A recent writing craft video by the ‘Bookfox’ considered a novel’s nine opening promises. What promises should an author make? And why make any at all?
If I want my reader to invest their valuable time in my story, I have to make some promises at the outset. What kind of story is this? Not just the genre mix, or the tone or the setting, but how the story will deliver a satisfying, engaging read right up to the end.
Her are the opening promises for the current work in progress, Kamsen Knights.
Promise One: an opening question.
What’s going to hook the reader? A question. Or several related questions.
Who is Yari Tamm? Is her father still alive? Can she find him?
Promise Two: what’s our start point?
Kamsen Knights begins with the search. Yari sneaks around the city on some kind of secret mission to solve the abduction of her father. Three years since his abduction, she’s following clues, a kid detective in a dangerous world. There’s a threat to life in the opening chapter.
Promise three: Stakes.
Yari has clear stakes, both internal and external. Her external stakes; find her father, stay alive; navigate the difficult world post-empire. Her internal stakes; find the truth, step into adulthood.
Promise four: A mix of showing and telling.
The narrative style needs sufficient description of action and the world, told through the perspective of our teenage protagonist. We need to see through her eyes, her point-of-view. But it’s not enough to simply tell the reader what happens, they need to feel it, relate to it. Some minor details we can skip over and tell; others we need to show so the experiences them as the character does.
Promise five: character voice.
Yari is a teenager in a hurry. Yari’s character voice is direct, blunt, and full of questions. Her inner child is impatient, even reckless. Her inner adult is perceptive, determined; also cynical and world-weary beyond her years.
Promise six: each scene fulfills multiple purposes.
We don’t have time to waste, so each scene in our opening chapters must;
- develop character
- advance the plot
- outline the themes
- build a little more of the world
Promise seven: the opening has emotional engagement.
Do we feel Yari’s predicament? Can we relate to her search? To her loneliness and vulnerability?
Promise eight: the protagonist makes meaningful decisions.
The cardinal sin of fiction is a passive protagonist. The lead character cannot be a passenger in their own life story. This is the common criticism of Bella in Twilight and Pip in Great Expectations.
My story opens with Yari engaged in her search with single-minded determination, at great personal risk. And she goes on through the story making bold (perhaps reckless) decisions. She employs a thief, takes on a body guard, breaks into a fortress; challenges the military head of the transitional government, defies the aristocratic Old Houses. Yari won’t be stopped.
Promise nine: the story delivers on the other eight promises.
The reader can expect the story will deliver on all the promises made in the opening couple of chapters. There’s no bait-and-switch down the line; no genre-hopping, tone-shifting or unprompted character reversals.
That doesn’t rule out plot twists or changes in point-of-view character, multiple points-of-view or genre-mash-ups. But the author promises to tread carefully and won’t derail the whole thing for lack of care or the temptation to explode the whole story for a cheap shock.
I’m writing straight-down-the-line genre fiction; fantasy adventure with an element or mystery. With Yari, we also get the coming-of-age story type, a search for place, family and identity. The found-family trope looms large.
Yari’s world is dangerous, presenting multiple obstacles and opponents. Does she find her father by the end? That’s not one of the novel’s nine opening promises…