Trouble starting story?

[Darcie]

I am writing a story about a girl who moves in as a flatmate with another couple, and she steals the boy and gets pregnant with another - it's hard to explain, and sounds terrible, I know. I was wondering if anyone else got stuck writing the start of stories, and if anyone had any ideas for ways to start.
I was considering writing a first sentence along the lines of "As she drew up outside the old red brick house, she thought the rain would never stop", but I think it sounds kind of silly. Any other ideas for unique sentence starts?

[jjdebenedictis]

It's not like an amazing first sentence will make the rest of the story flow out any easier.

Just start writing. If it's no good, you can always re-write it later.

[Jonathan Dalar]

Write it, start it, keep moving on with the story. At some point you're gonna realize the story doesn't start until chapter three anyway, and you'll chop off those first two chapters to make it start right.

And then all will be well.

[jeffo20]

Also, don't worry about whether the first sentence is perfect or not. Just start writing, get into a flow and worry about making it perfect later. After it's written.

[Bufty]

You are right to query that opening sentence, Darcie. It's vague and to open with 'As she drew up outside...' is meaningless to all but you. That opening 'as' is ruining your sentence and putting all the focus on the thought about the rain.


Remember you start writing with an advantage over the reader because you know in advance what's happening to whom, where and why.

But the reader knows nothing in advance and starts reading with a blank canvas, so be sure to quickly ground him by giving him enough detail to know where he is, what's happening, and in whose head he is supposed to be.

What's this character's name, what is she travelling in and what is the red building? Why is she here? You don't need to spell it all out in detail, but give me a clue at least.

It's raining, too. Fair enough -that will perhaps affect her view through the glass if water is trickling down it. It will also determine what she's wearing. And remember, too, if it's raining there ain't no sunshine or sunlight pouring into the building through the windows - amazing how many folk forget that when they open by approaching the school/house/orphanage in heavy rain just kidding.

Good luck.

[Determination]

It's almost a given that you will be changing/deleting your first few chapters anyway so don't sweat it. Just start writing and fiddle with figuring out an amazing opening later. But if I were you I wouldn't start with anything that has to do with the weather

[Layla Nahar]

It may sound *very* silly, but what if you start with "Once upon a time"? When you've finished the story you can go back and fix up that first paragraph. But those words have a weird way of letting you off the hook for perfectionism & letting you get started telling a story.

[WillSauger]

I want to make a point:

Don't try to start the story with a hook. You can, later on, edit it.

Start the story as if you're already writing the scene. Like you suddenly jumped in.

Or, you can mindlessly write a scene and just go on and on toward the original scene you have in your head. Then, cut where you find the highest excitement and throw away the rest.
I've know other writers to write 150K for a book, cut off the first 50K and leave the rest.


The intro should jump into the scene, with sensory detail, one word names, no explanation of the actions/elements and continue on with business.

[Stelle]

I fell into the trap of writing and rewriting my first scene dozens of times. Even though I told myself I was trying to improve it, the fact is that it was a procrastination tool. I finally decided to let that scene be for now, and jumped in a bit later in the story. I'll go back later and add to the beginning. What matters is writing...a first line won't write a novel.

[Bufty]

In other words get to the point and say what you mean.

And when the story is finished go back to the beginning and make sure you said what you meant to say.

Nobody is suggesting that anyone work and work and work on their opening line.

[Lidiya]

You may find this useful. It's a list of how not to start your story.

Start it with something that won't mess up the rest of the book and that isn't cliche, and you'll be ok. If you don't like it at the end, go back and change it.

[Bufty]

An off-board link to where?

Originally Posted by Lidiya

You may find this useful. It's a list of how not to start your story.

Start it with something that won't mess up the rest of the book and that isn't cliche, and you'll be ok. If you don't like it at the end, go back and change it.

[G.M.C.]

I never worry about first sentences when writing simply because until the story is completely done, I don't know what turns it might take. Not much of an outliner. A first sentence that works one week could be totally wrong the next, or I decide to change where the story should start altogether. My advice would be to start wherever you got your inspiration and work from there. Don't get to hung up on the first sentence until you've got a solid novel on your hands. Then you'll have a better grasp at what mood and what not you want to set.

[Bufty]

The above helpful replies are covering both the topics raised in the original question.

One, worrying about exactly where to start a story.

Two, concern about the quality of a particular sentence - whether it ends up being the final opening sentence or not.

[Susan Littlefield]

Just start writing and write until you finish.

As for your first sentence--it doesn't tell me much. Did she drive up to the old house, or walk? Why is she focused on the rain? What is her name? Why is she there?

Never write to impress the readers, but write for yourself first.

[Susan Littlefield]

Originally Posted by Lidiya

You may find this useful. It's a list of how not to start your story.

Start it with something that won't mess up the rest of the book and that isn't cliche, and you'll be ok. If you don't like it at the end, go back and change it.

The list is good.

[rwm4768]

Don't worry about the beginning of the story right now. Just write. It's easier to fix once there are words on the page.

[Darcie]

Thanks for the advice. I've written the first chapter now, so I can fix it up later.

[Erin Kassikay]

I used to think starting stories was easy and ending them was difficult. Then I started learning about publishing. In my experience I've discovered that it's best to start the story off with a BANG. Something'll that grasp the readers and MAKE them turn the page. I've also come to learn in my research that it's best to do this at the end of every chapter. As bad as it sounds, we WANT the readers to stay up until 6am to finish the novel.

Just like I had done last night. (God I'm so tired)

[Erin Kassikay]

Originally Posted by Darcie

Thanks for the advice. I've written the first chapter now, so I can fix it up later.

Another piece of advice from a kind, currently unpublished writer: be careful with how much work you'll have to do in your first editing drafts. I wrote my entire story, knowing I'll have to go back to it to fix whatever problems. I just wrote. Problem was, the story was riddled with so many errors that the best thing to do was REWRITE and take my time per paragraph. I wound up rewriting the novel TWICE, and on the second time I discovered my biggest problem was the length and wording.

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Darcie

I am writing a story about a girl who moves in as a flatmate with another couple, and she steals the boy and gets pregnant with another - it's hard to explain, and sounds terrible, I know. I was wondering if anyone else got stuck writing the start of stories, and if anyone had any ideas for ways to start.
I was considering writing a first sentence along the lines of "As she drew up outside the old red brick house, she thought the rain would never stop", but I think it sounds kind of silly. Any other ideas for unique sentence starts?

Why don't you first write out your story and edit it after you finished it? If you start to second-guess yourself at the start of your work already, you'll never finish it.

Besides, the more you write, the more experienced you'll become. And the more experienced you become, the easier some tasks will become. Maybe you'll even find the "first line" easily after you have a few days of writing under your belt.

But for now, don't allow yourself to be trapped by the first few pages. Simply write them out and continue to write. Or do you want to be stuck on the first page forever.

[John342]

I am not an expert here, but I do know that the first sentence isn't your most important sentence of the book. So do not let it stop you from telling your story.

Everyone is right. You are going to read that first chapter a couple dozen times and change it quite a bit before anyone else ever sees it, so it will get fixed if it needs it.

If I saw someone write here that thier first sentence was "Marley was dead to begin with" I would have flinched, and said, "Good luck with that." We all know that line works in the context it was written. The cool thing about writing (IMO) is that the rules are not absolute.

[KBtheWriter]

just write and write and write. worry about the first sentence during the rewrite stage(s)

[Horserider]

I have a terrible time starting a new WIP too. The biggest thing to remember is that your first line now is highly unlikely to be your first line by the time you're done with revisions. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be written. Fixing things and making them better is what revisions were invented for.

[Erin Kassikay]

The first chapter (or the first three chapters) will be changed so much from when you first wrote it, that believe me when I say, "What you start with won't be what you finish with." Write it to the best of your ability and keep pushing. You don't want to waste TOO much time on the work of the writing, but you don't just want to whip through it thinking, "I'll fix it later." If you do, you'll end up rewriting all of it "later". But as for the beginning, do your best and try fixing it as you go on.

Also, something I learned about myself may imply to you even, if you can't seem to write something the way you want, you could either A) be forcing it into a direction it doesn't want to travel or B)not have a good idea of what it is you even want to write in the first place.