Cliched HF Opening Chapter Scenarios?

gothicangel · Jun 7, 2013

Okay, not necessarily cliches, but what openings in HF do you think have been overdone?

I'm asking, because I'm starting to think about how to start my new WIP in an interesting way. The current WIP begins with the murder of an imperial spy (kind of LeCarre with a Roman twist

.) My initial idea for the new book was to have it open with the MC arriving in Assyria, then I started thinking of how may books started like that (MC Scott, Simon Scarrow, Ben Kane, Rosemary Sutcliff, RL Stevenson . . .) So that went out of the window.

So, my question is: are there any types of HF opening chapters that you don't want to see again? I'll start with:

1. The MC arriving at the end of a journey.
2. Novel beginning in the middle of a great battle.

mayqueen · Jun 7, 2013

3. MC reflecting at the end of a great battle.
4. MC arriving at the end of a journey to get married to this person she has never met before.

cooeedownunder · Jun 7, 2013

An opening where someone is reflecting on the past.

Lil · Jun 8, 2013

I am dubious about dismissing any opening or plot development or character or anything else as being overdone. Maybe it isn't so much that certain devices are overdone as that they have been sloppily or lazily done.

Originality can have its drawbacks too, when "something new" turns into "something bizarre or unbelievable." Would Hamlet really be improved by making the Prince of Denmark a werewolf? (Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Some idiot director will use the idea to show his innovative brilliance.)

Something really good is always new and fresh, no matter how traditional or conventional the framework. It's the content that matters, not the form.

gothicangel · Jun 8, 2013

Lil said:
I am dubious about dismissing any opening or plot development or character or anything else as being overdone. Maybe it isn't so much that certain devices are overdone as that they have been sloppily or lazily done.

Originality can have its drawbacks too, when "something new" turns into "something bizarre or unbelievable." Would Hamlet really be improved by making the Prince of Denmark a werewolf? (Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Some idiot director will use the idea to show his innovative brilliance.)

Something really good is always new and fresh, no matter how traditional or conventional the framework. It's the content that matters, not the form.

Although I agree that it's all in the execution, I think there are very good reasons to have a debate about what we perceive as being tired. If I see another Roman column marching to a frontier fort, I think I will scream.

One of my favourite openings recently was Robert Fabbri's Vespasian which opened with a Roman naming ceremony. It was fresh, laid out the novel's central question and introduced the reader to Roman culture that isn't seen a lot of in fiction.

Hamlet is a perfect example, just how many books start with the ghost of a murdered king demanding revenge? It's 500 years old, still fresh and can hook the reader/viewer.

angeliz2k · Jun 8, 2013

5. A day in the life of a young girl that ends in her being told she has to marry x, whom she doesn't want to marry.

gothic, are you wondering about starting with your character arriving somewhere, or arriving in Assyria specifically? I mean, you have to start somewhere, and starting when a character arrives in a new place works; you introduce the character and the new setting all at once.

I wouldn't worry about whether it's been done as much as whether it works for your story.

gothicangel · Jun 8, 2013

angeliz2k said:
gothic, are you wondering about starting with your character arriving somewhere, or arriving in Assyria specifically? I mean, you have to start somewhere, and starting when a character arrives in a new place works; you introduce the character and the new setting all at once.

I wouldn't worry about whether it's been done as much as whether it works for your story.

Having thought about it a bit more, I think the original idea didn't strike me as interesting enough, and needed reworking. My idea now is (because it's set on the cusp of the 132-5 Jewish Revolt) to have my imperial messenger ambushed on the road. I think that's a better way to introduce the conflict, and as you say introducing the character and setting.

Tocotin · Jun 8, 2013

I'm not a fan of opening with an execution.

Flicka · Jun 9, 2013

angeliz2k said:
5. A day in the life of a young girl that ends in her being told she has to marry x, whom she doesn't want to marry.

This.

angeliz2k said:
gothic, are you wondering about starting with your character arriving somewhere, or arriving in Assyria specifically? I mean, you have to start somewhere, and starting when a character arrives in a new place works; you introduce the character and the new setting all at once.

I wouldn't worry about whether it's been done as much as whether it works for your story.

This thread had me pondering my opening – the protag is a child and her mother is dying which is the inciting incident that sets the whole thing in motion. Is that's cliché? But there's just no other appropriate point to start; I would either have to start after or before the story actually begins.

From there I started thinking about beginnings in general. I think, since the opening of a story quite often is about showing the leap from the ordinary and mundane into the Story (or, if you are a fan of the Hero's Journey, the ordinary world and the call to adventure, or the Inciting Incident if you prefer) I think openings where the MC is on some sort of threshold – arriving at a new place, leaving home, marrying etc. – will be rather common and may not be so much cliché as part of a storytelling convention.

What do you guys think?

DianeL · Jun 9, 2013

Flicka, it got me thinking too. My opening is the scene of Clovis I returning from some days' patrol, to find his father is dying. The thing is, I cannot at this point imagine any other place to open the novel than the moment he discovers he is about to become king - but it's interesting to ponder whether to rework it and put him in media res rather than scene-set by the entry. I don't think the "homecoming" mine includes is quite the cliche' pointed out in this thread, but the function a journey's end represents does provide a portal, which is why it gets used. Hmmmm!

Fairly temped now to try it without the establishing beat, and go right to the "HOLY CRAP I'M ABOUT TO INHERIT" moment. In fact, may have to log off and go noodle with it!

gothicangel · Jun 9, 2013

Flicka and Diane, I think both of those openings would hook me. Unlike my original idea, which was really blah.

DianeL · Jun 9, 2013

gothicangel, thank you - I am going to take a few pokes at it and will post on my blog if I like it. Have a feeling I might. Feedback would be so welcome, too!

SpinningWheel · Jun 10, 2013

Flicka said:
This.

From there I started thinking about beginnings in general. I think, since the opening of a story quite often is about showing the leap from the ordinary and mundane into the Story (or, if you are a fan of the Hero's Journey, the ordinary world and the call to adventure, or the Inciting Incident if you prefer) I think openings where the MC is on some sort of threshold – arriving at a new place, leaving home, marrying etc. – will be rather common and may not be so much cliché as part of a storytelling convention.

What do you guys think?

I think you're right.
My YA historical WIP uses the 'girl is told she has to marry someone she doesn't want to' opening. It has been used a lot and being conscious of that, I tried out a number of other openings, but the reason this one was the strongest was because not only is it dramatic, but it's something a reader can immediately grasp without having to know anything about the history.

I tried starting with Thomas Cromwell's commissioners arriving at the nunnery where she lived, to close it down, which looked like it would be a very dramatic way to start and made sense in terms of the story (because her anger at the closure motivates her for the rest of the book) but to make it work I would have had to feed in a lot of information about monasticism and communicate motivations and religious beliefs that would be unfamiliar to typical modern readers, and that slowed it down just when I wanted to get off to a flying start.

But knowing the arranged marriage trope has been used a lot, you then have to make sure you individualise it, I think, or it will feel cliched.

Knowing what is a cliche is important but you can work with it rather than avoiding it at all costs.

angeliz2k · Jun 10, 2013

SpinningWheel said:
I think you're right.
My YA historical WIP uses the 'girl is told she has to marry someone she doesn't want to' opening. It has been used a lot and being conscious of that, I tried out a number of other openings, but the reason this one was the strongest was because not only is it dramatic, but it's something a reader can immediately grasp without having to know anything about the history.

I tried starting with Thomas Cromwell's commissioners arriving at the nunnery where she lived, to close it down, which looked like it would be a very dramatic way to start and made sense in terms of the story (because her anger at the closure motivates her for the rest of the book) but to make it work I would have had to feed in a lot of information about monasticism and communicate motivations and religious beliefs that would be unfamiliar to typical modern readers, and that slowed it down just when I wanted to get off to a flying start.

But knowing the arranged marriage trope has been used a lot, you then have to make sure you individualise it, I think, or it will feel cliched.

Knowing what is a cliche is important but you can work with it rather than avoiding it at all costs.

So, the nun is forced to marry against her will? Or am I making wild leaps of logic? If so, that sounds like an interesting twist on a fairly common trope.

SpinningWheel · Jun 10, 2013

angeliz2k said:
So, the nun is forced to marry against her will? Or am I making wild leaps of logic? If so, that sounds like an interesting twist on a fairly common trope.

She's been educated in the nunnery (as upper class girls often were) and hopes to stay and take her vows but can't because the nunnery is closed down in the first round of dissolutions.
My readers are supposed to figure out that she would have been a terrible nun and her family is probably right in making her get married instead.

angeliz2k · Jun 10, 2013

SpinningWheel said:
She's been educated in the nunnery (as upper class girls often were) and hopes to stay and take her vows but can't because the nunnery is closed down in the first round of dissolutions.
My readers are supposed to figure out that she would have been a terrible nun and her family is probably right in making her get married instead.

In that case, carry on.

My thought was that a lot of nuns were pushed out of convents during the Reformation, and something had to be done with them. I'm sure more than a few were pushed into marriages.

SpinningWheel · Jun 10, 2013

angeliz2k said:
In that case, carry on.

My thought was that a lot of nuns were pushed out of convents during the Reformation, and something had to be done with them. I'm sure more than a few were pushed into marriages.

A few years later there was a law to stop them marrying, which suggests that some had.
Quite a few set up houses together and tried to keep to their vows, living communally on their small pensions. Others went home to their families and some went into other nunneries - at the point I'm writing about (1536) it was only supposed to be the smaller houses that were going to be dissolved.

Cliched HF Opening Chapter Scenarios?

gothicangel

Toughen up.

mayqueen

practical experience, FTW

cooeedownunder

Grateful for the day

Lil

gothicangel

Toughen up.

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty

gothicangel

Toughen up.

Tocotin

deceives

Flicka

Dull Old Person

DianeL

gothicangel

Toughen up.

DianeL

SpinningWheel

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty

SpinningWheel

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty

SpinningWheel