“i am a monument to all your sins” is such a fucking raw line for a villain it’s amazing that it came from halo, a modernish video game, and not some classical text or mythos
classic texts have nothing on the crazy people come up with in modern times tbh
“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.”
– Joshua Graham, Who Is A Fallout New Vegas NPC, Something Most People Throwing This Quote Around Don’t Realize
“If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have.”
– Shadow the Hedgehog in what is widely considered one of if not the single worst game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise
this is the source for this text and it haunts me on a regular basis
I’ve had a lot of asks lately for how to begin a book (or how not to), so here’s a post on my general rules of thumb for story openers and first chapters!
Please note, these are incredibly broad generalizations; if you think an opener is right for you, and your beta readers like it, there’s a good chance it’s A-OK. When it comes to writing, one size does not fit all. (Also note that this is for serious writers who are interested in improving their craft and/or professional publication, so kindly refrain from the obligatory handful of comments saying “umm, screw this, write however you want!!”)
So without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Don’t:
1. Open with a dream.
“Just when Mary Sue was sure she’d disappear down the gullet of the monstrous, winged pig, she woke up bathed in sweat in her own bedroom.”
What? So that entire winged pig confrontation took place in a dream and amounts to nothing? I feel so cheated!
Okay, not too many people open their novels with monstrous swine, but you get the idea: false openings of any kind tend to make the reader feel as though you’ve wasted their time, and don’t usually jump into more meaty action of the story quickly enough. It makes your opening feel lethargic and can leave your audience yawning.
Speaking of…
2. Open with a character waking up.
This feels familiar to most of us, but unless your character is waking up to a zombie attack or an alien invasion, it’s generally a pretty easy recipe to get your story to drag.
No one picks a book to hear how your character brushes their teeth in the morning or what they’d like to have for dinner. As a general rule of thumb, we read to explore things we wouldn’t otherwise get to experience. And cussing out the alarm clock is not one of them.
Granted, there are exceptions if your writing is exceptionally engaging, but in most cases it just sets a slow pace that will bore you and your reader to death and probably cause you to lose interest in your book within the first ten pages.
3. Bombard with exposition.
Literary characters aren’t DeviantArt OCs. And the best way to convey a character is not, in my experience, to devote the first ten pages to describing their physical appearance, personality, and backstory. Develop your characters, and make sure their fully fleshed out – my tips on how to do so here – but you don’t need to dump all that on the reader before they have any reason to care about them. Let the reader get to know the character gradually, learn about them, and fall in love with them as they would a person: a little bit at a time.
This is iffy when world building is involved, but even then it works best when the delivery feels organic and in tune with the book’s overall tone. Think the opening of the Hobbit or Good Omens.
4. Take yourself too seriously.
Your opener (and your novel in general) doesn’t need to be intellectually pretentious, nor is intellectual pretense the hallmark of good literature. Good literature is, generally speaking, engaging, well-written, and enjoyable. That’s it.
So don’t concern yourself with creating a poetic masterpiece of an opening line/first chapter. Just make one that’s – you guessed it – engaging, well-written, and enjoyable.
5. Be unintentionally hilarious.
Utilizing humor in your opening line is awesome, but check yourself to make sure your readers aren’t laughing for all the wrong reasons (this is another reason why betas are important.)
These examples of the worst opening lines in published literature will show you what I mean – and possibly serve as a pleasant confidence booster as well:
It was like so, but wasn’t.
— Richard Powers
Those of us acquainted with their sordid and scandalous story were not surprised to hear, by way of rumors from the various localities where the sorceresses had settled after fleeing our pleasant town of Eastwick, Rhode Island, that the husbands whom the three Gordforsaken women had by their dark arts concocted for themselves did not prove durable.
— John Updike
The cabin-passenger wrote in his diary a parody of Descartes: “I feel discomfort, therefore I am alive,” then sat pen in hand with no more to record.
—Graham Greene
Indian Summer is like a woman.
— Grace Metalious
If these can get published, so can you.
Do:
1. You know that one really interesting scene you’re itching to write? Start with that.
Momentum is an important thing in storytelling. If you set a fast, infectious beat, you and your reader will be itching to dance along with it.
Similarly, slow, drowsy openers tend to lead to slow, drowsy stories that will put you both to sleep.
I see a lot of posts joking about “that awkward moment when you sit down to write but don’t know how to get to that one scene you actually wanted to write about.” Write that scene! If it’s at all possible, start off with it. If not, there are still ways you can build your story around the scenes you actually want to write.
Keep in mind: if you’re bored, your reader will almost certainly be bored as well. So write what you want to write. Write what makes you excited. Don’t hold off until later, when it “really gets good.” Odds are, the reader will not wait around that long, and you’re way more likely to become disillusioned with your story and quit. If a scene is dragging, cut it out. Burn bridges, find a way around. Live, dammit.
2. Engage the reader.
There are several ways to go about this. You can use wit and levity, you can present a question, and you can immerse the reader into the world you’ve created. Just remember to do so with subtlety, and don’t try too hard; believe me, it shows.
Here are some of my personal favorite examples of engaging opening lines:
“In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.“
– Douglas Adams, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
– Iain Banks, Crow Road.
“A white Pomeranian named Fluffy flew out of the a fifth-floor window in Panna, which was a grand-new building with the painter’s scaffolding still around it. Fluffy screamed.”
– Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games.
See what I’m saying? They pull you in and do not let go.
3. Introduce us to a main character (but do it right.)
“Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough and looked don’t-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.”
– Neil Gaiman, American Gods.
This is one of my favorite literary openings of all time, because right off the bat we know almost everything we need to know about Shadow’s character (i.e. that he’s rugged, pragmatic, and loving.)
Also note that it doesn’t tell us everything about Shadow: it presents questions that make us want to read more. How did Shadow get into prison? When will he get out? Will he reunite with his wife? There’s also more details about Shadow slowly sprinkled in throughout the book, about his past, personality, and physical appearance. This makes him feel more real and rounded as a character, and doesn’t pull the reader out of the story.
Obviously, I’m not saying you should rip off American Gods. You don’t even need to include a hooker eating a guy with her cooch if you don’t want to.
But this, and other successful openers, will give you just enough information about the main character to get the story started; rarely any good comes from infodumping, and allowing your reader to get to know your character gradually will make them feel more real.
The toughest part of being a writer is that it’s a rare and glorious occasion when you’re actually satisfied with something you write. And to add another layer of complication, what you like best probably won’t be what your readers will like best.
If you refuse to keep moving until you have the perfect first chapter, you will never write anything beyond your first chapter.
Set a plan, and stick to it: having a daily/weekly word or page goal can be extremely helpful, especially when you’re starting out. Plotting is a lifesaver (some of my favorite posts on how to do so here, here, and here.)
Keep writing, keep moving, and rewrite later. If you stay in one place for too long, you’ll never keep going.
brazilians making memes as we watch our country elect a fascist idiot who’s also racist, sexist and homophobic and has literally 0 knowledge of economy
the Triplets of Bellevilleis about an elderly woman searching for her son who was kidnapped in the middle of a Tour de France race. It’s largely free of dialogue, but the sound effects and such are wonderful. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature—it lost to Finding Nemo.
A Cat in Parisis about a young girl and her cat who discover mysteries in the course of one night. It was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Rango.
Persepolisis based on an autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi about her early life in Iran. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Ratatouille.
the Illusionist is about an aging magician and an imaginative young girl who form a father/daughter relationship. It was also nominated for a Best Animation Oscar, but lost to Toy Story 3.
The Rabbi’s Catis a story about a cat who swallows a parrot and gains the ability to speak like a human. It is set in 1920’s Algeria.
Ernest & Celestineis the adorable story about a big bear and a little mouse who forge an unlikely friendship. It was also nominated for an Oscar in Best Animated Picture, but lost to Frozen.
Kirikou and the Sorceressis a story inspired by West African folklore that tells the story of Kirikou, a boy who was born with the ability to walk and talk, who saves his people from an evil witch. The film was popular enough to spawn sequels and a stage adaptation.
A Monster in Parisis a 3D animated musical film that is reaaaaalllly loosely based on the Phantom of the Opera. It’s set in 1910 and is about, surprisingly, a monster that lives in Paris, and his love for a young singer.
The King and the Mockingbirdis an 80’s film about a cruel king titled Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI, who is obsessed with a young shepherdess, and whose attempts to capture the young girl are thwarted by a mockingbird whose wife the King had previously killed.
Those are probably the most famous of the feature length animated films.
But the animated short films are just as glorious. Here’s a compilation of a bunch of short films and I can link you to others as well.
Sorry for the long answer but I just really love French animation.
Reblogging over here. French animation tends to do better with diversity than Disney does, hahaha.
I should add “Le Tableau” which is really beautiful, especially if you love art. This movie is highly poetic !
“A château, flowering gardens, a threatening forest, here is what, for mysterious reasons, a Painter has left incomplete. Three kinds of characters live in this painting: the Toupins, who are entirely painted, the Pafinis, who lack a few colors, and the Reufs, who are only sketches. Considering themselves superior, the Toupins take over power, chase the Pafinis from the château, and enslave the Reufs. Convinced that only the Painter can restore harmony by finishing the painting, Ramo, Lola, and Plume decided to go looking for him. Throughout the adventure, questions will follow one after the other: What has become of the Painter? Why did he abandon them? Why did he begin destroying some of his paintings? Will they one day know the Painter’s secret?”
I would highly recommend Ernest & Celestine as the animation is beautiful, the characters are really moving and the story conveys a great message about love, friendship and oppression.
Another thing : have you seen how these amazing movies lost to american big productions ?
Don’t forget about Kirikou et la Sorcière.
They didn’t forget! Kirikou and the Sorceress, up there.
May I suggest Dragon Huntersfor myself? This 2008 feature-length film is based on the 2004-2005 cartoon Chasseurs de dragons, by the same makers (available fully online, by the way). The music, by Klaus Badelt, is hypnotic. The world is beautiful and strange, the characters lovable… and the dragons, really good.
A young russian girl goes for a trip to the North Pole to find the boat that her grandfather, a famous explorer, used for his last adventure during which he disappeared… Visually stunning, and very cool story and characters.
Avril et le Monde Truqué / April and the Twisted World
The story is set in a world where science never went further than steam and coal, since it’s been years that all scientists have mysteriously disappeared. April is the daughter of two scientists who disappeared when she was a child. As an adult, April too turns to science in secret, and will discover the reason why scientists have been disappearing all this time. Humour, atmosphere, mystery… And based on the graphic style of veteran legend comic book artist Jacques Tardi!
Aya de Yopougon / Aya of Yop City
The everyday life of Aya, a young woman who lives in Ivory Coast at the end of the 70s. Very nice mood and humour!
Adama
A young african boy goes after his older brother who left to fight for France in the war. This will lead him for a whole trip to Paris and beyond. I mainly like it for the graphic style. An interesting look for a 3D movie since they used animated textures.
Astérix: le domaine des Dieux / Astérix: the mansion of Gods
By far my favorite movie adaptation from the Astérix comic books series. This one revolves around an ingenous plan set by Caesar. He builts fancy appartements for rich romans near the Gaulish village, hoping that the Gauls wont attack civilians but will sitll get annoyed enough by the roman population to want to leave their village… and the plan works way too well.
Lascars
How 2 guys from a popular neighboorhood of Paris spend their holidays after being robbed of their trip to a paradise location. One of them tries to borrow money from a local criminal, and the other one finds a job in a rich family.
Very funny, but very not for children as well (drugs, violence, swear words, and sex!)
Le Magasin des Suicides / The Suicide Shop
The Tuvache are a really rich family in a town where nobody is happy to live. They made fortune in selling suicide articles. Unfortunately for them, their youngest son is a really nice, happy little fellow who wants to make people’s lives better… the first half is really worth watching, for the black sense of humour and originality.
Dofus, Livre 1: Julith / Dofus , First Book: Julith
For all you Ankama / Dofus / Wakfu fans! And for the others as well, since it’s not required to already know the Wafu universe to understand the movie. Follow the adventures of Joris, a young orphan who lives in a wolrd where the Dofus are special magical dragon eggs that grant tremendous power to their owners. Extremely good animation and funny characters.
Le Château des Singes / A Monkey’s Tale
A movie by the same director who made Le Ableau, Jean-françois Laguionie. A tale about two populations of monkeys, one tribe that lives at the top of the trees, and one that lives on the ground. One day, a young monkey form the tribe of the top will go meet the tribe of the bottom, who seem to live in some medieval kind of way.
U
Now that is one weird movie. About a unicorn named U, who came to help a girl who is not happy with her parents cruelty. Bur that girl isnt very nice herself…
Now a last quick word about studio Folimage, which is the one that produced A Cat in Paris: most of their movies are must-see. Like, really. Just look at all these visuals!!!
Phantom Boy
La Prophétie des Grenouilles / Raining Cats and Frogs
Mia et le Migou / Mia and the Migoo
They also produce short movies that can be gorgeous. My favorite is Le Bisclavret!
i was asked to recommande french animated movies by a friend so here is the full list for everyone to enjoy (again)
ahhh thank you! <33
For stop motion fans, please also accept Ma vie de Courgette (AKA My Life as a Courgette/My life as Zuccini)
Seriously, this and Prophetie des Genouilles have some of THE BEST acting and vocal performances of animated children I have ever seen (in the original French language, naturally). Played with such emotion and realism without being pretentious.
Also if you like Asterix I heartily recommend Asterix and the Vikings
And Asterix in Britain (a personal fave ;D It’s so accurate!)
An italian/french production about a boy who discovers his grandmother’s magic library and goes on an epic quest in order to save the library inhabitants. Oh and the soundtrack is utterly beautiful.
Two of my favourites are recent fims:
Zombillenium (dir. Arthur de Pins)
In the North of France, a horror-themed amusement park was built on top of an old coal mine. Hector Saxe, a regulations inspector, is hell-bent on shutting it down… Until an accident at the park turns him into a demon. Gritty monsters, sparkling vampires, and capitalism! Pick your favourite scare!
Mutafukaz (dir. RUN)
I wouldn’t know how to describe this one; basically take your typical ghetto/gangster movie and throw in some urban fantasy involving creatures literally made of black matter that feed on the world’s negativity. I really recommend it!
French here : while Asterix and some others like Kirikou can be shown to kids, la Prophetie des Grenouilles TRAUMATIZED half my friends who watched it at an early age. Kirikou might have some scary scenes too, but nothing too too bad. I also found Les Triplettes de Belleville very, very unsettling do to the weird graphics, but that might have been just me ^^’
Tho, I highly recomend showing Asterix et Obelix, Kirikou, Ernest et Celestine, Un Monstre à Paris and Le Roi Et L'Oiseau to kids. They are all A+
Another Frenchie, I did watch La prophétie des grenouilles as a kid and i can only remember how terribly sad it was. I can’t tell you what the story was about but I can still recall the deep sadness I felt watching it. And apparently Le Jour des Corneilles makes you emotional too.
Among the movies listed my faves are Dragon Hunters (friggin beautiful), Le Tableau, Zombillénium (based on a comic but follows a different storyline), and of course all the Kirikou movies.
And if you need another one, Azur et Asmar is a real masterpiece (by Michel Ocelot, the same director as Kirikou), absolutely beautiful. An original fairy tale with humor and action and music and legends and mystical creatures…
And also Zarafa: “A grandfather tells his grand kids the story of Maki, a young boy who escapes from slave traders, befriends a giraffe, crosses the desert, meets a pirate, and a few other things on a trip that takes him from Africa to Paris”. Really beautiful
Oh yeah you absolutly should watch Azur and Asmar
It’s the tale of two young boys (one is the son of the local duke or something, and the other is the son of his nanny, so they are raised as brothers) who were told since they were little the tale of a cursed princess. But abruptly they cannot see eachother again, until somehow they are both on the quest to free the princess. And it is STUNNING. At least half of the action is located in north africa and it is SO. BEAUTIFUL.
Do yourself a favor, and watch it.
(And other animated films by ocelot too. Princes et Princesses is entirely made of silhouettes and it’s beautiful. It’s three friend in… an old theater i think ? That like to tell and play fairytales. Look at that :
It’s really pretty and really great, with a lot of different kinds of princes and princesses. Watch it.
Comme film d'animation y'a Brendan et le secret de Kells aussi (c'est une production irlando-franco-belge, dir. Tom Moore)
