All right guys and gals. My mind is spinning over a big dilemma. You see, my 
upcoming book doesn’t start with my hero or heroine. My editor and I are both torn over this opening, but she said it was so well written that she hated me not using it, or something like that.
It’s emotional and has a lot of impact, but it’s from another character in my series—a special and important character who is in all the books in the series—
This is my hero’s story. He appears immediately in the opening, so we do get to see and hear what he has to say about what is coming in his life. But, the emotional aspect of the person telling this, also shows a lot of insight into the hero’s character—through her eyes.
I took this question to Facebook and received interesting responses. It seems none of them cared if the story didn’t start with the hero or heroine. My hero’s POV comes in on page five so it isn’t like it takes long to get into his head. But, we’re talking about the opening to a book that only has seconds to grab a reader.
I’m sure my series readers will love the opening because by now they know the characters. After all, this is the fourth book in the series and we’ve all become quite attached. Yes, including me! I love my characters and their stories.
Ahh, Romance!
Of course the beginning is important in any book, but Romance is different. The story is about the two main characters. Two or more, depending on what you write 
of course. I’ve never written more than two character POVs. Well, I shouldn’t say never, because I don’t know what I did before I knew what I was doing. Ask my first editor.
As a matter of fact, this character gets a POV spot two other times in this story. I’m not worried about those other two spots.
Some suggestions I had from Facebook:
- Make it a prologue. Well, this doesn’t exactly fit the criteria for a prologue. Sure, it’s a different character, but the main character is right there too. In book time, it’s only a few hours until his POV shows up.
- Another suggestion was to call it an Introduction. I loved the idea, but some people don’t read introductions (or prologues), and when a reader reads a sample on Amazon or the other retailers, it would probably begin with Chapter One. Therefore, the reader would have to scroll back to see an Introduction. Don’t quote me on that. 🙂 I’ve seen “Look Inside the Book” open to Chapter One and at times open to the Copyright page. I think it has something to do with the formatting.
- One more comment mentioned writing the character’s name as a subheading. I did this in my manuscript and I’ll see what my editor says, although she read the Facebook responses. New readers won’t have a clue who this character is, though. Books don’t always get read in order.
- Others said, “Go for it.”
- Some said, “I see nothing wrong with it.
- Another said, “It’s great to see how others in the book think and feel.
Cover. Blurb. Title.
It’s my thought that my cover, blurb, and title all say who the book is about? By the way, you’ll see the cover soon unless you’re a mailing list subscriber who already did. 😉
So this is my dilemma. Give up an emotional scene that still shows a bit about my hero, or jump into page five and make it the beginning, and delete the beginning.
What am I asking of you? *Shrugging*
- Maybe I’m thinking out loud through my blog.
- Maybe to see what you, my blog readers have to say about this?
- Or, hoping that if I think about this long enough, my solution will magically come to me.
In the meantime, my manuscript is about to be sent back to my editor, and
I will continue to lose sleep until the decision feels right in my head. Actually, the beginning does feel right to me, but I want to please readers and make it the best it can be for them, too.
Wish me luck!
In the mean time, I won’t be doing this:
But, I might be doing this:
and this 
Thanks for letting me think out loud as I talk to you here.
Have an enjoyable day! Come back and visit y’all.
Source originally posted to Flickr as Cannolo Siciliano
Wiki Commons
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel 
8 thoughts on “What the Heck. No, Literally–What the Heck…”
Hemangini
I think if something seems off to the editors it should be paid attention to but just to make the book more saleable one must not let the book change. Especially the start of a novel. I read the comments and you are writing a prologue? wow that is amazing. I read many author’s talk about how they write their books and many says they start from anywhere and then build the story around it. I think that is a great concept too. Have fun writing and I hope your book will be loved by many readers… Have lots of fun 🙂 see you
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Hemangini. I chose not to go with a prologue. I didn’t want to anyway. I’m glad I listened to my instincts. That book has been out a couple years now, and I stuck with my original idea. The book became an Amazon #1 Best Seller.
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D. Wallace Peach
I would keep it the way you wrote it, especially if the editor is torn. I’m no expert, but don’t let the “rules” toss out a perfectly good start to your book. Break the rules when it works for your book. Something made you write it that way. Trust yourself. Just my two cents.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Hi, D. I think you just said the key words I needed to hear: “…Break the rules when it works for your book.” This was the opening in my head before I even started the book. Thanks for commenting about it.
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D. Wallace Peach
Glad I could help. There have been times when I’ve followed the rules when I should have paid attention to my instincts. Then there are times when the rules definitely helped. Only when we understand them, can we thoughtfully and appropriately break them:)
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
So true. 🙂 I was just sitting in on an RWA class about the best place to begin your story. Great advice and it helped even more, although I didn’t see anything yet about not starting with someone other than a hero or heroine. Still, I think I’m good.
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teagan geneviene
Oh Mary, i hate feeling torn that way. I know it’s important to you on so many levels!
So I’m just throwing this out there — not advice, but something I’ve done before.
(By the way — you wouldn’t feel so strongly if this was not a good piece — so as i always say — trust your intuition.)
> I’ve seen this done many times, and have done it myself.
Begin with a prologue (using this piece). BUT do something similar here and there throughout the book — at either the beginning or the end of a chapter. That gives it continuity and makes the unusual opening fit better.
That’s just my thought.
Mega-hugs my friend.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Thanks, Teagan,
I’m not doing a prologue. I’ve already decided on that. This doesn’t fit the criteria for a prologue, but I just don’t want to do one anyway.
I get what you’re talking about by adding something at the beginning or end of other chapters but I don’t think so with romance, at least that’s my take on it, and there isn’t anywhere else in the book this is needed. It would work for other genres, and maybe some romance, but not this one. Either way, I appreciate your input. You have great ideas. 🙂 It’s in my editor’s hands again, although the final verdict is mine of course. I keep remembering when I deleted the first two chapters of Heartbreak’s Reward and started at a different spot. In that book, it was the right decision in the end. Wherever my starting point is in this book, it won’t be the wrong one. Hugs back and thank you for taking the time to comment.
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