Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Story Beginnings

This is topic Story Beginnings in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :

I know there's probably a million ways to start a story. What are some of them? Are some more affective, and have any of you tried something different that has worked for you?

Matt

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

Beginnings and endings are hard. You can have a 20 page story and have a great page 2-19, but never sell the story because the beginning stinks, or the ending doesn't satisfy.

Study what you like and figure out what the author did.

Posted by arriki (Member # 3079) on :

One of the -- usually -- more annoying ways to start a story is with the pov waking up. It's very common. In fact, it was the first way-to-open that I ever noticed. I was pretending to be an editor reading slush, going through some stacks of published novels trying to see what caught my attention. Waking up. That's how a sizeable number of random sf/f (and other) novels opened.

It seems to be a cheap way of excusing yourself for telling the reader about the surroundings.

Another -- usually -- boring and annoying way to open is with a lecture about something "crucial" to the reader's understanding the story.

You can open by dropping the reader into the middle of some action. The weak point to this is when the reader can't figure out what is going on fast enough. Or, the action turns out to be unimportant. Or boring.

You can open with the three-step camera view. A paragraph about the larger setting/situation, then go in closer, and finally into your pov. Have to be careful. The description, whether of setting or situation, still has to be interesting, vibrant, alive.

You can open with a thesis statement and then have the rest of the novel revolve around that. Classic: from P&P by Austen -- It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

or from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina -- Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

even something as simple as -- Life's a bxtch and then you die.

Look up LEARNING TO WRITE FICTION FROM THE MASTERS by Barnaby Conrad. Chapter one lists 12 ways to begin and -- wonder of wonders! -- actually gives a bunch of examples of each.

Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :

I'm not writing a novel -- well, not consistently, anyway -- but I read Miss Snark in part because she says things like "start here" in her critiques (the so-called "crap-o-meter"). That might be worth looking at if you're concerned about beginnings.

Nancy Kress's book, _Beginnings, Middles, and Ends_ is pretty good, too.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I found, in my Internet Fan Fiction period, that I was constantly writing stories beginning with the lead character waking up. Soon as I noticed it, I rewrote a couple of stories I was well along with, and completely abandoned a couple of others...feeling vaguely gratified that I could still find ways to improve my writing.

The usual theory of beginnings is that some sort of hook is needed within the first few sentences, something that grabs the reader's attention. I have certain reservations about that---I've never actually bought anything based on the first few sentences---but it seems a sound enough thing to try to do, if you're making your opening gambit.

Certainly I remember a lot of openings, like "Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world," or "Martel was angry. He did not even adjust his blood away from anger," or "Put down that wrench!" or "In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit."

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Try to begin where the story begins. That sounds trite, perhaps, but it is an important element of a good beginning which too many writers forget in their quest for a grand theory of the beginning.

To identify the beginning of a particular story, identify the central dramatic tension of that story. Find out when your main POV character (not necessarily a main character) becomes aware of that tension. The events which make the POV character aware of the dramatic tension serve as the starting point of that story from that POV.

Posted by starsin (Member # 4081) on :

Yeah...that's a big problem for me. I keep wanting to start like on the day that my MC discovers his unique abilities, but at the same time...I want to try to show my readers that despite all the things that have been done to him (like a decaying gene that accelerates growth and another decaying gene to accelerate brain development...hey, it's SF, I can get away with that :P), he's really a normal guy who does and wants to do normal things.

So...In retrospect, I should probably start my story somewhere else than where I'm currently starting it (like...a few brief paragraphs laying down some of the foundation work that are probably un-necessary, but :P I'm the author...bug off!).

Oh well...Just start where YOU want to start, or where YOU feel you should start. I read a quote by one author, Phillip Pullman (I don't remember if it was one or two "L"s in that...), where he was asked a question to the effect of should you write to appease to the masses and he replied saying that you should write to appease yourself.

My two cents says that writing should never be a chore, should never be something that is done to please others. It should be fun for you and done to please yourself. Even if your goal in writing is to please others, in pleasing others, you're pleasing youself...hopefully...