Where is the beginning of your story? Should it begin while the main character is walking down the sidewalk toward a coffee shop, as he steps through the door, or after he's inside? Will the reader see the crisis develop through the character's eyes, or will the reader meet the character when he is already dealing with the end results of that crisis? Should the story begin with the main character or someone/thing else?
For me, there is nothing more important than the opening paragraph. If the writer doesn't immediately grab the reader's attention with a powerful beginning, he/she will just as quickly lose the reader. For every story there is a back story. The author needs to understand every detail of it (or close to it) in order to understand the character's motivation. It's what gives the story purpose, but sometimes the back story gets in the way or is mistaken for the true beginning. The reader doesn't need every detail of the back story, only the essence of what has led the character to the present time - the true beginning.
Another opening killer is description and imagery. I'm not saying these two elements aren't essential - they are, however, there needs to be a good balance between imagery and action which is what makes the reader turn the page. As an example, a while back a fellow writer asked if I would critique the first few chapters of her manuscript. She felt there was something wrong with it but couldn't put her finger on it. It was well written, well paced, had good characterization, no typos, etc. It was perfect except that there was nothing in her opening that pulled me in and urge me to keep reading. Why?
Because her opening paragraph was in the bottom third of the second page.
Everything prior to that paragraph was a telling account of place and time. Once she deleted the excess passages and did some tweaking, her story took off with a strong beginning.
A good beginning isn't always the easiest thing to determine. I lost count of how many beginnings I wrote for SILENCED CRY. I ultimately decided the best one placed Homicide Detective Sam Harper in Dr Brannon's office, the police department psychologists, and allowed the back story to emerge through the session; his thoughts and reactions to her questions. Doing so solved several issues; it gives the reader insight into Harper's relationship with his late partner, Frank Gillis, it gives the reader an overview of the events that have led Harper to the psychiatric session (it hopefully also raises enough questions to keep the reader reading), it allows Harper to tap into his emotions (something he wouldn't normally reveal), and it helps explain the motivation that carries Harper throughout the book. To have done it any other way would have required writing an entirely new, lengthy subplot that would have dragged the story and distracted the reader from the plot. If you're so inclined, you'll find the first chapter of SILECED CRY here: http://www.martastephens-author.com/chapter_1.html.
So my question is: How do you determine the best point in time or moment in your character's life to start your story?
The members of the group No Whine, Just Champagnewill be discussing this article live on Thursday, March 13 at 9:00 pm ET. Please stop back and join us for some lively conversation.
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Comments: 169
Kim
The best stories I've ever read, shorts or novels, begin when a life changing event occurs to the protagonist. To me, this is imperative and far more interesting than starting too soon--you risk losing your audience if you don't start with a bang.
Marta, does that mean your new book starts with violence?
"What's gotten into you?" he asked as he bent to leash him. "You're never this ..." The man swept the light in the direction of whatever had caught the dog's attention. He squinted, leaned in for a closer look, and recoiled. Disgust hit as hard as the stench that rose from the decomposed body.
In the next chapter section the reader finds out that this isn't the first body that has washed to shore. Not violent in that you don't see the murder but something has definitely happened.
Marta, your beginning would attract my attention.
If the prologue is in italics, however, I won't read it.
Here's another thought, what if the situation is "normal" and ordinary, but there's something about the character that is quirky? What do you say about putting something or someone that doesn't belong in a "normal setting?" Would that creat a question in you mind strong enough to make you want to keep reading?
I've never tied the ending first either, but imagine a book begins with a character who has lost her memory. That's the end result of something, right? The story then becomes her quest to find out what happened to cause the loss of memory.
Marta, I think the prologue question is one of emotional impact. In a mystery there should never be a need for a prologue since a mystery is all about unraveling the back story. But in a story where the scene needs to pack on the emotion, a prologue is often the only choice.
Finally got on! I've been having a hard times today in getting online with Gather. Hope it's only me and that the problem will go away soon.
So. I just took a look at my current read (One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson) and the opening sentence is He was lost. Followed by: He wasn't used to being lost. Then there is a lengthy paragraph placing him and summarizing a number of reasons he was lost. An incident occurs. The next pages or so deal with that incident involving that first "He" although "He" is seldom included in those pages except as an aside.
Katina's eyes locked on the straight-back chair she had wedged under the doorknob as soon as she heard her father's first sharp insult.
"No. Karl! That was my father's," her mother yelled. A thud, followed by a crash, split the air in a crescendo of chaos. Katina imagined the hand-painted pottery bowl in shards scattered on the living room floor.
Sitting on her bed, knees tucked under her chin, Katina fingered the sheet dotted with tiny roses, faded to the faintest shade of pink.
***
The young girl is 8 years old when this occurs--we hear a gunshot and her mothers scream for her to run. The girl escapes, but her father follows after her, gun in hand. She runs away to see her house enveloped in flames.
The following chapters take place 22 years later.
Would anyone else care to share their opening lines??
Right away we know the detective is being forced to do something but we don't know what. So we read on!
I love being dropped into a story in the middle of the action. No build up, no description of the sky or the weather. Just, boom!
Mark Anderson kissed his brother's wife. Then he kissed her again when she didn't slap him.
Or... John watched his life's dream blow up with his lab.
Or...The drapes parted to reveal a tear-stained face. But a face belonging to a woman that Allyson had thought long dead.
No one wants to read of an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary person.
Lavonne, you can hit your refresh icon, but I find refreshing faster if I exit the article and then come back again.
Here is a questions for you all. Below are the first lines to three very different novels. What can we say connects them? I mean why would you want to read on after reading each of them?
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The primroses were over.
- Richard Adams, Watership Down
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
- Jane Austen, Emma
Thanks, Deborah.
Lavonne, I don't know that those lines on their own would pull me in. Knowing the stories and the reputations of the authors is what would keep me reading.
I've left it for now, but who knows.
sorry i am late