Can't find a starting point - could somebody please dope-slap me?

[Tornadoboy]

Ok, this newbie needs a good boot in the a** from all the pros out there, please have your shoe polish ready...
How do you get started? I've been tinkering with my WIP for quite some time now and have got a pretty good idea of where and how I want it to go, I've have written 20+ page pieces of it here and there that would take place later on in the book but writing the actual beginning is where I keep getting hung-up.
I've got potential launching points scattered everywhere from foiled suicide attempts, lost jobs to AA meetings, I'm determined to stop fantasizing and start writing but how do I get things started?
I guess the obvious answer is to simply shut up, just point myself in a direction and start writing, nervous twitches be damned, but still I can't get past the feeling that if I don't start things perfectly from the very beginning then the whole project will forever be doomed.
HELP :poke:

[RJLeahy]

take one of your plot lines, say the suicide attempt and start writing from there. Just start and keep going. If later you decide you wamt to change the beginning, you can do it, but you have to start writing.

[NeuroFizz]

This won't work for all stories, but take your most interesting character and put him/her in your most interesting or unusual situation, and let the intrigue or tension carry you into the story.

[Siddow]

Start at a point where something has changed for the main character. You've got several problems listed there; pick one!

Since you admit that you're a newbie, here's something for you to chew on: a whole lot of us end up throwing out the first 50 pages. We fill them with backstory and spend too long creating normalcy so that when things change, we think it's more shocking. Go ahead and write those pages anyway. It helps you to get into the story. And here's another bit: don't try to make the first draft perfect. You'll drive yourself crazy that way.

[Toothpaste]

I agree with Siddow. Just start writing, and know that you prob will redo those first pages. The great thing is you don't need to be perfect at the off. This isn't an exam where you get one chance and that's it. I've heard of this same problem as yours crippling many writers. Don't let it happen to you!

[Jamesaritchie]

Just write it and finsih it. Where you start isn't terribly important. Odds are you'll see the perfect starting point after the novel is finished, which will probably be two or three chapters later than when you did start.

[greglondon]

Look at all your notes and everything you know about the characters you want in your story and who is your protaganist and then start at exactly the point that your protaganist has a problem.

It may not be the main problem that the protaganist will overcome by the end of the story, but it couldn't hurt if they are somehow even indirectly or metaphorically related.

The rule of thumb is start with a Person, in a Place, with a Problem. Any earlier than that, and you're doing setup and prologues and info dumps that can be cut.

Once you have established a Person, Place, Problem, you can then introduce information IN THE CONTEXT of that person, place, problem, which then gives the reader something to hang the info on. Otherwise, you're doing a data dump and the reader has no idea why it is important.

You can establish Person, Place, Problem with the first sentence of you novel.

Person: he was an old man who fished alone
Place: in a skiff in the gulf stream
Problem: and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

Boom. You are off and running. You can now introduce all sorts of information in the context of the old fisherman who hasn't caught any fish in almost three months. Where does he live? Who does he interact with? And so on. And so forth.

You could start by describing a skiff, what it looks like, where it is sitting in at the docks, then describe the docks, and all the people around it, then describe the little cafe that everyone hangs out at, then describe the waitress that knows everyone who has a boat at the docks, then have the waitress strike up a conversation with someoen else about some old man who hasn't caught a fish in three months.

But the more time you take to establish the Person,Place,Problem that the story is actually about, the more you diffuse the energy of that problem, which diffuses the energy of your story.

from foiled suicide attempts, lost jobs to AA meetings

Why is all of this happening to the protag? Why is he trying to commit suicide? What is the underlying problem that is causing all these actions? What is the problem that must be solved to make all these things go away?

Start there.

If you don't know the answer to that question, you might want to plot it out a little bit more before you start writing. Because this problem is the overall problem that would get resolved (or not resolved) in the end of teh story.

if I don't start things perfectly from the very beginning then the whole project will forever be doomed.

Well, I wouldn't go to that extreme. You can always edit and revise. I ended up cutting out 90% of the first hundred pages of my first draft because I started way too early. I'm now doing another cover to cover revision to fix a bunch of POV problems.

If you don't know what the problem is that your protag has, then you'll be going in circles trying to find an ending that isn't a deux ex machina. But if you have a person, place, problem, you can always do a first draft, and have your beta readers tell you where it doesn't work.

[Shadow_Ferret]

Sit. Start.

The beginning you have now might not be the beginning you have later. Worry about how perfect the opening is in the revision stage, now just start putting words on paper.

Who knows? Your beginning now might end up in the middle or near the end as you revise.

My own beginning is now the second chapter.

Not sure I agree with siddow that we all throw out the first 50 pages. I've never had to do that.

[Siddow]

I didn't say all. I said a whole lot of us. That leaves room for you (and although he didn't say so, I suspect James A Ritchie, too) to be excluded.

My first novel lost the first seven chapters during revision.

The second lost three.

The third lost none.

I'm hoping to keep most of the fourth intact. Also hoping that it will be publishable, unlike it's predecessors. ;)

[icerose]

I invision a scene, generally introducting my main character, then I write about it and the writing goes from there, but by then I generally have a good picture of most if not all of the story. With this being your first one, just dream up that scene and start writing. Don't worry about quality or if it's at the wrong spot, make notes where neccessary, but plow on through and don't look back until you're finished.

[Judg]

Tornadoboy, some great advice here. I wrote no less than three different chapters as the first one. Finally I decided to write the whole thing in chronological order and decide what the opening will be after I'm finished the first draft. Which won't prevent me from changing my mind afterwards.

The biggest thing I have learned this year is that a first draft is going to be thoroughly rewritten anyway, especially for beginners like myself. The story could develop quite differently as I write it so whatever I intended when I started writing might no longer work so well once the whole thing is on paper.

I am creating clay that I can later model; nothing is set in concrete.

[Jamesaritchie]

I didn't say all. I said a whole lot of us. That leaves room for you (and although he didn't say so, I suspect James A Ritchie, too) to be excluded.

My first novel lost the first seven chapters during revision.

The second lost three.

The third lost none.

I'm hoping to keep most of the fourth intact. Also hoping that it will be publishable, unlike it's predecessors. ;)

Yep. I've never had to throw out the first fifty pages, but the tendency with new writers is to start too early in the story. But some writers start to early, some start too late, and the "throw out the first two or three chapters, or the first fifty pages, is just a rule of thumb that is often good advice for new writers.

And for me, the opening takes harder work, and sometimes more time, than the entire rest of the novel.

[RMH]

I agree with the "just start writing" comments. Also, if you are having a hard time starting, try breaking it down into small writing sessions. Set a goal for each time you write, such as writing for a certain period of time or getting out a certain number of words. This might help things flow. Then when the first draft is finished, you can look it over and decide if you want to make major plot changes.

[blacbird]

Start with the first thing that matters.

caw

[greatfish]

It sounds like you have a lot of notes together already, and it sounds like you have some scenes you want to go over, but no real particular order. I think it would be helpful for you to make an outline, see if you can organize every scene you want to talk about.

I really wouldn't be too concerned that you're still making notes either. A novel is a large project to undertake. You'll definitely want to have a good idea of what you're writing about before you begin dedicating a chunk of your life to it.

[Scarlett_156]

She says: "Start where it seems good to start." We don't know what she means by that. Sorry.

She told me to add: "I will help you buy dope, but I will not slap you with it, that's just a waste." Again, this is not intelligible to us.

[Novelist in Paradise]

Just write from some starting point, any starting point, and go on all the way through to the end.

Then rewrite. By this time you will know where and what the real beginning is.

[Tornadoboy]

Thanks for all the fantastic advice, this is why I love AW so much!
In my initial posting I spoke of AA meetings, lost jobs and foiled suicide attempts, oddly enough now that I've said them aloud I think chapter I is going to have all three. Although my concern with this is later I think I'm going to have my two MCs get into another very bad situation together and given what I think is going to happen in the beginning I wonder if I'll be pushing credibility too much, because just how much good and bad luck can two people really have together?
BUT having said that one of the lesson I'm taking from all your advice is nothing is written in stone, especially since I'm not going to be showing anyone this WIP for quite some time, so if I write all this and the beginning seems a little too much I <gasp!> can CHANGE it later!
Thanks again!

[greglondon]

Can you explain, in a one line nutshell, why your protag is in AA, lost a job, and attempted suicide? What's the problem that needs to be solved to make these sort of symptoms go away?

[UrsusMinor]

Not sure I agree with siddow that we all throw out the first 50 pages. I've never had to do that.

I don't think she was asserting it was universal, just common.

I've never done it either, but I believe it was Philip Roth who asserted that he sometimes wrote a hundred or more pages before he found the one paragraph that glowed--that paragraph that began the story and told him what the novel's focus would be.

In my case, having the opening coalesce in my mind is what drives me to go to the computer. But I know many, many writers for whom their opening chapters are really backstory, throat-clearing, and finding their voice.

[Linda Adams]

Just start somewhere and expect to change it later on. First chapters are really hard to do--sometimes it takes writing the entire book to figure out where it should start. One of the mistakes we made on ours was laboring over it and rewriting it and rewriting it before we moved on to the ensuing chapters. When we got 150 or so pages in, we realized where it really needed to start and tossed the first chapter, and then tossed it again when we reached the end--and then tossed it one more time during the next revision.

[Atlantis]

I love the beginning page of a new novel. Just staring at that white screen waiting for the first words to come is amazing. I always wonder what the book will end up like, how the characters will evolve and the magical places it will take me. With beginnings, most of the time I dive in with no real knowledge of the plot and go from there. Granted, its not for everyone, but if you let yourself stop worrying how to start the darn thing and just close your eyes and let the words flow, before you know it you'll have a beginning. The story is there, in your mind, its just finding the right words to let it come out that needs to be done. The correct plot will emerge eventually. In the mean time, experiment. You can always go back and revise.

[farfromfearless]

Why don't you start in the middle? I've tried this a few times in the past with shorter projects and it's worked out. It can be a fun exercise to start further in the story and work forward and back.

[PeeDee]

What someone -- who may have been Orson Scott Card -- once suggested was that you pick your starting point for your novel. Then, you fast forward ten pages, or a chapter, or so. Then start there. I think it's good advice.

I tend to start too early, and then scrap the beginning and start over with all the extraneous stuff out of the way. It's usually just stuff I was rambling about while I figured out what it was I was writing about.

Pick the first scene you can think of and write it. Then, pick what happens next and write that. Keep going until you run out of what happens next. If nothing else, you'll finish something that way.

[Linda Adams]

I tend to start too early, and then scrap the beginning and start over with all the extraneous stuff out of the way. It's usually just stuff I was rambling about while I figured out what it was I was writing about.



I actually started too late and had to start earlier. :)