forum I need help starting a story

Started March 26, 2018 by @TuneInForTragedy

tune

Im not sure how to start my story and ive known many people who have completely scrapped stories cause they cant start them. Any suggestions?

My Story is about a young teen named Iris who lives in an awful place, she escapes and heads to Washington to try and start a new life. While there she meets a love intrest and a man who she thinks could be her father. Eventually the police catch up to her andd she and her love intrest have to literally run for their lives. It is revealed that her love intrest is actually a magical creature with superhuman powers.
Im not sure how to end the story either, it'll probably end with them escaping to another city together or her finding her father.
Any suggestions or Ideas?
Also feel free to post your story's here too.

Well in my opinion (which is pretty amateur) there are a few basic ways to start your story.
One you could start it right in the middle of the action ex: running away with her love interest
Two you could start it before the action ex: the beginning of their new life
It sounds like a good idea, I hope I might have helped a bit

@Rubyjane Thank you so much! I do ike the idea of starting my story in the middle of an action. I think im gonna start it as they are starting their new life. Ex. Job interview or even seeing her love intrest on the way home. If you have any other suggestions id love to hear the aswell.

@TuneInForTragedy I like your idea! I have some questions that might help you work some things out in your story, and will hopefully give you a place to start:

1. Is it just the place that is awful or does Iris also deal with other things (e.g. bullying, bad home environment)?

2. Why are the police chasing her? Because she ran away from home?

3. How do her love interest's non-human qualities affect the plot? (I feel that something as big as that should have an impact on what happens in the story, not just be an extra fact like "hey, I have blue eyes and also I'm a magical creature!").

4. Does Iris struggle with things like finding housing and food? (I imagine her money would be limited).

5. Is Iris's decision to run away an impulse or something carefully planned?

6. How does Iris's dad play into the plot? What's his story? If he knows about Iris's love interest at any point during the story, does he know that her love interest isn't human? How does he feel about that? Does he support is daughter having a relationship at such a young age, regardless of wether or not her partner in human?

7. If Iris is a young teen, she would probably be in school. Does starting her new life include finding a place to go to school or is she deciding not to pursue her education? What impact does this have on her choices?

8. How do her and her love interest meet?

9. How does she meet the man she thinks might be her father?

10. If the police followed Iris from her home to this new city, what would stop them from following her and her love interest to another city? (I feel that there would be more closure to the story if Iris reunited with her father in the end. Maybe he would help them?)

You could start in several places:

You could begin before Iris runs away, which would give us a view of what it is she's running away from. Home environment, school environment, her relationships with other characters, etc. and would give us a feel for Iris herself.

You could also start as she's running away, jumping into an action scene. Maybe she grabs her go-bag and runs out the door or maybe she's already out. Maybe she's being chased, possibly by the police, or her family.

You could start in the city she's beginning her new life in; as you said, she could be in a job interview, or she could be walking down the street. She could be in school (if she's going to school at this point) or she could be at her job, presuming she already has one. If she's having trouble finding housing she could be sitting on the ground somewhere under an awning or on a park bench. You could also start with her bumping into someone on the street, either her love interest or her father, or maybe she could be walking by and see them through the window of a shop.

(Apologies if I was being too controlling there, my mind just got rolling with all the different possibilities).

One more thing: depending on how young Iris is, I imagine the number of jobs she can be hired for is limited. To get jobs at a very young age (e.g. 13, 14 years old) often requires parent or guardian consent (at least where I live).

Your idea is really cool! I hope this helped, and good luck with your story! :)

@TuneInForTragedy
I'm so glad I could help!

@alice Thank you so much! you brought up a lot of things I hadn't thought about yet and given me more ideas. I will definitely give you both credit if I use your ideas in my story.(I probably will) Do either of you have a specific Social Media you want me to cite?

@TuneInForTragedy I'm glad I could help you get the ball rolling :) No need to cite me, I don't have any social media anyways (unless you count this). Best of luck with your story!

@TuneInForTragedy Don't worry about citing me, its a kind offer though:)