Openings are often the most fun part of a story to write, but they are also challenging. Naturally, the opening is where you need to hook your reader. You set your stage, hint at your conflicts, and set the tone for your work. Getting it right is important.
There are lots of ways to start a story. In an article for Writer’s Digest, Tracy Wolff examines four of them, which librarian Nancy Pearl calls the Four Doorways. Pearl says that readers can be divided into groups by the elements of story they enjoy most – story, character, setting, or language. This preference determines the kind of books they like to read. For you, your preference probably identifies your strongest suit.
“Story” readers like fast-paced plots and cliffhangers that create page-turners. “Character” readers read tales about people they wish were real. “Setting” readers wish that fictional worlds could be real or that they could visit the real locations they read about. “Language” readers look for careful word choice and figurative language, and will read and re-read beautiful language.
You can see how certain writers fit into these groups. Writers of popular thrillers focus on story. Many fantasy novels rely on a unique setting or society to catch a reader’s attention. Literary writers revel in beautiful language, creating a sensuous world for their readers, even if the plot isn’t hopping from one crisis to the next.
The best writers hit several doors at once. While one element might be their strength, they use all the doorways to captivate their readers. Could you separate the characters in the Game of Thrones series from the setting or the story, to say that one is more important than the others? Probably not. Millions of readers care about the characters, are intrigued by the world of Westeros, and are engaged in the personal and political stakes of the story. All three are working in concert to create that reader experience.
Which door opens a story for you as a reader and writer? Which is your strength and how can you leverage the others to tell the best possible story?
