I'm writing a fanfic (supernatural) and I'm at a loss for how to start it. starting any story has always been a struggle for me. I don't want to give away the plot but I want to start off the story with the fact that Sam and Dean are able to see angel's wings and other supernatural things that other people can't see. But I don't want to start the story with something like "ever since they could remember Sam and Dean could see the wings of angels" it just starts to far back and I don't want to start with a sentence like that then go back to the present.
I'm not super familiar with Supernatural, but these are some general tips that I've found helpful with my own writing:
- Start as close to the action as you can. If you start too early in your timeline, then it's going to be boring for your readers.
- Your opening sentence should be something that will make your readers ask questions. Don't reveal everything at once.
That's all I got for now, but if I think of anything else I'll come back and add it. Hopefully you find this at least a little helpful.
Starfast has good advice, but I think it's easy to misinterpret the first bit. Don't start too close to the action, and for the love of god don't start IN the action unless you really know what you're doing. Your readers need to know the characters and the situation, who's on sides, what people want etc otherwise the action is meaningless and boring. You could do this with a bit of narration exposition at the start which, in my unpopular opinion, is actually a really good way to avoid bad exposition during the actual story.
