Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Waking in a White Room that *Works*

This is topic Waking in a White Room that *Works* in forum Discussing Published Hooks & Books at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=000339

Posted by Grayson Morris (Member # 9285) on :

The waking-up opening is much maligned, and waking in a white, empty room all the more so. Yet it can be done:

Octavia Butler, the first 13 of Dawn (first book in her masterful Xenogenesis series):

quote:
Alive!
Still alive.
Alive...again.
Awakening was hard, as always. The ultimate disappointment. It was a struggle to take in enough air to drive off nightmare sensations of asphyxiation. Lilith Iyapo lay gasping, shaking with the force of her effort. Her heart beat too fast, too loud. She curled around it, fetal, helpless. Circulation began to return to her arms and legs in flurries of minute, exquisite pains.
When her body calmed and became reconciled to reanimation, she looked around. The room seemed dimly lit, though she had never Awakened to dimness before. She corrected her thinking. The room did not only seem dim, it was dim.

Posted by Smiley (Member # 9379) on :

Nice job. I would have definitely read that story.

I notice it didn't have the cliched 'blinding white lights and walls' anywhere in it. The focus was mainly on the feelings the MC was having with the reanimation process and little on any confusion about her surroundings. It works well like that.

Posted by Wordcaster (Member # 9183) on :

I also thought of Dawn when the waking in a white room topic came up. I love the trilogy (I think it was a trilogy) as well.

The other novel (ok, I admit- movie) that I thought of with waking up unaware is The Borne Identity.

Mea Culpa:
Edited to retract my hastily written comment, "Butler is another one of the SF authors who isn't recognized much on this board."

Just because I didn't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there.

[This message has been edited by Wordcaster (edited January 23, 2011).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

quote:
Butler is another one of the SF authors who isn't recognized much on this board.

???

I just did a search on this forum for "Octavia Butler" and found that there are over 30 topics that "recognize" her, including two that are dedicated specifically to her and have her name as the topic title.

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

It worked for me, but then, it's not the cliche'd opening, either. It starts with something other than waking:

quote:
Alive!
Still alive.
Alive...again.

which poses a big question and also shows that the story knows where it's at. The typical 'problematic' waking scene is the one where it appears the author is trying to 'discover' what the story is about by filling in their blank white page (/room).

Because of the strong start I'd hazard a guess that this sort of opening would make it through the selection process of editors who otherwise post no waking openings on their websites...

Posted by Grayson Morris (Member # 9285) on :

BenM, I agree, it isn't the vanilla white-room-wakeup opening. For that reason, I think it shows how to make a clichéd idea work. The Turkey City Lexicon says waking in a white room is a sign that the author is having trouble coming up with details for his or world, and that it signals a failure of the author's imagination. Nothing could be further from the case with Octavia Butler! The world Lilith Oyapo awakens to may start in a formless, dimly lit white room (she goes on to say the room is white or gray in a subsequent paragraph on the first page!), but it's rich and vivid and the story that unfolds within it is well told and gripping.

There's nothing wrong with many of the sci-fi clichés, other than that they're usually done poorly. Done well, they transcend cliché.