Have you ever heard of the "Lap Slap?"
Maybe there's another name for it, but this one sounds right (
hey - quit laughing ...). It's basically something I do if something happens in a book I'm reading that makes me go "seriously?" resulting in the book falling to my lap, so fast, that it causes a slapping sound. And, as I dove deep into new releases this year, I'm astounded by how many times I've done this with half of the first pages I've read.
Most of them started with something along these lines:
I wake up ...
My eyes open ...
A violent jolt shook Jacob from his sleep ...
A Lap Slap in the first sentence is never a good thing, but really, why am I making such a big deal out of this? I'll take you back in time to my first writer's conference. I didn't know then that starting your story with a dream is taboo (a prologue dream, for that matter). My character woke up at the end of it. Naturally, the character has just woken up in the first chapter. There, at the critique session, the "experts" (who I really appreciate and admire, don't get me wrong) informed me of the "three deadly beginnings:"
a dream, waking up, and being naked. I heard this repeated throughout the conference and conferences since, by established and aspiring authors alike.
And yet, so many new books this year, I've noticed, start with characters waking up! Isn't this a mixed message? Isn't this like telling people to
not produce apples, only to sell apples later?
Is there anything wrong with starting a story this way? Since I don't believe in hardfast rules in writing (anymore), no. It's a fairly natural way to begin a story. We begin each day by waking up. Each day is a new story. This kind of opening has, however, been overdone, so it really takes a creative approach to make this kind of beginning a fresh one. This week, my CP presented the first chapter of her new work. You guessed it, the character wakes up, but the way she wrote it was
funny and true to life, so I let it slide. Then you have a bestselling author who, after much anticipation, releases that book I've been waiting for - and the first line is a character waking up ...
...
Lap Slap.
"How can *author name here* start a story this way?" I ask.
Guess what answer I heard? "Well ... she's *author name here*!"
So, if you're a bestseller, taboos don't apply? Good to know ...
It's almost as if there's an industry secret, a fiendish ploy to keep writers out of the loop, or prevent them from getting published!
I'm kidding, of course ... so laugh with me!
(And ... that's enough of that ...)
These are things I've heard, btw. I don't believe for a second that industry peeps laugh about authors behind closed doors ... ever ...
I stand by the mixed message, though. I was a reader before I wrote. I read a few books that started with characters waking up. Many learn by example. I figured this was the norm. I wrote my first beginning, doing what established writers have done. I was told this was cliché.
I asked them to throw me a frigg'in bone, and they did. Such great advice. My writing hasn't been the same since, in a good way.
So what's this advice, DPK? Should we or should we not begin our stories with our characters waking up?
I say, if we can avoid it, if we can begin our stories without having our characters wake up, do it, but I'm not going to tell you, "don't start your story like that!" If our take on it is fresh, it will work, but take into consideration that there are better ways to start a story.
This is not the rule, just my thoughts on the matter. If we decide to start our stories with one of the three deadly beginnings (or The Triad of Death - I heard a novel did all of these at once, deliberately, but I can't find the title of it ...), keep in mind, many, many stories have already started this way. Doing whatever we can to stand out and give a great first impression is what matters in the end.
What's your say on this topic? Do you or do you not have a problem with stories beginning with characters waking up? Why is that?
I'm David, and *hits the snooze* just five more minutes ...