How do yhou start a story?

So, I'm writing a book and I've got the basic story outline and character sketches. I want to start writing it down, and once I get past the intro it should go pretty smoothly, but I can't find a good way to open the story. Any tips?

Vet

First things first: You can write pretty much anything in the first draft, because going back and revising is always an option. The important thing is to just get started.

I always try and introduce the most important information in the first sentence. Often that's character & situation:
"Vim didn't want to wake up on the morning of his fifteenth birthday, but his sister was pecking angrily at the window."
"It wasn’t Susan’s fault the school almost burned down, but she got blamed anyways."
"Friedrich lived alone in a house built of dust and fading paint, inhabited by yellow newspapers and scattered limbs, old clockwork angels that were never built."
"My brother Tam was three years older than me, but I figured out that "trouble" and "fun" weren't the same thing long before he did."
"Private Karl Nelson is dead, and he is glad that, for the first time in months, he can actually understand what the natives are saying."

Sometimes it's character and setting:
"As the shadows drew in around Boston, a street magician was getting drunk."
"The Fools were leaving Calliope, as fast and quietly as they could."
"Two sisters live together, alone in the woods."
"Baba Yaga's hut stands on chicken legs somewhere in New York City; it is impossible to say where, for witches are not popular, nor believed in, and Baba Yaga would like to keep it that way."

Sometimes, when I don't have any brilliant ideas, I just start the story with a very blatant statement of what it's about, or what's going on:
"There was a mermaid, and she wanted to kiss a sailor without killing him, just once."
"We were in a room with clocks and they were dripping."


Just start with something that interests you, and go on from there. You can always go back and change it once it's on the page! Good luck.

I guess it's a matter of opinion but 9 times outta 10 I start with describing the setting of the first scene. Things tend to roll from there for me.

I tend to start by describing the setting, but it all depends on what you're writing. I agree that you should start with some of the most important information first whether it is the setting, the characters, or something else. However do not just dump all of the important information at the beginning, unless that's what you're aiming for. Try gradually describing things. You could also begin with a prologue. This way you can let readers know about the main character's past or future or whatever. It might help you get started.

I hope this was somewhat helpful!
-Winter

Have any of you three actually finished a book? That tried and true method is usually standard issue, but for those who have trouble writing a book the best bet it to write the decisive moment before an intro.

By decisive moment, I mean the time at which the character goes from a normal person to a main character on your outlined plot. Before this moment the normal and the extraordinary are separate, if you can write this change you will know how to continue on ahead and be prepared to look back on his normal life while you are still writing the story. This way you can use skills, such as cooking, and work them in to the intro as they come up.

If it is an adventure story start with something that leads into something which is the main plot of the story. If your character needs to go on a quest, how about having the character do something and getting kicked out of his home or doing something to be put upon a path which ultimately drags him (first unwillingly) down the plot line.

It is the unlikely hero recipe, but you can work other example and types from it as well. If you have no ideas for starting the story, might as well search your genre and research it to the same extent you outlined the characters. I just like going from decisive moment because it allows me to write the interesting parts and allow for alterations to easily be made on the character, while filling space out for growth.

How do you open a novel? Good question.

There's no set way of writing an opening, no magic formula. You need to experiment with different ideas until you find your own individual style that is both effective and appropriate. Here are a few ideas to get you going:

1. Frequently I use a technique called in medias res, which in Latin literally means, "in the middle of the business," and that pretty much says it all: you start with an explosive opening that jumps right into the thick of the action, no questions asked. This works well for thrillers or action or adventure stories; a prime example is The Da Vinci Code.

2. Alternatively, you could try using a frame narrative or a "story within a story," in which the first chapter introduces the primary overarching plot before the main bulk of the book moves into the secondary story, often in a different time period. Ghost stories open this way a lot.

3. The most traditional way to open a story is with exposition - long-winded scene-setting - but if you want to give your writing a more contemporary feel, it's better to avoid this as this tends to bore modern readers.

4. Whatever you choose, I like to follow the advice of my English teacher and start with an active verb, like "He ran across the platform and dived into the pool." This is a form of in medias res, but equally could be used to set up a frame narrative or introduce a character as exposition.

~Excalibur~ wrote:Have any of you three actually finished a book? That tried and true method is usually standard issue, but for those who have trouble writing a book the best bet it to write the decisive moment before an intro.

Yes, actually. Three (60k, 80k, and 90k respectively.)

I've also heard the decisive moment referred to as the "inciting incident" or the "no longer pizza" moment (ie, it's the moment in the story where the characters can no longer walk away from the plot and go order a pizza; the moment where they MUST continue the storyline.) But I find that while a lot of new writers know that they should start near/just before the inciting incident, they have a hard time figuring out exactly where.

Right now I'm working on a short story about a girl who's going to attempt to cure her brother's bad luck (he was born with bad luck) by cutting off a dead man's hand and touching her brother with it -- complications then ensue. But I had trouble figuring out where I should start it: 1) the point when her brother is born, and they realize he's bad luck; 2) the point where things get so unbearable for her brother she realizes she needs a dead's man hand; 3) the moment she's approaching the corpse and getting ready to cut off the hand; 4) or the moment just before she touches him with the hand. One could argue that any of those points could be a sufficiently decisive moment. The difficulty is figuring out which point is the strongest cause of the story I want to tell.

(I eventually decided to start it at point 3, by the way.)

A question: Is your story in first or third person? (Or second. I guess, but that's rare...)

My favorite way to start a story is one mentioned by Gahks: jumping right into the story. Throw your reader right into the action. It doesn't have to be a car chase or an explosion. Just start us off with something happening.

ex.

I peeked around the corner. Not yet. Someone glanced my way and I pulled back hurriedly. They weren't anyone I knew, but I'd rather not have anyone at all know I was stalking Judy.

Boom. We're right into the action. Why is this person stalking Judy? What is his or her (what is the gender?) relationship to Judy? What is going on? (The answer: Read on and find out! It's what you want the readers to do!)

You can have character's thoughts on what they are doing or what is going on around them.

ex.

The one day I actually am trying to get to work on time, Katrina couldn't help but think. The traffic was ridiculously heavy and she wrenched the wheel to the left as yet another insane driver cut dangerously close in front of her. Only seven o'clock and already she'd had five near-death experiences.

Yup, pretty much my favorite way to start a story. Gets you right in, can give you character information, sets it all up for description and stuff... Pretty sweet, right?

~GryphonFledgling

I've also heard that starting a story out with dialogue is good too. But it is all up to you on how you wish to start your story.

I'll tell you something from personal experience. I reread the first chapter to my novel a billion times and hated it. I absolutely hated it. It didn't draw me in and it went way to fast. So I attempted to write a first chapter and got one page down and chucked it into the garbage. So I went with a prologue. The story came. But when that was finished, I still couldn't write the first chapter.

This is how I started it the first time: Dee Dee lay on the hammock in the backyard, her nose buried into a book and headphones in her ears... This was horrible and I hated it. It was long, boring and ultimately crap (sorry to use unnecessary language).

This is how it is now (this is the prologue): Something was wrong. Wrong with the king, wrong with the castle, wrong with the country. Queen Isabelle opened a set of doors and strolled into the infamous gardens of Claybone Castle...

So basically, you can start off with a very boring sentence, go and explain the situation/plot, start off with a dialogue, describe the setting, etc. Of course I'm not saying my second beginning is grand because it isn't. It's very repetitive and annoying but what can I do? I got writers block, blah.

It also all depends on how you're writing it (first person, third). But no matter how you start a story. Make sure it draws the reader in. That is one of the main points. It has to be interesting.

Good Luck and Happy Writing! I hope I helped. Although I probably just ranted on about nothing.

Meadow

I personally kept having trouble with my one novel that I have started. I had the story line perfectly played out in my head but there was no way to get into it. I read here that most people start with the setting. But I did not do that. I went into the thick of things, trying to keep the beginning interesting. I always find the beginning is always the most boring part.

I think you should try starting with a slightly intense or complicated statement. You could start it with a dialogue sentence which could also introduce the character almost right away, giving the people a slight idea of what the person was like. I myself started with an intense and heartbreaking scene with mine. It is just your opinion on how you want to write it that matters.

I also believe that you do not have to start with the setting, but you will have to tie the setting in as you go on with out droning and boring the reader to death. I believe you should describe the setting as you get into the story line giving the an all around good read.

I am not very good to give these kind of opinions but hopefully, I helped you a little bit.

~Incognito