Opening Page Mistakes: Cliches That New Writers Have to Avoid
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ค. 2024
- Don’t write in clichés. And don't make the writing mistakes that can kill your story opening. Grab our own Idea Generator Tool to help you get your imagination go all the way from first idea to a full-length outline.
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Subscribe and follow our series on How to Write a Book. This instalment focuses on writing mistakes. Specifically, common mistakes made my new writers and how to avoid clichés in your writing.
Harry Bingham takes you through the writing mistakes that literary agents will be able to spot a mile off, commonly made by newbie writers.
We’ll cover everything, from the basics of starting your novel off in a dream state (don’t do it!) through to how to get straight into the action and hook your reader straight away from the first page.
There are simple writing settings to avoid and techniques to apply to make sure that your writing doesn’t scream new writer.
When you’re done with the basic plotting, it’s time to start getting into the nitty gritty. The characterization, the emotion and how exactly to engage your reader. This video will not go through all of that (it’s only 8 minutes long!) but is a great place to start to get your on your way to writing a truly engaging novel.
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I deliberately put every single cliché mentioned in the video to my book. I think I'm ready to publish it on Wattpad :)
Good for u
Haha! Would love to write a cliche book!
Dreaming and then waking up from the dream in excruciating pain in a prison immediately going in to an introspect infodump on how hr got there, all the while explaining everything in "had had" tense.
Honestly most books on that site can't be classified as that.
No, you're ready to restart and go through a major editing because you've learned from your mistakes! Never look down at yourself. The greatest authors were amateurs too
So my opening where the MC has a dream then wakes up in a hospital surrounded by his friends Sam, Sammy, Sandra, Sally, Sonny and Selma whose POVs we all flick through to see how greatly agonised they are to be in this hospital atop these luscious hills I'm explaining in excruciating detail is... absolutely perfect. Thanks! 😉
Apocalypse Now opens with Martin Sheen waking up. It's a very powerful scene. He thinks "Is the mission over? No, I'm still only in Saigon!" This rings true to me as a former homeless person, who would often wake up bewildered. "Where am I again? Oh yeah..." It's a very common feeling most people will never know.
Then ignore this advice and open your book with a waking-up scene and self-publish it afterwards.
But that's a film, not a book. The written story from which it was adapted definitely did not start with a waking scene. "Mean Streets" also started with a waking up and throwing off of sheets. In a film because the scene is taken in at a glance, whereas a story requires much longer to orient the reader, so waking as an opening tends to drag.
@@CarminaIguana No. Only if one lets it drag. Unfamiliar to the character, AND reader doesn't drag. Waking up and saying "Oh man, I'm only in ________" is very powerful. I've lived it as a homeless person. I know, and I can avoid dragging out my openings very much.
Sibyl Saint If you feel very strongly about doing it, then do it. Here is the address of Amazon’s self-publishing website: kdp.amazon.com. Good luck.
@@oldroanio5631 I think so too. ;)
"Too many names"
War and Peace: *Sweats heavily"
Maybe you see many books open with waking up or someone in the hospital because it's a good place to start. If you are waking up on the last day of your life and you make it clear that this is the last day, there's nothing you can do about it, then it seems to me that it might be a good place to start. As for the hospital, having a character say goodbye to their spouse might be a good place to start if that is a defining moment for the protagonist. I agree if you just open with these scenes just to have a place to start, you can probably do better. But if these opening scenes are critical for the story or character development, then maybe it's cliche, but necessary. My major problem, as a reader, is to start a book with a scene that does not grab my attention in the first couple of paragraphs. You can have a unique opening, but if you don't do anything with it, then what's the point. Give me a compelling situation or a very intriguing character. All that said, it is something to think about.
Harry, I am so grateful for your help.
I'll have to change my opening chapter. Thank heavens I listened to your video.
Thank goodness I haven't done any of that in my current WIP! Very well explained though - appreciated.
I am so grateful for your help.
Very helpful tips. Thank you.
There's a classic novel that begins with someone waking up, the entire first chapter is the protagonist washing, shaving having breakfast, might be catcher in the rye or catch 22, i can't remember but it drones on forever.
The Advice has been very helpful with getting better at story openers. Thank you! :)
Thanks for this. Really useful and clear advice.👍
"He woke with a jolt - it was all a dream! Around him stood the familiar walls of the hospital..."
I hadn't even thought of the dreaming or waking up ones! lol. Thanks Harry useful stuff.
The Da Vinci Code opens with the protagonist waking up... Which is a good reason not to use this device.
Yeah, why would you want to emulate one of the best selling books of all times, right? 🙄
The Da Vinci code is shite and Dan Brown is a moron.
@@sidmarx7276 Still a best selling author, what can you offer that he can’t in terms of making a best selling book? Because if your opinion is all there is, well…
@@alexman378 Well, it's precisely because the novel was a bestseller and very well known that you shouldn't be emulating its opening. You need to do something different.
@@TranslatorTuber You can do something different while adhering to a structure, especially as a beginner.
I’m so happy! None of my 6 manuscripts that I have finished, neither the three others I’ve started, have those mistakes. Well,
The first book I’ve started, starts with temperature but I’ll change that on editing (I’m on it).
And I have a book that starts with many names, but the context is placed already as it is the second book of a series.
Great video! Now, I knew most of those things already, since I've binge-watched writing tips videos for two years now. XD But still, each new person has something new to add. :P
Thank you
Great video Harry. And woo-hoo - I don't do any of those things. I must be learning. I love your books and the very compellingly weird Fiona.
This helps so much even though I'm a pantser writer but this helps.
I am editing my screenplay at present to enter the Nicholl screenwriting competition in Hollywood. I found your information helpful. Thank you. You have a new subscriber.
Good luck!
Good luck!
1,000th like!
I appreciate your advice sir!
thank you.
¡thanks!
I have written a number of short mystery stories, one of which has the main character waking up in bed early in the morning because she is startled by something she has heard. I consider that this is essential to the plot because it is all about a new beginning and the character is waiting and expecting something to suddenly happen at a certain time of the year. If I was to start the story in any other way then I don’t think it would have the same dramatic effect I am looking for or even make sense. Without giving too much away I really believe it is necessary to the plot to introduce her at the start of a fresh, new day. Do you think in this case it will be acceptable? None of my other stories has the character waking up in bed.
Hi Harry, I'm currently 19 years old and have been inspired to write a series of books. I feel I have such a creative mind, that it cannot be wasted. I was just wondering what are the different steps to publishing a book.
Thanks.
He has a book about that. The TH-cam channel also has useful resources. Perhaps you could take a look at any of those.
Ahhh...bless you Mr. Bingham. Mistake No. 1 - l was ready to make it. No 2... followed No 1 at a breath's length. Hahaha 😂😂😹😀.
Not the only video that has told me that I have to change the opening chapter which has a child waking up and falling out of bed.in my middle grade novel.. Well, come the edit, I will have to find a new start to the book. Damn!
how about a prologue from 80 years again that foreshadows (but keeping it vague enough not to reveal the something) what the main characters will find themselves in in the main plot?
I will tell you this as a professional book reviewer of more than two decades: if it’s done well, it’s done well, who cares if it’s been done before?
Are these mistakes that should only be avoided for a first book, because I have a few of these as an opening for the 7th book in my serious where my protagonist awakens from a nightmare and it goes from 3rd person to 1st person POV but stays in 1st person for the rest of the book.
I'm a reasonably seasoned writer. I've never started with a dream - but the novel I have in mind.... I've tossed and turned on the best start for it, but a dream is the best by far: My protagonist startles awake from the horror of it.:
It deals with a suppressed memory my protagonist (and a planeload of passengers is having) a decade after the in-flight trauma.
The best way for that trauma to surface is in an episodic nightmare..... because he's not yet understanding why he's having the images he is having (the nightmare is different to the reality of his recalled in-flight trauma). As he digs, he'll discover others are having the same and it makes him realize that it's a memory and not a dream. Is it an ABSOLUTE no-no?
Here's page 1
___
“This is the Captain,” Rob Stuyvesant heard his own voice speaking, and he was shocked at the calm sincerity of his tone. It belied the terror within him, “BRACE FOR IMPACT…”.
This was not how a career should end, going down. Ditching into icy water. Swooping in like a skipping stone along the length of the Hudson, as tight as possible to the deserted beach on the port side.
“BRACE-BRACE, HEADS DOWN, STAY DOWN”. Beyond the locked cabin door, the flight crew yelled their drilled instructions. Repeating the chant-like a mantra.
Except this wasn’t the Hudson River.
It couldn't be the Hudson.
There wasn’t a building in sight. Not a road, not a bridge, not a ship. Where all the vast industry of New York City should be, an endless expanse of virgin forest blanketed hills, with glades revealing streams and lakes.
Yet, with no shadow of a doubt, this was Manhattan Island.
A native New Yorker, Rob would stake his life on it. He’d flown in over this coast and peninsula for more than two decades.
That was Manhattan Island out there alright, but it was not New York City. It was the final terror on a terrifying day that had begun with the clear air turbulence and ethereal aurora east of Newfoundland.
No instruments since the event.
No radio contact, a cat’s hiss of isolation.
No familiar visuals cues out of the cockpit window-deserted ocean, tangled bush and not a building or bridge to be seen.
They’d turned back to JFK and navigated in with only the familiar coastline as their guide. The beaches and bays were at least unchanged.
“Pull_up Too_Low, Caution_Terrain… Pull_up Too_Low, Caution_Terrain”, the autopilot warning chime kept repeating with staccato urgency.
‘Mayday, mayday, mayday…. American one-a-five-a-four-a-nine-a copy?’ the co-pilot was still pleading for help that never came.
Rob ignored it all and concentrated on the instruments, hours of simulation training flooding back in this moment of crisis; wings level, nothing under one-thirty knots, and eleven-degrees nose-up attitude.
If attitude climbed, they’d hit with the tail and flick-flack. Attitude too low and the engines would bite into the water and the jet would plow catastrophically.
“BRACE--BRACE…” he heard himself warning one last time as the wavelets streaked under the cockpit screen, shockingly close to their belly.
I like the first sentence. But after that the segue is strange. Think also about your first few pages paragraph structure.
From your seven sins, my current manuscript starts with a number of characters. What is too much? I circulated the first few chapters with several people for feedback. Only one reverted on this issue. There are thirty odd 'named persons' in my 75,000 word manuscript. I am planning to issue a 'list of characters' as a supplement. As the story focuses on two groups, the number of characters increase is quite natural. But they are introduced over a few chapters.
Well where do you start!!
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This is all good stuff but I have one question about opening in a hospital. All the opening cliches are dealt with well and can be found in every book or webpage giving similar advice with the exception of number 3. Is this an issue or is it a personal preference of your own? For the record, my first novel doesn't start in a hospital.
the movie "Shallow Hal" starts in a hospital with the father dying.
the movie "Anthony" starts in a hospital with the father dying.
these two movies go in totally different directions, and quite successfully. In each case the inciting incident (a promise to dad) quickly puts the hero into conflict with reality.
My current sci-fi w-i-p starts with a character waking up in a hospital-like setting within a secret undergound base. Given the context of the story, there's not really any other option BUT for her story to start there - that is *literally* where everything begins for her. So does that mean all the publishers are just going to lob it in the nearest circular file because of this? Kinda depressing.
Someone waking up, such writers are influenced by movies not books(or books influenced by movies). In the kind of novels I'm writing, my characters almost have no respite, and the only relationship with sleep they happen to have is when they go to bed exhausted after a hectic and missions-filled days, and then only for short moments.
This is brilliant advice.
3:38 that’s almost exactly how the book sword art online started 😂
The weather is integral to the plot in my project...
My short story opens in the year 1647, and a child having a nightmare. It is essential to the plot that this happens. Could I open it another way, but come back to the nightmare a few pages in?
I think that would be a better approach. You, as a writer, know the nightmare has a part in the plot, but to readers it would be irrelevant to start off the story with a nightmare.
Harry, can I begin my book with a PROLOGUE in the form of a flashback or should the flashback be the EPILOGUE. I began my book with a prologue that was a flashback of the main character. Please let me know ASAP. Thanks.
Of course, flashbacks.
I placed the prologue in present time.
I’m doing a thing where each chapter is a different point of view. It switches between 3 characters. Is that okay?
George R. R. Martin does that in A Song of Ice and Fire. Each chapter is a different POV, and he cycles between 4 or 5 characters in each book.
This is like very late additive but I would suggest you have clear signs that the reader is in pov a and won't confuse with pov b etc etc. Then it would be fun and also will pull the reader in as they are most likely more knowledgeable than the characters. Hope you have a good time writing ❤️
I agree with all the comments I have another suggestion, if you can divide the book in different sections and in each section we see the story through one character eyes.
Let's say you're planning on 3 POVs.
For character A, B, and C.
If you're story is going to be 9 chapters we can lay it out this way.
Section 1: 3 chapters about character A
Section 2: 3 chapters about character B
Section 2: 3 chapters about character C
This way, each point of view takes the reader through the story without making confused that what character was it again?
Thank you all so much for the advice!!! I’ll make sure to make some changes :)
Well at least you know you’re thinking like a writer.. a new writer. Haha
I'm trying to write a screenplay and my opening is someone being woken up by shaking them because a main character needs CPR. Is that cliche lol
The CC says "start with somebody creaming" I was a little confused.
A strange thing about this starting with a dream or waking up. I don't recall reading anything where it happens nor do I want to write such a beginning. Yet it keeps popping up with countless writing teachers. Does problem really exist somewhere else?
It kind of ruins the whole vibe of the story if you start it off like that. (same applies to flashbacks.)
I'm thinking about having a prologue that opens my book with an interview on a radio show or news show that serves to foreshadow the initial inciting incident, before heading into chapter 1 with a day in the life of my protagonist, with the inciting incident happening at end of chapter 2 or start of 3. Would that work?
I would argue it's wiser to have the inciting incident take place earlier and have no prologue. If you have a day in the life chapter, you will likely info dump (overload the reader with lots of information in a short space of time, which is difficult to retain and appreciate the significance of). Also, a day in the life is unlikely to be interesting (unless this character's everyday life is particularly unusual). If you spend a chapter describing unremarkable things, that defeats the purpose of storytelling (who tells the story of something they believe to be unremarkable?), and so makes the experience harder for the reader, as they have to trust you for longer that you will eventually get to the reason for telling the story.
However, writers do have to set the scene to some extent. They do have to give the reader information about the characters, so that they can be concerned about what is happening. So the difficult job for the writer is finding ways to go as quickly as possible to the inciting incident, while giving enough information about characters and setting to help the reader understand. You can do this by having just one or two characters initially, and having them interact with the setting and each other. Of course, this is difficult. Easier said than done. You can also allow for some unanswered questions initially, and gradually give information as you go.
@@SamOwenI That's what I'm talking about. I never said anything about an info dump. Take it easy with the assumptions. I think I know how to hook a reader with an interesting character. When I say Day in a Life, I don't mean the entire friggin' day. What's wrong with a brief chapter that establishes the central protagonist in a way that gets the reader behind the character before the inciting incident? My story DID begin with the inciting incident and provided background information along the way in brief increments, but had a bunch of beta readers take a dump on it, because the character was rudely awakened from his hangover induced slumber by sharp grating sounds from the street below outside his tenement apartment. "You can't start with a character waking up!" They wailed. But it fits with the character. "Start it somewhere else." How about a chapter before? "That's fine," they say. Now I got you telling me to go back to the way it was. Besides, I don't write plots. I write characters. I'm not a Happy Meal writer like James Patterson.
And what's this about nobody wants to read about uninteresting characters? No shit, Sherlock! You think I want to write about boring characters? Nobody sets out to write a boring character. If my characters bore me, then guess what? I'm not writing about that character anymore.
@@danielwright7710 Some things in response:
1) Please do not misunderstand me when I give advice and opinions. I truly believe that story writing is subjective. I offer my opinion, not law. I do not mean to suggest that your disagreement with my advice means you will make a poor book or that you must follow my advice.
2) However, it is important to take seriously advice from highly qualified advisers such as the author in this video. He is experienced with the industry and will have received plenty of critique of his work from his agent and professional editors, both at publishing houses and freelance. He also has read a lot of new writers' work, and so spots the familiar clichés.
These things do not mean following his advice results in objectively better work. It does mean that following his advice will likely result in work that appeals to more people including readers, agents and editors. And I assume that's what you want. Yes, you may not respect Patterson's work, but you have to admit that it has been successful in the industry. It does appeal to many. And it is the result of lots of tough critique!
3) I am only an aspiring novelist but I am a published author of short fiction in an anthology, and have lots of familiarity with stories. I offered some subjective advice.
4) I myself have begun a story from waking up in bed because it was key to the inciting incident. So I understand the frustration with the advice. But I think it is valid advice - waking up at the beginning of a story is such a well-worn cliché, that it will give the signal of you being an amateur writer and will garner instant rejections from some agents, and many readers will be put off. Remember, people read the first page to help decide whether to trust you with an investment of their time and money. And so it is wise to find another entry into the story or inciting incidence.
I understand that this is irritating especially if the rest of the story seems to be high quality.
5) I have seen prologues that info dumped and/or the significance of them was unclear. And so, again, I simply offered advice based on what I have read.
6) In my opinion, you could do a chapter before the inciting incident, but I advise that things have to happen in that chapter. There ought to be conflict. It's unwise to expect a chapter that simply introduces an average person's day to be interesting. I appreciate that just throwing someone into an inciting incident without knowing anything about them is undesirable too. Hence there is a balance somewhere (I hope you find it) and this is subjective.
I understand what you are saying. I'm not against constructive criticism, but alot of what you attempted to impart to me in your original statement was clearly based on assumptions. I may not have published anything yet at this point. I tend to begin most of my stories or novels, only to abandon them months later (not because I don't believe in them anymore, but because I'm prone to procrastination and neurotic self doubt), and I have noticed significant growth in my writing ability. I know instinctively what a story needs, and know from reader other authors works what works and what doesn't. I just need to stop quiting off and on and learn to trust my instincts and trust the process.
Nothing is more fascinating to you than your dreams. Nothing is less fascinating to other people than your dreams.
please, that anybody can answer. why we have to avoid cliche. because i think what if all kind of idea story becomes cliches?! :/
Look, I'll try to answer your question with my honest opinion. But I'd like to clarify that I'm neiter experienced nor a professional.
So, cliches. They are aspects of a story that get repeated so often that they get generic and boring. Since the beginning of a book is what will make the readers decide if they will read it or not, having a boring beginning is one of the worst things to do. That's why starting a book with a cliche is terrible.
But, even if there's a popular trope in a book, that doesn't mean it's a cliche. Pretty much everything has been done before, what really matters is the way different writers approach the same trope or topic. Tropes and cliches are different.
Two writers can have the same idea. Heck, hundreds of writers can have the same idea. What matters is the way these ideas are handled. Two writers could write about a journalist who wants to avenge her father's death. But, even with the same idea, their stories would be extremely different. One could say that the journalist was struggling with depression and, by the end of the book, she starts to get therapy and gives up on her revenge. The other one could say that she killed her father's killer, went to jail for a couple of years and, when she got out, she decided to change her life completely and open a coffee shop. Both had the same idea and similar character growth, but they were very different from each other.
It's pretty simple, actually. If you don't copy everything from someone else's story, the odds are that your story will be completely original.
Cliches basically mean you're just imitating other writers instead of putting in the effort to make your story personal. It means you're lazy.
Because ur not Proust
Harry Bingham doing a neat job counting to 7 and giving some great advice! I like his enthusiasm and sincerity, and some humour along the way is refreshing in what is sometimes a rather dry and dusty, booky world elesewhere.
Yep! I've really nailed that counting to 7 thing. My big achievement for the year ...😀
wait up....is it counted if the main character woke up in a coma?
just asking, i've been thinking abou being an author in wattpad...i guess???
I've had the same question, only mine wakes up after being turned into a vampire. XD So, first night. But maybe I should change it after all...
Wattpad isn't all that bad. You just have to look around a bit to find the actual good stories. :P Join a book club. It helps. ;)
The advice of "don't start with your character waking up in bed" is not meant to be taken literally. That rule just means to begin your story where it is relevant. It's just that a lot of new writers start with the morning bed scene because it's what they know, even though the actual story might begin later in the day--in which case the story should begin at that later point in the day!
@@Brindlebrother Good point! My story starts with waking up, but in an unknown place and as a new vampire on his first night. I feel that's different enough. Or I hope it is. XD At least it's not waking up in bed after a dream.
What about using the weather? Classic cliché.
So I am writing a novel with 3 POV characters. My intent is to introduce them to the reader in a gradual manner, before their storylines begin to interweave later on. Their storylines are taking place in different parts of the world, but near the same point in time. My initial instinct is to introduce the second POV character in chapter 3, which gives the first "main" character two chapters/9-10k words, to get the reader into the book before diverting them elsewhere. And the third character will be introduced around chapter 6 or 7 (25-30k words in). Would this generally be considered sufficient spacing?
I think so. I think what he meant by rapidly changing POV's is when it's one character after another and the POV switches every ten pages or so. 10,000k words is plenty of time to set up one character and their inciting incident, then move on to the next. Also your cast of main characters is fairly small. 3 is a good amount to change POV with.
I totally didn't start with my character waking up. NOPE... it's a lie. (Quickly deletes opening pages)
yeah everything he said happens in so many books lol
Cliches can be implemented and done well, and almost go completely invisible.
Most people can't do them well.
Chris Mcpherson in that case they’re not cliches then
Not t even done 1-6 going ok
yea just opened a book in smiths with the opening in bed. spreadeagled he looked up at the ceiling
Too many names? Someone has never read the Hobbit
Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Thank Lordy I haven't done 1 or 2 lol
another book in smiths. the opening had a girl in the bathroom self-harming. it just seemed pretentious.
which book?
@@zzzz-km5se can't remember.
I am so glad I don't do any of these mistakes. I watch these videos for fun.
As a professional book reviewer, this is my whole issue with the publishing industry. They have all these pre-conceived notions of what’s not acceptable. If a hospital scene is deeply compelling, I don’t have an issue with that. I will also say while I appreciate videos like these, I must say in recent years the biggest problem I see, coming from the big publishers, is characterization taking a back seat to plotting. It’s all plot and too little of the inner lives of the characters. Some books will develop the protagonist well enough but all other characters are superficially drawn. My other gripe is too many characters taking us completely away from the protagonist’s journey. My other issue are all these guides as how to structure your novel. The truth is, either you have the gift of writing or you don’t. Either you’ve learned from the great novels or you haven’t. Having said that, these guides couldn’t hurt, but I worry that the writing could become formulaic. My biggest recommendation is to find a professional editor who connects with your kind of material to edit before you ever submit.
I totally agree with everything you say. A lot about writing is common sense I feel, and you shouldn’t have to teach people common sense . I get a bit upset when I hear people saying that you, “Must not have this scene in your book or that one.” Sometimes it might be necessary and vital to include it. For example, I have heard some literary agents list over 30 scenes that according to them should “not” be in your novel, especially at the beginning. But many of these scenes and scenarios are part of normal everyday life so how the heck can you possibly avoid them all. It should all come down to common sense, surely. Obviously you don’t want to overuse certain ones, but if you feel it is part of the story, and happens in everyday life, then put it in there. I for one resent being told that I “ must not write such and such.” Many of our great novels for example have opening scenes that I hear people say, “shouldn’t be used anymore.” Why not for goodness sake? As long as you don’t use them all the time then surely it is alright.
You know i lolled. I did it all wrong. I did dream sequence then waking up and describing themself in the mirror! So funny. Glad I didnt write further.
My character wakes up in a prison cell with no recollection of how he got there... should I still not start on him waking up?
I think that's fine. It's not normal for the character. It's just as new and mysterious for the reader. The whole waking up thing is bad when a character wakes up in bed normally, and treats the reader to a walkthrough of her normal day.