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Probably a very asked question but...



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Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:42 pm
Rurouni says...



So I've been trying to start this story, and its been sitting there for 3 hours with no words, just blank.

People have been telling me, "Start from the middle and work backwards."

I really 'can't' do that because I need to know what I'm writing in the beginning to carry on later in the story.

So the basic idea of the intro in my head is a fighting scene. The heroine of the story gets hurt and saves two guys in the process. I just am having a bad case of writers block or something, because I just can't get that start...

Does anyone have any suggestions?
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Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:11 pm
lostthought says...



Are you having trouble writing the entire scene, or just the fighting? If it's just the figuring, there are some movies full of fighting!
If it's the entire scene, I'd focus on the different details, like who the two people are, why they are fighting, etc.
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Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:55 pm
Rurouni says...



Thanks @lostthought...

Its the entire scene, and its been 5 hours DX. Still its blank :/

-writers block or whatever this is, go away-
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Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:59 pm
lostthought says...



Two fugitives, friends with the protagonist.

Two escapees, meets protagonist, asks him to help, and then gets attacked by the person perusing them.
"Aaloo is potato in urdu, like AAAAAA-loo, or like AAAAA-look such delicious deliciousness."
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"MY SOUL IS A GREY ABYSS"
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Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:02 pm
Rurouni says...



Not exactly what its about, but its close enough. More like aliens attacking.

@lostthought
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Wed Jun 18, 2014 1:48 am
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Rosendorn says...



Here's a little secret about beginnings:

If you're hung up on finding "the perfect place to start", toss that idea out of your head. Go on. Take the word "perfect", crumple it up, and throw it into a volcano.

Now that that's out of the way and you are left with "a place to start."

Try going through what you could potentially start with. This could be a description, a line of dialogue, or a thought. You can also go for longer beginnings, or short, one line beginnings. To go through each:

Description is usually one of the five senses. Not necessarily sight, either. You can start with a taste, texture, smell, or sound.

The goal for a description oriented beginning is you want to capture a moment so strongly readers get drawn in and stay. Sometimes, this is curiosity at what it is, others it's simply so strange that they have to find out what's going on. You can give a quick flash or a longer, more drawn out paragraph.

Description can be something preexisting, or a new event. Either one works, and it depends on whether or not you're going for in medias res or the very start of the action.

Dialogue is one of those love or hate things. I, personally, love it, and for awhile all my drafts started with dialogue. This, however, requires a conversation to be a viable beginning. It's pretty much guaranteed to be short, unless your opening so happens to be a speech.

Introspection can be a realization or a simple thought. The goal with these, in my opinion, is to get the character's voice down. You want to get something about how the character feels about what's going on around them out to the general public, which means it can be combined with description (especially if the beginning is longer).

All of these have potential to be amazing. It's a case of what fits best, and what you want to introduce first. If the setting has something particularly noticeable about it, go for description. If the characters are talking and the line seems interesting, take dialogue. If your character has the single best thought about what's going on, use it.

As for why I had you throw out the word "perfect": I can basically guarantee you will rewrite this. When I wrote my novel, I only came up with a good beginning after I was done the first draft. But I had started it, which gave me something to shape. It is far easier to shape something than it is to make it.

Pick what's most interesting about the starting scene you have in mind, then make that your opening. Keep putting one word in front of the other. It's that easy, and it's that hard.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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