{"id":149,"date":"2014-02-24T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T21:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/?p=149"},"modified":"2014-02-24T16:43:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T21:43:06","slug":"writing-good-intros-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/writing-good-intros-dont\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Good Intros: Don’t!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"starwarscrawl\"<\/a>The most exposition any film ever needs- but this film was so well crafted that even if this crawl had been left out, you could’ve easily followed the plot.
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Think of your favorite movie.\u00a0 Play out the opening scene in your head.\u00a0 You can see it now: there’s the protagonist, crossing the room to sit down on a chair in the center of the set.\u00a0 She\/He faces you, then spends the next forty minutes explaining who s\/he is, what her\/his world is like, who the other major characters are, what their lives have been like, and where they all currently stand.\u00a0 Once that’s done,\u00a0 s\/he jumps up again.\u00a0 “Great, now you’re up to speed.\u00a0 Let the story begin!”<\/p>\n

Wait a minute.\u00a0 What the hell movie ever starts like this?\u00a0 Screenwriters never do this- so why do novelists instinctively gravitate toward info-dumps in Chapter One?<\/p>\n

Introductions are brutal pains in the ass.\u00a0 Regardless of genre, fiction writers have to forge a balance between “Basil Exposition” (Austin Powers<\/em>) and “Well, I guess the plot is none of our business” (Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/em>).\u00a0 It’s even worse for those who write in settings other than present-day Earth.\u00a0 We fear throwing out too much technobabble too fast.\u00a0 “Why don’t you reconst your flavo-fibes?!” (again, MST3K<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Many of us overcompensate.\u00a0 Unlike a screenwriter, a book-writer has all the time and paper in the world- or so we imagine.\u00a0 We must take time to explain the universe a little before throwing story at them.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t work.\u00a0 Every time I’ve tried this approach, it failed to impress the poor beta readers I foisted it upon.\u00a0 Those names, locations, and past events mean nothing when presented as information disconnected from any actual story.\u00a0 My beta readers had no context by which to start caring about it, so they didn’t.\u00a0 It came off as a pile of self-indulgent crap I was making them slog through.\u00a0 Many readers would flip several pages into my manuscript, to the point where characters appeared and were doing stuff, and would tell me, “Start here.”<\/p>\n

In other words: having trouble writing an intro?\u00a0 No problem!\u00a0 Don’t write an intro.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"darkandstormy\"<\/a>No.\u00a0 Not unless you’re Madeline L’Engle.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

A reader’s time is precious.\u00a0 He’s got zillions of books to choose from, and here he’s selected yours.<\/em>\u00a0 Reward him with something that immediately reads like a story, not a lecture he’ll be quizzed on later.<\/p>\n

Where should you start?\u00a0 The conventional advice is “as close to the end as possible.”\u00a0 I say that you should also introduce your main character(s) as quickly as possible, especially in a sci-fi\/fantasy setting.\u00a0 The audience needs someone who’ll help them navigate and understand this strange new world.\u00a0 Going back to Star Wars<\/em>: why didn’t the movie start with the Rebels stealing the plans?\u00a0 That could’ve been a great action sequence, but it also would’ve pushed back the introduction to Luke Skywalker.\u00a0 If we don’t meet him until an hour into the thing, can we really call him our hero?\u00a0 This approach probably would’ve made Leia our main character- and once the switch to Tattooine occurred, we would’ve thought, Hey, where’d my space movie go?\u00a0 Who the hell is this whiny jerk?<\/em><\/p>\n

Once you have a good starting point, skip the exposition and launch right in, as if this were Chapter Five rather than Chapter One.\u00a0 Let each sentence construct the universe in real-time.\u00a0 If you have a lot of world-building to do, ease us in; don’t throw out too many unfamiliar terms at once.\u00a0 Teach us about the characters through their words and actions, but don’t succumb to the temptation of having characters speak exposition to each other (“You know, Bob, now that I’m a level twelve conjurer, my home town of Tridiot is really proud of me!\u00a0 Have you noticed how brown my eyes are?\u00a0 I just adore cake.”).<\/p>\n

A little mystery is good, valuable even.\u00a0 If you don’t explain anything<\/em>, that’s frustrating, but little questions-\u00a0 Why’s he so angry?\u00a0 Why’s this computer so important?<\/em>\u00a0 -are like burs that attach your story to your reader’s mind, motivating him to keep reading for answers.<\/p>\n

Is this advice universal?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Are there beloved classics that start with acres of backstory?\u00a0 Absolutely, but most of them come from the pre-Internet days.\u00a0 When deciding how to approach your intro, consider who your reader is.\u00a0 Is he pulling your heavy leather-bound tome off his library shelf and curling up by the fire for a few hours of reading before bed?\u00a0 Is he buying your ebook and skimming it in the fleeting moments life affords him?\u00a0 Write however you like, but keep in mind what might compel your reader to stick with you or turn away.<\/p>\n

Do you agree with my approach, disagree, or have further advice that could save writers’ hair from being violently ripped out at the roots?\u00a0 Please feel free to share in the comments!<\/p>\n


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