Grand Openings Part 2: More Advice for Beginning Your Novel

In my last blog, I wrote about hooking the reader with action in the first scene of your novel. I also said that beginning your novel with action didn’t mean you had to begin with explosions or flying bullets.  It just meant you had to show your characters doing something that made the reader want to be a part of it. 

 

However there is nothing wrong with starting out with a bang as long as the rest of the story delivers the kind of action you present in the first scene.  If your novel as a whole is not driven by adrenaline, it shouldn’t begin with it.

Conversely, you can have an adrenaline-laced story that does not begin with a bang but is engaging nonetheless. Charles Dickens did, as did John Steinbeck. 

Big bang aside, your story should not begin with long exposition laced with unnecessary description either.  Description is wonderful as long as it doesn’t bog the reader down. 

   

For instance, some writers think they have to give every detail about the appearance of their characters.  How you describe your character’s appearance should not interfere with the flow of your story or crash your beginning.  You run the risk of disengaging your reader if you are giving every physical characteristic of each character, especially if it has no significance to the story itself. 

To illustrate, think back to your favorite novel.  Do you remember the hair or eye color of all the characters?   Or everything they wore?  Probably not. Why? More than likely the author didn’t want to drag the reader down by leaving nothing to the imagination, or didn’t feel the descriptions were essential enough to the story to mention.  

And, I bet you didn’t miss those details either.  Mark Twain didn’t describe every detail of Huckleberry Finn’s appearance, yet the reader had no problem creating a mental image of him.  However, had something about Huck’s appearance been significant to the plot, Twain would have shared it.  

Sometimes physical features can help to set the feel of the scene and advance the story. Here is the opening of Cathy Marie Hake’s novel That Certain Spark:

“Miracles are going to start happening, Karl Van der Vort.  I can feel it in my bones.” The labyrinth of wrinkles on Mrs. Whitsley’s face added to the almost mystical quality of her comment. Blue eyes lively as could be, she winked. “Miracles.”

Thump. Karl shut the door on her now-full coal bin. Humoring the sweet old woman, he asked, “Like What?”

Notice how Hake’s description of the old woman is significant to the prophetic and mystical tone of the scene.  Here, the physical description, especially of the wrinkles, helps the flow of the opening scene rather than hinders it. And too, notice she didn’t have to give us the woman’s hair color or attire for us to create a mental picture of this woman. 

      

Regardless of whether you begin your novel with scene or dialogue, make sure your characters are doing or saying something that makes the reader curious enough to keep reading. Furthermore, avoid heavy-laden descriptions that unnecessarily burden the reader and slow the story’s flow.

To get published, you must hook the editor on the first cast and keep reeling.  Otherwise you will end up getting skunked.