I want to start my story with a village girl collecting firewood from the forest, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Any ideas will be gratefully recieved, thank you.
Don't panic if you hear voices inside your head, it just means you're a writer.
There is no "right" and "wrong" in writing. Simply a checklist:
1- Capture our interest within the first paragraph 2- Give us a reason to care about this character as soon as possible 3- Keep holding our interest through the rest of the story
To go over each point in depth:
1- Capture our interest within the first paragraph
If somebody is interesting, chances are, you want to find out more about them. You'll ask how they're doing by opening up the book and reading down farther, wanting to find out a bit more of the story. "Interesting" is relative, and everything can be interesting when you find out the reasons for doing it.
One little tip is: how they interact with others can be a huge clue for how interesting the person is. That gets you to know how they behave as friends and if you want to risk it.
2- Give us a reason to care about this character as soon as possible
This is the difference between listening to a close friend give their life story, and a stranger talk about their life story.
When we pick up a book, the character is a stranger telling us a story. How much tolerance do you have for random people coming up and telling you their story, especially when you just asked them a simple "hi"? (Ie- opening the book and reading a few lines) Chances are, you don't want it to happen too often.
By giving us a reason to care, you expand the conversation to a "how are you?". Readers are interested enough to ask how the character's doing, in which you can start opening up their heart a little bit. We get curious so we keep reading— turning the stranger into a friend.
3- Keep holding our interest through the rest of the story
And by this, I mean don't give us all the information right at the start.
Making friends is a slow process. You find out a little bit here, a little bit there, and it's mixed in with doing stuff together. The plot is doing stuff with the character. It's the adventure that keeps us going, that makes us want to "hang out" with the MC and reading what they're doing. Throughout those adventures we find out more about them and discover all these little treasures that turn them into a fully fleshed out person. The reason we want to keep reading is because we keep wanting to find out more.
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Hopefully this helps!
~Rosey
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo
Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
Hi Peregrine! Alf here to help you in your writing distress! weeeeo! weeeeo!
I'm always like that, too. I always think of the beginning. A scene where I can start from. And I can say that yours is quite interesting. Such simplicity, see, can become very persuasive.
Anyways, Ms. Rosey already shared just about everything you need to know about crafting a good beginning of a story and Stori added a question you need to fill up. From me is this, something that pops in my mind when I read the first parts of the story..
1.) Why is the character doing the action? Will this lead into another <insert cliche fantasy plot>?
So, what's the character doing, exactly? As you've shared to us, she's collecting firewood. So why does she need to collect? Why would she do that? Is she the one who's in need of them? Remember to keep everything a discovering step, don't tell them everything at the same time! Use the dialogue and scenery to tell what the character is doing. The why is the one that will keep him/her reading.
Remember to keep everything at good pace. Actions need to be fast, eerie moments tend to be slow. Keep alternating between the situations but give a steady enough flow filled with enough information they need to understand the first few parts of the middle. When I say enough, I don't mean to reveal everything, but keeping the suspense close.
On the scene itself, some descriptions on the environment, time and the character's thinking might do the trick. Take time exploring what's there in a way that slowly you're tracking down the steps of the character. From there you can continue on with other people in the scene, or maybe an action scene. Just remember that from there, you should know well how the rest of the story goes! Just add the excite later if you can't now.
May this help thee!
Your pal, Al
Need some feed? Then read some! Take a look at today's Squills at In the News.
Start with describing the village. How exactly does the village look like? First give a brief description of where the village is, in the mountains? Or flatland? Then zoom in on the village and talk about what's there. How do the houses look like? What kind of clothes are the villagers wearing? After you have done that, jump to the forest part and talk about the girl collecting firewood. Talk about how she goes about doing it, the tools she uses and any difficulties she might face. Also describe her feelings and thoughts.
This is the basic way of starting the story. Hope it helped!
Insert certain quote here from some terribly famous and renowned great scientist/philosopher/actor who is now dead and so his/her words shall carry on -Lycando
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Make sure that's not a giant infodump, and that the description has relevance to the story. A lot of people find long descriptions boring, especially at the start of the story. They want to find out why they should care immediately, and a description to start would be hard pressed to provide that.
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