A reader of one of my works told me, "It was very interesting, the last two thirds of it anyway." Her fear was that I might lose my readers in the first one-third of the work.
The above work was a three act play, with a crisis and hardship in the first act, and characters that were "nothing special." Of course, they became "special" coming out of the hardship, and took off in the second and third acts.
Another work is a teen novel about the romancing of the high school "science queen." (One purpose of the book is to convince girls that they are still datable if they take STEM courses). It takes the hero about four chapters (out of 12) to pull her out of the "laboratory," after which things are fine.
Referring to published fiction, if the work were the "Wizard of Oz," how does avoid losing ones readers during the hum drum days of Dorothy's life with Aunt Em, and the farmhands in "Kansas," and the hardship caused by the sudden tornado? Once we get to the "land of Oz," I know what to do.
So how do I keep reader's attention during the first third or so of the work long enough to get to the "good stuff?"
Answer
The Wizard of Oz:
What makes the first part of The Wizard of Oz engaging is the wicked witch, on her bicycle, stealing Toto.
Each of the Oz characters is introduced in Kansas, within Dorothy's normal life. Also - She runs away from home. Also - Auntie Em thinks Dorothy will die. So, there are a lot of stakes here, in boring Kansas. Dog is stolen, kid runs away, mother-figure thinks daughter-figure will die. There's also tension/humor with falling into the pig trough, and a nice song that kids to this day still sing in talent shows.
And a tornado.
Kansas is crammed full of things. Consider the possibility, too, that TWOO reached for contrast, quite literally with B&W v color, but also with the characters, who don't grow. Except Dorothy, who learns her lesson. Each character represents a thing, and contrasts with each other thing, and that's it.
I'd say make the science part incredibly fun in the first third. Have some lab accidents, some funky experiments, liquid nitrogen on hand, helium, goofy stuff she plays with even though she shouldn't. Have some nerdy characters that she bounces off of (contrast). Have a non scientist around, perhaps a hot and funny guy that does paperwork but has no interest in science per se. (again - for contrast; romance is optional). One of the built in advantages about contrasting characters is that the dialog becomes more interesting - there is more opportunity for conflict and viewing issues from several sides.
Have your MC speculate about scientific reasons for things like vampires, zombies, other paranormal stuff. Have her dress up as something ridiculous on Halloween, in the lab.
I hope she has sass, like Abbie on NCIS or similar.
Recently I reworked a 'boring' part of my story using suggestions from many answers. That section moves really nicely now. It's actually a little amusing, even though the protagonist is bored out of her mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment