Writing Tips & Prompts

Introduction To Your Story

I have a pet peeve. Now, I do not mean to offend anyone although I know I probably will because a lot of people do this. But I hate when people begin their books with "hi the names Brittney" ITS ALWAYS BRITTNEY OR SOME WEIRD NAME THAT NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD OF.

Or when people make it so sO chatty and cringy. Write the way you like, I am in no place to judge others writing but if you're going to write, you might as well do it good.

Most people start the beginning of their books waking up, which is fairly normal, they wake up and then the rest of their life changes for some reason like they're moving. But then when describing what they wear, they're like:

'I put on my pink crop top that says 'YOLO' and then I put on my wash down denim jeans and I put on my old scruffy converse and brush through my hair. I decide to put a little bit a makeup, some mascara to make my eyes pop and some pink lipgloss'

And then Brittney or whoever probably then gets on their penny board and just so happens to bump into a celebrity who begins to fall in love with them.

Be original! Come up with a new introduction! Maybe a memory, a dream or letter, I don't know. But try to steer away from the introduction with the alarm because your readers have probably already ready a dozen of books that began like that. Make your book stand out.

Although, describing what they're wearing is good, the readers probably don't care about EVERYTHING they're wearing, but you could describe about the texture of their clothes. Are they comfy? Or is it a rough? What colour is it? Does the colour have any meaning? Is the clothing washed? Does it have any stains? If you go into it with more depth, your writing standard will go up a whole lot.

By introducing the name of your character without using 'BRITTNEY'S POV' at the beginning or 'my name is Brittney', have their name be told by a friend, parent etc or don't mention their name in the introduction let your readers like the mystery.

Also, tease your readers about what they are about to read and make them want to read on. If you want examples of introduction, I have a book called 'OVERTHINKING' and I've posted some introductions that I never got round to posting (: