Character or Background Description. How to Start?

[Perpetual Man]

Something that has sprung to the fore in the last critique I posted is cramming too much background into the opening segment of a given story, be it a novel or short story or anything in between.

I know this is something that I am guilty of, especially more recently in my work, and as has been pointed out for two different pieces by two different people that I am probably squeezing in information that is just me working out the background and might not be that needed in the eyes of the reader.

But although there is a line when there is too much, can/should a story start immediately with a character, giving something or someone for the reader to immediately engage with?

Or can one get away with an opening devoid of a character just a scene setting couple of paragraphs before launching into the story proper?

(As an aside I recently wrote a short story where I deliberately tried to cast aside the notion of character, and write a story that was without people, just a sequence of events and description, that still carried the notion of beginning, middle and end. Or End middle beginning depending how you look at it, is this a huge no, no. Or brave experimental writing at it's best? )

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Character and setting for me, Perp. But the character is what keeps me reading.

 

[Brian G Turner]

You have an entire book to write your background.

 

[Colbey Frost]

I thrust the character on the reader and have been learning to blend in background as I go. Damn that balance is hard to find, though!

 

[Abernovo]

I suppose anything could work, if done right, Perp. For me, though, I need to identify with a character. I want someone I can love (or hate), who makes me need to know what happens next to them in that setting.

Your story without people: what was it that moved the story forward?

 

[Beef]

I thrust the character on the reader and have been learning to blend in background as I go. Damn that balance is hard to find, though!

This. Although I find that less is usually more when it comes to description. I sometimes write a couple of paragraphs and then later, in editing, realise that i've been seduced by the words i've written at the expense of the ideas i'm trying to convey.

 

[Laeraneth]

I stared out with background, then have the character 'coming into view', perhaps as if it were a TV show and starts with a pan of the city and the land around it, slowly settling down to street level and then 'joining' the character as she wandered through the city.

I quite liked it, but it was quite dry.

It took me several chapters to realise that my characterisation was... err... non-existent perhaps?

Thus what I'm writing now has been purposefully built around the characters themselves, thus she is there literally from the first word and events are told from her point of view.

I have absolutely no doubt that there are many authors who can do an excellent job of selling a background and a setting long before the characters themselves come into view, and still keep it interesting, but at the moment... I can't.

 

[Mouse]

Character. Otherwise I skim to get to the character and you've wasted your time with the description.

 

[ratsy]

I will go ahead and join the group...definitely character first. I like to start with a strong character, even if it is not my MC. I have currently done this in my NaNoWriMo WIP. I figure why not start with a cool character and scene to grab the reader because that is what I want.

 

[The Judge]

Ever read The Return of the Native? That opens with a hundred page** description of bloody*** Egdon Heath. Hardy could get away with it when he wrote it because (a) the heath is very much a character of the book and everything is set there and (b) his then-readership tolerated slow beginnings.

If you are writing so-called literary fiction, where the cognoscenti would rather have their fingernails ripped out than confess to being bored, you might get away with a long description. Writing in genre fiction, unless you are a genius, I reckon you've got two paragraphs, tops, before you have to introduce either action or character, and preferably both.



** that might be a slight exaggeration...

*** as that suggests, I wasn't impressed. I had to read the book for "A" level, and some [REDACTED] years later I still can't forgive him.

 

[Bowler1]

Character here too, then move to background but only as it relates to what the character is seeing, feeling etc.

However, don't be afraid to exiperment and see what you might discover.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Ever read The Return of the Native? That opens with a hundred page** description of bloody*** Egdon Heath. Hardy could get away with it when he wrote it because (a) the heath is very much a character of the book and everything is set there and (b) his then-readership tolerated slow beginnings.

Ahh, yes, the heath IS the main character!

(I love the book -- but I probably skim a lot of that part, too.)

I do best when starting with a character and working the background in. I've tried, many times, to start with description, and it always gets edited out in favor of a dialogue start. Someone said recently that agents frown on starting with dialogue, so I'm probably in trouble there, too.

 

[nightdreamer]

Character, definitely. Even when it's a story with a grand panoramic mind-blowing sci-fi concept, it is still the characters that make the story. The ideas are just icing on the cake. What is That Story About? Finding Focus on Screen and Page - Duane Vore, Writer

 

[Perpetual Man]

Well... it's a bit close to call then

It would seem that the common consensus is the same and to be honest what I thought it was going to be.

TJ your feelings about The Return of the Native seem very much the same as mine fr Middlemarch...

Aber. The story without characters, was an experimental piece and I do not think you could do something much longer than a short story. As to what would move such a thing forward: events. If you were writing a piece about a star going nova, it would be that which drove the narrative.

You might not care about it in the same way you would a principle character, but the energy and drama as everything unfolds should be enough to hold the readers attention.

 

[HareBrain]

TJ beat me to the Return of the Native example. Yes, you need something to engage the reader, and yes, that almost always needs to be character, but landscape can be character, as can other things -- to some readers. The openings to Bleak House and Titus Groan (far as I remember) are other good examples of how it can be done, but lots of readers would be bored by them. As the answers to this thread show, it's a big risk.

 

[hopewrites]

devils in the details


for me, this means that every detail is a peice of the charaters puzzel.
"His callous hand grasped hers with surprising strength"
callous tells me he does physical labor - suprising tells me his resulting muscle mass is sinuous rather than bulky. I suspect detail work; michanic, woodsmith, factory worker... or guitarist.


the reason for backstory is to give waight and meaning to what is happening in the present one. If it doesnt, then its like the authors underwear is showing (granted some authors have nice underwear and secretly we enjoy an occasional glimps) because they're giving us information we should have been able to put together on our own.

 

[Aurora Skye]

Character all the way! The story is theirs and everything else builds around them. Great characters draw readers in and hang on to them until the final page

 

[Perpetual Man]

Right I think that settles it.

I'm tempted to run an experiment in another thread sometime, but it can wait.

I'll go back to my 4,000th post critique and see what I can do.

 

[jastius]

the point of starting with character or starting with scenery is to guide the mind's eye so that your reader can take his first footsteps in your world you are describing.
you can do this with a description of person place or events. (another word for events is action )
personally i believe that a description of an action sequence is the best way to open a story. The action can be something happening in the landscape to set place or inflect mood. the actions can be those of a person to engage interest and create instant tension. or the action could be what we nominatively think of an action sequence as.. rock em sock em stuff.