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Young Writers Society


Openings



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Fri Aug 14, 2015 12:28 pm
PRANC1NGJ35T3R says...



It's been a while since I last posted on the site and I've decided that I should probably start work on a draft for one of my ideas as I've been mapping it out for months to hit a dead end which I can't seem to get past so I'm going to have to try to improvise and when I think I've written enough I'll post some of the draft online, however I just want to know how I should handle the first opening chapter or prologue (are prologues normally used in fantasy idk?).
Milton Berle - 'If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.'
  





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Fri Aug 14, 2015 3:34 pm
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Vervain says...



First things first: There is no one way you "should" write a beginning.

Lots of people write beginnings differently. Some people jump directly into the plot; some people give themselves a little wiggle room before everything starts; some people wing it and figure new things out along the way. Personally, I like having a little bit of setup before the main plot comes crashing down, preferably with a side-plot or smaller conflict to drive the characters along.

Second: It's a first draft.

If you asked fifty published authors if they liked how they started their first draft, forty-nine of them would tell you of course they didn't, and it was one of the first things they wanted to edit when they were done.

A lot of the writing in a first draft isn't going to make it to the final draft—and for good reason.

While you may have your world mapped out down to the smallest village, the smallest cultural custom, you may find something out that makes you want to change it. An "ooh, that's cool" moment, or an "oh, that won't work" moment will both do these things—and then you need to edit.

While you may have everything planned out to a T, things are going to change, you're going to discover new things about your characters, and the plot may be driven in a wildly different direction. Then you need to edit.

While you may have your characters pinned down exactly, you're probably going to struggle with finding the right narrative voice for your main characters. You also might have trouble with how your characters talk in conversations, depending. Then you need to edit.

One of the most basic reasons for editing is proofreading, because you are going to make typos and grammar errors, and sometimes you'll miss them (I proofread everything I post on here, and people still catch my errors). However, as you can see, that's not the only reason—and that's why I wouldn't worry about your beginning too much.

Remember: It's not your permanent beginning. Jump in and write it however you want, because you'll be looking at it again in a year or two, going "okay, so I'll change this".

The thing about writing is, you have to finish the first draft to move on to the second. So go ahead and write it already! Don't worry about if you're doing things the way you "should" be doing them; there is no "right" way to write, not by a long shot.

So go and write, write, write some more.

(Have I said that enough already?)

(Go, write.)
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:55 pm
LadySpark says...



Since Ark covered beginnings, I'm going to suggest ways to get better at beginnings, and find the best first draft beginning for your story.

I got "okay" (I would never call myself good at beginnings because I suck at writing in general lol) at beginnings by practicing beginnings. How, you might ask? Mostly, by doing word wars. I'd start with a little plot bunny in my head, and write that plot bunny out for 15 minutes as if I were starting a novel/short story. Then, I'd abandon it. It's a fun exercise and it really gets you good at beginning and gets you used to how YOU do beginnings as well. Then, after doing that exercise for awhile, try writing your story again. That should help a lot with getting your beginnings squared off.

Second of all, every time you rewrite your beginning, save the deleted draft. Keep up a comparison. What are you changing? What parts don't you like? As you rewrite, you might find the little thing that's bothering you about the way you write beginnings and be able to fix it or change it.

I'm going to echo what Ark said, though. There's no right way to write. You do you, babe.
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these tornadoes are for you


-Richard Siken


Formerly SparkToFlame
  





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Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:20 pm
Lightsong says...



There are many ways to make a beginning. You can pluck out an interesting scene in the middle of your story and put it as a hook for your beginning. Reader would want to know what happens next so he would reader further.

Or you can simply put interesting bits in it. Set up a nice setting for your story without losing the readers' attention. Introduce your main character, hinting what she's like. In any way, make your beginning interesting because this is going to decide whether it would attract your readers to read further or not.
"Writing, though, belongs first to the writer, and then to the reader, to the world.

The subject is a catalyst, a character, but our responsibility is, has to be, to the work."

- David L. Ulin
  








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