Which opening are you more apt to pick up? Part Deux

IReidandWrite · Mar 12, 2008

Well, here it is. The March Madness of the NCWA. National College Writer's Association. Or somehting. I got bored.

Which opening are you more apt to pick up?

Option 1: A woman and her husband trying to get back to America with their baby niece after international travel has been shut down.

Option 2: Said woman, husband, and niece on Ellis Island (which is no longer a museum but more like it was before), and waiting for clearance to get into America.

Dale Emery · Mar 12, 2008

I'm trying to figure out what I prefer in Option 2. I think it's that the problem described in #2 is more specific. "Trying to get in" is vague. "Waiting for clearance" is more specific.

And now I'm noticing something. Each of these options is not an opening, but a description of an opening. If you were to write each opening, I'd know more about exactly how the family in #1 were "trying," and about what the family in #2 were doing while waiting. Without seeing the actual openings, I can't really tell which I'd prefer.

That is: What I'm judging here is not the openings, but your descriptions of the openings.

Does that make sense?

Dale

steveg144 · Mar 13, 2008

I'd go for #2. The potential for reality-based moments of Kafkaesque horror is enormous.

Marlys · Mar 13, 2008

I agree that it's tough to judge without actually reading these openings, but I would go with #1. There, you've set up tension and a goal--in the second, all you've described is that they're waiting for a bureaucratic stamp.

Meerkat · Mar 13, 2008

I'd go with number one, as it can incorporate number two as the endgame to an otherwise international adventure.

DWSTXS · Mar 13, 2008

I like Option 1, especially if they're in a particularly crappy place to start with, and I also agree with DaleEmery, in that I'd like to see the actual written opening rather than a description.

Susan Breen · Mar 13, 2008

I'd go with option 1. It seems as though there'd be the potential for a lot more conflict in that one--however, I could be persuaded otherwise.

~grace~ · Mar 13, 2008

I'm with Dale; I don't know why I like option 2 better, I just do. Maybe that's a good thing?

vrabinec · Mar 13, 2008

Option 2 untill you specify what option 1 entails.

sunna · Mar 13, 2008

Based on the info provided, Option 1 for me - trying is usually more interesting and active than waiting. But it depends on how they're written, of course: if trying to get back to America involves standing in embassy lines for hours, but waiting at Ellis Island involves being in a riot, or something like that, then 2 may end up being more interesting.

Tension, conflict, goal, obstacle...whichever opening ends up with more o' that is the one I'd be more likely to pick up.

lute · Mar 13, 2008

For some reason option two is appealing to me more. The conflict seems a little more stable in the second option. I love stories that involve waiting because it allows for the characters' voices to be heard as well as observe the things around them. I see it often in short stories and it's great : )

lucky8 · Mar 13, 2008

I go option one, I can see a lot of potential in the different places they could pass through on their journey. Plus I really like stories where characters are actually travelling to somewhere or from somewhere.

JBI · Mar 13, 2008

Neither. Start with them in America, and recount the travels by means of revelation of plot.

Sarpedon · Mar 13, 2008

Can't answer, I'd have to read samples. There are wonderful novels about people sitting around and waiting, and talking and remembering, and there are wonderful adventure novels about people trying to get somewhere.

Jeremy · Mar 13, 2008

I chose option 1. I was intrigued by wondering how they would get around with international travel shut down. It's something I've never even thought about. What would it be like?

So definitely, numero uno.

Stijn Hommes · Mar 13, 2008

I'd take option 1. It immediately poses the question how they're going to get moving when travel has been shut down.

IceCreamEmpress · Mar 13, 2008

It wouldn't be practical for Ellis Island to be an immigration staging-point these days, since so little passenger travel is by ship.

If there were to be immigration staging-points in the US, they'd most likely be located at disused military bases that were near airports, not at museum complexes on islands that can only be reached by boat.

So I'd have to say #1.

BarbJ · Mar 13, 2008

I opt for opt #1. It presents a myriad of opportunities just in the mention of international travel being shut down. It breaths mystery and intrique, adventure and derring-do, bad guys running amok, good guys being brave and noble and all those things I'm not. Opt#2 sounds more of human interest, relationships, background stories -which I might choose if I'm in the mood, but it would have to be very well written. I take such things seriously.

Just out of curiosity, why are you asking?

Matera the Mad · Mar 13, 2008

I'm with those who don't see any options yet.

Which opening are you more apt to pick up? Part Deux

Which opening?

Option 1

Option 2

IReidandWrite

Dale Emery

is way off topic

steveg144

Crusty Polemicist

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

Meerkat

Claims the loan was a gift

DWSTXS

Mr Mojo Risin...

Susan Breen

~grace~

the good old days

vrabinec

Dipwad

sunna

lute

lucky8

JBI

Sarpedon

Jeremy

Infinite in Mystery

Stijn Hommes

Know what you write...

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

BarbJ

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint