The Writing Life Too

Promises, Promises

“Think of everything that happens at the very beginning of a story: The reader makes decisions about the story. They haven’t yet committed to completing it and they are feeling their way around how much they want to commit. Your reader is not a penniless and weary traveler who will be happy to take any bed you can offer. They are discerning, with plenty of money for a night’s sleep and if you show them something uninspired, they’re off to the next inn. You have to work to get them to stay with you.” ~ Brandi Reissenweber.

 The prologue or opening pages of your novel lets readers know what sort of story world they have entered. These pages depict if it is the contemporary world or the future, if we’re reading a fantasy, a romance, Western, erotica, or science fiction. When you craft your opening pages, you cannot imagine that your reader will be able to identify your genre by the section of the book store it is found in.That's because your opening sentences are filled with promises.

        Now in life, particularly if you've ever been a parent, you know that sometimes keeping a promise is no easy thing. In a science fiction story, some aspect of science, technology or futuristic elements will be directly linked to the central problem and its solution. In a romance, a couple will meets so that  they can  fall in and out of love, then ultimately fall in love again.After the opening events--which will introduce threatening change and reveals at least one character under stress-- then the central conflict is introduced. But from the first words and whispers of a story, the unfolding events that create structure in your novel must be appropriate for the genre or type of story that you’re writing. If you’re writing a mystery, you will solve the case, if you're writing a thriller, the bad guys will be apprehended, the terrible menace stopped.

Or if you’re writing a romance, you’ll construct a series of misunderstandings and mishaps that keep the lovers apart until the last possible moment, when they realize the truth of their feelings and fall headlong into lasting, blissful love. In a romance, readers expect to deeply delve into the heroes’ psyches, want to watch the blossoming romance falter and fizzle before it finally blooms, and want all other aspects of plot— even if it is set on another planet in the distant future— to exist as secondary to the romance.

You see, your opening words contain a promise to your reader. Read these pages and I’ll transport you to a world based on your expectations, where the story events will deliver an emotionally satisfying experience. If a reader pays $24.95 for a fantasy novel, he expects fantastical elements and interesting explorations of themes that perhaps cannot be explored via a contemporary and realistic setting.

Your promise to your reader is that you’ll deliver the goods following the strictures within the genre; that your story will reveal something about human nature, and will create meaningful connections between the reader and the story world.    But openings also introduce themes and hint at the ending and the resolution to the story.

            This aspect of story promise is best described by playwright and author Bill Johnson in A Story Is A Promise. Johnson explains that realizing that a story is a promise is a cornerstone in understanding storytelling. He writes, “A story sets out its promise by offering details of life-like characters, issues, events, and circumstances, then editing and arranging those details to move an audience toward a desirable experience of resolution. For example, when a story created around the issue of courage fulfills its promise, the story’s audience experiences a fulfilling moment of courage. The story’s audience experiences the truth of the story’s promise. 

      Popular stories often are designed around a promise of some human need that is acted out to dramatic fulfillment..... The Harry Potter novels around the issue of Harry fitting in. In the Bourne films, Jaason Bourne seeks to discovers his lost identity."

            Johnson explains that when readers or an audience are confused about a story’s dramatic purpose, it’s because they haven’t been emotionally or thoughtfully engaged by the plot or actions of the characters. He explains, “The most common mistake of inexperienced writers is not clearly establishing and sustaining their story’s advance along its story line. This is ruthlessly damning. It creates a story that is a collection of meaningless details that suggest no promise or dramatic purpose, just as a collection of railroad cars sitting isolate on sections of track fails to suggest the possibility of a journey toward a destination.

            Every story should have something—an issue or idea about love, courage, redemption, renewal—some human need—in its opening scenes that speaks to an audience.”

Tips:  Make certain that your opening creates questions that can be resolved only by further reading.   Make certain that your opening is crucially linked to the chapters that follow.