Where to Begin
I'll probably leave this post up for a day or two, because judging by the angst-ridden emails I get, the writers who approach me when I give presentations, and my own experiences, where to start a book seems to give people the most pause.
Growing up, we probably all heard, "Begin at the beginning."
Not true for a novel. Can you imagine if everyone started their novels in Dickens-like fashion with the birth of a baby.
David Copperfield begins with "I AM BORN."
Of course, I adore Dickens. But no, it wouldn't be good for each of us to start with the birth of our characters. Having given birth to four children, I like to regale them, when they are annoying me, with "I was in labor for 26 hours with you, and this is how you repay me?" But no, it's not terribly interesting to anyone but them and me.
Many novels begin with the "set-up," A funny story, an anecdote, something that tells you, "Here, reader, this is what the book is going to be about."
Some with a dilemma.
A longing.
A crisis.
A dead body.
In general, I think it has to start with something . . . captivating. Something different. Funny. A dead body. An engaging voice. A perfect one-liner. Something that makes you sit up and take notice.
And more often than not, you may write a chapter or two before it dawns on you, CRAP, that was all back story, HERE'S where I begin. With the dead body. With the woman walking in on her husband in bed with the neighbor. With the man discovering his accountant has cleaned him out. With the unplanned pregnancy. With the crisis of conscience. With the morning after a bender full of remorse. It begins here.
My feeling is slice as much back story from your opening chapter as you can possibly get away with. Then start with the big moment.
In my new work in progress, I start with the discovery of an ancient manuscript with a very big secret.
In my other . . . I start with a boy discovering he has a special magical ability.
In The Roofer? A dead body. I like starting with those.
If I was to tell you my life story? I would begin with my children, for my life didn't REALLY begin until I had them. Not really. Not living fully. Then I would move backward to tell you why I feel that way. Then forward . . .
So where do you begin?
Growing up, we probably all heard, "Begin at the beginning."
Not true for a novel. Can you imagine if everyone started their novels in Dickens-like fashion with the birth of a baby.
David Copperfield begins with "I AM BORN."
Of course, I adore Dickens. But no, it wouldn't be good for each of us to start with the birth of our characters. Having given birth to four children, I like to regale them, when they are annoying me, with "I was in labor for 26 hours with you, and this is how you repay me?" But no, it's not terribly interesting to anyone but them and me.
Many novels begin with the "set-up," A funny story, an anecdote, something that tells you, "Here, reader, this is what the book is going to be about."
Some with a dilemma.
A longing.
A crisis.
A dead body.
In general, I think it has to start with something . . . captivating. Something different. Funny. A dead body. An engaging voice. A perfect one-liner. Something that makes you sit up and take notice.
And more often than not, you may write a chapter or two before it dawns on you, CRAP, that was all back story, HERE'S where I begin. With the dead body. With the woman walking in on her husband in bed with the neighbor. With the man discovering his accountant has cleaned him out. With the unplanned pregnancy. With the crisis of conscience. With the morning after a bender full of remorse. It begins here.
My feeling is slice as much back story from your opening chapter as you can possibly get away with. Then start with the big moment.
In my new work in progress, I start with the discovery of an ancient manuscript with a very big secret.
In my other . . . I start with a boy discovering he has a special magical ability.
In The Roofer? A dead body. I like starting with those.
If I was to tell you my life story? I would begin with my children, for my life didn't REALLY begin until I had them. Not really. Not living fully. Then I would move backward to tell you why I feel that way. Then forward . . .
So where do you begin?
Labels: beginnings
posted by Erica Orloff at 8:05 PM
39 Comments:
From the rewrite I'm working on:
I was sitting alone at The Neon Phoenix in St. Augustine, drinking Dos Equis from a longneck bottle and watching the motel across the street with a telephoto lens. The cheating husband I’d been waiting to catch on camera hadn’t shown yet, but it was still early.
I ordered a plate of fried oysters and another beer. Then I saw a dead man ride by on a Harley-Davidson.
I threw a twenty on the table, ran outside to my car and followed the bike north. I tailed it through one intersection after another, the events from seven months ago stampeding through my brain like a herd of elephants.
The next two hundred pages show why the narrator thought the guy on the motorcycle was dead. Then we move back to the present chase and climax.
I like to start in media res, i. e. in the middle of things, with something that will (I hope) engage the reader right away. With this book, I think the flashback format is working so far. But we'll see.
I rewrote my first chapter a while back, and put all the backstory into chapter 3, where it fits neatly into a time where my main character is going over some details of her life. By then I hope the reader is already vested in her, and is thrilled to know more. But yes, I jump right into a big thing in my main character's life -- her first date after 16 years of marriage! So, the reader is in on the beginning of something big right along with the main character, but the details leading up to it - yep - that comes later. It did take me a while to learn that not every scene needs a full set-up, that things evolve in a story the way they do in life and you find things out along the way.
My biggest problem (not that you asked) is with flashbacks, and not always writing chronologically but jumping into action and filling in the blanks with dialogue etc. I think I tend to do too much of that sometimes. I write it out and then revise it and see the problem.
Any suggestions for this?
I'm now about 2/3 finished my manuscript which is exciting to me. My goal is a perfectly polished manuscript and kick-ass query etc. all ready to go right after summer.
Here's how Every Other Weekend begins...
I got dressed for my first date in 16 years at the same time that my ex-husband was across town passing a kidney stone. Divine justice.
Usually at the beginning. I don't know why, but I don't put backstory in the beginning. I have an incredibly short attention span, which prevents me from writing too many words without some conflict to keep me focused.
For some weird-ass reason, I rarely rewrite my beginnings. As I make my way through the story, when something new happens, I always go back to the beginning and "plant" a hook.
Nowadays, I seem to write my endings over and over and over. Ugh.
Hemingway wrote a story, "Old Man at the Bridge," and said of it later, in A Moveable Feast, that he'd cut the end of the story in which the man hanged himself. Which is to say, the man actually did hang himself, but Hemingway cut the scene.
If you can cut a dramatic climax and improve a story (as Hemingway thought he did) you can certainly cut backstory. I no longer try to fit backstory in the right place, I try to get rid of it altogether.
But I'll keep my suicidal hanging scenes, thank you very much.
Hi Jude:
I like those middle-of-the-action starts, too,
Amy:
I laughed out loud. OUT LOUD.
I think it's a great beginning.
As for flashbacks . . . they can be unwieldy. I told The Roofer almost entirely in flashback except for one scene per part of the book (the book has four parts). It's tricky. I think some of it is asking if it's absolutely necessary. Can any of it be in dialogue, be in nuance. Don't rely on the flashback if some present-day clue can tell the information instead.
E
spy:
For some people, it's the opposite problem--i.e., the blank computer screen is like a painter looking at a blank canvas and panicking over where to start. WHAT to start with. I get more questions about this at conferences than anything else.
E
stephen:
A powerful lesson.
I had dozens of readers write to me after The Roofer and ask what happened to Tom. Tom has an ending. It's not explicit but implicit. I felt "Enough said."
E
LOL! Sounds like Spy and I have the same routine. I can't remember the last time I had rewritten a beginning. I might spruce it up with a few more lines, but that's about it.
One thing that has always helped me with the beginning is to ask myself, "What's the explosive that'll set this thing off?" and go with that. My favorite beginnings so far are a bounty hunter going after a pregnant woman and an aunt and her niece trapped inside a three-story jungle gym that's about to crash to the ground.
You know I just finished judging a contest and that's probably one of the BIGGEST problems I saw.
Jude...Amy...those were fabulous!
I like a little lead-in (IE the ordinary world) but it has to be interesting. The whole first chapter of Screwed seems useless and maybe even gratuitous (to some) but you find out later it sets of the entire rest of the book.
Thanks, Amie!
I'm still not sure about making 2/3 of the book a flashback. Erica? Anybody?
Jude, have you read The Roofer? The meat of the story was in the past, the journey in the past, but it was ... structured in context of a three day funeral. (Sorry, Erica, I have the worst memory, so please forgive what I get wrong.) The story is the backstory, and the present is the structure. I think.
I really haven't tested my hypothesis, so use salt. I tend to think that when it works, backstory either is or shows the story. When it doesn't work, it explains it. It's a fine line in writing, but a big difference in a reader's experience.
Less, I think, is more, because backstory can also be doled out in teasing bits, to heighten curiosity about a character or place hooks that will give the reader another reason to turn the pages.
Salt, please. I haven't played with backstory much.
Spy:
I did read The Roofer. The structure worked very well in that book, so I suppose like everything it's all in the execution.
I should probably note that my big long flashback isn't a lot of backstory about the character per se, but instead is a few harrowing days in the character's life that makes it almost impossible for the guy he sees to be on the motorcycle now.
Love Jude's and Amy's beginnings. Unlike Spy and Marcia, I do change my beginnings, so I won't put what I have in my wip here. It starts a moment before someone discovers something that will change the lives of about six characters in the book. The POV character has down's syndrome, and I want her internal thoughts to show the reader her childlike character.
I'm a big fan of in media res, myself. It depends, of course. Now, your post made me consider my WIP, so I just went back to see what I thought:
My father officially disappeared on May 13th. That was the day he and his single engine airplane disappeared while flying over Utah.
You might have heard about it. It was on TV and radio and all over the Internet. There were headlines like: FAMOUS ARCHAEOLOGIST WENT MISSING!!!
I think that works well enough for dragging the reader into the question. I prefer to layer "backstory" throughout the book. I'm reading Joe Hill's "Heart Shaped Box" and he blows me away how expertly he's handling backstory--and it's his first novel! (His Dad is Stephen King & his Mom, obviously, is Tabitha King, so I guess he's got a lifetime of dinner table conversation/masters class to help, but man, this guy can write).
In the past I've regularly cut the first chapter (sometimes more) of my beginning. I'd write backstory to kind of get myself started, I think. Once I entered a First Page contest on Miss Snark's blog. It really opened my eyes about how gripping my opening lines were. Now, I look at my openings as if I were entering that contest again. Here's the opening of my current wip:
The sharp scent of turpentine jerked Dana Sinclair out of her trance and her almond shaped eyes flew open. She swayed on the tall stool for a moment, sucking in a lungful of air. A lock of damp, black hair stuck to her cheek with the sweat that ran down her face and neck, staining her delicate silk camisole. Her head snapped up and the panic lessened when she recognized her loft. Smears of red and yellow covered her hands that clutched the can of spirits and the long handle of a black sable oil brush.
Her bare foot touched the floor and she slowly swiveled around to face a three by four foot canvas. The canvas she’d prepared and put on the easel the day before so it would be ready for her tomorrow morning.
Not again.
There was strength in the swaths of bold color, subtle emphasis in the shading, and implied detail in the sparse lines. A complete departure from her moody landscapes that had received critical acclaim. Some of the best work she’d ever done.
She had no memory of having painted a single stroke.
I have one book/story that I started with: After police removed the severed head from my front porch..."
My critique group loved it. I got the idea when I went to court for a car accident. They guy how owned the car and had no insurance skipped town but the 28 year old kid who was driving showed up ready to face the music. He was so nice and kept asking what else he could do for me (besides give me money)I had a very strong urge to say, "Bring me the head of (guy who owned car)." But since not many people get my sense of humor I held my tongue. No sense in scaring the kid.
But then I starting thinking ...what if?
lol
A writer's brain never rests.
Was that a writerly question or a philosophical one?
I began the day I left my parents and could support myself.
My books begin with children rebelling or planning escapes. I'm sensing a theme...
:-)
My writing mentor has always said ...
Start where things changed for you character. When did it all go wrong, or right?
Marcia:
I blogged about judging a contest recently . . . and that explosive intro is so important.
amie:
I love those books that come full circle and give you an ah-ha at the end.
E
Mark:
I would keep reading. And I think it just pulls you in right away.
E
Liz:
Having read more . . . I love it!
E
Aimless:
Holy cow. GREAT ONE!
christine:
Yes. Theme waving a big red flag there. LOL!!!!!
E
Travis:
Your mentor is very wise.
E
I started with a concept. Then I built a story around the concept. Kind of like a concept map with the concept in the middle and all these ideas shooting off from it. Probably not the best way to right but it works for me!
I keep changing the beginning. One of the beginnings has become the end--crazy how that happens.
My original beginning is now a couple of chapters in. My new beginning may suffer the same fate. Sometimes as I go along, things find better positions for themselves. My current new first line:
Jim looked around the room wondering where he was, how he got there and why someone who looked and sounded like his favorite but dead Aunt Nelly was standing there talking to him.
Erica, love the blog, I blogged about you on my blog today.
I start a story -just- before the nice life they have is about to be turned topsy-turvy.
ello:
I am a concept gal myself.
E
Muse:
Topsy-turvy . . . such is the writer's life, sometimes.
E
Jill:
Thank you so much!!! What a lovely compliment.
E
anti-wife . . .
Sometimes I think we feel our way around until we find the REAL beginning.
E
THANK YOU!!! I was trying to work out where to start my new book and I read the word 'funny' in your post and got an idea!!!!
Sara:
LOL! Happy to oblige!
E
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液晶电视的构造简单地说,就是用2块特殊的玻璃夹住液晶体,通过8比特驱动电路和高效背灯系统来调节成像的,这样就使我们传统概念中的电视机超薄型化成为可能。
与传统的显像管相比,液晶电视信号不失真,视觉不疲劳,没有射线造成的健康损害。节约能源,耗电量是同样大小尺寸显像管电视机耗电量的62%。寿命长,采用新开发的长寿命液晶背灯,实现了可长达60000小时的使用时间,大约可以使用10年(按照每天使用16小时计算)而不用更换。而液晶本身的寿命会比人的寿命还长。又薄又轻,30英寸的显像管电视机重约70公斤,而28英寸的液晶电视才重达16.8公斤。清晰度高,基本不反光。
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