We are in week two of the Go Teen Writers Book Club. I’m enjoying this book so far and hope you are too. Let’s jump right into things today, shall we?
Story Trumps Structure, Chapter 2: Orientation
Chapter Recap:
Mr. James is talking about story openings in this chapter, and he gives a list of eight things that story beginnings should do to be effective. These eight items all work together. They all might happen in a paragraph, or they might be stretched over the first few chapters. These eight aspects of story beginnings are as follows:
1. Orient readers to the world of the story.
2. Lock in the genre.
3. Give readers a setting in time and place that they can picture.
4. Set the mood and tone.
5. Introduce the author’s (or narrator’s) voice.
6. Introduce a protagonist whom readers will care about or an antagonist they will fear. (Or, in some cases, both.)
7. End in a way that is both surprising and satisfying.
8. Snag the reader’s attention.
Prologues are not always superfluous. If the story demands one, include it. Prologues can: Give important character backstory that cannot be woven into the narrative later. Bookend the story. Provide a flash-forward to a scene later in the book. Give a different point of view. Introduce a subplot. And avoid repetition in sequels.
What Stood Out:
I loved how in #2 he talked about how a book’s packaging makes the genre expectations clear so there is no need to “hit the ground running” in your opening scene. And if you’re pitching, it’s important to make the genre clear in your query letter since you have no packaging to rely on.
In #3 he said “until readers can picture a scene, they can’t experience it.” Lack of setting, or of any kind of orienting description, is something I see a lot in the work of new writers. It’s important to set the stage at the start of each new scene so that readers know where the main character is and who is with him. Unless, of course, he doesn’t know himself…
When, in #4, he shared that quote from the Gillian Flynn novel I was like:
:-O Fabulous example for setting mood and tone. Yikes!
In #5, he says, “Whatever voice you choose for your story, introduce it early and keep it consistent throughout your narrative or at least throughout a particular character’s point-of-view portion of the story.”
In #6, “If readers don’t care about your protagonist, they won’t care about your story.” This is so true! Also, in regards to describing characters, “Tell them what’s essential, and let them fill in the rest.” Many authors tend to over-describe. He gave some great examples of descriptions that were simple but effective. One of my favorites was: “She turned every step into a Spanish dance.”
In #7, he says, “Every story begins with a coincidence.” I’m actually not sure I agree that every story starts with one. I mean, what if a story starts with a premeditated kidnapping? Still, I appreciate the idea that if a coincidence happens in a story, it belongs in the beginning.
At the end of the chapter, Mr. James spent some time talking about how endless critiquing of the first chapter is a waste of time. I love this so much. It’s something I say often. It’s one thing to get some tips on your writing craft, but too many people get stuck, sometimes for years, rewriting chapter one over and over. So, don’t waste time rewriting and getting critiques on every draft of your first chapter. Finish the book. Because by the time you finish that draft, you’ll likely go back and drastically change that first chapter.
What I Found Helpful and Intend to Apply to My Writing:
I really liked the realization that my cover and book description set the stage for genre expectations. It seems completely obvious now. How could I have missed it? But in the future, I’ll remember this when writing my first chapter.
I also appreciated the reminder to be intentional about introducing my characters for the first time. I sometimes forget about this and just have them all in scenes early on. I’ll be taking a closer look at this as I rewrite in the future.
Tip of the week:
“Instead of tinkering endlessly with your opening, it’s vital that you work through your story, flesh it out, see where it leads, and then, once you know where it’s going, head back to the beginning and start it off aimed in the right direction.” —Steven James
Go Teen Writers Archived Articles to Help You Go Deeper:
8 Keys to Opening Your Story the Right Way
Does My Book Need a Prologue?
#WeWriteBooks Post #15: Prologues
Questions: Answer at least one of the following (or as many as you’d like).
•Have you ever gotten stuck in the spiral of endless rewrites of your first chapter? (I did. I rewrote the beginning of The New Recruit for three years…)
•Did you make it impossible in the beginning for the reader not to care what happens to your main character?
•Straight from the book: Take a closer look at the opening of your story and ask yourself if you are accomplishing what you set out to do or if you might be trying too hard?
•Was there anything in this chapter you disliked?
•What, if anything do you intend to apply to your writing?
•Any questions?
I also liked what he said about packaging and how it influences expectations! That hadn’t really occurred to me before, but as you said, it seems kind of obvious now.
What I intend to apply: The list of eight things is super helpful––I like how he simplified it, and all the aspects make sense. My novel’s beginning is something I’ve been struggling to nail down (I wrote it one way, added a prologue, wrote a different prologue and switched it out, removed the prologue altogether, rewrote the beginning…), so there are a lot of tips in this chapter that I think will be helpful to me. I definitely want to make more of an effort to lock in the genre early on and be intentional about introducing my characters.
That’s awesome. It’s so great when things click, isn’t it?
I got a lot out of this chapter. I’ve been taking notes (its easier to reference back to in my writing later), and he had so many helpful things to write down! I never even realized that there was so much more that I could put in my first chapter to make it more exciting and a better beginning.
One thing that I learned: don’t assume your readers will care about your characters; make it impossible for them not to. I thought that was really nice and simplified.
One thing I disagreed with: to create an opening that the readers can see. For me, being such an avid reader, I think what first catches a reader’s eye is the cover/back cover description. But, second, it is also something that can be funny, like a Percy Jackson, or something exciting. I like when they’re either in the middle of danger and are escaping something or somebody; or when something simple just went wrong.
I’m reading a book right now where the first series was really fast pace and made me keep reading. But the second series (I’m on book 2) has had really slow beginnings and doesn’t speed up until close to the end. I’m really only reading it now because I want to know what happened to the characters from the first series.
As a reader, I want to have to keep reading past the first chapter to find out what happens and care about the main character from the first few chapters.
Such great thoughts, Macey. I also liked that part about making it impossible for readers not to care about your characters. And I know what you mean about beginnings. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut.
I continue to really like this book. I think it’s a helpful read for me after reading about story structure so much recently. It’s a nice balance.
I really appreciated his point about how until we write the ending, we don’t know if we got the beginning right. That resonates with me now, and it would have resonated for me in my new writer days when I was rewriting the first few chapters over and over and over.
Agreed! I’ve been a bit of a story structure addict, so this has been a nice change.
While I was never caught in the spiral of re-writing Chapter 1 endless times, I spent five months struggling with Chapter 2 because my Chapter 1 was a little bit like a prologue (it takes place eleven years before the actual story), so my Chapter 2 still had a lot riding on it in terms of introducing the story and hooking the reader. I eventually figured it out, but I think this book would have been a valuable asset to me when the problem was unfolding. It would’ve helped to know that I don’t have to perfect my opening until the whole book is done and I know where I want to take things.
Judging by the advice laid out in this chapter, I think my book’s opening is pretty strong so far, but I feel like I should work on making it impossible for my reader to not care about my characters. Since my book is paranormal-ish, there’s a lot of suspense driving the story, particularly in the opening scene. Suspense doesn’t work if you don’t care about the characters, so I want to make sure that my readers do.
I liked what Mr. James said about not trying to critique parts of a book out of context, mostly because having people judge what I’m writing if they try to read over my shoulder and they don’t have the whole picture has always been a small fear of mine. But it’s so true that critiquing a book in sections isn’t always the answer, because you can’t evaluate the whole of something by only looking at part of it. You need a broader scope of the story to truly measure the worth within a scene.
Such great thoughts, Em Elizabeth. I’m glad you got so much out of this chapter. There was a lot to think on, that’s for sure. Getting my readers to care about my characters is high up there for me.