A Question About Story Openings

[The Storyteller]

A few scattergun thoughts from a Noob ...

Welcome! I hope you enjoy SFF Chron. Thanks for the feedback.

I've been warned off a dream opening by Chronners, but I say go with it, if it fits with the narrative and pacing.

Thank you! I feel I've made up my mind what I want to do, so it's nice to have someone telling me to go with it!

The real problem with dreams or weather or waking up starting a story is that these openings seldom have anything to do with the rest of the story. That's is what should be avoided: anything that does not connect to the story.

Not much more to add other than to reiterate the need for relevance.

I think I addressed the relevance of the opening in my last post on this thread, as well as my reasons for wanting to start it in this way!

Dreams are altogether different... As HB says they can be used as indicators but need handling properly. Can't you start the section off 'in the dream, he/she was...' ?

Personally I feel a dream is more misleading than a daydream! Especially since he is actually acting out his daydream, not just sitting and thinking about it. When he thinks about swinging a sword, he is actually physically leaping about swinging his stick. Also, I feel the daydream better portrays his character, while a dream could just be a typical dream of any person, and doesn't necessarily give us the same amount of information on the character IMO.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Personally I feel a dream is more misleading than a daydream! Especially since he is actually acting out his daydream, not just sitting and thinking about it. When he thinks about swinging a sword, he is actually physically leaping about swinging his stick. Also, I feel the daydream better portrays his character, while a dream could just be a typical dream of any person, and doesn't necessarily give us the same amount of information on the character IMO.

I agree, I think I misunderstood what you were saying; I thought you wanted to use a dream, not a daydream.

Sorry, long day

pH

 

[The Storyteller]

I agree, I think I misunderstood what you were saying; I thought you wanted to use a dream, not a daydream.

Sorry, long day

pH

Well we all have those! After all, I am the one that somehow managed to post this thread in general book discussion instead of general writing discussion!

Thanks for the feedback regardless, it's always appreciated.

 

[Ihe]

But drifting off into a fantasy daydream when you are supposed to be paying attention to your master/teacher is a problem.

A nice way of going about it would be to mix the daydream with what the teacher is partially saying in the background, so the protag would be taking bits of the lesson out of context and applying it to his fantasy as he goes, building up on what the teacher says, but in the strange direction of the student's mind, while at the same time getting a taste of the real world vs expectations conflict, with a tinge of humour.

 

[Martin Gill]

I'd be wary of starting with a daydream if its described as if its real. It does risk disappointing the reader. An alternative would be to begin with something like "The rap of the schoolmaster's cane on Billy's desk snapped him back to the class, his dreams of being a heroic knight shattered again." (only better than that!) then have him drift off later once you've established the real world a little. That way I don't read the first paragraph, think "Awesome this is a story about heroic knights" only to find on page 3 that its actually a story about someone at school.

And having written this I've just read Ihe's comment above whcih I like