Breaking rules and starting with wake up scenes

Dream/wake-up scenes are discouraged because they've proliferated in books, thereby making it difficult to write one that's completely original. Whether or not you should use one is up to you; if it's important to you, try it. Once you reach 50 posts, I recommend posting it in the SYW forum so other members can evaluate if it's being done effectively or if you should start elsewhere.

If you know what you're doing, go right ahead. But make sure you have a reason other than convenience. Kafka's Transformation is a good example of a story where waking up makes for a natural, interesting and thematically relevant beginning.

My current wip starts w/ the character having a nightmare. I'll 100% admit it's not the most original opening in the world, but I think it's 100 times better than the original opening. If I have to rewrite it again, I might do a flash forward scene and then bounce back to the beginning, but I'll leave that for later drafts.

I wouldn't have done a new intro yet, but I finally figured out how my story was going to work and it required me to shuffle some scenes around (one of which had to be placed prior to where the book begins).

resonance said:

Do you think Hunger Games started perfectly? Could it have been done better?

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Personally, I couldn't get past the first page.

If Suzie wakes up and discovers a two-headed goblin in her bed and the sun is shining alternating green and red squares on the walls that's perfectly okay.

BUT if Suzie wakes up and has her shower and dresses and has breakfast and a cup of tea and puts her coat on and puts her shoes on and rings her pal and goes into town on the bus THAT IS BORING!!!

If you're a relatively new writer and finish a novel, here's what will probably happen. Either you will get to this "aha!" on your own, or a first reader will tell you to cut out 10-100 pages that start your novel draft. New writers warm up and start too early. We see it all the time on SYW. I did it back when Jimmy Carter was president. And this is fine; it's practice writing, so no harm comes of it and some good may, if it helps you to hone your skills.

For a final draft (aka a good draft), the usual advice is this: start with change. The stranger comes to town. The letter from the lawyer arrives. The best friend disappears. The victim gets murdered. The fire demon leaps out of the fireplace and says, "you have been selected." There are other options than starting with change, which may or may not work for writers with various skills, but this approach is a certain one for everyone.

What will make a stranger, who doesn't love you and has other things to do, read the next paragraph and the next? Once you've provided a great opening, and they are turning pages enthusiastically, you have a little more latitude...but at first, you have to overcome the resistance of the reader who has never heard of you, doubts you have anything interesting to say, isn't worried a whit about offending you by tossing your writing aside, and knows s/he should probably be cleaning the bathroom instead.

Hunger Games goes in the over-rated pile for me.

I remember reading an agent commenting on why wake-up openings aren't a good idea and citing exactly what Bufty mentions: the anticipation that you'll then get the character going through their morning routine, which is just blah.

What has your wake-up opening got that'll get past that level of jaded?

Buffysquirrel said:

What has your wake-up opening got that'll get past that level of jaded?

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I like that.

You know, I think that can actually be applied to a lot of the things in writing that writers are advised against.

I sold a story with a wake-up scene as the beginning. But within the first three sentences you also realize the MC has six metal wings and a steam-engine fused with his flesh. It's also the scene that sets up his goal/stakes in the story.

I think it works. And it sold, so someone else thinks it works too.

I have also started a novel with an MC who wakes up to find his dead body is being reanimated. And that works too.

I think it needs interest and genuine activity (as opposed to busy work - brushing teeth, getting dressed) to make that kind of scene work. You may not know if it will work 'til you write it and get feedback from outside eyes. (And as Lorna W said, it's all practice writing so don't worry about "wasting effort" if it doesn't work out later.)

Aggy, first novel had multiple waking scenes and it sucked

Potentially awesome opening --- > Mary Sue woke up dead on Tuesday.

Danger, danger, Will Robinson ---> Mary Sue woke from a resplendent summer, her shining auburn locks resplendent in the sun reflecting off the white raven on her mirror as she blinked her mismatched, yet perfectly coordinated, eyes.

... you can do anything you like, ultimately. So if it feels totally right to you then leave the opening scene be. Be aware though that when an agent or editor begins to read your ms, and sometimes that's going to be a five page sample, they're going to sigh and say, "good god; not another one leading off with a dream." So you're sorta starting off with one strike against you.

resonance said:

I know starting with a wake up scene is a big no-no.
So is starting with a dream?

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There are no Author Police that will come get you. Start off the book however you will, with a dream, with waking up, by commenting on the weather, whatever. Just make it interesting, fast.

Frex, Bulwer-Lytton's 'Paul Clifford' (of 'it was a dark and story night' infamy) helped make weather a bad word, but if you read past this phrase for a couple of paragraphs, you can see that the narrative launches immediately into the story, with mysterious workings going on that are intended to pull us in. It's here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7735

The same is true of dream sequences. If they get you into the story within the first page, it doesn't matter how you start.

Bufty said:

If Suzie wakes up and discovers a two-headed goblin in her bed and the sun is shining alternating green and red squares on the walls that's perfectly okay.

BUT if Suzie wakes up and has her shower and dresses and has breakfast and a cup of tea and puts her coat on and puts her shoes on and rings her pal and goes into town on the bus THAT IS BORING!!!

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BUT if Suzie wakes up and has her shower because she didn't get all of the blood out of her hair after last night's killing spree, that's an even better opening.

Cyia said:

Potentially awesome opening --- > Mary Sue woke up dead on Tuesday.

Danger, danger, Will Robinson ---> Mary Sue woke from a resplendent summer, her shining auburn locks resplendent in the sun reflecting off the white raven on her mirror as she blinked her mismatched, yet perfectly coordinated, eyes.

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You forgot the flocks of forest friends that help comb her hair and dress her.

The first scene is one of the hardest to write. Sometimes, we need to finish the entire story before we know what to do with the beginning.

My advice would be to sketch in the opening scene -- not work too hard on it; not agonize over it -- and decide what to do with Chapter One way down the road when the first draft is completed.

As writers, we're tempted by scenes of soliloquy, dreaming, talking heads, writing in journals, or sitting in a form of transportation and reviewing the past. In these static scenes we're not distracted by the complication of character interaction or advancement of story. These scenes are a box with nothing going on, written so we can dump in information.

Writerly professionals, like editors and agents know this. They're going to see an opening of static infodump as the writer taking the easy way out. They'll expect shaky workmanship throughout.

Our writer instincts avoid most 'waking from a dream' scenes in Chapter Eighteen. Unfortunately, we sometimes get overwhelmed by our Need To Provide Backstory when it comes to Chapter One.

The English language has loads of rules - and loads of exceptions to those rules. Yet, when teaching someone english, you begin with the rules. It's only when you get more fluent that you begin to know how and when to break the rules.

I believe writing is the same. The rules (or guidelines, if you will) are there to help you get going. When your writing becomes more 'fluent', you'll know when those rules can and should be broken.

The obvious answer of "anyone can break the rules as long as you do it well and it works" also applies.

Just be aware some agents and editors hate openings with dream sequences. My first book was sent to editors with an opening dream sequence. I didn't know it was considered a negative and I guess it didn't bother my former agent, because she never said anything about it. However, after the book was sold, my editor told me she almost didn't read it past the opening once she saw the dream paragraphs. Lucky for me she was willing to keep going. And of course it got cut in the editing and I'm very pleased it did, because I think the revised opening is much stronger.

Heck, my own The Gates of Time (coming in January 2013) starts with the main character waking up.

(The main character thought he was on leave--he's awakened by the phone at zero-dark-thirty to be told he's being recalled to active duty and that a car will be waiting at the curb by the time he finishes dressing. That's about the last sleep he gets in the entire book....)

It really depends on your circumstances... which is sublimely unhelpful, I know.

What I would emphasise though is that if you're going to use any kind of dream, please make it clear from the start -- ie don't make any lame attempts to dupe the reader with an action-packed scene full of jeopardy only to have your character wake up in perfect safety.

It's hard to determine what fits where and whether something is right or not before the entire story or novel is completed. It also makes no sense because how do you know that when you may not even be sure how it ends?

Suggestion: write the whole thing, then go back and read it. Whether a dream, nightmare, thought, or flashback it may fit at the beginning, at the end as a lead in to a sequel, somewhere between the two, or even in a different story. I have brilliant scenes that don't fit in where they were supposed to but seriously brighten up something completely different.

Also, don't worry about what other people say,meaning what you should/shouldn't/must do. You want your book to be better than theirs so write it your way, go back and edit it, and as long as it makes sense and connects all the way through, it should be impressive.

You can't walk out your front door and wonder if it's raining two miles away and fret over how to dress or whether or not to take the umbrella. You just have to go and find out.

I think it's alright if it's revealing something about the character or about the plot.

My general opinion about rules like this is that they are good to know but also made to be broken ... but to do so you must have a solid reason for it.

So like others have mentioned, if the waking scene has something really important in it, then go for it. To use your Hunger Games example, the morning is the Reaping and so it's an important day in Katniss' life. And while the hunting which happens right after is more everyday life, it serves an important part in setting things up (establishing her abilities with the bow, introducing the world of the Districts and the Capitol, etc ...). Also establishing Katniss' voice. Is it the most outstanding opening ever? No. But every part of it does have a reason behind it plus things move at a fast enough pace that I personally felt drawn in right away (and obviously a lot of other readers were as well).

I have a couple dreams/waking up scenes in my book. Now I'm paranoid.

I'm writing a story all about waking up. It's going to be a challenge.

Don't open with a waking scene is not a rule, it's a caution flag. It means that if you do it poorly, if the scene fails to grab the reader, fails to make the reader keep reading, you'll draw a quick rejection.