Beginnings for YA Fantasy?

[Iridescence]

Hello, everyone . . . how ya doing?

I have a problem . . . I'm writing a first-person story about a boy named Michael and his little sister, Emma, and I'm kind of fudging it a bit with the beginning. I already posted a "sample" starter, but I very quickly found out it sucked, so I'm taking a more casual approach. See, Michael's this awkward kid with synesthesia (or so he thinks) and he doesn't have many friends (no, he's not antisocial--he's just one of those kids that attract bullies like bees to honey). Do you think starting the story off with Michael getting into a fight with said bullies is too cliche? Any ideas for a good beginning? I'll post more if more details are needed. Thanks for the help, guys! :D

(Oh, dear . . . I just realized I'm the only one without a signature . . . how embarrassing :blush: )

[Mercy]

From my experience, yeah, that sounds cliche. I can recall more movies than books that have this opening, but I still wouldn't do it.

[Iridescence]

Okay, but I'm not sure what else to do. I'm kind of short on ideas, you know? Would it be better to have a very dramatic beginning instead? I can't really do a prologue (did I spell that right?) because of the first-person thing.

[Mercy]

You could still do a prologue. o.o
Perhaps, you could start on other areas or think about the beginning more. Most the time, I don't write something until I've thought about it for at least a week. Just try different things until you find something that feels right.

[Iridescence]

Okay, thanks. I'll meditate on my story, see what I can come up with. Hopefully I get something.

[Mercy]

Good luck. =)

[Lykaios]

I have synesthesia. :)

It was so fun explaining to my new maths teacher why I had to write all the numbers in colour and why when she used colours, they were all wrong. :rolleyes:

Anyway. Good fun. :)

/spam

[Iridescence]

Wow, Lykaios, that sounds pretty cool! Michael's synesthesia is with colors, too, except the colors correspond to people's emotions. If you want, you could check out the first chapter of my story in Novels: Members Only. It's the First Key (completely revised version). When you have the chance, tell me what you think of it!

[Shaun]

The bully part is what will be most cliche here, but if you really push that synaethesia part you might have something truly interesting to work with. Beyond that, I don't see a problem with it. Even with the cliche bits it would probably be publishable if the story was good, to be honest.

And on a side note: I recently finished a short story in which the main character is an extreme synaesthete (she sees emotions as colors and some shapes on the bodies of others). Made for an interesting plot.

[Callie]

Hmm, I don't think that starting off with the bullying would be a bad idea... but is it going to be a main focus of the character's life and how he interacts with the world? If so, you might be repeating it over and over in the story, and so starting with it might be "overkill" since it's a pretty over-done theme in itself. If it's first-person from Michael's perspective, and he has synesthesia... you could maybe start with his first memory of relating colors to emotions, or when he first found out that it isn't "normal". Because it seems like that's going to be an underlying idea through out the entire story.

It's not the most original way to start off, but it might make your introduction pretty solid and purposeful and give intrigue to the character right off the bat.