Questionable: Opening Scenes

Beth said:

I had a question about beginnings. For first draft I do the don’t look down brainspew method, but then, once you think you know the story, what are some tips to go back and craft a really great opening scene?

Write the whole book first. Then go back and revise the opening scene so that it introduces the story. The beginning is the promise you make the reader. It sets the tone, introduces the protagonist and the conflict, and starts the action. But until you finish the book, you don’t really know what you’re introducing. You can’t introduce a person you’ve never met and you can’t introduce a book you haven’t finished. This is especially true if you’re going for a powerful bookending beginning/ending, setting up the beginning so that it echoes the climax or resolution, creating the sense that the book has come full circle from stability to stability. So finish the book and then invite people into the party you’ve written for them.

That’s good advice but nobody, including me, ever follows it, so I think you just have to resign yourself to the fact that although you will be driven to rewrite that first scene, no matter how many times you do it, you’ll still rewrite at least one more time when the first draft is finished. Because that’s when you’ll know what your story is about.