forum Whats a great story introduction?

Started January 16, 2018 by @tea_town

tune

I need help with an opening to a story without being cliche.

This is kind of my solution to everything (that may or not be helpful): KILL SOMEONE. Think of the way Guardians of the Galaxy starts.

Here are my favorite two options: the "once upon a time" basic start, or the "character in action" basic start. You don't literally have to SAY "once upon a time," and it'll depend on the style. For example, one of my favorite books of all time, Howl's Moving Castle, starts like this:

“In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.”

I LOVE IT. Well I'm already a sucker for fairy tales that make fun of fairy tales, like The Princess Bride. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone starts with a kind of "once upon a time" thing, too. Love it also.

And then for the "character in action" start, I don't really agree with starting the book right in the midst of the action of the main plot, but I do like opening with a main character in the middle of doing something important that SHOWS who they are as a person without having to TELL. For example, another one of my freaking favorite books of all time, The Scarlet Pimpernel, opens with this not-quite-sentence:

"A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and hate."

Then the whole chapter describes Paris in the midst of the French Revolution, and has the Scarlet Pimpernel himself get away with a rescue. It's wonderful.

Hope this helps!

It depends on the genre of your story
Horror: A normal day (no one would suspect it's horror if they didn't see the cover) Do not give the character an uncanny ability to sense what's coming. Way too cliche.
Fantasy: Nursery rhyme, unfinished quote, something the character can come back to in the end.
Fiction: Kill someone. Have the reader jump right into the action and get going. Save the details for chapter 2.
Realistic fiction: Once again, jump right into the action. Is you're character being bullied? Antagonized? If you don't have action, make some. Do not start a realistic fiction story with you're character waking up unless they were kidnapped while they slept. The reader doesn't need to know/doesn't care about the boring morning routine you're character goes through.

Hope this might've helped:)

Good point about the boring morning routine thing, Astrid.

i would suggest reading the very first chapter of 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss. It's a literary masterpiece confined to just a single page and it absolutely sets the tone for the rest of the book. even if you don't do anything similar its worth reading just to experience it. hell, the whole book is like that.