How are opening chapter expectations affected by genre?
I used to call my novel a techno-thriller but most readers stated they wanted to see more action in the very first chapter. At first I thought of complying, but then realized why would I reveal more about my characters or even the plot if I was writing suspense. Suspense is called suspense for a reason, you suspend aspects of the story that are revealed later. How soon does the classification of a work by genre effect readers expectation of events? Not all comedies begin as comedies. And the same can be said about horror or drama. What role does genre selection play in reader expectations?
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Suspense is called suspense for a reason, you suspend aspects of the story that are revealed later.
No, that is not why suspense is called suspense. Suspense is a story that is suspenseful in itself. Something bad might happen and the characters don't know if it will or not. They try to prevent it, but they may fail. Some may live, some may die. They don't know, so, in the ordinary unfolding of the story, we don't know either. The author is not holding anything back, they are simply telling a suspenseful story in the order in which it occurs.
Deliberately holding back information from the reader in an attempt to create suspense in a story that is not naturally suspenseful usually fails. It creates annoyance, not suspense. (There are exceptions, but they are crafty exceptions, crafted so that the revelation pleases rather than disappoints. This is no easy thing to do.)
But this does not in any way mean that you have to start with action. If readers are asking for immediate action, that means that they are not engaged with the story, but it is not usually action that actually engages the reader in a story. They are engaged by an interesting setting, and interesting character, as sense that something may happen. The direct dive into action usually does not work because we do not yet care about any of the people the action is happening to.
Genre is a kind of promise to the reader that a story is going to give a certain kind of pleasure. (We should note that there are stories that are set in genre settings or concern genre events which are not part of the genre. Not every novel set west of the Mississippi is a western. Not every novel with a love story is a romance. A genre is a set of conventions that promise a certain quite specific kind of experience for a reader who does not want surprised and does not want to be disappointed. The opening of a genre novel needs to show that the author intends to abide by the conventions of the genre.
Beyond that, though, the job of the opening is the same, regardless of genre. It has to engage. It has to initiate the reader into the place and people of the story in a way that promises that something interesting is going to happen.
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