May’s Round Robin is an excellent topic suggested by Skye: Has so much emphasis been placed by readers and writers groups, publishers, reviewers, etc. on authors to have a spectacular opening page/chapter that the rest of the story gets left behind? What are your thoughts and experiences with this?
The short answer to this? Yes. The long answer?
First Three Chapters
Recently, I’ve been reading a number of books that suffer from this phenomenon. Agents/publishers, when they ask to see a portion of the book, frequently ask for the first three chapters. At least they used to do that. So, the author edits and revises those chapters to death, polishing it until they can see their reflection in them, completely ignoring the rest of the book… Sometimes, it only takes a chapter for the story to fall apart. Usually, though, the first three chapters keep me enthralled then the story goes to hell in a handbasket faster than an egg fries on Mars.
Marauding POVs
Most often, the story begins in tight POV (point of view, for non-authors) of the hero/heroine (or alternates between the two, but still tight third). A few chapters out, a POV will sneak into one paragraph, even one sentence, before the author wrestles the story back into line. However, once the battlement has been breached, the horde of POVs waiting to invade work at that crack. At first, they trickle through one at a time. Within a few more chapters, everyone’s POVs, and their dog’s, too–just for good measure, are running amok in a POV free-for-all designed to drive someone like me, who prefers tight, third person POV with the max of two, bonkers.
If the books were tangible instead of electronic, my walls would be dented. Since they aren’t, I must control myself, or my iPad would be pulverized by now from me throwing it across the room. Fortunately, deleting is only a click away.
Typos Galore
Once the POV goes, the typos and grammatical errors multiply like horny bunnies. (Yes, I’m purposefully mixing my metaphors and similes here. Why? Because it amuses me. :D) I don’t know if that’s more painful than the marauding POVs. The editor in me is OCD and itches to fix it all, but I refrain.
I recently read a book with this very phenomenon. Within the first three chapters out, the POVs congregated and took over the story, hacking and slashing like Attila the Hun and his band of merry men. I couldn’t finish the book. When that happens, I try to wipe the memories of those books from my mind. It’s less painful that way.
What do you think? Does this drive you as crazy as it does me? Or are you one of those people who doesn’t care and ignores all of that?
Be sure to stop by these blogs to see what everyone else thinks:
With today’s MS Word and Corel’s Word Perfect, you’d think more of those typos would be caught in edits, but I know I do multiple edits and still don’t catch everything. I think there is a mind-eye connection where a writer knows what they wrote and that’s what their vision sees, not what is really on the page. Time breaks that connection and then the errors show up.
That’s what editors are for. It’s hard to catch these in our own works. The issue with grammar checkers is that many of them are not always correct. They may correct a word, but it’s a homonym of the word you really wanted. It wants periods where commas belong, in some cases. I don’t expect books to be perfect. I just don’t want three or four or more errors to a page. Even two is stretching it. 🙂
I’ve never had that problem with buttinski POVs. Most of my books are romances so I limit them to two POVS – the hero and heroine. And do my best not to head hop, but I have read books that do just that. In a romance I really don’t care what anyone but the hero and heroine are thinking, feeling experiencing so it’s distracting when minor characters keep hogging the limelight. As for what POV to start the story in, I generally follow that rule “Who has the most to lose” and start in their POV. My thinking is that is the best way to engage the reader – could be wrong, but that’s my method for now.
I agree with you about romances being strictly two POVs (hero and heroine), Skye, but I’ve been reading a lot of books lately that’ve had issues with marauding POVs. I don’t have that issue in my writing. I either write books strictly in the heroine’s POV or the hero and heroine. Anyone else is of no interest to me.
Hullo Marci, I had a quiet chuckle. It’s one of the issues I dealt with a lot when teaching creative writing. the new writer (and I was one once) cannot believe a story is complete unless they give the POV of everyone, and sometimes the dog gets a shout, too. It’s also the case that I find any book I’m writing really difficult from chap 4 on. anne stenhouse
I think we’ve all been there, Anne. The more POVs, the merrier is usually the thought. Unfortunately, it’s not. LOL At least, not for the reader.
As for continuing after chapter 4, I totally agree. It does get harder.
Marci, I loved your post. You had me laughing. Send those delinquent writers through to me, and for a very reasonable fee, I’ll teach them how to do it correctly.
🙂
Bob
I’m glad you I made you laugh, Bob. That was the point. If I didn’t, I’d cry. LOL Ah, well, sometimes, I try to give advice, but, often, people end up insulted no matter how good intentioned I am. 😀
Hi Marci,
That’s interesting that you’ve noticed books deteriorate after the first three chapters. That suggests that the writer could write a polished book if they tried, but they just couldn’t be bothered to polish it, or they just rushed it. What a disappointment if it started out well. A good editor could have helped here, along with the typos. These days if I find a book isn’t well-written or engaging then I put it down without finishing it. It’s not because my attention span is shorter. It’s just that there are so many great books out there, I feel I’m wasting valuable time reading something that’s been rushed.
Hi Helena,
I do believe they can, but it’s hard work writing a book through to the end that’s worth reading, especially for a new author. (Even for those of us who’ve been around a while.) I’ve been disappointed a lot lately. As I’m in a review group, unless it’s really bad, I read through to the end. I’ve found some wonderful authors and some not so great–okay, horrible–authors. Most of the not so great suffer from the first three chapters syndrome. It’s unfortunate when the story does have such promise.
Great post and fun. It had me smiling, but it made good points. If I’ve read the blurb and the first few pages and bought the book I’m upset if it doesn’t deliver. And If it descends into POV hell and a lot of basic spelling and grammar errors – I don’t finish the book. And I’ll probably never pick up that author again.
Thanks, Beverly. I’m with you there. I don’t generally read that author again.
I like 3rd person POV, but I’m not limited to only 2 characters. As long as there are no mid-scene POV mistakes, I’m good with as many as 4, even 5 characters telling the story from their points of view.
Yeah, I don’t like 4-5 characters. I suppose it would depend on the story, but most books I’ve read don’t require that in order to tell the story. So, when I see that happen, I feel like it’s a cop out on the author’s part. That’s just my opinion, and I’m not talking about books like Game of Thrones. 🙂 Fantasy and science-fiction can get away with it. Romances, mysteries, thrillers can’t… for me. 🙂
Marci, I’ve definitely been called out on maruauding POVs. Or a POV from an unimportant character. I had quite a handful of chapters told from the MC’s best friend, which an editor later asked that I switch to the MC. I loved the side character’s voice, but it just wasn’t necessary.
Yeah, it’s always best to pick the most important POV and stick with that one. If you have too many POVs running around, it gets confusing, but it also distances the reader from the story. 🙂
She’s funny and mouthy and does some stuff she regrets. 😀