3 Worst Story Beginnings (and how to fix them)

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1. WAKING UP
     • Your protagonist wakes up to their alarm, tries to turns it off and drops the clock or breaks it. They get up and get ready for their day, usually while describing themselves, their life and their routine.

Yawn, Pun Intended. Yknow, we all guess it. But trust me, you'll fell asleep using this story beginning.

2. DREAMS
    • Everything starts off with some weird dream that is actually either a premonition or a memory of your protagonist.

So Why this doesn't work? Here: Its difficult to make a personal dream sequence effective when we don't know the person having the dream yet. Right? Am I right?

3. FLASHBACKS
    • In other words - an exposition dump, we're thrown into some kind of important or emotional moment that happened in the protagonist's life long ago.

The Problem: We aren't familiar with the protagonist yet, so we're not going to care what happened to them.

Tips:

1. Throw your reader right into the action.

2. Focus on creating questions on reader's mind and adding a sense of intrigue.

3. Start with your hero doing the unexpected part of theur routine. What do they do in their day that differs from a normal day for your readers?

4. Introduce us to your character by having them make a bold decision that aligns with their personality.

5. Make sure you open your story with a STRONG character. This doesn't have to be your hero.

But MOST IMPORTANT thing to do is: Choose a natural starting point. The worst story beginnings are those that feel scripted and forced.

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