Nail That Opening!

I started a new serial this week. I think I'll stick to Wednesdays for updates.

Openings are tricky things. You need to hook that reader faster and harder than you did in previous years due to the massive array of alternative entertainment options these days. With that in mind, it's wise to consider your length and medium of publication when you craft that opening.

I went over that opening over five times. Each revision took it closer and closer to the point I chose, but also changed the lead-up to that moment- by cutting it down to the nothing I used. The reason? The medium. Serial fiction via blogposting has practical limits to readership, which is conducive to training writing habits for short story and serial fiction writing because it trains you to trim your writing down where minimal time gets spent getting to the point.

If this was the opening to a longer work, even a novelette, I would have gone with a more gradual build up; if I adapt this story into a novelette or longer then that's what you can expect. Instead of getting right to the firefight, I'd back up and open with first Garmil's Gate (specifically Gatewatch) seemingly normal activity, then jump the Red Eyes in and shift to Jack's perspective as he launches the raid upon the merchant convoy,let the fight go on and show how the Red Eyes became the pirate menace in action, before I jump in Sir Ramsey and have him make short work of the mooks before putting the fear of God into Dashing Jack in a Big Damn Heroes moment.

Now I've done all of the necessary establishing work: Hero, Villain, and (apparent) Stakes. I can get on with the plot and start layering the subplots via complications, and in the process give the supporting characters (Sibley and Creton) more to do, because I'm made my promises (This is a story of knights, pirates, and adventure on a far-away world.) and the reader wants to see how it plays out. That's what I focused on in this opening segment of the serial: Establishing Shots. That's what your opening has to do, and your circumstances in manuscript length and publication medium check what options you have in getting that done.