This week my novel writing class will bring in a novel they’ve enjoyed. I’ve promised the students that they’ll never read a novel the same way again. The reason I do this is to give the writers a quick but important lesson in how to write the opening of a novel.
Writing Tip for Today: A novel’s beginning must be so much more than just the start of the story. It must grab the reader, orient him/her in time and space, get a character on stage and at least hint at the character’s problem. In class, we read aloud the opening paragraph and then discuss what information the reader gets in that passage. If you want to do this yourself, try looking for the following:

• Take the opening paragraph and list the info you get there as a reader. Answer the questions using the eleven elements of a scene if you wish. Do we have a character narrating? Where are we, when are we and what’s the quality of the light? Are there sensory clues? What is the narrator’s purpose (or at least the hint of it)?
• Find the book’s first line of dialogue. When students are a bit confused over what constitutes a scene, identifying the dialogue almost always indicates the passage is scenic (showing) rather than narrative (telling). If the novel’s first dialogue is someplace far into the chapter, try to figure out why. If the novel is very literary, then sometimes a strong narrative voice can hold off the first scene for a while.
• Go through the rest of that first chapter and identify where the action (scene) is and where the narrative takes over. You could even count the average number of scene lines/paragraphs vs. the narrative. Different types of novel have different weights of these: In literary novels, the reader puts up with more narrative if the writing is superior and the story carries the reader. In genre fiction readers demand fast-moving plots so more scenes will likely be evident.
• Where’s the novel’s climax scene? This is the acme scene, the do-or-die place for the main character. Look for this scene very close to the end of the book, probably the last 25 or so pages. This helps you remember that after the main story goal is dealt with (win or lose), the story must end quickly. Your resolution or denouement is only a short wrap up, pointing the reader in the direction of a satisfying conclusion. This conclusion doesn’t have to be happy, but it must answer the reader’s questions.

What novel will you analyze and how is this helpful to you? I’d love to hear from you.