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What kind of opening to a book do you prefer?
I tend to read through on books which either start quickly or have a mix of a quick start with a bit of world/situation building. Books with a lot of setup in the beginning, like LOTR and The Hobbit don’t hold my attention.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~To be fair, those example books are 50+ years old, and by the same author to boot. Styles change.
I prefer less world-building up front myself, but I understand those who want some.
Great at theory, terrible at practice.
I know, but I’ve come across some more “recent” (80’s-90’s) books which had slow beginnings which lost me. Lots of setup first. Can’t recall the titles (don’t remember much from those years since breakdown), but I do recall coming across more than one book thorughout the 90’s which started with too much setup/worldbuilding/explanation to hold my attention. I don’t read as much any more, so I’m not sure about more modern books, particularly Fantasy and SF.
FWIW, the reason why I mention Tolkein’s books is because I had expectations of them being these fantastic reads built up from multiple people (those who merely liked the books as well as die-hard fans of them) and was very disappointed by the fact I couldn’t get through the openings, so I have a very clear memory of my experiences with them. Oddly, a series I found which was touted as “Tolkeinesque” had a fast-enough opening for me to keep me reading. I’m guessing the comparison actually came in the richness of the worldbuilding and lengths of the component books; they were all doorstoppers.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~When I read fantasy, I want a quick start combined with just enough world building to ground the story.
In mysteries, — hmmm. I want the same. Tell me a bit about the place and the characters or I won’t care why they’re chasing (or being chased by) the bad guys.
But I admit I love the world building at the beginning of the Hobbit. :cheer:
I agree with Ashe, though. If it goes on and on, I’ll stick the book back on the shelf.
Happy writing,
Deb Salisbury
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http://www.djsalisburybooks.com/Dead-Wizard-s-Loot.htmlIt entirely depends on the story, but even so the setup and back story stuff would be the least likely.
I suspect one of the reasons that Urban Fantasy is quite popular is that it allows the writer the ability to start the story/action quickly as a general rule. This approach lends itself well to the world building as you go type of story telling. I think, as well, that UF has the potential to be more forgiving in the world building department. When set in the modern world, people will naturally fill out their own expectations for things to be as similar and familiar as they know. Which doesn’t excuse poor world building of the real world sort (Cough getting a street wrong in NYC cough) but most people will back fill readily from their own expectations and experiences.
I suspect that Damon Knight had the right of this, in his book Creating Short Fiction. (I know, we’re talking about novels. My point stands.)
We could probably talk about the hook for hours, but distilled down, we want to keep the reader, well, reading. Ways to do that include suspense or an unanswered question, serious empathy for the protagonist’s situation, or a display of competence. None of them include infodumps. Yet old novels do include them. Starting with the weather is just as bad as starting with world history. (Really: Have you read the opening sentence/paragraph of Paul Clifford?)
Generally I would excuse from being an example anyone who was writing before, oh, Shannara. The reader expectations weren’t there. Tolkien figured you needed to know about hobbits; James Branch Cabell figured you needed some setting, and so on. You read something older, you have to put up with that: it’s like comparing episodes of The Donna Reed Show versus Three’s Company versus an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Styles change, expectations of the audience change.
In a similar way, I’d look at the opening paragraph of, oh, any of the Lensman books by E.E. Smith. I have always bounced off them, but I have a friend who adores them. Compare that to Ringworld, which certainly has a lot of worldbuilding, and to, oh, Player of Games. Very different approaches.
Great at theory, terrible at practice.
jhmcmullen wrote:(Really: Have you read the opening sentence/paragraph of Paul Clifford?)Where would you have started the story? There’s a man out there in those storm swept streets trying to find an open store that might just have a Bible they’d be willing to loan to help a dying prostitute find peace in her last moments. True, Edward Bulwer was a bit clumsy over location, sort of an after thought, but the the storm helps to establish the character of the man who will save Paul from the gallows for highway robbery, because circumstances had forced him to become a highwayman. There’s a lot going on.
Edward Bulwer was probably anti-death penalty for non murderers. Interesting man. After he inherited the title and became Colonial Secretary he probably altered the history of North America.
Mostly I prefer stories with a fast start, but there are exceptions. The problem with slow starts is often that the stories don’t pick up, and slow starts turn into slow stories. I found this so with Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage which I’ve also found listed as one of the ten best novels ever written.
One of the funniest novels I’ve ever read started a bit slowly with the main character having a drink at a friend’s place before the friend writes him into the novel as the main character.
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