Terminalcoffee discussion

I am reading "Wonderbook" by Jeff Vandermeer because I write fiction and by gollygosh I would like to get better at it. He writes that a list of bad beginnings to fiction would include: 1. a flashback; 2. a dream sequence; 3. dialogue; 4. the viewpoint of a minor character. Anybody have anything to add to this list?

Also, frequently I see lists of the best opening lines for novels or short stories. What are worst opening lines/paragraph you have ever encountered?

Personally, I think a beginning heavy in torture, blood and gore, animal cruelty, etc, is a poor beginning. So poor that I quit the book.

I am with Barb, a good beginning is entirely up to the author, not dictated by some arbitrary set of rules.

It is a rare book that grabs you from the first sentense. I wouldn't be that concerned about the beginning until the book was finished. Not that I have ever considered writing a book seriously. I could have it backward. :)

Wonderbook by Vandermeer is kind of setting off ideas for me. I have been kind of posting in various groups I belong to about the ideas-- just to explore them.

I think understand Vandermeer's rationale behind why fiction should not open with those particular beginnings and I think exceptions can always be found. On Elmore Leonard's use of rules I think he listed never start with weather, but I have found beginnings that I liked that started with the weather.

Another group that I posted this topic on came up with some bad first sentences for novels and they included "Call me Ishmael."

I'm with Gail and Barb. The tone should match the rest of the book, and if the beginning doesn't interest me/turns me off, then we might have problems. I would hate to have a fantastic beginning and then wait and wait for that feeling to come back throughout the rest of the book. Kind of like seeing the funniest parts in the trailer to a movie - then you're meh over the rest of it.