The worst way, in your opinion, to start a fantasy?

[Margaret Note Spelling]

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[IWillREBEL]

Welcome, @IWillREBEL! You're going to love it here, this is a great community.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

 

[BAYLOR]

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[sciwriterPark]

I guess the worst way to read a book would be to rip out each page and eat it after you read it. You know reading it ferociously.

 

[Zach777]

Hmm, that is an interesting question. Could be a lot of answers lol. I'd say starting off with a massive info dump and/or having the character wake up and start there day with nothing interesting going on.

 

[Bick]

Badly.

 

[Erythr]

Personally, the worst way of starting a book is with bias. The bias originates from reading the blurb or being acquainted with the author's earlier works. Which in turn leads to expectations, mainly Overexpectations. Then coming to realize the book has let you down. Or even worse, starting a book with little expectations and for some reason, the book even fails to meet that. Not to say that there aren't cases where I started a book with a low bar and then became pleasantly surprised. Having some kind of bias is natural (a part of being human) but I hate it when it prevents me from finishing the story.

 

[The Big Peat]

Since people are mentioning it, I have started many a series on Book Not One by accident as a wee 'un, and have now graduated to doing it on purpose, and have even started on Book Seven before. In a lot of ways I like it, because writing a good middle of series start is hard and I like finding out who agrees with me on how to do it.

My personal least favourite way for the book is to start is a big action scene about characters I don't care about.

 

[KGeo777]

"It was a dark and stormy night when two elves and a dwarf walked into a bar."

 

[Zach777]

Since people are mentioning it, I have started many a series on Book Not One by accident as a wee 'un, and have now graduated to doing it on purpose, and have even started on Book Seven before. In a lot of ways I like it, because writing a good middle of series start is hard and I like finding out who agrees with me on how to do it.

My personal least favourite way for the book is to start is a big action scene about characters I don't care about.

Definitely this, especially when a character is killed, and the text treats it as if it should be a major loss for the reader even thoug the reader had practically no time to get to know them.

 

[The Big Peat]

Definitely this, especially when a character is killed, and the text treats it as if it should be a major loss for the reader even thoug the reader had practically no time to get to know them.

I don't think I've seen a book do that. Any pop to mind?

 

[Zach777]

I don't think I've seen a book do that. Any pop to mind?

Nothing specific I can think of, but I do remember people back in college creative writing classes have a few stories with an opening like that or wanting to write a book with a similar opening.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Reading one

To start reading on a Saturday morning, thinking it to be a stand-alone novel, with the expectation to have finished it before the weekend is over. While in fact it is [Book One] of [Books Without End].

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

By accidentally reading the second book in the series first?

I seem to be able to cope with that. THe first time I read "The Lord of the Rings," I started a third of the way through..... Recently started a book which I hadn't realised was a sequel, and I was a bit annoyed to work it out because I'd thought the references to an undepicted adventure several decades previously were a interesting literary device!

 

[Overread]

The worst way to start reading a new book? Or, at least as far as Chrons is concerned, the worst way to start reading a fictional book?

Well I try to avoid reading blurbs too much as I find many can't help but spoil half the beginning to sometimes more of the core story. "Join Dave as he discovers he's a Wizard and goes on to fight the Great Bob, arisen again in secret from the dead and set to try and conquer the world". BAM suddenly half the main plot points are revealed.
There's also a few blurbs out there that are flat out wrong - One of the novels in the Magician series by Raymond E Fiest had for the longest time, a blurb on the back that was outright incorrect (I think it was A Darkness)


Another is if you've had your impression of the book formed by reading the opinions of others too much. Much like anything else if your first impression is someone complaining, griping and pointing out their perceived flaws in a work, that can taint your initial impression. It might make you spot or interpret the same flaws; it might make you start the book with the wrong attitude.

Then there's learning too much about the author. Eg there are some who dislike the Harry Potter series because of the authors stance on LBGT communities and groups. This can, again, taint your interpretation of a book because now instead of characters and the world being a full fantasy, you are instead looking for those insults (slight or direct). Suddenly you're looking for the "message behind the story" which might be intentional or not. In short you are pulling the real world into the fantasy.


Those are ways in which I think are a bad way to start a book or series and most of them are dealing with pre-loading yourself with perhaps too much information on the story or baggage of the real world being pulled along with you. Things that I think can spoil a story because you lose the ability to so easily get carried along for the ride and experience the story as a work of fiction.
To me fiction is the ability to put down the real world and pick up another world. Those other worlds might have characters who have different values, viewpoints, opinions, ideas to our own. Yes we all have limits and some authors write in a preachy style that can be offputting, but in general I like to be able to experience those different world views through a story. It doesn't mean I agree with them or will change my world views to associate with them. It's just a fantasy.

 

[Danny McG]

If you start any work of fantasy check the first lines carefully, throw the book away if it doesn't begin with:-

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton

 

[Elckerlyc]

Also, check the last page before going any further. Never ever continue reading if the words 'The End' are missing.

 

[sule]

Also, check the last page before going any further. Never ever continue reading if the words 'The End' are missing.

How should I proceed if it says "The End????" ?

 

[Elckerlyc]

How should I proceed if it says "The End????" ?

Tread carefully! If even the author doesn't know for sure it's "The End," you run the risk of spending the remainder of your life uncertain if there ever will be a follow-up. It's worse than an 'Open End.'

 

[smellincoffee]

Reading a horde of reviews that spoil the plot and give you preconceived notions about characters and other elements of the story.