Should I state in my first chapter that my character has amnesia?

She was abducted as a little girl and escaped with a big gash on the back of her head. She works of the coffee shop where she was found and the person who found her adopted her. Her kidnapping as a five year old girl is a big part of the plot. But I feel like to start of with "I had no memory" is cliche. Here's my current opening:



"My eyes are red.



That was my first thought. It's hard to explain my beginning, my first conscious thought, to someone who remembers their past quite vividly, as most do. It's different for someone like me, someone who cannot remember where exactly they came from, someone who has not had the time to gradually assure themselves of their place in this world. I knew nothing. But, the words came easily anyways, without fear.



The night said those word was the night my life began. I was five years old. The sight that I was seeing was not a bad dream, as I had first thought it to be. It was the image of my own grey eyes, hopelessly irritated and dry, reflected in the storefront window of a coffee shop. But the girl in that confusing translucent but reflective object was a stranger, as much as the strange noise on my tongue."



Should I keep it or should I start with a subplot?Should I state in my first chapter that my character has amnesia?
Start with something happening. Not with the character talking about something happening as a flashback. If you want to start with her aged five, do. If you want to start the story with her older, why are you then going straight into a flashback after two short paragraphs?

I'm also writing a story about a character with no memories (but for an entirely different reason) and it took me four drafts to notice where I was screwing up.

(In answer to the main question, if you want to start by stating she has amnesia, do. Not starting with it does not make it any less clichéd.)Should I state in my first chapter that my character has amnesia?
You should mention the character has amnesia and you shouldn't start with a flashback.



Answer my question, please?



http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…