Thread: a well thought out opening.

Hello guys, thank you very much for helping out. Basically, I have a problem with my story - nothing major, but I'm struggling to figure out whether I'm making the right decision with my story. I've been writing a story for quite a while, but due to exams and other commitments, I stopped. And it was only last week I began writing again, so I began writing an entire new story, based on an old story I'd written.

I have two openings for my story, and it's being unable to choose which opening I should go for, that is stopping me. I've realised that if I go with the second opening I can create plot points from it, and enhance my story further, but I'm unsure and would much appreciate your help, on choosing an opening for me? The one you prefer most?

When I first started writing my story - I originally planned to have my main character move to a small village to meet the mother she had never known. The opening scene was where she was at the train station saying good bye to her father. Though this idea started boring me, and didn't seem real enough, and reminded me too much of Twilight.

My second idea was that the mother - who is actually one of the most important characters in the story - was to be introduced after my main character's father dies - her step mother getting in touch with her, brings her into the scene along with some of the other main characters. This would then mean my main character moved to the small village, but for a more realistic reason. The opening scene was where she was discussing her father's death, and introducing herself and minor characters.

- The genre of the story is fantasy, so the small village - which I named Black Wolf Grove, is magical, and the most important location in the story.

But I would just like a second opinion as to which idea the reader would like to read more.

If a scene is boring you, it will probably bore your readers, too. You never want to bore your readers, especially at the beginning of the story.

If the father serves no purpose to the story, there is no need to have him in the story. His recent death can be a back story element that you can insert into the story almost anywhere. I find funerals a good place to begin a story because it is the end of the previous story and the natural beginning of a new phase of life for the survivors - their life without the deceased.

Your instinct to give your main character a realistic motive to move to the village is correct. You can not have your character move to the village as random behavior. I go with your second option.

I agree with the above sentiment that if a scene is boring for you, then it'll probably bore your readers. However, as for the opening, it's up to you.

I would be potentially wary of opening with a funeral, though. If you want us to feel your character's heartache and pain, have some story prior to the funeral before you dive in. Otherwise I'm reading sobbing and depression but I have no attachment to the character yet, and therefore their pain doesn't actually affect me.

A reader does not have to feel grief just because there is a funeral. Many things happen at funerals. In this case the funeral would explain why the character wants to find her long lost mother - because she just lost her father and is re-examining her familial relationships.

"The Bridges of Madison County" begins with a funeral. The audience is not supposed to feel sad because the Meryl Streep character has died. The funeral explains why her middle-aged children are going through her personal effects where they discover a secret...

"Gran Torino" begins with a funeral scene. It explains why the Clint Eastwood character is a bitter old man who now lives alone. It demonstrates his strong opinions about how people are supposed to look and behave. It also shows the strained relationship between the father and his two sons. Nothing else would bring these men together except the death of their wife/mother. The scene accomplishes all of these things without the audience needing to feel sad.

I had similar thoughts to C.M. Aaron, though the example that occurred to me was Graham Green's travels with my aunt in which he first meets his aunt/real mother at his father's funeral.

It would seem to me that the version which is more about where you are going and what will happen, rather than dwelling on the background that will be left behind, is a good idea in the very early stages. On the other hand I am not one for rules about such things, statements such as "The first paragraph must tell you who, what, where, and when" should really read "A first paragraph will often be effective if it tells you ..." in my opinion, something to be considered, but no rules.