Cliché Story Openings to Avoid
Cliche openings are a dime a dozen, but some are just too much to ignore. Watch out to not use these cliche openings that stick out like a sore thumb.
The walking somewhere opening.
Sometimes it seems like a good idea to us to put our character into a slow position at the start.
We want to be able to have room to start to reveal our world to the reader. We do this by having our character walk to school or to the grocery store.
Don’t make this mistake.
Think about your first sentence as, “How do I get my reader hooked for the next chapter off this one sentence?”
A great example is the first sentence of the Dark Tower Series.
“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.”
It’s pure art. It’s brilliant. It’s simple.
And most importantly it works.
The very first sentence introduces the main characters and a major conflict that needs to be resolved. It’s tempting you to read a little more.
Traveling to a meeting.
All too often writers decide that the perfect way to introduce their main character is to put us on a train, bus, or car with them for two hours to get to know them before we get into any conflict whatsoever.
Don’t do this. You’ll lose your reader and the good stuff that may be waiting beyond this scene might never be discovered.
A better way to do it would be to start it in the middle of “the meeting” or even sometime after when the conflict is already apparent and in progress.
You can always flashback if you really want to. But in the opening, we really want to be finding that grand hook to keep them curious for more.
One good example we can think of where this is done well would be Unbreakable, but be aware the point of traveling on the train isn’t to give us a long introduction to the main character; on the contrary, it is meant to bring us into the main conflict quickly.
Don’t assume that action is the only possible hook.
Men chasing each other across the desert with guns might not be the genre you’re writing in. That’s fine. Good hooks aren’t always about action. But they always involve emotional responses and curiosity and conflict of any kind goes a long way.
Emotional motivating factors could be love, loss, heartache, time, fear, shock, horror, curiosity. There are many ways to think about hooking your reader.
Take this opener for example, “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
No action in this opening. They are traveling and that’s fine. The motivator here is probably curiosity.
The reader might think, “The drugs began to take hold? What does that mean? What is about to happen?”
And so they read further. That’s all you want! You just want to evoke emotion in them to want to read further.
And of course, reward them as they do. Give them curiosity. Then reward them for giving in to that curiosity, rinse and repeat. A good opening brings curiosity. It doesn’t explain a character or a world unless a conflict is naturally introduced by that introduction to the character and world.
If you’re writing drama or romance then your conflict isn’t about car chases and explosions per se.
It might just be that “He couldn’t wipe away his tears of anger fast enough as he ran through the hall and down into the stairwell. Everyone stopped and watched him. It was the most embarrassment he had felt in his entire life.”
Remember that a good opening hook doesn’t have to rely on action. It relies on evoking emotions in our reader. And when we get the emotions right, they will read on.
Over-detailed, needless setting description, and discovery.
This is an easy rule to live by for the rest of your writing days.
You are only allowed to open your story with vast amounts of setting description on drafts that you never intend for anyone else to read other than after you have written an impelling version of the story, you sell a million copies and then you have hundreds of super fans that would love to gobble up the tedious backgrounds of your creative process for the world you created that they now dearly love in their hearts.
Before that though, never and I mean NEVER open any of your stories with a full page of describing settings before you come to any conflicts whatsoever. I beg you! 😬
Side note: (I will qualify here, that every once in a blue moon an author appears in the universe that can actually pull this off.
They somehow magically know how to put 5 pages worth of setting descriptions and character descriptions as the opening of their story and not bore everyone to death.
In fact, they know how to draw you in and make you enjoy it and want more. I’ll be the first to say, I’m not that mystical author. And most of us aren’t.
You are more than welcome to practice that type of writing and try to get many people to read it. But it’s truly a magnificent skill that takes either born talent or years of practice.)
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That’s all for now.
Hope that helps!
Happy writing!
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Cliché Story Openings to Avoid
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