Worst way to start a novel?

[serria]

I saw this writing prompt just a moment ago, and it kind of made me laugh. What "opener" pet peeves do you have? I'm kind of sick of symbolic dreams tossed right at the beginning, or characters just waking up. It feels too overdone to have much of an effect on me anymore.

Comments

[inkdust]

That sex opening made me cringe so hard! Gah. I agree openings scenes with too much potential to be disorienting do themselves a great disservice. I also agree with Serria that I can imagine a "fake beginning" that really pulls it off, but probably something more like your scrapped scene than such a standard device like a dream or flashback. Like most "rules" of writing, I suppose, there are always exceptions that work. You can break the rules if you break them well enough, right? The trouble is knowing whether you're doing it well enough :D

[ljwrites]

You can break the rules if you break them well enough, right? The trouble is knowing whether you're doing it well enough :D

Word.

ETA: Yes, that opening... my reaction was basically my icon. D: I've both read and written smut, and "Gah! Too much too soon!" is definitely not the path to eroticism. My discomfort was even greater because I knew the characters in this fanfic were teenagers, the young lady being fourteen at the time and the young man probably fifteen or sixteen. You don't need to thank me for that tidbit, I love to spread around the trauma.

[inkdust]

Hahaha. We'll both make your icon's face.