Beginninngs

[mongoose]

This might have been covered elsewhere. If so, please direct me there.

What beginnings of stories have you found most effective, and why?

I have a friend who said every good story begins with a fight. He was probably limiting his assessment to action adventure stories, but I sort of took his word to heart, and was trying to determine how to begin my story with a fight.

My initial assumption, and I may have read this somewhere, was that you want to begin your story with an introduction of your primary character. Begin with a scene that shows your character acting in the way that you want the reader/viewer/listener to expect the character to act. You're setting him/her up for the rest of the story, and first impressions are lasting impressions. I've tried to do that with one of my POV characters, but not with my Primary Character. I could make changes.

A story that was particularly memorable for me (I checked out other books by the same author, and didn't really appreciate them as much as this one) began with a scene of the PC looking out over the countryside. It mentioned the character in the first paragraph(s) but focused on the scenery he was looking over. The scenery proved central to the story, which, I suppose, was why the author began with it. But my point is that I was hooked by that description of the scenery, and thus enjoyed the rest of the story.

What's most important to you? What made the strongest impression? Which movies have you enjoyed most, and what did they use as the opening scene?

Are there rules about this I'm supposed to be aware of?

[morganlbusse]

Hey Mongoose!

My experience is there are no fast set rules how to start a story. There's everything from showing an event from a minor character's viewpoint (first chapter in Harry Potter is shown through the eyes of his uncle) to an historical event (the first chapter of Francine River's book A Voice in the Wind shows the fall of Jerusalem) to introducing the book in a middle of a fight (most Star Wars books start this way).

However, you need to grab your reader's attention. If they are not hooked, then most readers will not venture further into your story. For me personally, I need to either be intrigued by the action (why is everyone acting weird and who is that baby with the scar at the beginning of Harry Potter?) or start to bond with the character (at the beginning of Francine River's book Redeeming Love, you meet a little girl who is sold into prostitution, I absolutely had to read the rest of the book to see what happened to her).

So at the end of your first chapter, ask yourself "Why would someone want to continue to read my story?" (which can be hard because you know what's going to happen, but have you planted enough suspense/intrigue or created a character memorable enough that your reader wants to see what happens next?).

Anyway, this is how I evaluate my first chapters, hope this helps!

[Jeff Gerke]

You don't have to begin your story with a fight, imo, but you'd better begin it with something happening. Something engaging.

Someone sitting around thinking or a narrator giving an information dump of backstory is a great way to encourage your reader to put your book down and go see what's on TV.

I'm currently writing a chapter on beginnings in The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, but you'll have to wait a while to see that in print.

In the meantime, be sure to read Tip #35: www.wherethemapends.com/writerstools/writers_tools_pages/tip_of_the_week--31-40.htm

Jeff

[J Jack]

Most of the books I read have something akin to a fight. They begin with an ordinary situation, like a security guard doing his rounds. He'll finish up, then turn around and there is a masked gunman standing there. Bam, security guard is dead, and gunman yells out orders to his crew, finishing with some cliff hanger one liner.

I know it sounds cheesy but it works well for me, it draws me in because now I want to know why they killed him, what they are doing, and so on. I'm intrigued by the happenings. That again applies to most action/adventure novels and the like, but I think some sort of conflict (not neccessarily a fight) should be there to draw the reader in. Maybe an argument, a fist fight, some terrible situation, natural disaster, emotional conflict, internal.

My personal favourite opening scene was in a monastary in the mountains, secluded. German commandos were holding the monks hostage (prior to this there was a newspaper articles detailing a library that was thought lost in this monastary). They are demanding to get a book as it has been hidden, and they are asking one monk. They move along the line, executing monks to get him to speak, until they finally have killed four or five and come to him. An old man stands up, asking for no more bloodshed, he brings the leader to the book. Then he says leave us alone and all that, the leader laughs, has all them executed. As they leave, the author described a hidden room above the dining hall, and looking out from twisted planks was a human eye. DUN DUN DUN.

I was engaged, I could not put the book down until I knew what was going on, and the whole book was filled with twists and betrayals, some you saw some you didn't. In my opinion that was one of the greatest hooks I'd ever read.

[gabriel]

I've a number of different beginnings that I love. The first (to my memory) comes from "Absalom, Absalom!", which is just a beautifully dark description of where two people are sitting. What got me was the beauty of the language and the rhythm within the sentence (I still think only Faulkner should be allowed to use five adjectives for one noun ).
The next is The Wheel of Time. I was tricked into reading this by Robert Jordan. The opening paragraphs for the first chapters are some wonderfully written whatchamacallits: openings, intonements, bardic songs etc. They set the tone for the series as a whole, and I was hooked from that first paragraph alone, thinking, "Something this epic must be worth reading." Little did I know.
In terms of suspense, I think Le Carre had a brilliant yet subtle opening in "The Perfect Spy." The long paragraph starts with Arthur Pym walking through a boring British countryside to a quaint house lodged deep within the Britannic bosom. Then he knocks on a door and the woman answers "Why Mr. Canterbury, it's been so long since I've seen you." Excuse me.....I thought he was.....Ohhhhhhh. But he doesn't let up there. I was on the edge of my seat because of how cloaked the dialogue was in suspicion. She bolts the door, and I'm like "Gah! What's gonna happen!?" And then she bolts another door, and I just lost it.
I think the beginning of the story needs to entrance the reader somehow: either through the question, “What’s going on?” (whether its curiosity, or edge-of-your seat nerve-wrecking suspense), or by lyricism. Personally, it’s difficult for me to get through a book that’s not written well, unless it has such a dynamo plot that I need—neeeeeeeeeeeed—to know what happens.
But mongoose mentioned something about introducing the character in a certain way. I think this is important, and I didn’t learn this until I read “The Chill” by Ross MacDonald. Archer’s client is this young kid, with a missing wife, that doesn’t like being told what to do. In the first page you learn almost everything about this kid through his actions: he brushes off the guard, gets defensive when Archers questions him, and all sorts of other signs of behaviors pop out. He’s not the main character, though. Archer was always in the background while the clients and suspects stood out. But MacDonald is a master of characterization I usually strive to imitate.
Anyways, thems my thoughts.

[Christian Soldier]

I have, perhaps, the oddest method of creating a beginning. I write a beginning, which is just a place holder, and finish the story. My last step, other than editing, is to go back and write/rewrite my beginning. Then I let it sit in my desk drawer for a week or two and chop off the first third or so of the story. Obviously, I don't do that every time, just what usually ends up happening.

...

Does that make any sense? Check out Mikhail Veller's "The Guru", he explains it better than I.

[Jeff Gerke]

This is actually a pretty good plan, Glyn, and not as unusual as you might think.

The whole book should be written this way, in my mind. You just get the idea on paper (or the screen). You get it all out of your head and into a form that you can work with. Then when that phase is done, you go back and begin working on what you've wrought. The whole thing should be like a rough cut in a movie: most of the good stuff is there, but now it's time to start trimming and refining.

Jeff

[gabriel]

I read in this book, "The Modern Library Writer's Workshop", that the second revision should be a complete rewrite. The frist one is a rough cut and shouldn't be shown to anyone (which I agree with ) I've sort of done something similar with a short story, but it was more of a cut-and-paste of what I did and didn't like and then some rewrites. I don't know about a whole rewrite, especially with this novel I'm writing being my first.

Thoughts, anyone?

[metalikhan]

My first draft of anything (novel, short story, even poetry) is so rough it looks quarried rather than written. With the longer fiction, I may have several paragraphs in a character's POV interspersed with bold face notes like Possible Confrontation Here? or Misty Nostalgia Moment — Maybe Interrupt with ____? or character/setting notes or just a run of verbs or adjectives I think might work in that chapter later when I rewrite. In my pre-computer days, stuff like that I wrote with a different pen color so I could find it again.

As for beginnings, I've read all sorts, action or description, with or without prologue, including one that starts in the middle of the sentence (the beginning of the sentence was the ending of the book). In each case, study of the story's construction usually leads to the conclusion that it is the best or most logical (or _____ fill in blank) possible beginning for that particular story, that if it started another way it would affect the tone, or theme, or..? of the rest of the story.

[Christian Soldier]

Good point, MK! The sad thing is that sometimes you can't determine the beginning till you've seen the end. Especially with mine. I wander too much in the beginning. As for rewrites, I used to do that until I noticed that each complete rewrite brought it's own problems. Now I edit in place, often using much the same technique as MK does. CJ Cherryh uses the same technique, btw. She outlines on the same sheet she writes on, deleting as she goes, and if she can't come up with something right away: bold print Horse name here, and drive on.

[morganlbusse]

Something I've done since I read Stephen King's On Writing (good book, recommend it, although the beginning of the book is a short bio on Stephen himself, explains why he is the way he is ;P so be warned) is he recommends writing your story all the way through without stopping to edit, rewrite, whatever. I decided to do that and have found it worked great for me. I have learned how to push through writer's block, not be so perfectionist, and how to finish what you started. Then I plan on letting my work cool off for a couple weeks, then begin the editing/revising. And that's when you can see if your beginning fits with your book, if you have any themes running you might emphasize more, and overall make your story a concise, tightened whole.

[Jeff Gerke]

Gabriel, I think what you may be seeing here is that there are as many ways of writing as there are writers. The only wrong ways to write are ways that don't help you. Try all kinds of experiments, but don't be afraid to disregard someone's advice if he or she says not to do something you've found to be personally helpful.

See Tips 85-86 for how to interpret conflicting advice from writing teachers and books (www.wherethemapends.com/writerstools/writers_tools_pages/tip_of_the_week--81-90.htm).

The goal of a rough draft, in my mind, is just to get the main idea out there. With this draft you're creating something from nothing. Your task after that is to begin refining what you've written, but those later steps are performed on something that exists, which is a different activity from causing it to exist in the first place.

My second draft has never been a complete rewrite. I suppose it might be that way for some authors, but don't feel guilty if you don't think your first draft should be completely thrown out.

I think your goal as a novelist ought to be to get better and better at rough drafts so that they're closer to being publishable the first time around. I don't mean that you should stress over making every paragraph perfect while writing your rough draft. I just mean that you ought to be learning some things so that your first effort needs less major work later.

All of my scenes get tweaked before I'm satisfied with them, of course, but in terms of rewriting whole scenes--I rarely do this. Only when something isn't working, would I do this.

Jeff

[veritasseeker90]

I cannot start anything unless it captures my own attention from the get go...which is why my writing often starts with all the action. I have a problem. LOL.

[seraphim]

I think the basic idea is to start the story at or very shortly before the moment the world changes for the MC. That can be a fight, an alien invasion, a brace of Baluchitheriums sniffing the curtains of your upstairs bedroom window, a car crash, Greatgrandparents at the door, suitcase by their side, or that sudden twinge of weakness in the hand that presages the onset of a terrible disease.

Or you could use theme music...just have your MC doing ordinary stuff with "just doing my thang" background music then segue it into some creepy impending danger riff, like the Jaws theme, or Tubular Bells, or the rising moan and screech of frantic violins...then watch your MC freak out knowing from the music some grave danger approaches....then you can have a chase scene of your MC running as fast as he can from the evil stalking danger theme music only to run into the next, perhaps deadly confrontation.

[torainfor]

seraphim, you say you're not visual; you must be auditory cus that was beautiful. What would it look like if you wrote a piece where you used sounds to describe characterization and personality instead of looks? Just have a blind protagonist!