Where should I start my story? Am I the only person who struggles with such a question? Well, my trusty ol’ friend Dwight Swain would say: start with change.
There are three ways you can start with change:
1. Just before the change happens
2. Just as the change happens
3. Just after the change happens
Where you choose to start your story is a delicate balancing act, and here’s why:
1. If you start your story too far ahead of the change, you risk boring your readers.
2. If you start your story in the midst of the change, you risk distancing your readers. When a reader doesn’t understand the existing situation or the characters affected by the change, that reader might not give a hoot.
3. If you start your story after the change, you risk confusing your readers.
How’s that for helpful?
Some advice?
Play around with all three options. Write them. Read them. Have other people read them. And see which works best. What is writing, anyway, if not a huge experiment with words?
Now that we’ve established where to start (sort of), let’s look at how.
How do we start?
The answer is quite simple. Start by raising a question. And do it right away. In the first paragraph. Preferably, in the first line. If you establish a unique and intriguing question, right off the bat, your reader will want, no need, to read on in order to figure out the answer.
Here are some examples from my trusty book shelf:
Dragon Tears, by Dean Koontz: Tuesday was a fine California day, full of sunshine and promise, until Harry Lyon had to shoot someone at lunch.
Question: Why did Harry Lyon have to shoot someone?
Monster, by Walter Dean Myers: The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out and someone is being beaten up and screaming for help.
Questions: Why is this person crying? Where is he and why is he there? Whose getting beaten up?
The Cure, by Athol Dickson: Riley Keep returned to the scene of his disgrace in the back of a northbound pickup truck with New Brunswick plates.
Question: Why is Riley returning to the scene of his disgrace? Where/what is it?
The Moment Between, by Nicole Baart: She left the world the same way she entered it: swathed in robes of scarlet so red and angry and portentous as to be mistaken for black.
Question: Who is dead? And how did she die?
Questions to Ponder: Do you struggle with knowing where and how to start a story? What are some of your favorite first lines of all time? Why are these your favorite?