Getting started...

[Mojo88]

Hello, everyone.

I've been trying to write a novel for quite some time, but have been unable to persevere through the distractions that life throws at me. Here I am, steeling myself to make another effort, and I am finding it hard to come up with a decent beginning...

First of all, this has me worried. If I cannot even start my story, how can I hope to make it to the end?

Anywho, I've tried the dramatic chase scene at the beginning, the farmboy rolling out of bed, the hunter alone in the woods, and even the dwarves in the tavern... My problem is that none of it feels original. It has all been done before. I know, it is quite difficult to come up with something truly original, but I feel if I don't find an original way to get things started, I may accidentally follow the standard fantasy story that has been done thousands of times.

I have the characters fleshed out for the most part, a well as important locations and plot points. I have even drawn a map of the world... But the most important part, the story, is giving me trouble.

Are there any suggestions you can give me? Anything to help me figure out how to get the ball rolling? I've tried applying liberal ammounts of "bum glue" and just writing, but I'm still stuck at square one.

Any help, any at all, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dimentio]

Hello, everyone.

I've been trying to write a novel for quite some time, but have been unable to persevere through the distractions that life throws at me. Here I am, steeling myself to make another effort, and I am finding it hard to come up with a decent beginning...

First of all, this has me worried. If I cannot even start my story, how can I hope to make it to the end?

Anywho, I've tried the dramatic chase scene at the beginning, the farmboy rolling out of bed, the hunter alone in the woods, and even the dwarves in the tavern... My problem is that none of it feels original. It has all been done before. I know, it is quite difficult to come up with something truly original, but I feel if I don't find an original way to get things started, I may accidentally follow the standard fantasy story that has been done thousands of times.

I have the characters fleshed out for the most part, a well as important locations and plot points. I have even drawn a map of the world... But the most important part, the story, is giving me trouble.

Are there any suggestions you can give me? Anything to help me figure out how to get the ball rolling? I've tried applying liberal ammounts of "bum glue" and just writing, but I'm still stuck at square one.

Any help, any at all, would be greatly appreciated.

Write a little informal chronicle about the world, its kingdoms, their social systems, the peoples, races and species, etc... little cultural details, general level of technological development, so on...

 

[The Judge]

Hello there and Welcome to the Chronicles!

I think the usual answer is that you start the book just as something is about to happen. If the farm is just about to be taken over by Big Baddie's henchmen, then seeing the farmboy at the beginning might indeed be the obvious place to start - though I'm not sure seeing him roll out of bed would be that interesting (though I suppose it depends upon whose bed he is in at the time...).

You say that you've got the plot points but no story. It sounds to me as if you are like a tourist with a list of places to visit and no idea how to get from one to the other - would that be a fair assessment? If so, then think like a tourist. Which is most important? Which should be seen first, before the crowds get there? Which comes last because it's a place to see at night? Once the places are in some sort of order, work out how to get from one to the other - you have your transport in the form of your characters. You know their motivations and their backgrounds - make them do the legwork.

You worry about the openings not seeming original. Yes, it is going to look odd if you start with an obvious ripoff. But just because someone else has started a novel with a chase scene doesn't mean that yours is going to be anything like the same - you have different characters, different settings, different use of language, different themes.

And there's no obligation to start at the beginning you know. If you have a wealth of material in your head, or in notes somewhere, start writing one of the later scenes and just carry on from there.

It might help you if you fetch out one of the openings and post it in the critiques section (please read the guidelines first though - this is very important). You can be sure that if we don't think it measures up as an opening, someone will tell you - in so many words. Similarly if it seems too hackneyed or an obvious crib, someone will recognise it as such and will say. In either case, you will know to try something different. If however, as I'm sure is more likely, it is both original and a good Chapter 1/prologue, we will tell you that as well and it will help to boost your confidence and allow you to get stuck in to the rest of the story.

Hope this helps. And again - Welcome.

J

 

[Professor 0110]

Anywho, I've tried the dramatic chase scene at the beginning, the farmboy rolling out of bed, the hunter alone in the woods, and even the dwarves in the tavern... My problem is that none of it feels original. It has all been done before. I know, it is quite difficult to come up with something truly original, but I feel if I don't find an original way to get things started, I may accidentally follow the standard fantasy story that has been done thousands of times.

There's absolutely no problem in my humble opinion with reusing "cliched" elements. In fact, I think the traditional fantasy story of good versus evil (if that is what yours is ultimately about), is really what defines the fantasy genre. As long as you add a touch of your own ideas and there's no character named "Frodo", I think you'll be fine.

I've been trying to write a novel for quite some time, but have been unable to persevere through the distractions that life throws at me. Here I am, steeling myself to make another effort, and I am finding it hard to come up with a decent beginning...

First of all, this has me worried. If I cannot even start my story, how can I hope to make it to the end?

Ah, yes. I've had that several times. False starts. But now, I am 30 000 words into my book and about to write another few thousand today hopefully.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Start the book wherever you like. You can always change your starting point when you're working on later drafts and have a better idea of where your story should begin.

My only suggestion would be that you don't start off with a stereotypical scene like dwarves in a tavern. If you start with a moment that is unique to you story and build on that (forward -- and backward if necessary), you're more likely to avoid writing that standard story you are afraid of writing.

 

[Ursa major]

I've lost count of the number of beginnings (Prologues and Chapter Ones) I've had for WiP1. (And that does not take into account that the first book in the series started life as a prequel to an unfinished book that now looks completely different to what I'd first put down on paper.)



Note that even the professionals have problems with the start of their workds. Consider Wagner's Ring cycle. Originally there was one libretto, Siegfried's Tod; a prequel was added (Young Siegfried, now simply Siegfried), then two more (Das Rheingold and Die Die Walküre) and then Siegfried's Tod was renamed Götterdämmerung. And then - I'm simplifying greatly here - he wrote the music for it.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Where to begin is hard. I tend to pick a point then write until the characters become interesting to me. I know that sounds silly, but until I get a chunk, say about 2,000 words down, even it I have outlined and plotted my story, until I can actually read back my characters interacting in the story I can't get interested in them enough to want to write about them.

This leads to false starts, and abandoned stories, but once I have pushed through the barrier, I find I want to open the document and write more. I want to do the research, don't mind the brickwalls I hit with plot lines, and total about face moments my characters decide to enact. I work it out. Then the word count written each week goes up. By the end of a book I am clocking sometimes 10,000 words and have to force myself to stop.

All being said what is being written is first draft, and is allowed to suck big time in places.

 

[Professor 0110]

This leads to false starts, and abandoned stories, but once I have pushed through the barrier, I find I want to open the document and write more. I want to do the research, don't mind the brickwalls I hit with plot lines, and total about face moments my characters decide to enact. I work it out. Then the word count written each week goes up. By the end of a book I am clocking sometimes 10,000 words and have to force myself to stop.

Geez, and I thought pumping out 5,000 words in one day was a world record. You put me to shame there.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It doesn't matter how many words you write in a day. It's not a race.

In fact, I think the traditional fantasy story of good versus evil (if that is what yours is ultimately about), is really what defines the fantasy genre.

The traditional fantasy story of good versus evil comprises such a tiny corner of the rich and various field of fantasy that it does not come close to defining the genre. It is certainly a theme that has its merits, and in the right hands it can still be used so effectively and with such an original voice and viewpoint that it seems fresh again ... but it is rapidly giving way to works more original in conception.

Which, rather than a brand new trend, is actually a revival.

If you were to study the history of the fantasy genre over the last forty years (let alone the last century or two) it would blow your mind wide open.

 

[Susan Boulton]

This leads to false starts, and abandoned stories, but once I have pushed through the barrier, I find I want to open the document and write more. I want to do the research, don't mind the brickwalls I hit with plot lines, and total about face moments my characters decide to enact. I work it out. Then the word count written each week goes up. By the end of a book I am clocking sometimes 10,000 words and have to force myself to stop.

Geez, and I thought pumping out 5,000 words in one day was a world record. You put me to shame there.

Per week, not day!!!

At the moment I am struggling to get 500 words done per day.

You work at the pace that suits you.

 

[ctg]

At the moment I am struggling to get 500 words done per day.

You work at the pace that suits you.

Sue, to you, it's not about the acceptance is it? You've passed that test. So to you it's about making the best words you can, is it not?

 

[Susan Boulton]

Sue, to you, it's not about the acceptance is it? You've passed that test. So to you it's about making the best words you can, is it not?

Yes it is, and strangely the bar has been raised. I need to produce a better story.

There is nothing wrong with cliches, use them and twist them.

My latest effort begins with a couple just walking and talking on a warm summer evening in 1942. Talk about a cliche this is straight out of any film/book of the 1940's 50's

 

[Professor 0110]

The traditional fantasy story of good versus evil comprises such a tiny corner of the rich and various field of fantasy that it does not come close to defining the genre. It is certainly a theme that has its merits, and in the right hands it can still be used so effectively and with such an original voice and viewpoint that it seems fresh again ... but it is rapidly giving way to works more original in conception.

The good versus evil theme has really elevated the fantasy genre's overall popularity, though. I highly doubt if it would be as celebrated as it is if it wasn't for the high fantasy stories published from Tolkien onwards.

As to the originality of it...I believe my fantasy series (Book 1 in progress) has accomplished a sort of new face on this common theme. At least that I why I am so intrigued, so excited with it.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The good versus evil theme has really elevated the fantasy genre's overall popularity, though. I highly doubt if it would be as celebrated as it is if it wasn't for the high fantasy stories published from Tolkien onwards.

But that was forty years ago. A lot has happened since then (including rediscovering some of the wonderful writers who were producing fantasy before, or at the same time as Tolkien). I realize that this is a theme that has a strong resonance for you, and that being so, it is definitely what you should be writing. However, it wasn't the good versus evil theme in LOTR that caused the books to have such a terrific impact and create an appetite for fantasy in the reading public. It was the experience of entering a new world, so detailed and complete, that captured our imaginations. The books had other merits, of course, but most of those could be met with in other types of fiction. It was the grandeur of the whole conception.

And the majority of readers are so cynical at the moment, they prefer their fantasy worlds in shades of black and grey. Which is not to say that you shouldn't write your story in shades of dark and light if that is how you view the world. You should. But if you have any ambition to be published (but maybe you don't) you need to be realistic and understand where the fantasy genre has been and where it is going.

* * *

But to go back to the original question that started this thread: Stories don't always begin at the beginning. Sometimes they begin in the middle and grow at both ends. It's only when you have a book complete and ready to send out that you want to be sure that it starts at the right place. (And even then, an editor who is interested in buying the book -- or who may already have bought the book -- might suggest an earlier or later beginning.)

So it's very, very premature to be tormenting yourself about where the book should begin when you're only just starting to write it. Wait until you're ready to edit; there will be plenty of opportunities to agonize then.

 

[MistingWolf]

I originally started my book with an idea I've decided not to use, a bit of back-story. I decided not to use it because I realized it wouldn't quite work for what I needed. Now my story starts off with my character looking at her back in the mirror, at the beginning of an ordinary day at school, then on to gymnastics. Here's the first sentence:

She was convinced that the lumps on her back weren’t normal.

And, believe it or not, I was told by a real-life person who I asked to do a critique on it that "That isn't how you start a story." I kinda chuckle. There is no set way that you have to start your story. You could start it in the middle, then have the protagonist bring you back closer to the beginning, then perhaps even have to rewind again to the very beginning. A little tedious, and it's been done before, but it doesn't seem like you've tried this option. Start, say, even near the end, then perhaps the character could "reminisce" about what's already happened.

 

[shadowbox]

Two years ago, when the story in my head began, it was COMPLETELY DIFFERENT then what I am writting now.

It could be another story, in truth.

Though I am sure many will object, I do not believe you should tie yourself down to consistent writing.

Writing is like an emotion. You feel it when you feel it. That is when write it down. Go with what you have and the rest will fall in place.

 

[goldhawk]

I recommend that you choose one character and focus on their point of view. For example, the first paragraph of my favourite novel:

"When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."

Note that the author did not start with the main protagonist. Instead he started with a minor character and focused on the problems he had with his gossipy neighbours and in throwing his party. It is a short sub-plot but it does well in establishing the setting and culture of where the novel starts.

 

[KESpires]

King's The Gunslinger is a story that uses flashbacks to great effect, beginning with Roland walking and then flashing back to the last desert dweller he encountered, then, in that scene, recounting the last town he'd passed through.

It was a very interesting thing to do, and worked especially well, considering the alternative was having a major confrontation at the beginning of the story, followed by our hero wandering through the desert, and then meeting a desert dweller, eating, and moving on. That would have been sort of meandering.

So, to sum up. Start it and tell it in a way that fits for the story you're telling, as MistingWolf is suggesting, would be my advice.

And Teresa's point about not being in a race is excellent.

Even if you only get 250 or 300 words a day, so long as they're good words...