Beginnings: An Eight Part Series

[Shaun]

I have to do this in groups because the idea of beginnings won't really fit into one post comfortably. Breaking it up will make it a little more accessible to everyone. So here is how it will all break down:

1. Episode One: The Beginning of the Beginning
2. Episode Two: First Lines
3. Episode Three: First Paragraphs
4. Episode Four: First Page
5. Episode Five: First 3 Pages
6. Episode Six: First 5 Pages
7. Episode Seven: First Chapter
8. Episode Eight: End of the Beginning

These will probably be dispersed over the course of the next few weeks in between other things. Now, just a note, I'm not expert. Most of what I'm going to say is either stuff I've learned seems effective and stuff that professional writers have said worked for them. I take their advice because they are published, which means they have an idea of what they are doing.

So, the beginning:More...
Hopefully when you go to write your first lines you have some vague idea of what the story is going to be about. When I was writing WISB I knew that the story was going to be about a boy who finds a magical world. So that gave me the backdrop of where the story needed to start from. I didn't want to throw him right into the middle of the story, after he's been in the magical world for a while, and knows all sorts of things--like using magic and the like. That is not a good place to start. The sad thing about this is that writers, young and old, make this sort of mistake all the time. Imagine Harry Potter if you started off when Harry gets to Hogwarts for the first time. What would you think? You'd have no idea who Harry is and why it's such a big deal for him to be in this magical place would you? No, and you'd also have missed out on him meeting Ron and Hermoine and learning anything at all about them. You'd be hurting the reader really bad by skipping out on all that lovely information.
So, the first order of the day for your up and coming story is to figure out exactly what the story is about (just a vague idea here folks) and where you can effectively start the story. It should be at a point where you can introduce the main character and any relevant secondary characters without telling off their life stories and at the same time give the reader something to be interested in.

Let's take a look at Imelda's work in progress entitled "Nikara". Some of you have been reading it, or have read it all, and I'm just starting, but I think her opening chapter will be suitable as an example in this particular section on beginnings.

"Nikara" opens up with the main character, Nikara (duh), riding to a magic academy (I'm changing it to 'magic' so it's easier for people to grasp here), and acting far above her actual stature. We learn that she wants to impress everybody and make herself seem Ms. Popular. The opening is perfect in that it shows us exactly what sort of person Nikara is. We get an idea of what the world is like, who the people are, and exactly what the big deal is over her coming to this academy. Because the world is already established for the main character there is no need to go to an earlier time; we can simply see it through her eyes.

When you open up your story you want to put your characters in a scene where everything will make sense. You wouldn't throw the characters in the middle of a space battle if the point you're trying to bring out is how important the battle is. If you wanted that, you would need to put your characters to a little bit before the battle so that they and any Officers there could show the importance of the battle. Trying to have your characters convey that information while in the heat of battle is unrealistic. Battles don't leave room for a lot of internal thought and if you need to convey information to your reader that should have already been established anyway in internal thought then you aren't doing your job as a writer.

So, look at your story right now. Write it down on an index card. Just the basic premise of it. Now think about your characters. Are the characters going to be in their element when you begin the story? If not, why? Why are you pulling them out of their element at the start of the story? What is the purpose of this? Think about the reasons for that. How far out of their element are the characters?

Let's take a made up story about a guy named Alfred. We'll say he's an older man, in his sixties, who lives with his wife. His oldest son is a college grad, his youngest still in college, and he has a dog named Ted. Now lets say the story is about how Alfred's life is turned upside down and he must come to terms with it in order to grow as a person. What would be a good starting point for starting the story? Some might say that starting at the fire that kills his wife and his youngest son might be a great place to start. Just having him walk around the corner and seeing the fire. In some ways, this might work, but because we haven't learned anything about the character we're forced to wonder what's so important. But if you go to just a little before the fire you can do a lot with the story. And you wouldn't need more than half a page for this. You might begin the story by having Alfred talking to his youngest son and his wife, maybe petting Ted and saying how he's going to walk down the street to Anderson's to get a gallon of milk and some cheese for dinner. So he says goodbye to everyone and walks off. When he starts walking back Ted comes running to him. He wonders why the dog is out. Then he sees the smoke and starts to run to the house. That's when he sees the fire. He tries to go in, and can't because the flames are too big. A siren sounds as the fire trucks come and then that would be the end of the first chapter...him there watching as his home and his family burns to the ground.

What makes this opening a lot more effective than just opening with the fire is that you've gotten a clear picture of his life. You have seen him with his family and his dog. It becomes even more powerful after those images are planted in your mind when you get to see it all burn away. We can really sympathize with the character and his plight. That's emotion, and emotion is powerful in writing.

What if you don't have a real idea of what the story is about?
If you're like me, sometimes you start writing something based entirely on some crazy idea. Last night I did a Word War with Calamire and started writing something based on one really weird idea. I didn't know who the characters were, I didn't know where the story was going, and I certainly didn't know much about the world. It was sort of random when I think about it.

If you're like that, then here is something you can think about when you go to write something new. First, don't worry about the beginning for now. Just write. The most important thing to remember about being a writer is that you're not a writer if you don't write. So just write. You can always come back to the start later and rewrite if need be.

Second, if you actually want to think about it a little, is to think just a little about where you want to begin. Try to put your character in your story right at the beginning of something. If you have just some little idea--maybe a single line or something--then just start by putting your character there and establishing that. The most important part of the beginning of anything is to establish character. The reader wants to know whose head we're in from the start. So, take a little time to actually establish the character. This could be a few lines, or even a paragraph. It shouldn't take you more than that. If it does, you're doing something wrong.

From there, just write. That's it. When you come back to the start later perhaps the beginning will need work, perhaps not. All that matters is you got to write something down.

That's Episode One of this eight part series. If I missed anything or there is anything more you would like to know about, leave a little message.

[Shaun]

Every writer and editor who has been established in the field of writing is going to tell you exactly what I'm going to tell you here: your first lines are the most important lines in the entire book (or short story). These are the lines that will determine whether the majority of potential readers will even read the first chapter. First lines can kill a book, or bring a book to life. Without a good set of first lines you're looking at failure.

This sounds very grim and very difficult doesn't it? The fact is that it's not really all that difficult. Your first lines do not have to be the most memorable lines ever written. They don't need to be lines that will be quoted some fifty years later by a teacher in a literature class. Quite the contrary really. Of the many great first lines, most of them would be shunned in todays market. Look at the first few lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

These lines have been engraved into the history of literature for a reason. They are powerful and do set a wonderful stage. The problem is that these are lines from a time where you could get away with this kind of stuff. Today, in almost all instances, you can't. It is more important now to come up with first lines that keep the readers' interest more than coming up with something so profoundly unique. This sounds like a cop-out, but really it's simply playing within the field that is provided for you. We live in a far different time than Dickens, and so, literature is vastly different. I'm not telling you to not be unique. Be unique all you want, but be aware that editors and readers want to be entertained. This is an entertainment industry, like television, only your job is a million times more difficult than any screenwriter or director could ever dream about. You have to entertain with words alone. With the world as it is, this makes your job the hardest job in the entertainment business. We live in a world where attention spans are limited. Most people don't want to read a 300 page novel, and certainly don't want to read something that doesn't keep them interested on page one. They can watch a movie and get faster enjoyment.

Let's think about sentences for a minute. The most important sentences in your entire book are the first and last ones. Your first sentence begins setting the stage and your last sentence closes it. Neither can survive without the other. If your first sentence is great, but your last isn't, the whole novel will fall apart. Too many novels start out great and then die painful deaths at the hands of horribly written endings.

Now, here is where things get very tricky. In short stories your very first line is your hook. It almost always has to be the line that grabs the reader. Why? Because you don't have the space to go all out and start thrusting information down the readers' throat. In novels, that first line now becomes a paragraph, roughly. You have a little leeway in a novel because generally people expect a novel to be longer. This still means, however, that all your opening lines need to be good ones. They don't need to be individually as profound as in a short story, but they must grab the attention of your audience.

There are four ways to write beginnings in novels.

1. Evocative Description: This is basically where you describe something as a way to draw the reader into the atmosphere of the scene. This also happens to be extremely hard to do. Something must be really interesting about this description of a place or thing to keep the reader interested. Think the openings to works like 1984 by George Orwell or Neuromancer by William Gibson.
2. Character: Your first chapter is already going to be required to establish character. One approach to do this is to have your opening lines be about the character. You can also have it be about a secondary character, through the eyes of the main character. Even if your story has multiple viewpoints, your opening lines must establish something interesting about a character. There are probably more books that do this than any other method, so it shouldn't take you more than two seconds to find a book that does this.
3. Action: I think this is pretty self explanatory. You open your story in an action scene. No, this does not mean you should write a scene right smack dab in the middle of an actual action sequence. Imagine the original Star Wars if you were to skip the very opening of the first film and instead started off with C-3PO and R2-D2 running through Princess Leia's ship as laser blasts rip the thing apart. It might hold up because it's a movie, but as a book, it wouldn't. You don't want to start with characters right in the middle of something. Yes, you could easily start with an action sequence where a character is running away, but you want to be careful to the put the character in a scene that gives some explanation for its existence. Let's take the Star Wars analogy again. If you took that first scene and cut everything out about what Darth Vader is looking for or why Princess Leia is trying to get away, and just had it follow C-3PO and R2-D2 as they get in a pod and leave the ship, what do you think would happen to that scene? The same thing will happen to your first chapter if you don't give the reader some answers to why the action is occurring. This doesn't mean to give everything away, and you can even lie to the reader and your characters here, but you still need to make sure that the readers will be satisfied with some answers.
4. Other Devices: This is the only thing I can think of to call this. This is very rare and almost always is combined with a superbly written form of one of the other three options. These include things like newspaper clippings, fictional or otherwise, quotes, random bits of information, and the like. A lot of science fiction novels do this. Often you'll see novels proclaim straight off that it's such and such year, in such and such sector, on such and such ship. You might see a quote that is related to what the story is about. Spin State by Chris Moriarty did this by having various quotes related to quantum theory at the start of various sections. So, perhaps you want to start off a chapter with, say, a newspaper clipping of a murder, real or not. The newspaper clipping is setting the foundations of the story for you. You must make sure your true first lines are profound and powerful. In fact, you might want to consider starting with an action sequence right after. Readers are delicate and have short attention spans.

Much of what was written in this episode was learned from Robert J. Sawyer. He has a website filled with wonderful advice for writers.

And that's it for this episode guys. Any questions? Anything you think I missed?

[Shadow]

This has helped me, actually. I'm inclined to write now, Shaun. You've destroyed my temporary writers' block. Thanks. :)

[Shaun]

Most welcome. I'm not sure when I'll get the other 6 parts, plus there is a semi-part nine which is just for Q&A type stuff. So if you guys have questions you feel like I don't answer, or are just confused, PM me or post it here. That way I can make sure to get to it!

[Shadow]

Fancy getting the other parts up, Shaun? ^^