Clichés: Know them, Destroy Them

Alarm Clock

If it weren't for alarm clocks, a lot of heavy sleepers wouldn't have jobs. A lot of early-morning flights would be missed. A lot of traveling employees would sleep through their meetings. A lot of high school parking lots would be empty.

Alarm clocks are a common presence in the modern world.

But do we need to pay homage to this handy electronic device at the beginning of our story?

A lot of school-related stories read like this in chapter one:

*alarm clock goes off* I pick out clothes, do my hair/makeup, brush my teeth, curse my wild hair for going rogue, go downstairs and have breakfast. If I have a sibling they annoy me, then eventually my cool friend in their cool car drives us to school.

In this chapter and others, I'm going to tell you- start your story as near to the inciting incident as possible. [the inciting incident is the event or action that starts the main storyline; it's the point where something changes in the character(s) life that makes it worth telling about]

Why is this cliché usually a bad opening?

Does the story start because the alarm went off?

Sure, our protagonist wakes up then, but is the alarm clock the reason that everything else in the  story is going to happen?

Probably not.

Is the alarm clock marking the change in our protagonist's routine that makes the story worth telling?

Probably not. If it's part of their regular routine, it's not special.

Can't I establish a few things before the inciting incident?

Yes. You should start close to the inciting incident, but you don't have to start with it. That being said, starting with an alarm clock is so common that you should have a reason for starting there. What's the important information we get thanks to the alarm clock?

Let's look at an example I made up.

The inciting incident is: Julie forgot her homework on her kitchen table and had to run back home and missed the bus. Hence she's running down the road when that cute guy from Spanish recognizes her and pulls his car over.

Is an alarm clock that always goes off every morning crucial to understanding the inciting incident? Does it tell me anything about Julie?

There are lots of places between waking up and the guy pulling over. Maybe we want to see that Julie is rushed out by a recently divorced mother whose boyfriend is coming over to "paint the living room." She's distracted, and forgets her homework. [Opening with Julie and Mom establishes character and the reason why the inciting incident occurs]

Heck, maybe it starts with her out of breath and practically on her knees, aware the popular guy is looking at her. She has a choice- does she ignore him and be sweaty/late to school, or go with him and realize he'll probably tell everyone, especially her rival, Chloe, and everyone will tease her for weeks? [Opening here lets us summarize backstory quickly, and puts us in an active scene and problem, and we still learn about Julie(she doesn't want to be teased).]

When is it okay to start with an alarm clock?

When the alarm clock changes the story in some way, shape, or form. For example, the hero wakes up to a beeping alarm. He has no memory of anything outside of the room he's in, just a nagging feeling that that beep means he has to do something.

You don't have to  break free of routine to sound original...You just have to know where the story starts.