[SpaceWeavil]

Rotten title for the thread, I know, but I couldn't think of anything more imaginative.

I'm just wondering what people's thoughts are on what is the best way to start a story. What is better, to throw your reader into the middle of the action right away, or to spend a little time building up the situation first? How much, do you reckon, is too much when it comes to setting the scene?

I'm asking mainly to help settle a point in my own mind. I've had comments that I tend to take a while to get around to the point of my stories, because I tend to spend a while building up the characters and stories, and I'm wondering if I ought to try and approach things a different way, to avoid my stories just becoming too boring as they take too long to get going.

So what do folks do? Do you prefer to take things slowly or just get stuck in

I'm just interested to hear other people's opinions on this, as I'm in two minds as to which way I ought to go.

[VanatheEverYoung]

I'm glad you started this thread. It's something I've been thinking about a lot. Mostly, it's because I'm working on this skill myself. So, I've started to pay attention.

My all time favorite beginning is from the book "1984". If you've read it, you probably understand why it is a good beginning. (That is, if you liked the book ) If not, the opening line is this: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." With that line, I'm sucked into Orwell's world. It doesn't matter that it took me half the book to figure out that Airstrip One is England. The setting is established in one line. That's what I look for in a beginning. I need to get sucked right in. Having said that ... Not many stories begin that way, but I still read them. As much as I prefer a hard-hitting line at the beginning, a well-worded prologue or first chapter can do the same thing.

[Yavanie]

Sorry SpaceWeavil, you're going to get a toss up from me. I enjoy a well set up story as much as I enjoy one that thrusts me right into the thick of it and the details get sorted out through the story. I thing either can be a very legitimate way to start a story. It can depend on your characters and the events you are portraying, as well as taking into account how familiar your readers are with the setting and background already or if that lends a certain flavour to the story to find that out along with the characters concerned.

I very much enjoy your writing and don't think it is anyway in danger of becoming stale. Well, I guess that really wasn't much help was it?

Just off the cuff: I am a fan of James Mitchner and his use of the history of the land and peoples that are set out at the beginning and also revealed throught the story. I always felt his stories had "layers", depth.

[Viv]

Workshop editors are very fond of this topic, so I have scads of information on it. Generally, editors-what-buy-manuscripts prefer stories to drop readers right into the action. Catchy first lines are a must. Info dumps in the first several pages are highly discouraged. In fact, info dumps in general are discouraged.

I try to follow their advice in my original work, because I want them to buy my stuff. In fic, it matters somewhat less.

[DarkElfChilde]

I think it really depends on the story...like, if you have a plotline that needs more explanation, start at the beginning so the readers won't feel all confused and they won't get mad at you.

or

start right into the fire.


But, I think it's best for how the author wants to start out their story; the most comfortable is the way to go.


- DEC

[SpaceWeavil]

I had a friend / colleague once whose wife was a reader for a publishing company, and she always told me that they decided what would be considered from the first line. If it didn't have a good one, they didn't usually bother reading any further. So I tend to think of that when I start something and try to think of a good first line at least

I used to be very keen on getting my original fiction published, and so I got into the mindset of trying to get any advice on fiction I could. I know now that my original fiction isn't of a good enough quality to be published, but I still enjoy just writing stuff for myself and to share on archives like this, and I still have that mindset of wanting to improve. (which is probably why I get obsessive about things )

I just wondered what people thought, as I've always had split feedback on stuff. Some people on another site had a go because in 'Alliance', I didn't have Elrond and Celebrian get together in paragraph one, while others said it was good that the relationship developed sedately. Some people have said 'Bodysnatcher' took far too long to actually get the OFC into Middle Earth, while other people said it was good that some background story was built up.

They're just examples of why I get a little confused when I try to think about this. In both those stories, I wanted to pace it the way I did, and I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out / are turning out. I'm not so sure about some other stuff I'm working on though, which is why I wanted to ask this and see what people thought on the subject.

I was actually told by a moderator on another archive that my problem was that I said my favourite authors were people like Tolkien and M. R. James or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I was told that I should stop reading that and read Tom Clancy, then I would know how to write properly But basically she figured because I preferred turn of the century or early 20th Century fiction, that made my writing slower in pace and stuff. At the time I didn't think that was true. Anyway, I am babbling a bit.

[DarkElfChilde]

Hey! Continue your babbling. I was enjoying it, as I'm a babbler too! Haha!

Moving on.

Before I even do anything with a story, I play it over and over in my mind, then drop it down on paper or type it up, and then go from there. Fun, but time consuming.

Possibly the reason why I go so slow when I'm writing a story or several other stories. Especially when I keep going back to a chapter, and deleting or adding words in to make it 'good' and an interesting read.

It's good to ask yourself,

"What would my readers enjoy, and what would they not like?"

Sure, there's going to be ups and downs in your story, but I think that happens to everyone.

My English teacher in high school once said that when you write a story, the first chapter should be short, and interesting to catch the readers attention...then as every chapter comes to be, you can either make it long, really long, medium, or short...depending on what you want to happen in that chapter.


My head hurts, so I'm going to leave it at that.

- DEC

[SpaceWeavil]

[VanatheEverYoung]

[Thuriniel]

As a reader, I like both approaches. As long as they're well written and well thought out, I don't think I would be able to choose between them.

As a writer, I think that "in media res" may prove more challenging to work with since you need to put the puzzle together as you move forward. Being the organization freak I am ... I work better with "normal" time lines .

[krazykataave]

[Viv]

[SecretKeeper]

Okay...it's almost an opinion but could a story starter be like this?

The trees were tall and looming, pine needles littering the forest floor. A willow tree planted quite close to a stream had its branches barely touching the water. Despite the peaceful forest sounds, there was still silence. At the stump of a large fir tree across from the willow sat a little girl with jet-black hair that curled around her face and dark brown eyes shining with tears.

And is this infodumping?

Gandalf hadn’t realized that since coming from a visit from Bag End and walking into the forest would mean also meeting a child as young as this one. Her way of speaking was fast from what he had heard from her and unlike anything he ever heard. It sounded close to Westron yet it was not for the words were not as rough. She spoke with a flow even at that young of an age. A flow that seemed to aid her in picking up Sindarin, the language he spoke to her before hand, a strange thing. Most children her age would have picked up Westron more easily yet it was the Elvish tongue did she listen to the most closely. He led her down towards the willow tree and motioned her to sit on a mossy stump that had been the result of lightning striking down a tree. In this case, it had been oak. She did albeit hesitantly while watching him gathering some dry wood and stones that were in the vicinity of the stump. She gasped when he produced a small fire.

“Where do you come from child?” He asked the little one, in Sindarin of course, yet she looked at him curiously. Gandalf sighed; Nadine couldn’t understand all of the language. He had to go slower which would be tedious. He asked again three times until slowly the child replied as if thinking about what he could be asking. “I am lost. I would like to go home.”

The words sounded had quite a few sounds that sounded like words of the elvish tongues. He listened and prompted her to keep speaking. He gave her some water and some bread as he listened to her speech. Fast, flowing, many hard consonants yet it had the charm and flow of an ordinary child her age. He filed each sound and word away for reference until finally she fell asleep. He covered her with a small cloak, took out his pipe, lit it and sat upon the stump blowing puffs of smoke into the air. He began to think and deep within the recesses of his mind, he found it. A long forgotten tale that had been dormant until it erupted back to life.

I read over the stuff and I'm just wondering. I read the last paragraph and I thought that I'd be info dumping if I resumed the tale with Gandalf remembering a story about this key that was made by men of the East. I read somewhere, I think on wikipedia, that the Blue Wizards sent to the East had indeed succeeded and their names changed from the original forms. I wanted to play with the idea of the Blue Wizards and the East because it's mysterious terrain and there's so little about it that could be found unless we were privy to Tolkein's really personal notes on those characters. I know that people know about Ragadast and I also wanted to tie him in with this story of the key but I'm not exactly sure where to stand on this topic. So if you've got any suggestions on the above three and hopefully this post isn't off topic, much appreciated.

[NancyBrooke]

[SecretKeeper]

Space, it's all good. Your fics are great and it's amazing that you're finding your writer's voice so thoroughly despite the obsession but then again, I know that when I try to start something, I start it then I have to revise it then I look at the start and feel upset because the fic isn't going where I want it to go. However, the beginning is always the worse place to be because you need to start it and chronological order sometimes sucks because you want to write those points in time but can't because then you're going to fast. One of my good friends told me that: "A good piece of writing that is bound to have an amazing story always starts off slow before getting faster."
If you've read 'Realizations' by Wishweaver (a Harry Potter fanfic! Egads!) on fanfiction.net or even Scribe's fics, each beginning is fairly slow. It takes a LONG time for anything to really happen but once it does, BOOM!!! It just hits you full force despite the fact that it was slowly building up to that point.