Intros and Action

I once crafted a great opening scene for a book. There was a note of suspense, a mysterious figure, a great twist, and a touch of humor to make the reader like the protagonist. It was my fourth book, and I was in love with how it began. The first thing my editor did was cut the scene. She said it was a very good scene, but the story didn’t really start there. I went through the five stages of grief for the dead scene, picked up my sword, and joined the battle to save the book.

When bringing two friends together, it is good form to introduce them. That works well as long as both friends are flesh and blood. However, when one of them exists only in your head and on paper, it is a far, far, better thing to do to drop the human one headfirst into the fictional friend’s crisis.

Let them get to know each other while battling trouble. What we say and do when we accidentally smash our thumb with a hammer is who we really are. The same is true for fictional characters, and that’s the place where readers need to meet them. Back story, world building, and character development are where the writer begins, but the reader must enter the story in the middle of things.

I think my take on this point is old-fashioned. Groups of young writers that I have sat in with seem to want the world explained to them before the action starts. Is it that they and their readers need to know which side to be on before the story unfolds? I am not really equipped to fairly answer that.

The truth could be that Pantsers like me just like causing a splash and then looking around to see who got wet. We often bog down in the middle of a story and have to wait for our characters to bail us out. My stories move quickly, but I’m not an action junkie. In stories and in life, I’m more of an “I can hardly wait to see what comes next” and a “what’s over the next hill” addict.

Oh, look…

Jack LaFountain