Tips & Tricks to Writing on Wattpad

5 Tips on Beginnings

5 TIPS ON BEGINNINGS

1) Go straight into the action/plot

I'll admit, I rarely do this. But it's a good idea. Get straight into the even that starts it all.
For example, if the books is about a girl getting revenge on her ex who cheated on her, it could start with her boyfriend saying he has to go and run an errand or something. The she's suspicious and follows him and finds him meeting up with another girl. Immediately, we have an idea of what the story will be like, instead of having to guess.

2) Show your character's personality

You might not be able to do this in the first paragraph. But I should have a good idea of what your character's like by the end of the first chapter.
And not just basic things, like whether or not they're smart, or pretty, or nice. I should know some deeper stuff too, like a hint of their flaws, or the problems they have.

For example, at the story of my book After Rain (I'm using my own story, 'cause if I use someone else's, and it's not what they were going for, then well, awks), my MC, Raine, is listening to music. It starts with her almost ranting about how it seems like her iPod put every love song she has on repeat. So automatically, we know that for some reason, she doesn't like love songs, or listening to them. Then she distracts herself from the music, so we know it's because she doesn't want to think about something the songs remind her of.
It doesn't have to be obvious, just little hints.

3) Make it interesting

-cues gasps-
What?
We have to make a beginning interesting?
I would've never known!
It seems obvious, I know, but a lot of stories begin with something that's not really interesting.
There are three [general] ways to start a story, in my opinion.

Dialogue: This, in my opinion, is usually what grabs my attention the fastest. But don't start with a normal "Hey!" "Hi!" "What's up?" "Nothing much!" conversation. It's how we, in real life, normally start conversations, I know, but it's not really interesting enough to start a story.
Monologue: We've all seen stories that start with the philosophy stuff. Fine, I get it, you want to let out all these sentimental thoughts you've had about love and life. Okay, do that. Just still make it interesting. And relevant. And, like, at least a little normal. If you start comparing our lives to, I don't know, oranges, I will be like WTF. Because, uh, unless oranges have a big part in your story, I'm a little confused.
Description: I don't really like starting a story with description. But if you're going to, make sure whatever you're describing is important. And make it unique. Like, don't start with describing a balde of grass. Say you're writing a story about time travel. You could start by describing what the item that allows the characters to time travel looks like.

4) Try not to clutter with backstory

Okay.
I get it.Backstory is important.
Just don't start with it.
If it's another world/Sci-Fi, fine then, you can start with something like 'it all changed when the end of the world feel upon us' I don't know (don't judge, I suck at writing Sci-Fi), but if it's just a character's past, start with something else. We have to care about the character to want to know their story. We don't really care about your character when you first start, we have no idea who he/she is.

5) Don't even think about it
Let's end with DO NOT do this with your beginnings, because I'm me, and of course I have several things to rant about.

5.1) Alarm Clock Scenes/Morning scenes with no relevance to the plot whatsoever
I know your day starts like this. But your story doesn't have to. It's boring and overdone. Also, I don't even use an alarm clock, much less smash it every morning. Like, I swear, there's probably somewhere in the Fiction world, that is just filled with smashed alarm clocks from all the stories that start with a 'BEEP BEEP BEEP CRASH'.
We don't really care what your character does in the morning. I'm sorry, but it's true. We have no idea who they are yet. You haven't given us a reason to care.

5.2) Weather
It sounds poetic. But it's kind of really boring.
'It was a dark, stormy night. A bitter, cold wind swept through the air, howling. etc, etc, etc'
I can't even write a paragraph on weather.
Anyway, start with something more interest. Then you can add in your poetic paragraph about dark clouds or clear skies.

5.3) Character Summary
'Hi, my name's Tiffany and I'm a sophomore in high school! I have beautiful blonde hair that-'no.

5.4) Geography/History/Science/ Anything else we learn in school
If your story starts with describing exactly how many degrees west Hawaii is from the US (I doubt that made sense, it's a random idea, don't judge)... Yeah, well, there's kind of this back button in the corner... And it kind of looks tempting right now... Like really tempting.

Coming from my view as a reader. I don't always do these when I write, but I'm trying. :3

Next Tip: Plot Twists

~JJ :)