Taming the Dreaded First Scene

So you’re at the very beginning. The top of a blank page. It’s so hard! You want to open strong, you want to hook your reader, but you don’t want to jump in too fast and leave them in the dust…

Lots of people will tell you what not to do. Don’t start with your character waking up, for instance. Agents and editors have seen this so many times, and apparently are intensely weary of it. Starting with back-story is out, starting with description is dulls-ville, starting with a prologue is usually a bad plan, dialogue can be tricky, for heaven’s sake don’t start with a dream…what’s left?

Enough with the do-not’s. Where are the how-to’s?

Blake Snyder is pretty good with those, for the record. I recommend his Save the Cat! highly.

In explaining the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, Snyder writes that the opening image is our chance to meet the hero in their normal world. It’s a “before” picture, to show us where she is at the beginning of her journey. It should also, Snyder believes, be the opposite of the final image, bookending the story by showing how the lead has grown.

My view on writing advice is that if you like it, take the advice. If you don’t (and you’re sure the reason isn’t just your ego rejecting the idea that you could be making that mistake), ignore it. I like this advice. It rings true for me. I think of favorite movies like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard and Aliens (judge me, I don’t care) and I can see it.

Don’t tell me what the first image of Lethal Weapon is, I know. But the first one I remember on my own is Mel Gibson mourning his wife and almost pulling the trigger to join her. The last image? He walks out of the darkness across Danny Glover’s lawn and into a family dinner.

Die Hard–Bruce Willis is alone and out of his element, nervous about flying. Last image? He’s with his wife, going home.

Aliens–Ripley wakes from a nightmare (oh look, started with a dream, and it’s very effective). Last image? She tells Newt it’s safe to sleep.

Bringing the story full-circle (only ending on a higher level–think of a spiral) creates resonance. Resonance is that feeling when you finish a good book–sorrow it’s done mixed with satisfaction with the ending (not necessarily happiness!) and joy in a great journey completed. Even if it’s not a quest book.

The first scene reinforces the last, and helps cement it in your mind.

So I’m working on incorporating this. I didn’t do as well as I’d like in Knight Errant. I’m working on doing it better in His Faithful Squire. In later books I started trying to do it before I’d read Save the Cat! which is one thing that makes me thing he’s onto something–it must be a good idea, since I’d already started fumbling towards it. While Joss’ book does begin with him waking up (I swear, there’s a dead body by the end of the page), it’s in the bed of a one-night stand. At his starting point, Joss spends his free time pleasing only himself. He’s in a cause, but not part of it, and those who care about him are held at a distance. By the end he’s made a commitment.

The “opposite” aspect is very helpful if you don’t have your story mapped out yet. If your novel idea is for the ending, you can reflect your idea and find your beginning. And vice versa. Another important fact…here, let me whisper it to you, because it seems it’s a big secret…you can write your first scene later. Go ahead and start with back-story. Write thirty pages of Jim Bob dragging himself out of his mattress on the floor and into the mildewed shower. This is stuff you need to know anyway, so why not get it figured out?

It’s when you’re editing, as I am, that you need to figure out that first scene. More than once I’ve edited my way through, made sure I was happy with the last scene, and then gone back and tweaked the first one to oppose it.

It’s not brain surgery. You don’t need to do it right the first time.

Does your favorite book or movie come full circle? What do you think would have ended better (or less well) if they’d done it?