Contemps and Openings

Windcutter · May 12, 2013

Okay, it sounds kind of stupid, but I'm having such a hard time deciding on a catchy opening chapter for my contemporary YA.

The trouble is, I'm used to writing genre. MC stands at gunpoint, vampire's teeth in her neck, her twin brother disappeared without a trace after eating a suspicious melon icecream, and a ghost is crawling on all fours from under her bead, its head twisted backwards. You know the drill.

But here. I have the idea(s). I've got it all figured out. A three page outline for a short, straightforward contemp, that's more than enough. I know everything that needs to happen. I know how it will end. I know the characters and the plot. It's not even that dull, honestly. Stuff happens. There is a romance at the center of it. I thought it would be easy (insert wry laughter here).

But how do you make an opening without any creepy-crawlies, weird mysteries, edge-of-the-seat action and all that jazz exciting enough to hook the reader? There isn't even a single dead body (until about the 150th page). There is just an engagement party. A rich dude's engagement party, but still.

Kerosene · May 12, 2013

What makes your story interesting? Where is the conflict? Open on that.

coryleslie · May 12, 2013

Windcutter said:
But how do you make an opening without any creepy-crawlies, weird mysteries, edge-of-the-seat action and all that jazz exciting enough to hook the reader? There isn't even a single dead body (until about the 150th page). There is just an engagement party. A rich dude's engagement party, but still.

I'm using Blake Snyder's SAVE THE CAT book to plot my latest work. You might take a look at that. http://lizwritesbooks.com/savethecat/

In a traditional three-act structure, I usually begin my books on Plot Point # 1 - the moment that propels the story into the rising action. I posted on that here. http://corrinejackson.com/wordpress/2011/02/02/outlining-a-novel-in-three-acts/

Hope you find either of those helpful!

kuwisdelu · May 12, 2013

I would begin where the story begins.

Where does the story begin?

Becca C. · May 13, 2013

I try to start my novels at the exact point before everything *begins* to go batshit crazy for the MC. Introduce their version of normal, and either have the inciting event, or foreshadow how that "normal" is going to change very, very soon. Some examples:

A BRAVER THING: in chapter one, the MC is in King's Cross station on his way to boarding school when he catches a glimpse of the Prince of England. He's touristy and voyeuristic and swoons over the prince -- little does he know he's going to actually get up close and personal with said prince very shortly, and those touristy viewpoints are going to get demolished and replaced with the knowledge of the prince as a real person.

PARIS & LONDON: the opening chapter is the MC at home with her prom date before heading off to the big event. She's obsessed with France, he's a French exchange student. She's all swoony and obsessed with him (not because of his personality, but because he's from the country of her dreams), and ignores and gets frustrated by and resents her younger brother, who drags the whole evening down with his anger and incapability of handling so much social activity. Little does she know, in wee hours of the next morning, her street will be full of cop cars and ambulances because her brother attempts suicide.

Maybe a bit rambly, but hopefully that gives you some idea of what works for me. Show a bit of "the norm," then swiftly drop a bomb on it.

Arianne · May 13, 2013

Hard to say without knowing exactly what the story is about, but I'd say look at what the "center" of the story is (the romance? the engagement party? the dead body/mystery?) and start with the event(s) that lead up to it. Or maybe switch things up and bring the exciting bits (like the dead body or whatever) forward and make that the opening.

Or just go ahead and write whatever you have now and go back to writing the opening later.

wampuscat · May 13, 2013

It might be helpful to look at some of your favorite contemps and see where in the plot arc those books started.

Debbie V · May 13, 2013

Sometimes it's best to write the first draft and then figure out how to begin for real in the second. Once you've gone through, you'll have a better understanding of what the beginning is setting up and what it needs to be to do that.

wampuscat · May 13, 2013

Debbie V said:
Sometimes it's best to write the first draft and then figure out how to begin for real in the second. Once you've gone through, you'll have a better understanding of what the beginning is setting up and what it needs to be to do that.

True. Lots of people say that their first chapter is often the most re-written. And sometimes the thing they finalize last.

Becca C. · May 13, 2013

wampuscat said:
True. Lots of people say that their first chapter is often the most re-written. And sometimes the thing they finalize last.

Definitely true for me.

The_Ink_Goddess · May 14, 2013

Windcutter said:
Okay, it sounds kind of stupid, but I'm having such a hard time deciding on a catchy opening chapter for my contemporary YA.

The trouble is, I'm used to writing genre. MC stands at gunpoint, vampire's teeth in her neck, her twin brother disappeared without a trace after eating a suspicious melon icecream, and a ghost is crawling on all fours from under her bead, its head twisted backwards. You know the drill.

But here. I have the idea(s). I've got it all figured out. A three page outline for a short, straightforward contemp, that's more than enough. I know everything that needs to happen. I know how it will end. I know the characters and the plot. It's not even that dull, honestly. Stuff happens. There is a romance at the center of it. I thought it would be easy (insert wry laughter here).

But how do you make an opening without any creepy-crawlies, weird mysteries, edge-of-the-seat action and all that jazz exciting enough to hook the reader? There isn't even a single dead body (until about the 150th page). There is just an engagement party. A rich dude's engagement party, but still.

(i love you, my windy one.)

"How long before she offs him?"

"They're never gonna make it down the aisle."

"Happy fucking anniversary."

Opening lines for some of my favourite contemps:
BREAK - "The first feeling is exhilaration."
INVINCIBLE SUMMER- "Gideon keeps falling down."
PIECES OF US: "I first met Alex (or Sasha, as his grandparents call him) the day the chicken man came to the lake houses."

I deliberately picked books that are strongly contemporary, so no magic realism here.

Everybody's given you good advice, but one thing to remember: the standards for YA contemporary is different. In thriller and horror, the demand is "hook me! Hook me now!" It's expected. In pure contemporary, not blended with other elements, not so much. Contemporary is more about introducing character and establishing that these are characters worth hearing. That's it, as far as I can tell.

For your rich dude's engagement party - now, that is hooky. Sure, it's not ghost-girl-head-turned-round hooky, but it's a solid contemporary hook. I tend to focus in on the main character and do something which establishes the kind of novel it's going to be. Family-based? Then I might have the main character's younger siblings causing a scene by causing a food fight. Friendship-based? Gossiping about the impending marriage. Mystery-based? The main character spies somebody doing something interesting, like stealing from the table. Romance-based? The main character fantasies about smashing the wedding cake to bits or having sex with somebody under the drinks table.

I think that's the main thing about a contemporary opening: it needs to be appropriate.

Emmet Cameron · May 19, 2013

In contemporary most of the plot revolves around relationships of one kind or another. So an opening that sets up the most high stakes/fucked up relationship(s) in the book is usually effective.

Invincible Summer (as The_Ink_Goddess mentioned) is a really good example because it also happens to be one of a special elite few YA books that features a large family (with a low-end wordcount, at that). The whole family, plus the neighbours, is introduced right in the first chapter, and you get a good sense of all of them, plus it sets your spidey-senses tingling about who's going to be (in) trouble.

I had a lot of trouble with the opening of LoMB, pretty much tried every kind of opening that *doesn't* work (the wake-up-in-the-morning, the first-day-of-school...) but thinking about what relationships I wanted to focus on really helped me. I ended up showing the MC at a party with her crush, just before her mother comes to pick her up. These two hold the most sway/make her feel the most terrible over the course of the book, and both scenes show the mixture of affection and ambivalence in these relationships. The book continues to be the most difficult-to-organize things I've ever written, but it was worth all those false starts to find what's really leading the way in this story. I'm not somebody who can completely change the beginning once I've worked through the rest of the story...too sequential-minded or something, I guess.

Good luck/work!

Windcutter · May 22, 2013

Thank you!

WillSauger said:
What makes your story interesting? Where is the conflict? Open on that.

It's full of conflicts, but they don't seem big enough.
I'm thinking maybe I should open with murder--which actually happens in the middle of the story--and then go back, like "damn, how did that happen? how did we get there?" But as a reader, I tend to get annoyed when the author does that. Nonlinear narrative is fine and dandy, but merely putting a bait into the opening feels like a cheap trick.

coryleslie said:
In a traditional three-act structure, I usually begin my books on Plot Point # 1 - the moment that propels the story into the rising action. [/URL]

Thanks for the links!

kuwisdelu said:
I would begin where the story begins.

Where does the story begin?

This question made me rethink the opening. Now I have two more versions and more choices.
I also have a Chessmaster (hello TV Tropes) in the plot, working behind the curtains, so the actual story (as in, a chain of actions and intentions) begins far earlier than anyone thinks.

Becca C. said:
Show a bit of "the norm," then swiftly drop a bomb on it.

I agree, that's a great way to put it. I sometimes get worried that the norm is too boring, though.

Arianne said:
Or maybe switch things up and bring the exciting bits (like the dead body or whatever) forward and make that the opening.

Maybe I'll do it, after all. On the other hand, the dead body also makes a nice mid-twist.

Windcutter · May 22, 2013

Debbie V said:
Once you've gone through, you'll have a better understanding of what the beginning is setting up and what it needs to be to do that.

Oh, I know the set-up, I plan ahead a lot. It's more like... how to make it look pretty for its date with the reader.

wampuscat said:
Lots of people say that their first chapter is often the most re-written.

I need it. >.< I tend to waffle until I feel the opening is done right. I might change it later again, but still.
Maybe it's a self-sabotage technique. Polish the damn thing ten times to avoid writing the rest of the novel.

The_Ink_Goddess said:
(i love you, my windy one.)

*bows*

The_Ink_Goddess said:
"How long before she offs him?"

"They're never gonna make it down the aisle."

"Happy fucking anniversary."

My favorite type of romance. xD

The_Ink_Goddess said:
Everybody's given you good advice, but one thing to remember: the standards for YA contemporary is different.

Yes, this, thanks so much. That's what I needed to hear. I think I'm trying to write it as if it's a suspense novel. When it's not. It's a contemporary with strong romance and suspense elements. The biggest thing about the party is that MC meets the rich dude's son (the relationship/romance thread), but there are crime-related problems between Rich Dude and MC's family (suspense thread). It's really hard to have both there as hooks, because I'll end up telling.

Emmet Cameron said:
In contemporary most of the plot revolves around relationships of one kind or another. So an opening that sets up the most high stakes/fucked up relationship(s) in the book is usually effective.

I think I nailed the problem.
There are two threads shaping up the plot, one is about suspense (money, crime and secrets), and the other one is a combo of relationship and inner conflict. The romance beginning shows the fateful meeting and sets up "the most high stakes/fucked up relationship," but the suspense problem is downplayed. The other one displays the intrigue and sets up future developments, but it reads more like the first chapter of a thriller. Yet it can't be a thriller. The suspense element is not thick enough to carry the whole novel, it was never meant for that. Yet I follow the old habit and try to make it work like that, even though I planned it in a different way, because it seems like it's more of a hook.

Emmet Cameron said:
I'm not somebody who can completely change the beginning once I've worked through the rest of the story...too sequential-minded or something, I guess.

Me, too. I want the opening to work first. Even if I end up rewriting it later.

thebloodfiend · May 22, 2013

I would suggest picking up a few contemporary novels on Amazon and reading the sample provided to see how they open.

Also, terminology-wise, contemporary is a genre. It's genre fiction. You're used to writing speculative fiction. I'm not really sure when spec fic and genre fic became interchangeable terms.

Who would you compare your style to?

If you don't have action-action-action, you should focus on the internal. How does the character feel? Is it a fish out of water situation? Are they nervous? Excited?

I'm going to be the voice of dissent and say I didn't find the opener for Invincible Summer to be that strong. It actually took me a while to get into the book. When I read contemporary, I'm looking for a scene that immediately presents me with the character's flaws, the conflict of the story, and throws me into book. Basically, it tells me why I need to follow this character's arc and gets me invested.

My favorite openers:

Everyone is wasted.

Anna is wasted. Josh is wasted. Marta is wasted. Jeanette is wasted. Bruce is wasted. Donnie’s always wasted. I’m not wasted. I had my turn at the last party, called shotgun in Anna’s Benz after it was over. My head was out the window, the world was spinning. I puked my guts out. It wasn’t fun, but it’s not like there was anything else to do. Tonight, there’s even less to do than that. Tonight, I’m the designated driver.

Boring.

Some Girls Are, Courtney Summers

I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. Tommy was seventeen and the supposed friend of my brother, Darren.

I didn't love him.

I'm not sure I even liked him.

Story of a Girl, Sara Zarr

Well, and of course any opening that missesdash (if she hasn't deleted them all) and drukenlilacs have posted in SYW, just because they're awesome.

wampuscat · May 22, 2013

thebloodfiend said:
When I read contemporary, I'm looking for a scene that immediately presents me with the character's flaws, the conflict of the story, and throws me into book. Basically, it tells me why I need to follow this character's arc and gets me invested.

This. This. Totally this.

Contemps and Openings

Windcutter

Kerosene

Your Pixie Queen

coryleslie

Has anyone seen the sun?

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Becca C.

Arianne

wampuscat

Recovering adjective addict

Debbie V

Mentoring Myself and Others

wampuscat

Recovering adjective addict

Becca C.

The_Ink_Goddess

we're gonna make it out of the fire

Emmet Cameron

Windcutter

Windcutter

thebloodfiend

Cory

wampuscat

Recovering adjective addict