forum Starting books

Started February 08, 2019 by @The_Cactis_Lord

tune

I'm mostly here for a fellow author. She wants to start a book but doesn't know how to begin. Any special strategies or ways you begin books?

Does she already have a plot and stuff and just wants to know how to start actually writing? Because in that case my best advice is not to worry too much about the beginning, she can always change it later - just get writing! I usually start with a line of dialogue, or the weather.

She can always start out with a later scene and then come back to the beginning later. Like instead of starting with the beginning try starting out with the middle or the end.

I usually start with a line of dialogue, or the weather.

I've actually heard that this isn't a good way to start a novel. Having dialogue is kind of a no-no because when you use it as your opening line the reader doesn't know who's speaking, and wouldn't even be familiar enough with the characters to guess. I think the reasoning with weather is that it's just generally not very interesting and you want your beginning to be well, interesting. You can mention the weather in the opening sentence, but it shouldn't be the sole focus.

One piece of advice that I live by is that your opening sentences should make the readers ask questions, because that will keep them interested and wanting to know more. You're still more than welcome to write your story however you want, but I figured I'd share that advice.

Either a) make it serious, thought provoking or b) if it's not too serious of a book, make it a completely, ridiculously accurate description of their main characters life in three to seven words

Assuming she knows where she's going, start with a definite attention-grabber. I've started with anything from a range of weather to dialogue to a startling description to something hopeless - an impossible situation and yeah just a lot of different grabs - try googling lol

@Starfast I didn't mean it should remain as the actual beginning of the finished book, it's just how I start writing! Like I said, I try not to worry to much since I can always come back to fix it into a proper beginning later, this is just my way of getting rid of that terrible blank page, and start getting words out :)

How I write stories:

1. open a word document
2. write down the big lines of the story
3. if it's a book: write down the motivations and relations between the most important characters
4. Go back to the big lines of the story, what is the first thing it says? does it introduce a character, the problem or a place? write that point out into at least five sentences.
5. keep writing without worrying about readability. the most important thing is to write down a first rough draft of the story. you can always worry about details later.
6. if you think of another scene to ad somewhere in a part you have already written, just do so
7. if you come up with a scene that won't be relevant until much later in the story, write it down just to be safe.

An example of a short story so I haven't done step three.

A warlord demands a of a recently conquered kingdom to bring him the most beautiful person there is within their borders. the fallen kingdom complies out of fear of his wrath. Sadly the most beautiful person is a harpy hellbent on getting her revenge on the warlord for destroying the village that worshipped her.

In this case, it starts with the warlord demanding something of a fallen kingdom so this would mean I should start with that.

The warlord, [insert name here], looked down with disgust at the former king of this small land grovelling at his feet.
"Please, I beg of you. Spare the lives of my fallen soldiers. we can still be useful to you." The king's voice trembled with desperation and fear. Disgraceful.
"Then," [insert name here] slammed his large axe down, barely missing the king's head. "prove it. Bring me the most beautiful person who lives in this pitifull country within the next week and I shall consider not killing them all."