Thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s post. Those of you who read this blog, don’t neglect the comments!
Christophe wrote:
On the other hand, you have to grip your reader early and fast, making them so interested in your story or characters that they will keep reading. If you don’t start your novel with the main story line and add a ’smaller’ problem that leads to the ‘bigger’ problem later on, how do you grip your reader then?
Is it a case of switching priorities in your protagonist? First he thinks this smaller problem is what deserves his attention, then the bigger problem?
I’m asking this because this is usually the hardest thing in starting a novel (at least for me). How do you take the story that’s in your mind and that’s interesting to you, and turn it into something that’s interesting for your potential readers?
In the case of Lord of the Rings for example, Bilbo desperately wants to go traveling again. But then, he’s not the main character. Frodo just wants to have a normal (boring) life, which makes him an average uninteresting character, not a protagonist. His real transformation into a protagonist comes later. How do we know when is the right time for this switch? How do we know it’s not too late or too early?
Randy sez: Lots of good questions here. I recommend this strategy:
1) Start in the first scene with the protagonist. Show him/her pursuing some rather ordinary goal (or avoiding some rather ordinary problem). There will naturally be conflict and then a disaster. (This is the usual structure for a Scene, using Dwight Swain’s terminology of Scenes and Sequels. For a recap, see my article on Writing the Perfect Scene.
2) As soon as possible, escalate the conflict. This may happen at the end of the first chapter, or it may come in the Sequel that follows, but raise the stakes and shift the goal.
3) Repeat as needed until you’ve transitioned from an ordinary goal to a large goal that can drive the novel forward.
As for Christophe’s question about knowing when to do this, I would say to do it as soon as possible, but no sooner.
There is another strategy for starting a novel with a bang, by starting a bit into the story, then backtracking. THE DAY OF THE JACKAL starts this way, with the execution of French Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. This takes half a page, after which the reader willingly submits to 14 pages of backstory on why the Lieutenant Colonel was executed (he had been part of a plot to assassinate Charles DeGaulle), and then the story continues with the aftermath of the execution.
In this example, the backstory was very recent, and could have served as the opening of the novel. The reason Frederick Forsyth started with the execution is that an execution is a more exciting start than a failed assassination attempt. There is something macabre about an execution that grabs the reader and won’t let go. (Readers of suspense novels understand this. Readers of sweet romances might not.)
The goal of your starting scene is to grab the reader’s attention. Whatever works is whatever works.
The sound of paper shredding, a toilet flushing. Five months of her life, like refuse, gone.
I began my novel with an argument between the sisters, one of them is the main protagonist.
I just wanted to say I really like both of these methods. The second one in particular. In the crime fiction genre Lawrence Block is well known for starting off with a bang and going back to add a little backstory.
The cool thing is that the backstory isn’t boring because you have met the characters and you begin to care even more about the characters because of the backstory. And the way he does it, the story isn’t slowed down at all. The backstory actually makes the main story more intense, ups the stakes, if you will. This is also something he recommends in his books on writing, i.e.reverse the first and second chapter. He doesn’t always make it that precise but I think the concept is sound.
Oh, almost forgot he does this mainly with his first person novels so it streamlines this even more. What I mean is that you don’t really notice it because it’s in first person. The guy is definitly a master.
Camille, you’re a poet! But you forgot to add “calling the plumber.”
I’m doing a period novel,(World War II and forward, but with influences from before). The lives of five women, each with a separate backstory, but eventually connected by the successive possession of an item of jewelry.
I’m identifying the chapters with the date and name of the woman (girl), which orients the reader. Plenty of PEEs, mystery, intrigue, betrayal, pathos, shadowed by the concerns of WWII and eventually tied together (I know exactly how), but I don’t have the first page grabber yet. Perhaps a rearranging of chapters?
Lois – I’m not ready for the plumber to retreive it. I’m still looking for chocolate, hoping I don’t run across a noose.
(Yours sounds great-keep it up! And away from the toilet!)
In the book that I’m currently writing (the first in an epic fanstasy trilogy) I start out with a prolouge. The pov character in the prolouge isn’t the main character, but he is a main character, and I switch between his pov and the main character’s pov a lot in the story. Anyways, in this prolouge, I include almost no backstory. Instead, it’s non-stop action. The polouge, of course, eventually ties into the main plot.
Then, in my first chapter, I start out with my main character having a real inner-conflict and a conflict with her boyfriend.
In my second chapter, weird things start happening to my main character, which gets my readers interested. At the end of this chapter, the pov character in the prolouge comes into play, getting the reader more curious.
My third chapter is in the pov of the character that was in the prolouge. Here, we find out more about the strange thigs happening to the main character, and a few large questions are answered.
The fourth chapter is where thins really heat up. The main character and the “prolouge character” have to leave the place where they were staying. This is really where the story starts.
Then in the fifh chapter, the “prolouge character” gives the readers some key backstory, but only just enough. This way, there can still be suprises and mystery as the story unfolds.
Well, that’s how I do it!
Thanks for bringing up this topic, everyone! Some good ideas are rolling around already.
In my WIP, the first chapter opens with my protagonist already in the middle of her journey (that takes her away from ‘normal’ life). She’s in pitch darkness, with her hand clutching the shirt of the grizzled man who will lead her to a totally foreign life. On the way, she’s thinking, “what am I doing here?” and “what’s going to happen next?”.
I do have a little backstory in the second chapter, while she’s still on this journey- but it only gives a hint as to why in the world she needs to make such a drastic change in her life. I’ll have to mull over whether to keep it here or not.
I always end up completely re-writing the first few chapters after the novel is finished. By the time I really know all the nuances of the story, better ways of introducing it to the reader have occured to me. I usually have a few new twists that I want to foreshadow. So I just don’t worry too much about it.The start of the story is mostly about getting me started writing it, and not bothering too much about hooking the reader yet. That will come later.
Wonderful subject!
Julie: If your story doesn’t start until the 4th chapter do you need the first 3 chapters? Also, I’m not sure you should start with a prologue. Some people don’t read them. I suggest you call it chapter 1 (and chapter 4, chapter 2).
All: Somewhere I heard the rule of thumb that you should throw out your 1st chapter, and in the case of a series, throw out your 1st book too. I started writing fiction in 2003 and my interests led me to write a novella, the 1st in a series. Looking back I can see I need to toss that 1st novella and do some heavy edits to the first 2 chapters of the 2nd novella–merge them and simplify. Or in essence, throw out the 1st chapter but keep a little of it.
I’m sort of working on my first novel (I keep getting distracted by short stories and novellas). I’m struggling with how to start the story. My first attempt started with my protag standing on a doorstep and ringing a doorbell. The problem is he isn’t human and in some tests with readers they didn’t quite “get” what he was or how he appeared. I think I should write it from a secondary character’s POV and open with her hearing the doorbell. Her shock at seeing the protag can lead to a nice description of him.
By the end of the first chapter the protag comes to the realization his life is messed up, that secondary character pledges to help him (she’s a “fixer” personality), and he meets his love interest (except he doesn’t realize it and doesn’t want her).