Writing Tips &Tricks

A Very Good Place to Start

Look at the picture! I don't think that I could say it any better.

  Here it is again for those of you who can't see the pic. I cannot tell you how helpful this has been to me. It fixed so many problems that I was having with starting my stories.

  The very first chapter, the intro, page one, is the most important part of your story. That is when the reader will decide whether or not they are interested. The very first section.

  My best advice is to get to the point. Show them why they should be invested in your main character from the get go. Give them a horse to bet on. Try and introduce the problem at the very start.

  Your very first chapter should introduce the problem, the villain, the monster, the obstacle that they need to overcome. Chapter one! Don't even wait until chapter two.

  There are two things that you need to know before you start your story, where you're going, and where you're coming from. Now, I don't necessarily mean this in a literal sense of the term.

  What I mean is, at what part of the problem are we starting at? Did some major catastrophe just happen so we are at the end of a problem? Are we in the middle of one? Is there going to be a problem in the future?

  Then, what is your end game? Where do you want your characters to end up? What goal or end product are you reaching towards? You should know this before you even begin writing. Trust me.

  Wherever we are in the scheme of the problem, your readers should be introduced to the problem in the very first chapter. I mentioned this earlier, but it is important enough to mention again.

  Starting with an explanation of the problem is great. Starting with an action scene where your character is in the middle of the problem, in a flash back scenario, is not.

  Please don't start your story with a flashback. You probably think that it's great to tempt your reader with a taste of what comes later. It isn't. Then the reader becomes disappointed that they have to wait to get to that point and it makes the build up less interesting. In many cases, readers find that to be a turn off.

  Don't start with your character a) waking up b) going to bed c) doing chores d) literally any other mundane task or daily routine. Your reader doesn't care, I promise. Unless something is different about them after they completed the task, it doesn't need to be mentioned

  For instance: it would be alright to start your story with your character waking up if their hair had turned white overnight or something like that. However, I would recommend just staying away from those situations in the first place.

  Stories aren't meant to be written about someone who has a normal life. If they were normal, they wouldn't have a story about them. So, making them do a mundane and normal task will not fool your readers. It will bore them.

  Get into the problems right away. What is going wrong and why should we care. Trust me, you aren't building suspense, you're killing time.