The rambling of a writer

The waking up scenario

"Ding ding"

"Beep beep beep"

"riiiing"

"The sound of her favorite K-pop track played through the room."



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ALL of these....

WHYYYY Is it that our brain likes to start writing from the most underwhelming starting point in our lives?
The moment most of us dread, either drown in coffee or walk through in demanded silence, our mornings!

Sure, it's THE starting point EVERY DAY of our lives, but come on! Bring us something more!

Go on, check your library! I bet that within the first ten new stories you added last night at least two started off with the morning scenario.

And to be extra quirky, most of them will tell you all about our protagonist being grumpy, hating every part of life and telling you the bane of their existence within the first two paragraphs.

Cherry on top if it is your teenage writer phase, because there will be a family member included, because their brains aren't in the phase yet to be able to think how it will be living on your own.
"Mom made you toast."
"Your dad is as absent of your life like how the milkman left your mom before you were even born!"
"Their brother makes a nasty comment about something they are insecure about, because of course they love you as their sibling!"


If you're lucky, they'll also include in that same chapter a piece of their detailed outfit description of the day. (But that's a tantrum for another day)

So, is there ever a story that suits the 'waking up scenario'? 

Probably, but in my mind I roll my eyes whenever I start reading and the first thing I see is a character reaching for their alarm. (Which, by the way, WHO SLAMSEARCHES FOR HIS PHONE ANYWAYS? Can't we all be normal humans who just, wake up, reach over and slide our alarm off? Why does it always have to happen with much violence in stories?!)



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So: What to do to write a better opening chapter?
- *cough* AVOID THE WAKING UP SCENARIO, thank you very much :)
- Bomb dropping: Start by giving your reader a glance of a high tension moment in your story.
- Inner monologue: Describe what your character thinks about their live and problems, summed up in one or two sarcastic written scentences.
- Fairytale opening: The Once upon a time... Or In a land far away. Only ideal if either writing a classic fairytale  or if you want to mess with your audience.
- The outer dialogue: My personal favorite, let one of your characters just... speak. No introduction, let them say something that makes it clear to the reader what they're coming for. What kind of type this character is or what they're about to do.
- The quote: start with a quote, sum up or favorite sentence of your character. Something that is vague enough to get you curious and maybe even tip the reader about what will happening.
- Foreboding: Ohhhh yes, You can totally throw off your audience with these once, or spoil them right at sentence one. 


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Writer's confession:

Ugh.... Of course I wrote the waking up scenario's! I even do at this day and age!
It's easy, such a start up for my writer brain and hard not to do if you've never been told this is such a clichè!
When I browse through my early writing I can facepalm like... 60% of the time for starting almost every story with a variant of the waking up and telling about their day.
Want a real wake up call?
Read those into's out loud. I did and man... My poor heart...