Writers can’t afford to waste readers’ time or test their patience by meandering about in their opening scenes. At first glance, this would seem to mean you have to get right to the point of the story. You might feel compelled to open your story right at the moment when your character’s world is changed forever. The idea is that if you open at a moment of fever-pitch tension, readers won’t be able to stop turning the pages,
There’s no question this is often the most effective way to begin a story. However, most stories work best when you first take the time to introduce the character’s Normal World before the Inciting Event comes blasting into view. Doing so, allows you to provide contrast with the difficulties to follow for your characters. It can also up the tension by showing what’s at stake for the characters if they fail.
The classic western True Grit gives us a good example. If the movie had opened with the the murder of protagonist Mattie Ross’s father, we would have lost both the opportunity to immediately identify with Mattie as the main character and to witness the loving relationship between her and her father.
Director Henry Hathaway slowed down enough at the beginning to offer viewers a few quick scenes, showing the Rosses’ farm, Mattie’s family, the murderer Tom Chaney’s relationship with them, and particularly the interaction between Mattie and her doomed father.
As a result, when a drunken Chaney kills Frank Ross a few scenes later, we care about what’s just happened—and we’re completely on board when Mattie decides to track down her father’s killer.
Sometimes it pays to take your time!
