Writing Excuses 21.06: Begin and the Beginning

From https://writingexcuses.com/21-06-begin-and-the-beginning

Key Points: Begin at the beginning. Ground the reader. Set expectations for the ride. Pace, tone. Action-driven openings or voice-driven openings. How will you pull the reader through the story (aka hook or frame). Interesting, unique details. DIY slushpiles. Going into a house for a party. Start at the interesting. Where are we, who should we care about, and what's happening? Taste and an offering. A microcosm of the greater story. Make a promise and keep it, or ask a question and answer it. Welcome snacks! You don't need to get it right at first! Party planning with time travel. 

[Season 21, Episode 06]

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[Mary Robinette] This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.patreon.com/writingexcuses.

[Season 21, Episode 06]

[Mary Robinette] This is Writing Excuses.

[DongWon] Begin at the beginning.

[Erin] Tools, not rules.

[Mary Robinette] For writers, by writers.

[Mary Robinette] I'm Mary Robinette.

[DongWon] I'm DongWon.

[Erin] I'mErin.

[DongWon] And, this week we're going to talk about beginnings. This is one of my very favorite topics... I think I've said that like three episodes in a row.

[Chuckles]

[DongWon] But I do love talking about beginnings. I overindex on them. I think in part it's because of my job as an agent, when I'm looking at queries and I'm looking at samples, I'm always looking at beginnings of stories and trying to make a judgment call on them. So, I have read thousands upon thousands of beginnings of books and had to make judgment calls about is this working or not. Right? And I think they're really, really important. I think readers are also reading beginnings of stories and making a decision of do I buy this book, do I keep reading this book? Right? And so many times that's where you lose somebody. Right? Because... Now sometimes for good reasons, which is, oh, this book isn't for me, I'm not the reader for this, I thought it was going to be something else and it's not. The cover... I made an assumption from the cover that isn't true. Right? But a lot of times, it's people who would enjoy the rest of your book, but bounced off of it because it didn't quite do what it... The beginning needs to be doing. It's a very difficult section because your reader's coming in cold, they know nothing about what's happening, they don't know your characters, your stakes, your world, and you need to communicate an enormous amount of information to them very quickly without losing them because of a lack of action or too complex prose or whatever it is.

[Mary Robinette] So this episode is kind of going to give you an overview. And then we're going to have some follow-up episodes where we're going to kind of dive into a lot of these things. But generally, when I'm thinking about beginnings, I think about grounding the reader. I think about setting their expectations for the kind of ride they're going to be on. I think about the pace and the tone of the overall thing. So, sometimes, I'm going to do something that's called an action driven opening, and sometimes I'm going to do something that's called a voice driven opening. And I think about sort of what questions I want to set up that are going to... Like, how am I going to pull the reader through the story? Sometimes we call this a hook, sometimes we call this a frame. There's a bunch of different words for it. But, like, what is it that makes the reader say, do I care about this?

[Erin] I recently did an event in which we read the beginnings of people's works. And so what happened is there was a panel and we read the first few pages. I was one of the readers. We actually couldn't see the panel. And when three of them raised their hands, saying I would stop reading here, we stopped. And so it was really an interesting way... Like, and we read them completely, like, no prep at all.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] And it was an interesting way to see what was catching people's attention. And to me, it was, like, something that felt unique, something that people hadn't necessarily heard of before, with interesting details. I found that pieces that had really interesting details, especially if it was like one key detail that felt unique and felt like something that you could really understand, grabbed people's interest and kept them going through the whole beginning. Whereas other ones did not have that same sort of grab.

[Mary Robinette] I've been the reader for this kind of event. And I've also learned that there's a way you can set up this experience at home with friends, which is you can create kind of a slush pile experience. We do something with my short story cohort where we do... The... We get... We take the first 13 lines, which is the first page in standard manuscript format, and we chunk all of the first 13 lines that we have written in a period of time into a single document. And then we go through and read it as if we're reading through a slush pile. And mark which ones kept us and why. We don't mark which ones we hate... We don't do any of that. It's just a I love this, I love that. And one of the things that will happen for the writer is that often everyone will gravitate towards one, and the writer is like that's really fascinating because I know that this other one that no one has picked is way more interesting deeper into the story.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] And so then they can look at it and compare, like, what am I doing in this one that everyone is gravitating towards? And so that's the thing that you can do with your writing friends. You can create your own slush pile. You can even create a slush pile by just grabbing the first 13 lines out of existing material that's not even yours to create this experience of what is it that consistently catches me? And it's... You'll find that it is different with each of them, but that a lot of it is that there is something in it that makes you... And this is so amorphous... But there is something in it that makes you lean in.

[DongWon] Yeah. I think that thing is control. The thing I think about the most when I'm looking at the opening pages of a book is: is the author in control of this story? Are they in control of their prose? And I think about this in terms of... We've turned to the metaphor a few times this season, but Amal el Mohtar's idea of a book as an act of hospitality. Right? And I think in terms of when you walk into someone's house, you can feel if this was a space designed with intention. If it's clean and orderly and set up for a good experience for you. Right? When you walk into someone's house and it's chaotic, there's stuff all over the place, there's no clear place for you to sit, there's no... If you don't know how to get water or you don't know how to be comfortable here, it puts you in a more... It puts you on your back foot. Right? And so when you walk into a story, you want to feel that this is a roller coaster ride, and that roller coaster is well built and I'm not going to fall off of it. Right? And so I think finding ways to communicate that in the opening pages of you're in good hands, I got you, is incredibly important. And I think a lot of people think it's important to start with action, you have to start in media res, it has to be thrilling and exciting. But sometimes, for me, the strongest openings are ones that are very, very quiet. The ones that are just describing something for a long time, but they're doing it in a way that is demonstrating in micro you're going to like my prose, I have control over the pacing, I'm going to build tension, and you're going to be interested in it even though nothing is happening yet.

[Erin] Yeah. It is kind of like going into a house, like, for a party...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Like, you can come in the middle of a party and it... Definitely things will be going on, it'll be interesting, but if you don't know anyone there, you can sometimes feel like very like, I don't understand, I just want to stand in the corner of the wall, I don't know why this person is dancing with that person, or what's happening. But if you come to a house before the party has begun, you get a chance to, like, take in, like, oh, this is the place, here's the person, here's the host, now I have, like, a little bit of a sense...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Of it. And I think that's why details, to me, like, stuck out as one of the things that worked really well in the openings that I was reading. Because, like in a house, if you have too many knick knacks, like, it's just like... It's hard to focus. Same way, if you have, like, too many details... If you're trying to describe a scene, and it's like this amazing detail, that amazing detail... It's like, wow, I can't focus. But if you're controlled and you're like, let me take your eye to this one really important thing that, like, resonates with the story and is really going to catch your attention, like having that one really great art wall in your house, that is something that says I understand how to move you through this space, move you through this story, and give you something that's going to be worth seeing. worth reading.

[DongWon] Because, even if you show up in the middle of a party, if there's a clear idea, oh, snacks are here, drink station is here, music is there, and that's clearly legible. Or the host comes over and says, hey, let me take you around, then you can have a great time in the middle of the party. You can show up in media res if you're being well taken care of.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. By the same token, if you arrive too early, there's that incredibly awkward thing...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Where you just stand around while the host is getting things ready. That's when... Those are the books that you read where the... They've just started it too soon.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] It's like they are still doing the [grope] which often you need to do while you are writing, and there is nothing wrong with doing that in draft. Like, do not think that your first draft has to have the perfect opening, like, the first time around. Very few of mine do, I have to tell you that.

[laughter]

[DongWon] It's funny, I almost suggested changing the title of the episode, but my proposal would have made no sense, which is the beginning is a terrible place to start.

[laughter]

[DongWon] Because sometimes... I run this... This is a very, very common mistake is that the writer is starting the story for where the character's story starts. Which is, like, waking up, going to school, before the inciting incident happened. So a lot of times, what I'll say is, hey, jump forward, start where something interesting is happening... Don't start at the beginning, start at the interesting. But the challenge of that is exactly what we're talking about, of you don't have any context and it's all pretty chaotic. And I think there's like a lot of techniques to help ease the reader in. Like we've talked about high level, of like how you want the reader to feel, and when we come back from the break, I want to start talking about some of the techniques that we use to make sure that that feels good to them.

[DongWon] Okay. DongWon here. I wanted to remind you that in September, our last annual cruise will set sail for Alaska. And on February 15th, ticket prices will increase. The hosts are teaching classes on the business of publishing, world building, conversational storytelling, and game writing. You can sign up and learn more at writingexcuses.com/retreats. Hope to see you there.

[DongWon] Okay. Welcome back. In the first half of this, we've been talking about how do you make the reader feel comfortable in the story, How do you communicate authority and control as they're reading the opening lines of your work. Let's start talking about the techniques that are useful here. How do you play with getting enough information into those opening pages that they accomplish all the goals that you set out, Mary Robinette, and the reader feels well grounded in the story and has a sense of the shape of what's to come?

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. And we will get into this, like, a lot more when we get to the grounding...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] The reader episode. But... High level, I think about... That the reader wants to know kind of where they are, and where can include a when. They want to know what they're supposed to care about, whether that's a person or an idea. And they want to know sort of what is happening. Which can sometimes, in an action-driven story, be like literally what is the character doing? But in a voice driven opening, that can... Like Hitchhiker's Guide is an example of this. They want to know, like, what is the deal with the watches? And the digital watches and why they're a pretty neat idea? Going back to the... I jotted something down while Erin was talking before the break about arriving at a party and how you know that someone is in control. Because I'm like, yeah, I want a sense of control, that the author is in control, but, like, what is that? And I think the things that we're looking at are intention, the order, that it isn't just a chaotic thing. Sometimes, if you have everything everywhere all at once, but that doesn't start chaotically. Chaos comes in that. Taste, a sense of the author's taste. And then a good host comes with an offering.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] And so I think if you kind of think about those things... It's like, what is your intention with this opening? What order are you going to present the information in so that they build a picture in their head? What is the tone, the taste that you're trying to demonstrate? And what is the thing that you're offering that entices them to come further in?

[DongWon] The thing I think about a lot is a really useful thing to do is to create a microcosm of the greater story. Right?

[Mary Robinette] Yes.

[DongWon] You build a tiny little micro taster of... The Douglas Adams thing that you're talking about, in terms of that opening, the reason it works is it's him being like, hey, you like this? Get ready for a lot more of it. Right? And sometimes just giving a little taste sample of what's going to come is the most useful thing you can do. My favorite opening of all time is The Haunting of Hill House. And it starts with this, like, abstract idea, goes into a long description of a house, just very normal description of a house, and then ends on an incredibly creepy line. Right? And so what that is, is an absolute outline of the book we're about to read. Of kind of abstract, gets into talking about a house for a long time, and then gets really weird. Right? And so I think sometimes setting the reader up and putting them through the paces of your story in a filtered way, in a microcosm way, is a great way to be like do you like this? You're going to like this book.

[Erin] I also think like... I agree with that. I also think that making a promise and then keeping it...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Really quickly is a great way to show that you understand what's going on, or asking a question and then answering it.

[Mary Robinette] Yes.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Because, like, early on, the reader's like, I don't know if I can trust you to keep your promises or answer the questions. And as the story goes on, you can actually space out a promise from it being fulfilled or a question from it being answered because you've already established that you're doing that. It's like you're showing that, like, I said this was what was going to be, and this is what it's going to be.

[DongWon] I have a friend who calls that welcome snacks. Like when somebody comes to a party, they're immediately like, here's a little thing, here's just a bite you can have. Here's, like a little, like... I don't know, like a sweet popcorn dish or like a chip and a dip. You know what I mean? Just like immediately you walk in, you just get a little mouthful of something. You're like, mmm, that was nice. Okay, let's go.

[Erin] And part of what that does in a party setting... We're also party planners here...

[Chuckles]

[Erin] Is that it says, I thought of you.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] When someone has a snack for you when you enter, they say, like, I actually before you arrived thought of something that would make you more comfortable and happy in this moment. I made a promise, I'm going to be your host, and I have immediately fulfilled it by doing something that I wouldn't do if this wasn't a party.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] And so that is the quick thing that you can put in the story.

[Mary Robinette] Which reminds me of a thing I was talking with a friend who had just gone over to someone's home and it was the first time this person had hosted anyone. And the friend arrived and she's there for an awkward amount of time, and then the person is like, oh, I probably should have had snacks. I should have had snacks. Do we have snacks? I might have snacks. And that is often my first... My experience of reading early career manuscripts.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Where you arrive and there's like nothing really happening, and then at some point, the author is like, oh, something's supposed to happen. And then there's like an explosion out of nowhere, and you don't understand...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Why it's happening or anything. Like, What. Is. Going. On? And you feel a little unsafe and uncomfortable.

[DongWon] One thing I want to point out is I think you can be forgiving of your friend, when it's your friend.

[Mary Robinette] Yes.

[DongWon] When that happens. When you go over to your buddy's house, he's like, oh, man, Chuck is always like this. You know what I mean?

[Chuckles]

[DongWon] He doesn't know how to plan a party. But when you are asking someone to pay $20 and give up time away from their family, away from TV and video games and going to the gym or whatever it is, then that is saying come to my professional [garbled]

[Mary Robinette] You don't want the Fire Festival of books.

[DongWon] Exactly. Exactly.

[Chuckles]

[DongWon] You don't want to be serving someone white bread with a slice of ham on it, and being like, welcome to my luxury festival. Right? You need to be giving them...

[Chuckles]

[Mary Robinette] Sorry.

[laughter]

[DongWon] Sorry. We are just losing it. [garbled] But y'all wanted to be part festival, y'all want to be at the White Lotus. Right? You want to be, like, here's the beautiful experience, also someone's getting murdered.

[Chuckles]

[DongWon] But I think thinking about... I mean, we really went all around this hospitality metaphor, but I think it's really, really, really useful in thinking about opening of how do you take care of readers as they're coming into your story?

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. And there's this thing that I want to say about this is that from a writing perspective, from a craft perspective, you 100% don't need to get this right on the first try. And...

[DongWon] Yes.

[Mary Robinette] You almost certainly won't. Every now and then you'll get lucky. Like, I've had times where I'm lucky and the opening is, like, lasts through the whole thing. More often than not, I will get into the middle of the book, and then reach the end of the book and realize, oh, this is what that book is actually about, and have to go back and write a new first chapter. Or with a short story, have to reframe the first couple of... Sometimes, the first couple of pages, sometimes it's just a paragraph. Sometimes I have to pull a whole scene at the beginning of it. But it is... It changes. In fact, coming up in... Later, in two episodes, two episodes from now, we're going to be looking at one of my stories, With Her Serpent Locks, and that opening line is not the opening line that I started with. It's an opening line that did not happen until my editor read it, and said, we need this here. And I was like... And I resisted it really... It was like very... Very annoyed. But...

[Chuckles]

[Mary Robinette] Very correct.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] So a lot of... So when you're writing from a craft perspective, think about this as party planning with time travel.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] You get to plan the party, and then you get to have the party, and then you get to time travel back and say, okay, these are the snacks we actually need, these are the things that we... This is who's coming, it turns out this allergy exists and we need to take that snack away and make sure that the AC is running because someone is coming with a fire thing that they're going to do outside...

[Chuckles]

[Mary Robinette] And then everyone's going to come back inside and be really hot. So, like, you can do all of that, and then throw the party again.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] And everyone is comfortable... Same people coming, but they just have a different experience because of the way you framed it at the beginning.

[Erin] And I think you can also learn that you wrote a beginning to the story that you're not actually trying to write.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah.

[Erin] So, you could be like, oh, I'm going to... In The party planning analogy... I'm going to throw a rager. A rager to end all ragers. with a string quartet, and wine, and cheese. And it's like, is that a rager? Like, if what you want in your party is, like, I actually want people to have really quiet, intimate conversations with each other the entire party. Like, even though in your head, you may want to think, I'm the kind of person who throws epic frat rager... No. You're actually interested in this, like, gentle, like, cocktail party. And that's okay.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Erin] Because I think sometimes we get ideas in our head of what we want to be as writers and we start writing a beginning using that. And then in the middle, we realize this is not the story that I really want to tell. And it's okay to abandon that and leave that beginning for some other time or some other version of you.

[Mary Robinette] And with that idea, it's also important to note that sometimes we got ideas from seeing other people's parties.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] But those parties don't necessarily fit into our house, into our taste or into our budget. Like, when I see people go from novels to short stories, they're trying to write an opening with a novel budget which is a lot more words and they just don't have that big of a budget, and their apartment is also a studio apartment,...

[Chuckles]

[Mary Robinette] It's not a mansion.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] So you have to make different choices.

[DongWon] And I think another reason to not write your beginning first, or not worry about your beginning being exactly right when you start, is that openings of novels are heightened. Right? They're written in a slightly different way than the rest of the book, because your language is going to be a little bit more dense, you're going to be doing more than you can ease out of this, like, really high octane, High information density. And like often in your opening lines, you're going to be a little more showy then you will be later in the book in terms of prose style. Because you're trying to like really hit people with, like, here's a bang opening line. Here's like... I can write. You know what I mean? Is one thing you're trying to communicate in that early section. And so trying to sustain that over the course of the novel is... Would be a huge mistake, because it would be exhausting for your reader and for you. So I think finding a way to, like, have... To come back and be like, okay, how do I craft something that feels heightened and that's like a special entry to the story, but doesn't have to be sustained throughout? And that kind of gives you the space to do that little microcosm thing that we were talking about.

[Mary Robinette] And I think that's going to bring us to our homework.

[Mary Robinette] And for the homework, what I'd like to ask you to do is to make an artificial slush pile. This is a great exercise that you can do. We're going to be talking about tools, and we're going to give you an opportunity for the rest of this beginning to play with those tools in the homework. But for right now, just take a look, just analyze existing tools and see what works for you and what makes you lean in, what makes you feel welcome at the party.

[Mary Robinette] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.