Hatrack River Writers Workshop   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Writers Workshop » Forums » Open Discussions About Writing » Slow starts

   
Author Topic: Slow starts
JCarroll
Member
Member # 8061

 - posted      Profile for JCarroll   Email JCarroll         Edit/Delete Post 
I just realized that I'm far more tolerant of a slow start to a short story then I am a novel. I'm willing to let a story meander for a page or two before deciding the writer hasn't a clue what he's doing and moving on to something else. In a novel however the plot had better be going somewhere by the third chapter or I'm finished. I guess maybe this is because a novel (especially these days) represents much more of a commitment of time on my part.

Anyone else feel this way or find this odd?


Posts: 28 | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
JeanneT
Member
Member # 5709

 - posted      Profile for JeanneT   Email JeanneT         Edit/Delete Post 
I've had slush readers tell me that nothing happening within the first 150 words is a sure rejection slip.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
annepin
Member
Member # 5952

 - posted      Profile for annepin   Email annepin         Edit/Delete Post 
I have the opposite reaction, actually. WIth a short story I get impatient very quickly. With a novel, I love to settle down and let the story unwind.

I guess I tend to read short stories for a point, or for a specific experience. I tend to read novels to escape, or to become entangled in the lives of the characters.


Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AWSullivan
Member
Member # 8059

 - posted      Profile for AWSullivan   Email AWSullivan         Edit/Delete Post 
I'm with annepin on this one. I want action early and often in a short story, but I can tolerate a lot slower pace in a novel.

It doesn't really make sense to me when I think about it but I suppose it might be simply because of what I think a short story should be--short and to the point.

Anthony


Posts: 374 | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Bent Tree
Member
Member # 7777

 - posted      Profile for Bent Tree   Email Bent Tree         Edit/Delete Post 
My turn to follow suit.

In short stories, I have certain expectations. I want to shake hands with the MC,POV Character.

I can tolerate not being WOWed but it is critical that the character becomes alive and interesting right away.

In novels, I can read a page of scene-setting and be OK with it, and I realize it may not be the MC I meat in the first chapter. I really like it to be compelling-well its like meeting someone for the first time, the first impression. That sort of lingers for me when I read a novel, but I am far more lenient regarding critical elements in the intro for a novel.


Posts: 1888 | Registered: Jan 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Robert Nowall
Member
Member # 2764

 - posted      Profile for Robert Nowall   Email Robert Nowall         Edit/Delete Post 
I was thinking of starting a recent story with a couple hundred words of explanation---forgetting this rule. Now, maybe, I'll start with part of the action, and try to fill in explanations as I go...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
arriki
Member
Member # 3079

 - posted      Profile for arriki   Email arriki         Edit/Delete Post 
With me, you have the first paragraph, maybe two to sell me. I won't read past the first page unless I sense a competent writer.

These days, though, a number of books I have bought have wonderful opening chapters then slack off. It's like they know to suck me in to buying the book then feel they don't have to deliver the rest of the story in the same quality.


Posts: 1580 | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Jericho
Member
Member # 8073

 - posted      Profile for Jericho   Email Jericho         Edit/Delete Post 
arriki's comment made me thunk of the of the blockbuster movie experience. The first 13 lines or scene would be something exploding and then the movie does what it wants at what ever pace and you hope it'll be a good film . . . hope against experience.

It may be a tonal shift in the expectations of modern movie going book readers.


Posts: 47 | Registered: Jul 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
TaleSpinner
Member
Member # 5638

 - posted      Profile for TaleSpinner   Email TaleSpinner         Edit/Delete Post 
I'm not only impatient, I've read enough to feel I can tell quite quickly if a story is going anywhere. I might be wrong with my quick judgments sometimes, but it's my time I'm spending and I've too often invested it in a story which seems like it might go somewhere, only to find it up a creek with neither a paddle, nor any credible reason for being there.

A short story in a major magazine gets the first few paras to grab my attention, or I'm moving on to the next. Maybe a few more paras if I've read the author before and liked their stuff.

A novel gets the first chapter. Period. Life's too short, and there are many books in Borders.

Cheers,
Pat


Posts: 1796 | Registered: Jun 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
aspirit
Member
Member # 7974

 - posted      Profile for aspirit   Email aspirit         Edit/Delete Post 
What I see here is most readers, not just editors, start reading on the first page of a novel. That’s interesting. I’ve found many first chapters deceptive; that’s why for books I pick up without recommendation, I read a page or few in the middle before flipping to the official first page. I figure if I don’t like the middle, then the rest of the book is a waste of my time. Does anyone else think this way?

I’d say I’m more tolerant when reading short stories. I agree that as they don’t take as much of a commitment, I can afford patience with a slow start in a short story.


Posts: 1139 | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
JeanneT
Member
Member # 5709

 - posted      Profile for JeanneT   Email JeanneT         Edit/Delete Post 
In a way, I'm less tolerant with short stories. They better have something to say to me by the end of the first page or I'm likely to be gone. Novels I'll generally give a chapter to get going.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Crystal Stevens
Member
Member # 8006

 - posted      Profile for Crystal Stevens   Email Crystal Stevens         Edit/Delete Post 
I know since I've been on Hatrack that I'm way too slow when it comes to starting a short story. I had to try 3 or 4 times before I had one that really worked. My hat is off to the true experts here at Hatrack, and I feel like my education has just begun.

Jeanne; I feel just like you. A short story better grab the reader by the first paragraph or the second one... no farther. If not by then, it's not worth reading.

Sometimes, though, I will read a ways into a novel if it doesn't grab me right away. I've read some that seemed like they weren't going anywhere, and then, "WOW!, what happened??? So, that's where all this was leading!" I'm not real fond of such novels, and there have been a few that started like it was rambling and just seemed to end without notice. And these were published works! Sure makes you wonder.


Posts: 1320 | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
JeanneT
Member
Member # 5709

 - posted      Profile for JeanneT   Email JeanneT         Edit/Delete Post 
I do like a novel to start fast as well as a preference, but I'll give one a little to get going. I simply love the first paragraph of Game of Thromes which is so evocative. You know this novel is going somewhere and it's nowhere light and fluffy.

What got do I have to bribe to write like that I wonder?


Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Noele
Member
Member # 8081

 - posted      Profile for Noele   Email Noele         Edit/Delete Post 
Considering the 13 line deal here and what I've heard said about it, I think as long as things get hinted at within that length, then as long as clues of something coming are occurring then I'll keep reading. The action can wait as long as the writer can keep my attention somehow.
Posts: 26 | Registered: Jul 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2