Look at it, cold and wet like a newborn calf. I want to tell it everything—how we struggled, how we tore out our hair and thumbed through rusted nails just to stand for its birth. I want to say: look how far we’ve come. Promise our resolutions.
But what does a baby care for oaths and pledges? It only wants to live.
==
Hi. How are you? Shall we do this thing?
As a reminder, you can get a daily poem emailed to you in April by signing up here. Or catch it via Twitter, this Tumblr, or RSS. I’m glad you’re here.
A lot of first time writers come up with a great idea for a story but have no clue on how to start writing it. In this post i will try to give a couple of pointers on how to do just that. But first let me point out that there is no one way on how to begin your novel. I do not claim that how i do it is the best way, everything i tell you here is just how i start my writing but hopefully it will help some of your guys out there. Understand that there is no correct order for these tips, they all are related in some way and creating one thing will lead to another in a different category. That being said, let’s begin!
Make a timeline
I always start by creating a timeline on which i can mark different events in my novel. I will assume here that, like me you have thought of at least one scene when you got your amazing idea. This is a great start which you immediately can put on your timeline. This timeline is going to become your best friend so i suggest you place it somewhere where you can access it easily.
Now i name each point on my timeline with a short title, things like: this character dies, this battle occurs, this character get’s bad news,… Things like that. Then i place this title in a separate document and clarify what i mean with this title. I describe how i imagined the scene, which characters are present, what it is about, … everything i can think off off of the top of my head. Then before i start writing that scene i will reread this piece and maybe add a couple of things.
Normally i tend to categorize and color code each title in my timeline and the separate document. I categorize them by something that suits the story: per point of view, per area they are in,… If done correctly (and by that i mean with a summary with a description what each category or color means) it can help you keep the timeline neatly structured so you only have to glans at it to know what is going on.
Start to build the basics of your world
In one of my previous posts i talked about world building, Here is a link to this post and i suggest you check it out to learn how to easily build up a world.
World building consists of two parts: culture and environment. You need to create or now in which kind of culture your story is going to take place and choose in which environment this culture is going to exist in. Both influence the others greatly, for example you can not have a people who live in wooden houses live on a barren wasteland. They will need to live in stone housing and thus the environment influences the culture you create.
So start by brainstorming and try to come up with answers to questions like: Is it a fictional place or a non-fictional one, is it going to be in an urban setting or in the woods outside of the city, in what time period is it going to take place, …
This is the part that is going to take a lot of your own creativity to make your story unique so i won’t talk any more about this part. Check the link for a full explanation on how to easily create a world.
Create your first characters
In one of my previous posts i already talked about character development, you can find that post here. But the things i talked about in that post are a bit more advanced, what you want to know is how to create your first character. There are different ways to do this: you can create the character you want or create the character the story needs. Many a writer would critique the second way by saying that this makes the characters flat and ensures that the character has a lacks of an interesting character arc. Now i am a big fan of the second way so i beg the differ, i think when you create the character the story needs it ensures that your character fits the setting. It is then the job of the writer to make that character interesting. But we will get to that in a bit.
Whichever way you choose i always suggest you create and develop the basic characters first and with that i mean your pro- and antagonist(s). It makes sense that, because the story revolves around them they are the most important and thus they need the most development. As i have stated before the easiest way to remember how every character is are the character questionnaires which you find all over tumblr and other writing blogs. But in my previous post about character development i also stated that these questionnaires alone are not enough to make a character feel real. Definitely check the link out to know which tips i gave about that subject.
When you created the main characters you are going to need to brainstorm. For example i will make a character called Tony (and let’s just say i already tried to develop him to the fullest i possibly could). Tony is going to need a set of parents and so i create Maria and Jack. My backstory requires him to be best friends with his cousin so i create Jenny. He is getting a masters degree so he is going to need a couple of teachers and since he is kind of popular he is going to need at least six good and a couple of semi good friend. BAM, i just created another twenty characters. You just keep this brainstorming going until you have been through your entire story and you will have a complete list of characters which you need to describe and create. Does every character need to be fully developed? No, If for example one of his professors only get’s mentioned once you probably don’t need to know who his parents were and how he defines himself as a human being. But his best friends do need the full treatment.
Lastly i want to point out that you need to keep a list with all of your created characters where you sum up everything that is important about that character: his appearance, his personality traits, backstory, … so you won’t forget about their characteristics halfway through working on your book.
Filling up the timeline
The easiest way (and sort of the way i always did it before i even knew about it) to do this is using the Pixar story structure:
Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
Pixar are as most of you know the masters of originality and deserve to be an influence on new writers. What this story three folded structure entails is that it begins with sketching the origins and habits of your main character, then describe the factor that disrupts the main characters pattern and the effects it has on his life and finally describe how it all ends. This is a great and easy way to come up with your timeline so use it!
After you have done this you will have at least have a couple of scenes in mind which you put on your timeline. Most importantly after you have combined this with your world building and your character creating you will probably have the beginning of your story. a point where you are sure the story of your character starts and probably the point which messes the world of the main character up. From then on it is easy to fill in the blanks, try the following step: how do my characters get from scene A to scene B, what happens in between and how do i make this interesting. This is applicable for every kind of story. I will give two completely different examples to demonstrate this.
Let’s say you are writing an action packed novel where they get from one action scene to the next needs a break from the action. So a thing you could do is let them get to a hideout to resupply (how they get there) and so they can figure out what will come next (how to make it interesting).
A completely different example for instance is a love story where you have two romantic scenes but don’t know how you link the two up. Maybe one of them bumps in to a past romantic interest (how do i make it interesting) which makes him doubt his/her love for the other mc so he/ she wants to see the other mc to see what happens (how do they get there). But seeing her might make him forget all that.
You just keep using this rule until your timeline is filled up and voila! You have a basic timeline to work with.
Mixing it up
As you are doing all of the above you will notice that none of the above steps stand on their own. Creating a part of the world will lead to you coming up with an interesting scene, creating that scene will lead to creating new characters to put in the scene, creating that scene may help you shape the place they are at and thus help you build up your world further, … And before you know it your story will write itself! And like i said in the introduction, there is no one way of doing it. Some stories require a lot of attention on world building, others need attention in the character development department.
Research
First let me make clear that i don’t like to plan a story out until i have every detail. I don’t do this because wile you are writing, you will get new ideas which will replace old ones and thus it would be a waste of time to develop a complete idea only to have it replaced. But on the contrary a lack of research will make your story seem unbelievable so you have to find that perfect balance.
Now what are you suppose to research beforehand and what do you research wile writing? Well i always suggest you try to have a basic understanding before you start working and research the specifics when needed. For example if you are writing about a wood worker you need to know what his daily activities are, what tools he has in his shop, … But only when your character is making a chair do you need to know which steps he undertakes to make it.
Writing can be intimidating and is something that takes up a lot of time. But if you ask any writer whether he he would want to go back to a time he didn’t write a guarantee you that none of them will say yes. Writing is something beautiful and helps writers in so many ways and it is just something that we enjoy. So don’t let the huge pile of work scare you off, in the end the whole process is something you will enjoy and once you start it you will find out that this is what your life has been missing all along.
– Here are a couple tips on how you might go about starting a scene in your story! A lot of these have to do with planning beforehand, but it’s no secret that most of the writing process is in planning and editing, rather than actually writing. I hope this is helpful. Happy writing!
First, you should identify where your scene is positioned in the overall plot. Is it in the beginning, middle, or end? Knowing the position of your scene will help you decide how to mold it. Jerry Jenkins, on his blog, put it very eloquently:
Opening Scenes should be loaded with character and set up your premise. That’s where you want to slip in important bits of backstory.
Middle Scenes carry complications, twists, and raise the stakes.
Climactic Scenes should build to a riveting climax, so they might be shorter and packed with action and emotion.
Have Some Idea Of Its Main Purpose
It’s crucial to know the function of your scene, otherwise you’ll be wasting your time. If your scene doesn’t have a clear purpose from the beginning, you’ll end up cutting it out later. Here’s some examples of functions your scene may serve.
Develop characters
Move plot forward
Establish a connection between the subplot(s) and main plot
Show effects of earlier events/actions
Reveal crucial information
Identify Main Symbols and Ideas
It is very helpful when you’re writing to know exactly what symbols you’re meant to incorporate into a scene and what the main idea is. Even if you just sort it out in your head beforehand, you’ll find ways to sprinkle those things in as you go along, and that will add some nice material to prompt critical thinking in your readers. Knowing what symbols and main ideas you’re going to push in a scene will help you add subtext as you write, instead of having to go in as you edit and add it in afterward.
Know Where The Climax Is
It’s important to identify beforehand where the highest point of pressure is within that scene. This is so you can make a plan for how you’ll build up to it and make it stand out, as well as impact your reader more than other bits of the scene.
The climax of your scene does not have to be in the middle, or anywhere near it. It’s 100% possible to have the climax near the beginning or at the very end of a scene. Just beware, if your climax is at the very end of the scene, there won’t be much time for falling action and resolution, so you will likely end that scene on a cliffhanger.
Open Your Scene Effectively
It’s important to open your scene in a way that will grip your reader’s attention. It’s important to remember that there’s a first line to every scene, and that there should be a hook to all of them, and not just the first in your story. Below are some ground-level ideas for how you could go about beginning any one of your scenes.
5 Effective Scene Openings
Starting a scene with action
Starting a scene with summary
Starting a scene by revealing a character’s thoughts
If you know exactly how the scene will end, it’ll be easier to add build up and leave some room for falling action if it is necessary. There are many ways you can go about ending a scene, but the end should round back to the beginning, like the conclusion of an essay rounds back to the introduction. Having a plan beforehand of how you’ll end the scene will make it easier to do this.
Support Wordsnstuff!
If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee.
New Beginnings: a Domestic Sheith Zine Full Contributor List
The moderator team of New Beginnings is absolutely thrilled to introduce you to all of our incredibly talented contributors. Everything is already looking so beautiful, we can’t wait to show you what this amazing project has in store!!
Stay tuned for graphics dedicated to the contributors in each section of our zine, as well a very special announcementcomingsoon!!
He couldn’t figure her out. Moments would come and go that would leave him stumped, ideas and theories shattered with a second’s glance and those damnably enigmatic eyes. His delicate house of cards, each one a piece of empirical evidence that he’d carefully assembled from the things she would do, the things she would say, would flutter in a downwards anticlimax when she would do something new, undermining everything that had come before.
Had it not been her, this one, singular person, he would have been frustrated. His ire would rise, heartburn of the worst kind, and he would even be fundamentally worried. He wasn’t used to being thwarted, wasn’t used to not knowing. But she was a riddle that he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to solve. Like a monster in a horror film, it was only scary for as long as it stayed off camera, fleeting glimpses of something glistening in the blackness, but never the money shot.
But she didn’t scare him. Excitement was the closest word he could get to without falling over himself and retching at the cliché of it all. Intrigued, perhaps, fit a little better. The corners still stuck out, and it was all a bit hap-hazard, but it was as far as he would allow him to go, just yet.
“You’re day dreaming.” It sounded almost like an accusation. His eyes shifted from the middle distance to her face, and his lips broke into a smile.
“Only of you.” He smirked, the saccharine remark burning on his tongue, but the sarcasm made it easier to swallow. She rolled her eyes.
“Naturally.” She drawled, and took a sip of her water, her eyes narrowing on him for a moment.
A little #throwbackthursday…while cleaning and reorganizing I came across one of my very first cross stitch pieces!! I bought a beginners kit, got hooked, and then bought this kit/book filled with mini cross stitch patterns! It’s full of some seriously cute designs, it’s no wonder I became obsessed
Actually, can we talk about how Garbage a lot of ubiquitous writing advice in the late 2000’s was?
Like “you have to begin in the middle of the action! your first line has to be a ‘hook’ that draws the reader further into the story!”
This is the bullshit responsible for the amount of books that begin in the middle of some sort of pointless fucking action scene that I care nothing about because I just got here.
Like I guess this makes books easier to “sell” or whatever on some level of the process, but it’s garbage storytelling advice because setup and establishment of the Way Things Are is almost always necessary.
On some level I don’t think it’s actually possible to begin a story right on top of the “inciting incident” because…you don’t have the raw materials to “incite” anything with. If you have to set up basic things about the characters and world after the “inciting incident,” it’s not really the inciting incident anymore, is it?
The event that “launches” a character into their plot line is something that follows from the character’s established situation, desires, traits etc. It’s a follow-up to a situation that makes a Story of some kind inevitable.
It is, by definition, an event that makes no senseanddoes not matter to the reader at all unless the “setup” already exists.
If you try to begin right in the middle of the event that “sparks” the plot, you’re going to end up including a second, “real” event that actually does the job, because you can’t do the job if the character, the stakes, the rules, etc. are not there yet.
Now the action scene you stuck to the beginning of your story is probably dead weight that is getting in the way of the setup.
I just realized that a lot of writing advice assumes the reader has no pre-existing knowledge of what a story is, and everything suddenly makes so much sense.
Good stories assume you know what a story is.You don’t need something to explode or someone to get killed on page one to Make The Reader Pay Attention. That’s stupid. Stop talking.
I used to read SO MANY articles, books etc. talking about beginning a story and how a good “hook” works, and all of them talked about, like, introducing something so weird or exciting sounding or inexplicable that the reader is curious about the rest, and it’s so stupid thinking back on it that I want to cry, because literally none of them seemed to take into account that readers know that they’re reading a story.
When you start reading a book you’re automatically paying attention to specific things—interesting characters to connect with, hints of the kinds of things that might happen. You are not an idiot and you know that there is more book after the first page. You will be looking for stuff that looks like it will grow into something exciting, things that set up an interesting plot.
Your reader is already capable of projecting in their head the kinds of things that might happen in your story. It’s actually kind of fundamental to being a reader. Start with the bomb, not the explosion!
No one is opening a book like “Hmm, there is no extraordinary, dramatic event happening in the first sentence…I think I can safely conclude that nothing exciting happens in the entire book!” Like. Readers know how plots work. Dumbass.
I’ve said before that good first lines are the ones that have that “sit down, I’m telling you a story” effect, and I haven’t been able to explain it until now. A good beginning to a story is something that provides the “ingredients” for something cool.
Start with the bomb, not the explosion! READERS KNOW THAT BOMBS EXPLODE!
Perfect example of “start with the bomb:”
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
This is a very good beginning. Readers instinctively recognize that “they were perfectly normal” isn’t, like, telling us the whole book is going to be boring. It’s the bomb.
We get a feeling that something very not normal is about to happen to the Dursleys, and we’re right.
the first line of the Hunger Games is also as perfect as the beginning of a story can be, imho.
When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.
We begin chapter 1 with Prim’s missing-ness. That’s the bomb.
And we end chapter one with Prim’s name being called at the reaping. There’s the explosion. BOOM.
