Let's Talk Openings
Some #RevPit news and looking at a couple of openings for mystery/thrillers.
Hey Story Crafters,
Happy cherry blossom season! 🌸
I love seeing cherry trees in full bloom, so when it’s around peak bloom, I make time to walk around areas with lots of cherry trees. The cherry trees in DC were one of my favorite things about living there when I was going to grad school.
ICYMI, I had my #AskEditor session a little over a week ago, where I answered some questions about my editing process:
In terms of #RevPit news, I’m currently working my way through my submissions! I know some of the other RevPit editors are doing #RevPitWaiting and #RevPitTeaser posts, but just like some of you get anxious about reading #RevPitTeaser posts, I get anxious writing them 😅, so it’s unlikely I’ll have any of my own to share. We’ll see how it goes!
I do have a couple of #RevPies to share about my subs below, in terms of percentages of genres I received and age group:
I was surprised that romance was the second highest percentage of subs for me, but only because from what I remember from last year (I didn’t record stats like I should’ve; I’ve grown and learned from my first year experience 😆), I’m pretty sure fantasy and sci-fi/spec were my highest subs. I’m excited to read through them!
While I’m going through my subs, I’ll also be posting 2 #10Queries sessions at some point between now and April 11th. Keep an eye on my Bluesky profile for when those drop: @leahrambadt.bsky.social. The other editors will also be hosting 2 sets of their own #10Queries sessions. You can learn a lot from reading their feedback, so make sure to check them out!
And the editors will announce their winners on April 14th! The full #RevPit contest schedule can be found here: https://www.reviseresub.com/annual-contest/schedule
Mystery/thriller is a genre I’m fairly certain I didn’t receive a large amount of subs for last year (but again, I can’t be sure since I didn’t record it), but my recent streaming shows have been leaning mystery/thriller, and got me thinking about openings for that genre.
So, shows I’ve been keeping up with or recently watched: Reacher Season 3 and The Residence. Reacher definitely leans heavier into the “thriller” side, since it has the kind of suspense that makes you wonder if certain characters are going to make it to the end of the season alive; The Residence is a whodunit murder-mystery set in the White House, with a detective character, Cordelia Cupp (like Sherlock Holmes or Benoit Blanc from the Knives Out series), investigating who killed the Head Usher.
*Spoilers for Reacher Season 3 and The Residence
Reacher Season 3’s opening differs from previous seasons. Previous seasons opened with someone dying and/or a dead body—a crime has already been committed, and Reacher comes onto the scene for one reason or another and has to solve it. In the Season 3 opening, Reacher is the one committing the crime. Even without the recap at the beginning of the episode, anyone familiar with Reacher’s character knows that Reacher’s behavior and actions in the first half of the episode is odd and very out of character. One of the biggest flags: Reacher doesn’t own anything. Not a van, and definitely not vinyl records. He also wouldn’t shoot a cop. But because this is the third season and viewers who have watched the previous seasons know Reacher, from a narrative standpoint, it’s fine (and maybe even expected) to switch up how we’re introduced to Reacher. And honestly, it worked for me as a hook into this season. I really enjoyed the suspense, and the villains were the best of all the seasons.
On the other hand, The Residence is the first installment (possibly. Not sure if there are plans for a second.), so Cordelia Cupp needs to be introduced. First, to establish genre, we get a dead body, and someone discovering said body. Time is a little more fluid with this series, because the investigation is being told retrospectively during a Senate hearing. So there are narrative-present scenes that are happening in the courtroom with the senators reacting as outside characters, and scenes in the narrative-past when the investigation is happening in real-time so we, the viewers, get to experience the investigation firsthand alongside Cordelia Cupp. The basis to understanding Cordelia Cupp’s character and how she works as a detective is her birding hobby, which is literally the way the viewer is introduced to her—birding on the White House lawn. Every aspect of her process is tied into being a meticulous, obsessive birder, and her no-nonsense attitude and confidence gives her a sense of authority that lets her go toe-to-toe with powerful political figures in the White House.
While these openings apply more specifically to mystery/thrillers, there are a couple of aspects that can apply to other genres if you’re thinking about working on a series. Main takeaways:
In the case of a new main character (MC), find a quirk or hobby that will give insight into their personality and character, and quickly connect the reader to them.
In the case of a returning MC for a series, you can experiment more with the opening scene in later installments, since readers will already be familiar with the MC.
Openings are hard, and it’s important to remember that you don’t have to go at it alone! I’m happy to help clients brainstorm ideas for opening scenes that help immerse readers in the story and quickly connect them with the MC. I’m open to working with all fiction authors, though I specialize in fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror. If the author-editor fit is good, we can book a block of time for your developmental edit in advance so we can get started as soon as you finish your manuscript. Please get in touch!
Best,
Leah
Other ways to keep up with #RevPit 2025 news:
⭐️ RevPit Bluesky Profile: https://bsky.app/profile/reviseresub.bsky.social
⭐️ RevPit Editor Starter Pack on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/starter-pack/jenichappelle.bsky.social/3lao6x3utpr2y
⭐️ Watch #RevPit or pin the RevPit feed (especially helpful for finding and building your community of authors!): https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vxxmae6p5dpnxwcpzcb64gbi/feed/aaabv6dc4ot5a
⭐️ Subscribe to the RevPit Substack: Revise & Resub
⭐️ My Bluesky profile: @leahrambadt.bsky.social
Thanks for reading The Crafty Fox: The Writer's Corner! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.