Hit the ground running or slow burn?

Juliana

Juliana

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My current WIP is a very action-packed YA with a ton of fast-moving sequences. At the moment, it builds up slowly at the start, with the first chapters covering my MCs lives at the government compound in which they live until their escape, when the main action starts.

I did it that way because I wanted to have a chance to introduce the characters and the setting, which is slightly in the future but with an alt history past, before things hit the fan, so to speak. There's a lot of info-dumping, which needs to be addressed and toned down, but its definitely a slow burning start.

I don't think its necessarily bad (although it does need a rewrite), but I've been wondering if I shouldn't start with their escape and try and fit in the backstory along the way. Hit the ground running, in other words. But I worry it will slow down the action if I need to pepper it with flashbacks and information.

Would you mind, as a reader, a story that picks up pace slowly, or would you prefer it to be fast-paced all the way through?
 
Kylara, this is a question I can answer. I'm a reader, not much of a writer. I can tell you definitely that for me it is much better to "hit the ground running." I suspect you know that in your heart too, because you say a couple of times that you work here needs some re-writing and editing.

Let the back story come in organically as you m.c. moves through the story. I read a lot of David Webber's stuff and he's infamous for "info dumping" and even he will start with building the tension before he explains a lot of what he wants to tell you.
 
Hey Juliana, I would be ok with this as long as you started with something actiony and hooky (nice words hey?). If you had a cool prologue that I could sink my teeth into, I'd be willing to wait for more action.
 
As a reader, I can handle a slow burn start that has good writing and an intriguing story. But if you're going down the trad publishing route, it seems agents are looking to be hooked from the first sentence. So if you have the option, I'd say start fast (not necessarily with action, but with suspense).
 
I very much like the slow burning start, it doesn't even need an action hook for me, it needs a premise hook.

If there seems to be something 'lurking' behind the scenes that's interesting enough to get my attention, I have no problem with a relative lack of action.

It's the old question of setup and payoff. Some stories benefit from 90% setup and 10% payoff, others need regular payoff to keep things 'rolling'.

Suffice to say, if the characters, premise, or setting are interesting, I wouldn't put down a book that didn't have a fight, flight, or plight, by the end of the first chapter :)
 
Thanks, everyone. As Parson said, I guess I already knew in my heart I was going to have to change the whole beginning. Kill your darlings and all that jazz.

I think I'll try starting from the explosion and the escape from the Compound and see how that works out instead. I'd like to avoid a lot of flashbacks, so I'll have to give this some thought! I have a lot of rather cool historical bits I need to fit in, somehow...

Editing to add: just saw Laeraneth's reply. Might try redoing it and then find a kindly beta who would be willing to read both beginnings and give me an opinion!
 
springs said:
I think you can slow burn provided there's a hook - something to hint why we should keep reading. :)
Click to expand...

See, that's the thing, there isn't really. Apart from a (hopefully) intriguing setup, and hints of things going on.

I think perhaps I might treat this as a writing exercise and play around with a few versions of the initial chapters...
 
What about adding a prologue with different characters? Something that sets up why they have to escape or something along those lines
 
springs said:
Then Houston I think you have a problem. ;)
Click to expand...

Aye, Space Captain Springs, I think I do.


ratsy said:
What about adding a prologue with different characters? Something that sets up why they have to escape or something along those lines
Click to expand...

I did think about a prologue (I quite like reading prologues) but I don't think it really fits with this particular sort of novel.

I'm going to play around with a few outlines over the weekend and see what I can come up with. Thanks all. Sometimes just writing my doubts down seems to help clear them up a little!
 
A recent controversial book did something similar to this although the first chapter was hooky. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff-
Amazon.com: Stormdancer: The Lotus War Book One eBook: Jay Kristoff: Kindle Store
It starts with very heavy world building and goes on for 10 chapters before the fun starts or at least that's how I pictured it. The publishers somehow thought that and a few other things were okay.
A few readers were not happy with a number of things, but overall it looks to have been moderately successful..
 
Just like fishing, you need a hook to reel them in.

Unless you're a 'known' author, many readers will not persevere hoping your story will become more interesting.

Doesn't have to be a fast-paced start, but it does have to arouse the reader's interests.
 
The start of a book can be dramatic without necessarily being action-packed. Indeed, one could argue that one way to introduce one's characters quickly is to show how they deal with something relatively low key in different ways, and how they react to each other's behaviour, the drama being in the conflict between their differing views of a situation. (It probably helps if the characters' world views are interesting.)
 
Just a quick pointer - it's conflict that defines the story, not action sequences.

And as I've said here before, action sequences - where we know nothing about the character, their feelings, context, emotions, conflict - are crap to read. Why read about a fireworks display when you could simply watch a clip of them on YouTube?

The big advantage of the novel is the ability to show the internal struggle of a character, and this is what we ideally follow in many story formats.

This offers the entertainment and excitement of the story.

For example, in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, you see almost nothing of the fighting during the Hunger Games itself. The story is all about Katniss trying to be herself when she has life and death pressures, from multiple sources, to conform to other people's expectations of what she should be: her mother, her sister, Gale, Peter, Haymitch, the Hunger Games themselves (which are a culminated of expectations from the Capitol and president, etc), and even other contestants she allies with.

However, on saying that, there's no excuse to say that the first 5 chapters are boring, but then the story really starts. Because the story really starts at word 1. That's the mindset we have to train ourselves into to make our stories shine and flourish. We can accept no excuses. Rewriting is a necessity to make our work stronger.

2 rambling cents. :)
 
Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy) has a fantastic fast-paced first chapter. The story then slows down and becomes much more sedate for the next few chapters, but that opening adrenalin-rush really draws the reader into the book.
 
I don't know if you are still looking for comments, but personally as a reader I don't mind a slow burn start. Note, that does not mean boring! No one likes boring. But I would rather know my characters a bit before they get launched into the action. I think that if the first chapter(s) build characters, setting, theme, etc., give some hints of what is to come then it is good. Also, it would help if it has bits of conflict in it to get some interest (the first 'action scene' doesn't have to be the MC escaping, it could be a conflict with other people there, a fight or disagreement, etc. or internal conflict, or an outward problem like a fire or other disaster/accident).

I think there are plenty of ways to make your first chapter intriguing without launching straight into the escape, and it might make the escape more interesting and exciting if some things are established first.

This is mostly my opinion as a reader, I don't have enough experience as a writer to give you that!
 
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