panhandle. She has held positions as a university press associate editor, a small press acquisitions editor of several award-winning non-fiction and fiction works, and currently is a freelance editor. Her days are spent penning and editing her own manuscripts (two historical YA, and has just begun her first mystery novel), and freelance editing manuscripts. Her work has been published in newpages.com, Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, Faulkner and Chopin, and WOW! Women on Writing. She is a member of SCBWI, Women’s Fiction Writer’s Assn, Emerald Coast Writers, Sisters in Crime (SinC), and Mystery Writers of America (MWA).
