Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Beginning a story

This is topic Beginning a story in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by JasonVaughn (Member # 4358) on :

Hi,

I've been sketching out a story for a while now and have finally gotten round to starting it. However, I'm having a few problems deciding where to begin.

Basically the story has four main characters who all meet up before going on a quest. Im having troubles deciding whether to begin the story when they all meet up and then giving each characters back story, or beginning with one character, writing up to where they meet and then going back to the beginning with another character and so on.

The problem with the first way is that I feel meeting four main characters at the same time is too much. With the second way by the time the fourth character has met up the first will be almost forgotten. I have even considered telling back story of only one character and then using flashbacks for the rest but I feel that it is essential to the story that each characters reasons for going to the meeting point be shown early on.

Has anyone had similar problems with choosing a start point and if so how did you overcome them?

Thanks

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Pick one character to be the main character and have the others be supporting characters. Always focus on new information concerning the supporting characters as it relates to the main character, don't reveal their backstory till the main character learns it, and focus on how discovering that backstory affects the relationship between the main character and the supporting characters.

Posted by pixydust (Member # 2311) on :

ditto Survivor. And try to keep all flashbacks to a minimum, and backstory should be woven in sparingly.

Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :

Begin where the story begins.

If it is important - to the story - to know who these people are as individuals, and how they came to meet, then begin with the four individuals, and weave their stories together until they meet.

If that stuff isn't important, than start with them together. A quest generally implies an Event story, I would have thought, and IIRC, you're supposed to start Event stories at the point where the main characters realise that there is Something that Needs Doing.

Of course, there may be good reasons for then filling in the backstory of your main characters, illuminating their reasons for being together and for undertaking this quest. Indeed, in general, this is probably more likely to be interesting to a reader than the quest itself, since quests are ten a penny in fantasy fiction and it may well take something special to get a reader interested in it...

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

You could start later in the story, after they've all met, and deal with their meeting in flashback.

But it's important to start somewhere...you can always edit if you find a better point to start while writing...

Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :

There's still lots of stuff I flat out don't know about my husband. A lot of that has to do with his disdain for history and the past. And that part of his childhood occured in a duplex their family affectionately calls "The Polish Palace". But, yeah, he tends to focus on what is happening and what will happen.

I don't know if you'll have such a character. A mix of characters is what made the original Star Trek and Next generation different from DS-9. Some people really like DS-9 because they understood the characters, but it didn't have a wide following.

[This message has been edited by franc li (edited December 08, 2006).]

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

Don't even get me started on how Star Trek was originally an adult-oriented drama turned into a childrens show in subsequent series by a certain producer who I shall not name. This is the opinion of insiders. Nice eye-candy only.

Sorry to hijack the thread, back to your regularly scheduled topic.

[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited December 08, 2006).]

Posted by elzoog (Member # 4410) on :

Jason:

I am having the same problem with the Capiam universe story I am working on. I could write it starting with a planet with people deciding that they want to find out to the question of "why" and fill in the back story of how the universe was created later. But I don't think that would be as interesting as starting the universe and then starting this story.

You have to decide, as a reader, which way would be more interesting for you. Personally, as a reader, if I start to read a backstory of a character and then this character meets other characters to start on an adventure, I don't want to later on, start reading the backstory of one of the other characters. If the story starts out and you introduce an adventure, I want to get on with the adventure. I don't want to be sidetracked into an earlier story about one of the characters. If it's necessary for the plot, you could do various things like do a brief flashback for the character (i.e. he is on the ground about to be hit, flashback to when he was 10 years old, he talks to his mother about taking out the garbage). But some readers don't like flashbacks. Fortunately, there are other techniques of introducing a backstory as well.

The short of it is, what impression do you want the reader to have after having read the story? For example, one thing I don't like about the first story of Harry Potter is there is this scene where Harry Potter goes through a lot of trouble to choose a magic wand. After all of that trouble, he never uses that magic wand later on in the story. I think it's an unnecessary scene and an example of a poor choice on the part of J.K Rawling. But that's just my opinion. The fact that J.K Rawling is a millionaire proves that other readers feel otherwise.

Posted by CoriSCapnSkip (Member # 3228) on :

One of the few successful books I've seen with four or more main characters is "The View from Saturday" by E. L. Konigsburg. It wouldn't hurt to read that.

Posted by Jenn (Member # 7798) on :

This is my feeling as an increasingly lazy reader of popular fiction only... Could you knock it back to two?
Phillip Pullman does a great job in the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, which is UK but I'm sure you could get it there (it's also young adult but worked for me). He sets up a main character and then introduces the next one with a changed POV and new voice etc. But by then we've well and truly understood the first character. Then his second book begins with the boy instead of the girl (which is maybe a bit equality-minded for some readers but again, worked for me). The point where they converge is pretty sparky and also well handled.
I remember really loving the four in Tolkein but again that was set up with the central character early on (via his uncle, who acts as a bridge to the earlier work)... These days I think I would resist that number of points of view.

Posted by JasonVaughn (Member # 4358) on :

RE: Jenn

I've read both the "His Dark Materials" and "Lord of the Rings" books and although I enjoyed them both I felt that the switch of viewpoint for huge sections took away from the story, which is something I want to avoid.
I think you're right about reducing the number of main characters though. Four is probably too many viewpoints to work with.

Thanks for all the comments/advice everyone. It'll definately keep me going for a while.

Jason

Posted by Dragon72 (Member # 3117) on :

Just working of the main post, I am reminded of a novel by Dennis L McKienon, in which he has 3 of the main characters meeting at the same time. Their individual reasons for being there were covered briefly in that first chapter. He then used individual explanations i.e each character giving a deeper background of themselves to their companions, as they worked towards their common goal.
This way, you can introduce all your characters at the same time, and as they provide backgrounds to their companions they are also providing it to the reader. Allows the reader to feel as if he is sitting around the same campfire as the characters, getting their background.
Just my opinion

Cheers