Starting my first draft, though need some advice on how to start.

[junkodudeturkey835]

This is tricky, i decided to finally get myself to do a draft of this novel (i call it draft 0) i have been meaning to do...but like every time i try to write, i can't think of a comfortable way to start.

I will spill some of the story out. Its set in 2124 where most of humanity have become cyborgs (they are genetically engineered and have matrix style ports on their bodies) while pure humans have become somewhat obsolete and mostly reside in poor communities outside of the cities. The story focuses on a pure human. The story involves his father developing a sickness of some sort, so his son is required to go into a city to find a way to get money for his father.

I have thought of a few ways it could start, involve the main character waking up from a dream (since there are important dream sequences in the story) or him just entering the city. But i can't decide, and i would love some input on this since i am in need of some sort of way i could start this tale that will allow the reader to be comfortable.

I have these already written down, a pre-story quotation which sets up the story and its fantasy tone. Yes despite the fact what i described sounds like Deus Ex HR (and the original is far superior to that overly pretentious crap), its actually more like Mad Max combined with Alien, Akira and Star Wars. Anyway here is the thing i have written right now. The No Man is the main character, though that isn't a name he is referred to in the story at anytime, its cryptic alien stuff.

“In days to come,

A trickster will rule,

And then will he destroy,

He will leave to repeat the cycle,

A remnant will follow, and by doing so will do his bidding,

On another sphere, he will rule, and then the remnant will come,

But on this sphere, a creature is there, a creature that will strike the remnant down and break the cycle,

The creature is the No Man.”

- The tablets of Zark’ukira

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Don't get hung up on the start - when you get to the end it might well have changed. The only advice I can give is to write it, get to the end and then revise. Sorry, boring I know, but I - so far - have only one book with the same beginning I started with and I'm looking at it with suspicion.

Edit: and whatever you do, don't have him waking from a dream. Agents hate that one.

 

[junkodudeturkey835]

I just can't do it...i had the passion to write that opening quote but the rest.

The best i can describe the feeling is as if there is a ball in my mind. The mind is a tube of sorts, but there is this ball that's blocking the gateway from the mind to the computer screen, causing me to struggle to write down character actions. The ball will get larger when i try to force myself to write, which creates a feeling of heavy stress that will make me give up no matter what i write. This never used to happen, but now whenever i am writing anything this shows up, hell i even struggle to type down these posts due to it.

I also feel i sound a bit incoherent and rushed whenever i try speaking from the heart, this feels like its a result of the stress in a way.

I dunno, i'm just in need of relief but i am in no power to give me any in real life.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Then take a break. It's not a competition - write when you feel able to. I am no stranger to the concept of things seeming too much, or too hard, and usually there's a reason, and sometimes it's one we can't shift on our own. If you don't feel you need medical support - and you've said so in other threads - then give the writing a break and see if the ball moves. If it does, you might be surer it's just writing, if it doesn't, you might need to explore further into what's making life hard at the moment.

 

[junkodudeturkey835]

Then take a break. It's not a competition - write when you feel able to. I am no stranger to the concept of things seeming too much, or too hard, and usually there's a reason, and sometimes it's one we can't shift on our own. If you don't feel you need medical support - and you've said so in other threads - then give the writing a break and see if the ball moves. If it does, you might be surer it's just writing, if it doesn't, you might need to explore further into what's making life hard at the moment.

I suppose that's my only real option at this moment in time. But! I did manage to squeeze this out of my mess of a mind.

"Stepping off the train, Norman found himself in an unfamiliar environment. For years he had lived among the green fields of Kansas, only hearing about the concrete jungles that people refer to as cities. This particular “concrete jungle” is New York City. "

I really want to ensure there is a good deal of build up before all hell breaks loose, but with how i can't keep focused for a good amount of time i guess it is going to have to wait. It may do wonders for my mental state too for all we know.

 

[jastius]

have you tried the workshop threads? those games get you out of your head..
i can not start anything on screen.. the bloody computer sitting there glaring at me.. hissing away.. complete road block..

i sit out near a window where its quiet and listen to my head for a bit.. i get the first bit down pencil and paper.. or pen and paper.. that is how i am used to writing.. i get the idea .. the finish, the events highlights.. and then i listen for that sweet hook.. that killer opening line that lets the reader step into the shoes of my story and take it for a walk.. letting it breath...

for yours... in my head i see this scared kid out to help his dad but the whole world getting in the way.
he goes to get the money. but those jacked up cyberheads are after him.. he is their wet back neanderthal unevolved cousin ..and prey for them. and they stalk him like the wolves they are.. they chase him.. and he almost gets away. but they catch him and not only take the money, but his dignity.
i would start it with his running from them. desperate. and being driven away by all the jacked up city folk. a sort of nightmare collage of what is happening.. and why he needs the money and his fear of these people... all the while he is counting down the steps left in front of him.. the distance between him and escape.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Unless you are very rare, very gifted, very organised and constantly editing your first draft will be total rubbish. Don't worry about it. Rewriting, editing etc comes next and overtime it will fix the issues.

But don't expect miracles. If you don't write the rubbish it will never get good. I find keeping the little question "How can I make this worse?" in my mind is really useful.

 

[Pyan]

“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop. Then go back and start rewriting”(as Lewis Carroll nearly said...)

i can not start anything on screen.. the bloody computer sitting there glaring at me.. hissing away.. complete road block.

Couldn't agree more. A pad of wide-ruled paper, with the doodles already starting to spread down the edge, a softish pencil - not a pen - and a large eraser....

 

[Aleph]

You'll throw the beginning out in the rewrite anyway. Worrying about beginnings is like worrying about the colour of the scaffolding around a new house. Eventually it's going to come down anyway, who cares?

 

[HareBrain]

I might have been lucky, in that when I started writing I knew nothing about writing a novel. I had a character, I knew a few things about him and a couple of other people in the story, I had some locations in mind, and I realised that eventually there would have to be a coherent plot. But I had never read all the advice that I think can put far too much pressure on a beginning writer.

All I did at the start, for a couple of months or so, was play. I wrote random scenes, scraps of dialogue, exploring the characters and setting, but mostly just seeing what i could achieve (or not) with language, which was really exciting. Most of those scenes were awful, and none of them made it into the complete first draft, but I got a feeling for what I was doing.

If I had been concerned about structure and which was the right beginning at that stage in my own writing -- if I'd even considered the needs or wants of a potential reader -- I would never have got off the ground. Maybe that's part of your problem.

 

[Mouse]

But I had never read all the advice that I think can put far too much pressure on a beginning writer.

If I had been concerned about structure and which was the right beginning at that stage in my own writing -- if I'd even considered the needs or wants of a potential reader -- I would never have got off the ground. Maybe that's part of your problem.

Yes, exactly this. This is why all the 'don't do this/don't do that' advice winds me up so much, why I also tell people not to read 'how to' books.

I've been writing stories since primary school, so I never read any advice on how to do it and therefore didn't worry myself with thinking oh god, what if this isn't the way to do it?

Just start any old where and write any old thing. Unless you're carving your novel in stone, it can all be changed once you know what you're doing.

 

[Serendipity]

Hello Ryan,

Your writing story sounds all too familiar to me. In my view (which will probably be controversial) there are 3 basic ways of writing a novel (with the usual mix and match that goes with it).

1) You have a character and you see what that character does (which is what Harebrain seems to be majoring on in his comment)
2) There's the plot, which is basically a puzzle and how to solve that puzzle (think detective stories)
3) There's the idea-led novel, which is what I think you're majoring on. The way I've found to deal with this is to write a three or four crucial scenes where the idea comes to the fore and then link them in a practical order and write the bits in between.

Whilst all three involve a lot of work, the last usually ends up a in couple of major rewrites while trying to get the consistency throughout the novel. This will take time and as they say...

Patience is virtue,virtue is a grace...
and Grace is a little girl who didn't wash her face...

Hope this helps...

 

[Toby Frost]

Personally, I would start almost any story with a character, probably the hero, doing something exciting and unusual but not so unusual that a huge amount of description is required. So I started a story with the lead character running away from an alien monster. He is running away because the alien doesn't want to join the Space Empire and is going to tell him so emphatically. The first thing we see is Smith running away, then the alien, then Smith escaping, then Smith pausing for breath and reflecting that the aliens probably don't want to join the Space Empire after all, and how ungrateful they are. This works ok because it's the sort of thing Smith often does, and so there's not a vast need to describe everything from his point of view.

Where massive culture shock is involved (a medieval peasant is beamed into the hold of a vast alien spaceship) you could run into problems because you've immediately got to describe the weirdness of the situation and introduce the peasant, and have something actually happening rather than a man staring at things around him. You could show the peasant dealing with some more conventional but interesting problem at home - he hears wolves in the forest and fears for his family, say - before being captured, or he appears in a small, empty room in the ship and suspects that he has gone to Heaven before opening the door leading into the main hold.

Overall, though, you might just be better off starting to write at some point fairly early in the story, and wondering about the exact words of the opening later on. Just wade in, and the more you write, the easier it will probably be to write more.

 

[stephen.samuels]

Agree with Toby, definitely bring the character in at a point of conflict which reveals something about their character etc. You can get investment right from the off that way.

 

[Abernovo]

Just start any old where and write any old thing. Unless you're carving your novel in stone, it can all be changed once you know what you're doing.

This. So much, this.

If you want, write loads of unimportant crap leading up to the real story. It won't make it to the end product, but you'll know exactly where you are, what the place looks like and who's doing what, what their desires are.

The main thing is to write. But don't worry about word counts, or getting this or that bit right, or anything else. Get the story down. When it's done, you can edit. When it's done: you can edit as you go; you can write a bare bones first draft and build it up; or you can write a massive tome and cut it down.

None of that matters. Write something, so you have something to edit. It doesn't even have to be in order. Write out some scenes you'd like to include. Again, they might not all make it to the final draft, but it doesn't matter. Every sentence (even a bad one ) makes you better, because you practising your craft.
Good luck.

 

[mosaix]

I agree with pretty much everything that has been said here Ryan, but can I make a personal plea.

About the name Zark’ukira. Please don’t invent names that are difficult to remember or pronounce. If a story is well written then it will probably ’hypnotise’ the reader. The reader will become submerged in it. The last thing you want is for the reader to ’surface’ and think ’how the hell is that pronounced’.


Please excuse lack of question marks, cannot find them and other punctuation on this Norwegian keyboard.

 

[Ancient writer]

This is tricky, i decided to finally get myself to do a draft of this novel (i call it draft 0) i have been meaning to do...but like every time i try to write, i can't think of a comfortable way to start.

I will spill some of the story out. Its set in 2124 where most of humanity have become cyborgs (they are genetically engineered and have matrix style ports on their bodies) while pure humans have become somewhat obsolete and mostly reside in poor communities outside of the cities. The story focuses on a pure human. The story involves his father developing a sickness of some sort, so his son is required to go into a city to find a way to get money for his father.

I have thought of a few ways it could start, involve the main character waking up from a dream (since there are important dream sequences in the story) or him just entering the city. But i can't decide, and i would love some input on this since i am in need of some sort of way i could start this tale that will allow the reader to be comfortable.

I have these already written down, a pre-story quotation which sets up the story and its fantasy tone. Yes despite the fact what i described sounds like Deus Ex HR (and the original is far superior to that overly pretentious crap), its actually more like Mad Max combined with Alien, Akira and Star Wars. Anyway here is the thing i have written right now. The No Man is the main character, though that isn't a name he is referred to in the story at anytime, its cryptic alien stuff.

“In days to come,

A trickster will rule,

And then will he destroy,

He will leave to repeat the cycle,

A remnant will follow, and by doing so will do his bidding,

On another sphere, he will rule, and then the remnant will come,

But on this sphere, a creature is there, a creature that will strike the remnant down and break the cycle,

The creature is the No Man.”

- The tablets of Zark’ukira

If it's any help, I find the end is a good place to start. You probably have a fair idea of where you're going, if not yet how to get there. Write the last page. You'll change everything eventually but it'll get you thinking. As for the beginning, well, it's the old hook thing. You've got to grab the potential reader and drag him in. The first few paragraphs are the most important you'll write and they will not stay the same. After I'd 'finished' my recently published novel, I spent a month faffing about with the first chapter. Couldn't get it right. I'd go to bed happy with it and next day I'd think it was rubbish (probably was) and faff again. I was still faffing the day I uploaded it to Kindle! However, one reviewer actually mentioned Chapter 1 and said it was good. One happy customer anyway. Just fill that screen. No-on will see it but you.

 

[nubins]

Try writing a prologue. Some other event in the world that has a vague impact on the story or.. well wahtever. Just to get the mind moving and feel like you've started actually writing. Once you have that done, you might find it easier to start chapter one. You dont have to include the prologue in the finished piece and chances are, whatever you write at the start of the first chapter will change when you re-draught the story anyway.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I know I'm not in much of a place to give advice as I am still not even an amateur writer, but how I got my WIP started was I merely wrote down the first words that came into my head.

I believe that the mind works things out even when you are not consciously thinking about it. You have your idea there, and you'll most likely have a rough idea on where you want to go with it. Even if consciously you can't see the journey all that clearly, your subconscious mind does. It's merely a question of getting that information out. So, I let the idea age a bit and when I start to write, I take a deep breath, relax and clear the mind (I don't think of anything, especially the rules of writing which I know nothing about at this stage). After a few deep breaths, or just one, I merely write the first thing that comes into my head and I go from there, writing the next thing and the next, and the next until I finally come up with the rough draft which will lead me in my the direction I want to go.

Although I mentioned in one of my other threads that I'm still on my first draft, before that I had a draft so rough it could be considered more as a 12 000 word summary of the WIP. I printed that out, read through it with a red pen and marked the things I liked and didn't like. At the end, I only kept like three scenes, but it threw me in the direction I wanted to go. Because of that, I was able to come up with the plot, plus a backstory that is still helping me on the current journey. The draft began with just some random words that popped in my head, with which I structured into the starting line of the novel. Hope that makes sense?

And most of all, don't force it. Creativity can't be forced, it's a natural process that needs to be nurtured and left to grow on it's own. I don't know much about the technicalities behind it, but I do believe writer's block is often caused by trying to "force" this process (along with the restrictions rules of writing and the respective guidelines you find here and there, confine you to), rather than let it just do its own thing. If you sit down and write, but nothing comes to mind, don't force it. Go and do something else, and come back now and then until you can think of something. The same goes throughout the process of it.

Throw out the rule book, burn the "How-to" books and clear your mind. You'll be amazed at what you'll find as a result.

 

[junkodudeturkey835]

I know I'm not in much of a place to give advice as I am still not even an amateur writer, but how I got my WIP started was I merely wrote down the first words that came into my head.

I believe that the mind works things out even when you are not consciously thinking about it. You have your idea there, and you'll most likely have a rough idea on where you want to go with it. Even if consciously you can't see the journey all that clearly, your subconscious mind does. It's merely a question of getting that information out. So, I let the idea age a bit and when I start to write, I take a deep breath, relax and clear the mind (I don't think of anything, especially the rules of writing which I know nothing about at this stage). After a few deep breaths, or just one, I merely write the first thing that comes into my head and I go from there, writing the next thing and the next, and the next until I finally come up with the rough draft which will lead me in my the direction I want to go.

Although I mentioned in one of my other threads that I'm still on my first draft, before that I had a draft so rough it could be considered more as a 12 000 word summary of the WIP. I printed that out, read through it with a red pen and marked the things I liked and didn't like. At the end, I only kept like three scenes, but it threw me in the direction I wanted to go. Because of that, I was able to come up with the plot, plus a backstory that is still helping me on the current journey. The draft began with just some random words that popped in my head, with which I structured into the starting line of the novel. Hope that makes sense?

And most of all, don't force it. Creativity can't be forced, it's a natural process that needs to be nurtured and left to grow on it's own. I don't know much about the technicalities behind it, but I do believe writer's block is often caused by trying to "force" this process (along with the restrictions rules of writing and the respective guidelines you find here and there, confine you to), rather than let it just do its own thing. If you sit down and write, but nothing comes to mind, don't force it. Go and do something else, and come back now and then until you can think of something. The same goes throughout the process of it.

Throw out the rule book, burn the "How-to" books and clear your mind. You'll be amazed at what you'll find as a result.

I have been thinking the same thing, but its hard when hardly anything distracts you in life. Its why i have been begging my parents to take me on a holiday in a different country for a while. But i think i might have finished my plan anyway by the time that happens, its entering the last quarter of the story i have planned in my head. It is split into 4 Acts. Currently near the end of the third.

I choose to do this since each Act is different from one another, so it would be almost like a television miniseries of sort.