The writing coach who told me to kill my favorite opening scene

Last month a workshop leader in Portland said my first chapter started 3 pages too early, so I cut it and dropped the reader straight into the argument. The rewrite got 40 comments on the first page alone, but now I'm wondering if I lost the setup that made the ending hit. Has anyone else trimmed a scene they loved and seen it work, or did you end up putting it back?

1 comments

1 Comment

jason_knight2h ago

Did the 40 comments actually fix the story, or did they just prove people love a good fight scene? If the argument lands without setup, then you never needed that opening, and the ending hits harder because the reader has to work for it. My guess is you trimmed the right fat, and the old scene is just nostalgia talking, not story logic.