The MOST Common Writing Mistakes: Novel Openings
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- Your novel's opening is an incredibly important part of the story. A weak opening means you'll likely fail to capture the reader's attention, and no matter how thrilling the story-to-follow-is, it may not end up getting read at all. Luckily, there are a few very common mistakes writers makes in their opening chapters, and once you identify them, they're easy to avoid. Let's talk about these common mistakes, and how to avoid them!
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0:00 - Intro
1:07 - Starting too early
3:10 - Too much mundanity
4:57 - Too much information
5:57 - No inciting incident
6:43 - No character presence
7:48 - Tropes and familiarity
8:58 - Not starting in reality
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Good video! Especially the part about info dumping at the start, or the tropes. Although, I might be a weird reader in that regard. I don't really care about a “punchy” opening. For me, the character(s) are more important and even if there is a mundane beginning, as long as I'm engaged in their life, I keep reading. I think I never put down a book because the opening felt dull. But I might be in the minority xD
'The more context you may need beforehand'. That is really just brilliant. I never looked at it that way, but that makes perfect sense.
In one of my stories, the inciting incident does not need much 'context beforehand', and the inciting incident and the story progression begins at ~300 words (after very minimal exposition and character intro). In another story, it doesn't begin until the end of the first chapter, which has always bugged me. But now I finally know why-it needs that context there, first.
Your 'mundanity' concept also applies all throughout a novel. As a pantser, primarily, I see one dangerous tendency (which doesn't really affect plotters much) which is a tendency to: a) Know certain facts about the story, b) Assume those facts need, therefore, to be on the page, simply bc you as the author need to know them, and c) Discover that while yes, you do need to know these facts, maybe the reader doesn't need to know them, and so they should not really be on the page.
I catch myself doing this too often, and have to cut those things. I refer to it as the dreaded 'prose plotting'.
I agree with what you say about the inciting incident. That is, I imagine, the 'global' or 'story' inciting incident. But every scene also needs an inciting incident. That does not always need to be directly in the scene, but should be if possible. What constitutes the inciting incident in the scene could be something that happens in a previous scene, or it can be the global inciting incident.
It’s like y’all read my mind 😂 Thank you so much for this video! When I’m really struggling with my writing or my confidence, I always come watch Shaelin’s videos.
Really good information!
Think about modern movies, too. The good ones start at the right place and offer backstory throughout. These tips are good, as I always make these mistakes. The difficulty comes in deciding what should go in the first few pages and what can wait. I struggle with this in one of my novels. I've gone back and forth so much it's crazy.
I think it takes me like....one hundred tries just to get the opening together. Because I do have a prologue in my current wip, its a little "cheaty" lol but it's extremely important to the context of the grand story. I think the start of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is incredible. It has this perfect balance of exposition, action, dialogue all good for an opening that keeps you gripped for the rest of the book. He's one of my inspirations.
To add to the part about starting in reality, I've also read books where they'll begin in an adjacent reality but not the MC's mind. Think law enforcement TV show where the episode starts with the crime playing out. I don't think it translates well to books (at least not to a genre other than thriller or mystery) because I always walk away feeling cheated, and oftentimes the real story with the MC's introduction and internal conflict is a lot more engaging anyway.
And I’ve just started planning a story (book 2 in a trilogy) that starts with a nightmare dream sequence to foreshadow what’s to come later…
🙏🏼
That mistakes is applying to police/mistery/thriller genres too? like Agatha Christie's books and novels for example?
Do you have any books that you have written? I would like to read one of them and get an idea of how your books are.
She's published a bunch of short stories, many of which can be read online for free. No novel yet, but she has an agent and a book on submission. Any day now, fingers crossed.
@@deadeaded What's her full name, so I can read some of the stories. Thank you
@@danthebreakingnewsman9313 Shaelin Bishop
Any thoughts or tips about humor in books; or when basic humor crosses the line into “dark comedy”
What about starting a novel in the midst of a really intense moment and then backtracking to show how we got here? I’m concerned that it’s too “bait and switch” for readers or just annoying if I don’t do it right!
Come here if you want to hear more vocal fry than all the Kardashians in one room!
Personally, I don't have any trouble understanding what she is saying.