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Should I change the first impressions readers get?

fantastic

Minstrel
I am writing a story where it first starts following a child. He starts going to a "magic school". So, the first impression readers get is hogwarts-ishy. But the problem is I want them to treat it like a serious story and a story that is not for children. Not much later, there is a scene that is darker. It is a scene with violence used against a child by a "teacher". But until they reach that scene, they may get a wrong impression and have different expectations for the story. At first it may feel Harry Potter-ish.

Some may say that The Magicians was the same but that is not quite true because The Magicians was already darker from the beginning.

What do you think? Should I try to make it more obvious from the beginning? What would you recommend?
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
You will want to set the correct impression from the start. A first impression once formed is difficult and time-consuming to change.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I'm not sure why you think having your story start with a child going to a magic school precludes a dark environment. You don't have to describe your magic school in the same way Hogwarts was described. Feature the darkness from the beginning if you don't want readers to be misled.
 

fantastic

Minstrel
I'm not sure why you think having your story start with a child going to a magic school precludes a dark environment. You don't have to describe your magic school in the same way Hogwarts was described. Feature the darkness from the beginning if you don't want readers to be misled.

What do you mean? Focusing more on the parts that make it clear it is darker? Or writing darker things happening in the beginning?
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
(I think) She means that going to a magic school to learn can be a dark and scary thing if you make it be like that. Instead of focusing on the happy fluffy things one would associate with Hogwarts, you can take a different angle. There are a lot of things that can be dark and serious about starting a new school:
- You may be living away from your parents for the first time.
- You may not know anyone.
- Maybe no one likes you.
- Maybe everyone is mean.
- Maybe the rules are really strict.
- Maybe the teachers are cruel and punishing.

Those are just some examples of how you could spin the magic school to being a less than happy and cheerful place for the character. It doesn't have to stay like that, it could get better later on, or there may be other lights in the darkness.
 
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In one respect or another, gradual, foreshadowed change tends to work better than sudden change.

I had a story that started light and got really dark, so I began with a dark scene to show where it was going. My beta reader found it off-putting that I began with a really dark chapter and immediately switched to something light. So I started light and gradually made it more dark, setting things up in advance, and that worked way better.
 

Mectojic

Minstrel
To set the mood, a prologue is always good.
This prologue doesn't need to be directly about any main characters in the story, and can even occur years earlier.
Take GoT (Game of Thrones) for example - the white walkers are introduced, and 2 men get killed. You immediately are set up for a bit of magic, some deaths, and you know it is a medieval age in time.
So the prologue could set up an evil character, with their earlier life, or them reflecting on past injustices they have done. Perhaps it could look at another character, who may not come in for half the book or so. But certainly make sure you use the prologue to recognise that there is going to be magic.
 

Amanita

Maester
Well, teachers using violence against kids or even trying to kill them isn't that uncommon in Harry Potter either. ;)
Apart from that, I agree with Svrtnesse. Give the character more negative feelings about the school. Make them worried, unwilling to go there (do they know about the less appealing aspects before?), make them notice things which seem wrong or threatening, there are many possibilities.
In Harry Potter, the fact that the main character was an orphan who escaped an abusive home to a place where he could finally be with people like him was an important aspect about the beginning, make it different.
 
Like people have said, first impressions matter in the story-- and starting with a school doesn't mean it can't start dark.

But I would advise being very careful with the idea of prologues. Game Of Thrones opens with one of the most reliable, a "villain prologue" (or rather a "villain/victim prologue"), because villains are such an intense part of the story and the easiest one to see why they aren't the hero.

The trouble is, too many writers use prologues as a cheat, a way to shove in the story piece that's hardest to fit with the rest instead of finding an organic way to make it belong. I have a blog post on them here. A prologue can let you open with the right point, but only if you know just what you want.
 
It's all in the angle you tackle your opening scene from, if you want the reader to know it's darker than they may be expecting and not just a Potter clone then describe it so. Only you know what you want them to think when they first begin your story. It's all in the way you tell the story, the words you use, the scenes you depict and how dark you want/need to make it.
 

Addison

Auror
There are many ways to foreshadow a darker scene coming, and to make your story seem less Hogwartsy and child-oriented. I'm writing a story with a similar premise.

So, depending on how dark the next scene is related to the first scene you can foreshadow it in different subtle ways. If the first scene is in summer then maybe it's raining or cloudy or both. His bedroom could look dark despite the sunny colors.

Or it could be sunny at the house and cloudy, turning to rain, when he reaches the school. Creepy shadows or flickering lights. Make it a building, ominous foreshadowing. How much foreshadowing and how subtle depends on how dark and "Aagh" the following scene is compared to scenes throughout the story.

Also, as long as the story doesn't have a boy with a scar who goes to school after living with terrible people in a cupboard for all his life and has to fight a villain who killed his family and wants to take over the world, don't worry about any Harry Potter similarity. Like you said there's "Magicians", there is also "The Unwanteds", "Witch High", "The Familiars", "School for Good and Evil", "Nightmare Academy", "Disc World series", even a bit in "Adventurers Wanted". If you need a book that has magic schooling and darker turns I suggest Dianna Wynne Jones' "Year of the Griffin". There's a tight knit, dynamic group of students who face school challenges while facing troubles they left behind; assassination by ninjas, attack by pirates, besieged by dwarves, armies on the door step, murderous griffins....I've read it ten times at least. I'm sure there's more, those are just ones I've read, I still have shelves of books that still need reading.

So, and I say this with no disrespect meant to Rowling, forget Harry Potter. It's your own new story with different characters, different settings, different everything. Just write and keep writing. Happy writing!
 
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