Something that's bugging me...

[Christine N.]

Ok, I've got the openings to three books. Two of them are part of a series, one is the sequel to my book that comes out next month (still available at the pre-order price of $5 off the cover price - buy a bunch, they make great gifts!)

Book one - MC is awoken from a splendid dream about her old home by the maid scraping the ashes from the fireplace on the first day of Easter holiday (yes, I'm American, but the book takes place in England, so I try to use all the correct trappings)

Book two - MC of previous book has a nightmare about the evil sorceress from the last book and wakes up in the middle of the night. We see how her life has changed - baby brother now in the picture, blah blah blah...

Book three - MC is sleeping in class, gets chastised by boring English Lit professor.

Now, when I wrote all three of these openings, I thought they fit what I wanted to write perfectly. I DID NOT see the whole sleeping connection until about a week after I wrote them. And now it's like those weird 3-D paintings that were popular a decade or so ago - once I've seen it, I can't un-see it.

What I want to know is - am I being a hack by having these three openings all related to sleep? Or is that just the way the books want to be written?

Honestly, the other two books I've written do NOT have anything to do with sleep in either opening, so it's not like I did this on purpose. Should I leave them the way they are, or try and force some other opening out of my head?

Opinions??

[inanna]

Well, I wouldn't presume to present myself as an absolute authority on what constitues a hackneyed plotline (and personally, I'd be a little wary of someone who did). But a lot of times, it just depends on the overall quality of the writing and ends up being a rather subjective judgement anyhow--one of those "I know it when I see it" sort of opinions. Not to say that there aren't tropes and cliches.

Okay, enough rambling--all I can say is that sleeping/dreaming is a common convention, but if your story is fantasy and deals with magick, you are probably working with the inner psyche of your charcter to some degree, and dreams (and the symbolism of sleep) are a useful tool in that regard. I've used it pretty consistently so far in my WIP, and although I haven't opened with it, I too have some concerns I'm over doing it a little. I'll deal with it in the second draft.

As far as your pattern of opening with it for each book--it's possible it could work as a symbol or theme if appropriate. You may want to take a look at some point (probably after your first draft--if you're saying you haven't finished yet) at what it is you are trying to say--your themes and overall message. Perhaps this motif is just a subconscious extension of this. In that case, consider punching it up if necessary and go for it.

Having said that, if you're still concerned about cliche and you start getting feedback from others in that regard, it's always possible to rework your beginnings to eliminate the sleeping repetition. (Maybe easier said than done, but still possible :))

[Grey Malkin]

Sleep is a comfortable alternative to the pain and misery of reality. I reckon Freud would spend all day with you. :)

As an experiment, write the first chapter, have the MC waking and getting into the action. Once written, allow yourself to read three paragraphs into the action bit, in real life. Then delete everything before it, clean up the first sentence and see if it works better. Dream openings are a bit of a cliche, and full-on dream sequences always (to me) read terrible. The best way around it, I think, is to have the character talk about a dream, or mention something they remember from a dream.

[Christine N.]

None of them are full on dream sequences. The sleep is almost over. In one book, the MC tries to stay asleep, despite the noise. In the next, the nightmare is only a line or two before the MC jumps awake - the whole, heart pouning, cold sweat dea. The third opens with the MC hearing the professor call her name... and she opens her eyes to find herself embarrassed before her classmates.

So, the openings aren't the same at all - different settings, different action etc.. except for the common element of sleep. Like I said, it took me a whole week to make the connection, and I wrote the bloody things LOL.

Actually, Grey, I thought for a while that it just said I wasn't getting enough sleep ! :)

[azbikergirl]

How many other books start with a character awakening from a dream? It seems a little over-used to me. That's not to say we shouldn't incorporate dreams into our stories -- I do. But the wake-up-screaming or sweating thing in the opening paragraphs seems cliche to me. JMO.

[Maryn]

I suspect that since sleep and dreams have been done and overdone as openings, it would be near-impossible to craft a solid beginning using such a device.

I don't care what anybody (well, anybody fictional, anyway) dreamt unless it foreshadows--and there'd better be a compelling reason for such foreshadowing. Whether magic is sufficient to make it work is your judgment call--but I would still find such an opening, regardless of how well written it is, lukewarm.

Maryn, wishing she could be more supportive of the idea that's already there

[Christine N.]

Ok, so I'll kill at least one of them. Hey, instead of a dream, how 'bout a day dream?? She can be called from a day dream from her professor - not paying attention. Then it has no similarity of the opening of the book before it. And that leaves just the one, and I'm leaving that b/c I think it's important that we understand the setting - girl doesn't want to get up early when she doesn't have to. Who does??

The one book, with the nightmare, I think I need to leave it, b/c it directly connects the last book to this one - and we'll see that evil witch again, despite the fact I sent her through a magic gate with no apparent way back in the last book.

[Grey Malkin]

But the wake-up-screaming or sweating thing in the opening paragraphs seems cliche to me. JMO.

Unless you wake up screaming and sweating because your wife has cuffed you to the bed and is currently jamming hot needles into your chest. Hell of a start to a book.

[Christine N.]

LOL. That's funny, there, Stephen King.

Actually no. This book takes place three years after the first one, and MC hasn't really thought about her adventure for at least two, so the nightmare puzzles her a bit - why now? Of course it foreshadows her return to the magical land of Zandria! LOL