Opening- Mary Shelley

In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley starts off by having four letters that give the reader some background knowledge on the characters. In the letters we are introduced to a man named Robert Walton who is on a ship traveling to try and discover a new passage to the Northern Pacific, while traveling Walton finds a "stranger" who is traveling trying to share his story to those who are willing to listen. Walton and the stranger end up having a lot in common with each other which brings comfort to Walton because he has felt alone on the ship he is traveling on. Even though the ship has a whole crew , the crew is very ignorant and oblivious to such knowledge unlike Walton is. This to me was an effective way to start off the novel because it gave the reader some sense of things that had previously occurred and also some insight into some of the characters. If I was to write a horror story I think I would start the book off with some kind of text to indicate the main characters past. I would do this in a way that did not make any sense at all so as the reader began reading the actual novel everything would come together, making my novel much more interesting and all together a great book to read. Maybe I would do letters such as Mary Shelley did or I might do it in another creative way such as in cassette tapes that are being recorded for the reader to read. I got this idea from the book The Thirteen Reasons (cannot think of author right now). No matter what I decided to be the opening to my book I would make sure it is very interesting and creative to draw the reader into the story.