“Once upon a time etc. etc. “
The purpose of your story opening is to set up the story. You make the promise to the reader that this is worth their time by presenting conflict and stakes.
Your opening needs to accomplish a few things:
- Set up the premise (What the story is about and maybe also, whose story it is)
- Make the promise to the reader (Conflict and Stakes)
- Convey what the story mood is (What kind of story it is and what they can expect)
Meet Expectations set up by the marketing: Usually, readers arrive at your opening with some information about your story, this can come from recommendations or trailers, but at the very least it comes from the title of your story, the tagline, cover, and maybe premise summary (if you have one). Based on that they have certain expectations of what the story is going to be about and what it’s feel is. In the opening minutes/page, they are looking to confirm if it is in fact the kind of story they are looking for. So that is why you want to make sure that your opening sets up the story and properly conveys what it’s overall mood is. While at the same time with the promise you are trying to hook them and get them intrigued enough to start giving the story their full attention.
Sum up the Story in Broadest Terms: The opening should be a reflection of what the whole story is about. So that when the reader gets to the end it feels like things are coming full circle and have a coherence to them, maybe even an inevitability. This is often done through story mood but also by already having the elements of theme that are relevant to your story present. Not necessarily very visibly, it can also just be a broad feel.
Engaging the Reader:
It is okay to challenge the reader by presenting a puzzle or confusing them by throwing them into action right away – as long as you do it in a way that makes the experience engaging for the reader, not demanding. At this point the reader has no ties to your story, no reason to care. If you present something that seems more work than a fun ride, they will leave. So you want to have an opening that causes engagement. Here are some ways this is often achieved:
Engagement Factors for Openings:
- Driving Questions: Where you make the reader ask what is going on
- Puzzle/Challenge: Opening with a mystery for the reader to solve
- Humour: If you get someone to laugh right away, most likely they will read on a little longer
- Empathy: Introduction of character and done by invoking sadness or instant likability for a very special character (Movie Up)
- Narration: Where a specified/unspecified narrator acts as the storyteller
- Open with a bang: Thrown into Action / Shock Moment
- Car Crash Opening: Where the opening is horrific and controversial which makes it hard to look away
- Foreshadowing & Easter Eggs (only visible on second reading)
- Defining the Endpoint (Setting a clear goal)
Most of these elements can also be used for chapter openings, especially when you switch to another POV or the like.
Types of Openings
Thrown into Action
In these openings, we are thrown right into the already ongoing narrative and have to figure out what is going on – while it is. Stuff is happening, people are running and dying and the characters we follow are clearly in danger. We don’t know anything yet, but we are already experiencing the story. A non-action alternative is when we open on two characters in mid-conversation and they don’t slow down to explain to the reader what is going on. As a result, you force the reader to lean forward and try to catch up by piecing together what is going on.
“What is going on?”
A variation on the “thrown into action” opening is when the protagonist we follow also doesn’t know what is going on and both reader and character know the same – which is hardly anything. Here we follow the character as they are trying to figure out what is going on.
Enter the Main Character
Some stories are entirely about character or at least very much driven by them. In these stories, more than in others, the characters are the story. So it makes sense that the story opens with the character, or more specifically by telling us who the character is. This is usually done by creating strong empathy for the character early on. Common techniques include Flashbacks and Summarization of Backstory. But it can also be through showing us a day in their life. Another approach is to show us the character in their element and therefore what is amazing about them (mastery).
Technique: Day-in-the-Life Opening
Here we get to know a character and their normal day before the inciting incident happens. Often this is against the background of us already knowing that something bad will happen.
Narration – Let me tell you a story
Maybe the most traditional opening to a story is to simply have the narrator tell the reader that this story is worth their time by basically going “You won’t believe what happened to me/to character xy”.
The Car-Crash Opener
Where viewers watch because it is so repelled and controversial that it is morbidly fascinating. The problem with this is that while the reader can’t bring themselves to turn away right away, they don’t like what they see and they dislike the story for it. They are eager to leave and to hate the story. It sets a very specific tone that can’t be shaken off.
Flash Forward to the Good Stuff
This is where you start the story by flashing forward to a conflict point. This tells us not just that the story is going to pick up soon (promise this is worth your time) but also asks a question: “how did we get here?”.
Backstory
This is where you start with the events that caused the story to happen in the first place. This is usually through a compact narration of what has come before.
Defining an Endpoint
This is where the character has a clear goal that is established at the very beginning of the story. Often it is either something the character wants or something they don’t want (found themselves in a bad situation and are trying to survive for example). Defining the endpoint is also a way to tie together an otherwise very loose narrative by making clear where it is we are going (comedies for example).
Creating Strong Emotions Right Away.
One of the biggest problems any storyteller faces is to create or find the right opening for their story. Where do you start so that you manage to introduce character and set up in a way that engages the reader right away? Personally, opening scenes are my biggest problem. I always know where a story ends, I know what has happened in the beginning to kick-off events, I just don’t know exactly what part of that beginning is the right place to open with. Personally, I think that one reason why we get so many remakes and prequels is that they have the advantage that they don’t need to have an opening that instantly convinces – at least not as much. There we know the characters already, often the set up too, so we are more forgiving when it starts less than gripping. But if you don’t have that advantage, what you should really focus on, is to create very strong emotions right at the beginning. The movie Up starts with an opening sequence that has most viewers crying by its end, that is pretty amazing. Generally speaking, if you get your audience to cry out of empathy for a character they have only met a minute ago, that is opening gold. But other strong emotions work too. Humour is a big one. One of the reasons why SitComs are so addictive is because they usually have a cold open where you get a joke right away. Again, within a minute or two you are already laughing.
Your opening should not just be functional in terms of all the things an opening has to achieve, it should also be a highlight moment. One of those moments in your story the reader/viewer will come back to experience over and over again because they provide that addictive emotional spike.
Technique: Linking the Emotional & Narrative Context of the Opening to the Highpoint of the Story.
What puts Readers off: It is Boring
- When it is obvious what is going on and going to happen
- The reader knows more than the POV-Character due to bad storytelling
- Set up & Characters are too familiar and done
- When manipulation is visible
- Bias Narration that tells the reader how to feel
- Tell instead of Show for no other reason than laziness or bad storytelling (it seems)
- No conflict insight, or conflict but no relatable stakes
- Someone trying to sell something (nonfiction mostly)
Approach: Find out what type of openings you like
How to find your Opening: Some Approaches to try
- Often the opening scene starts just a bit before the inciting incident kicks of the events of the story
- Ending: The ending should be in the beginning (“the outcome is inherent and inevitable in the opening moment and every moment in between).
- Figure out how your story ends so you can properly set up the character arc: this is the truth the character must learn. They have to start as far away from this truth as possible. So you start the story with the lie the character believes.