The Line Forms Where? Knowing Where to Start Your Novel

By Janice Hardy

If your first pages don’t grab readers, your problem might not be the writing—it might be where you started.

Openings are hard, especially if you're not sure if you're starting in the right place. The sheer amount of "is this opening working?" submissions I get in Real Life Diagnostics is testament to that.

The old "start with the action" has frustrated many a writer due to its ambiguity, and even when we think we've done it all correctly, beta readers can still feel the opening isn't grabbing them.

I've talked about first lines and first pages before, so today, let's focus on figuring out where to start your story, and how to diagnose it if you're worried you're starting in the wrong place.

First, analyze your current opening, either the first scene or the first chapter if it's only one scene:

Open Up! Writing the Opening Scene

By Janice Hardy

The primary goal of an opening scene is to make readers want to read the next scene. 

You’d be surprised how often writers forget the whole point of an opening scene, because their focus is on establishing the setting, introducing the protagonist, and telling readers all about the cool story waiting for them. 

Don't get me wrong, these are all important things, but on their own they’re not going to do what an opening scene needs to do—grab readers and keep them reading.

And the best way to grab readers is to give them a puzzle they’ll want to know the answer to. 

An intriguing first line that poses a question (literal or metaphorical), an unusual situation, a mystery, a contradiction that doesn’t quite make sense. A great voice and character they want to get to know better is another way to hook readers. As long as it’s something or someone that makes them think, “I want to know more about X.”

How to Find the Right Place for Your Inciting Incident

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Struggling to find where your story truly begins? Learn how to pinpoint the perfect place for your inciting incident.

The inciting incident (sometimes called the inciting event) is one of the most critical moments in any novel. It’s the point where something changes—where the protagonist's normal world is disrupted and the core story begins. It kicks off the central conflict and gives readers a reason to keep turning pages.

But unlike major plot points like the midpoint or climax, the inciting incident doesn’t have a fixed place in a story’s structure, which can cause confusion—especially for newer writers.

You’ll find articles that say it should be on page one. Others claim it belongs at the 10% mark. Some swear by chapter three. And the truth is...they're all right, depending on the novel.

5 Common Problems With Beginnings

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If your beginning isn't working, no one will get to the ending.

A novel’s beginning is under a lot of pressure. It has to introduce the protagonist and characters, setup the world and story, and get the plot moving, all while hooking our readers and making them want to turn the page. 

With all that setup and introduction, it’s no wonder a first draft often has the wrong opening scene, or takes too much time to get going.

The only thing tougher than writing a beginning is writing the ending. Except for writing the middle.

If a beginning isn’t working, it’s usually due to not grabbing the reader’s interest, either by lack of a compelling problem, nothing happening, or taking too long to get to the actual story.

In the Beginning: Which Type of Opening Works Best in a Novel?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Opening lines are your novel's first impression on a reader. As long as it's a good impression, how you get there doesn't matter. 

The opening line of your novel is probably the most important line you'll write (no pressure). How you start your novel determines how many readers (or agents and editors) will keep reading it. And there are a lot of opinions about what that opening line should be.

Do you start with dialogue, description, or internalization?

Each one has a horror story associated with it about the dangers of using that type to start your novel. "Don't open a story with dialogue," or "Never start with description," or "Opening with internalization is just navel gazing."

Truth is, the type of opening line doesn't matter. It's how you start the story that's important. 

NaNoWriMo Prep: Planning Your Novel’s Beginning

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Many writers know what they want to write about, but have no idea where to start.

For many, the beginning of a novel is the hardest part. Getting the right opening scene, finding the right inciting event, even figuring out the perfect first sentence can keep you from getting anywhere at all. But don't worry.  Beginnings aren't as scary as they appear.

In many ways, they're the easier part, since you probably already know the most critical aspects of your story--the protagonist, the goal, the conflict, and the setting.

If you're not yet sure on what to put in your novel's beginning, let's take a closer peek at what goes into a beginning.

Why Your Novel Isn’t Hooking Your Reader

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy 

How to tell the difference between good setup, and bad setup, in your novel.

I’ve always written fantasy and science fiction, so I learned right away how perilous setup is to a novel. I wrote dozens of terrible beginnings and first acts that were barely more than a dramatized version of my notes. Characters gave lectures, they didn’t have conversations. And I’d stick my authorial nose into the story to explain the things my characters didn’t know.

I even wrote the dreaded, history-ladened “fantasy world building prologue” a time or two. [shudders]

On the bright side, facing this extra challenge early on helped me figure out how show, don’t tell and point of view worked, which made writing in general a lot easier. It also taught me a very good lesson I still use today.

5 Ways You’re Smothering Your Reader in Your Opening Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Let’s look at how much is too much in an opening scene.

I’ve had weekly critiques on the site since 2010, and a large number of those have been opening pages. Between that, my critique groups, clients, random critiques, and of course, my own reading habits, I’ve read a lot of opening pages. And, of course, written them.

Not all have been good. Not all have been bad. Which is fine for most of those pages, as they were works in progress and that’s normal. Opening scenes are tough to get right.

One of the things I see a lot of, is trying to put too much into the story too soon. 

And instead of drawing readers in, we smother them in information.

Struggling to Start Your Novel? Here's What Makes a Good Beginning

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A strong beginning does more than simply start the story.

Writers spend a lot of energy on the “beginning” of their novel, but what they’re really focusing on is the opening. They agonize over the first line, the first page, the first scene, and the first chapter.

Which is all good, as every one of those is important, but they ignore the bigger picture—a strong beginning covers more than the opening line or the opening scene. It’s the entire setup for the novel, and getting the beginning right positions the novel to unfold the way they envision it.

Or as my girl Mary Poppins says, “Well begun is half done.”

I believe this wholeheartedly. Starting strong makes it a whole lot easier to finish strong. The whole beginning establishes what the middle will cover, and sets the expectations for the ending.

How to Ground (and Hook) Readers in Your Opening Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If readers get lost in your first scene, they’ll never get to the second.

The opening scene of my novel, The Shifter, features a girl getting caught stealing eggs out from under a sleeping chicken. It’s a fun scene, I enjoyed writing it, and most of all—it helped sell the novel.

Somewhere along the lines, my critique partners and I started referring to strong opening scenes as “chicken scenes.”

As in:

“I’m still working on my chicken scene.”

“I thought of the perfect chicken scene yesterday.”

“I can’t get this book written until I find my chicken scene.”

4 Steps to Establish the Beginning of Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Setting up a novel baffles many writers, but it’s easier when you focus on what a beginning needs to do.

On Wednesday, I talked about what the word setup actually meant in fiction and why so many writers had trouble with it. Today, I’m going to focus specifically on ways to establish (good setup) your novel’s beginning without falling prey to bad setup.

When you’re setting up a story, what you’re really doing is establishing the premise of the story and where the plot is going to go. It’s part of the story, not something done before readers get to the story. It’s not dumping backstory, though there might be a little backstory in there.

A good beginning contains and conveys all the critical elements required to understand the premise, the story, the plot, and why the protagonist is willing to get involved. But it also needs to do it in such a way that piques readers curiosity and makes them interested to know more.

5 Ways to Write Stronger Opening Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The opening scene can make or break your novel, so make sure you write a strong one.

There’s a wide range of advice when it comes to writing opening scenes. Many say not to worry about it, because odds are the real opening is several pages (or scenes) into the book and you’ll toss the opening anyway.

Others say you won’t really know the right opening scene until you’ve written then ending, and then you’ll go back and rewrite it.

Then there are those who can’t write the book until they get the right opening scene, and it won’t need to be changed later.

I agree with all of this, because every writer is different. You might need the “throat clearing” a throwaway opening scene gives you, or you might like to start off strong and build from there. Whatever works for you, works. I’m a “get it right the first time” writer myself and can spend weeks (or longer) just coming up with the perfect opening line.

Overcoming False Starts on Your First Chapter

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Many writers struggling with getting that first chapter just right. Here are some tips to help you write the perfect opening chapter.

It's all too easy to get stuck in chapter-one-rewrite-mode and never move beyond it. You reach the end of that important first chapter, but it just feels wrong, so you go back and rewrite it. And it still feels off. So you do it again. And again. Pretty soon, you're questioning your whole novel and if you even have what it takes to write one. You start thinking if you can't get the first chapter right, what hope do you have of crafting a good novel?

That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself, and on your brand-new novel before it has a chance to become a novel. If you find yourself stuck here, step back and look at the novel objectively. Ask:

Seven Deadly Sins (If You're a First Chapter)

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The one benefit to first chapters being the most-read of all chapters (even if we decide we don't like the book we at least read the beginning), is that there's a lot of data on what works and what doesn't out there. If we get stuck or we know something is off and don't know what, there's bound to be multiple articles written to help up solve the puzzle and get back on track.

One such article is about seven reasons agents stop reading your first chapter,  sent to me by a friend several years ago. It's a great breakdown of common problems, so let's look at those reasons and explore ways to fix them. 

Finding Rhythm and Voice for a Beginning that Sings

By Karina Sumner-Smith, @ksumnersmith

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Starting a novel can be a scary time, especially if things aren't going well or you get off to a slow start. There are things you can do to shake up the muse and find the spark to get your opening working again. Karina Sumner-Smith visits the lecture hall today to share a few tips to make your beginning sing.

Karina Sumner-Smith is a fantasy author and freelance writer. Her debut novel, Radiant, was published by Talos/Skyhorse in September 2014, with the second and third books in the trilogy to follow in 2015. Prior to focusing on novel-length work, Karina published a range of fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories, including Nebula Award nominated story “An End to All Things,” and ultra-short story “When the Zombies Win,” which appeared in two Best of the Year anthologies. Visit her online at karinasumnersmith.com.

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Take it away Karina...

Painting Your Story World

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Just like the color of a room affects what people think and feel when they walk in, details in a scene affect how a reader experiences your world. The wrong details can create false assumptions and cause a disconnect between your reader and your world. The right details can start both reader and story off on the same page.

Something to Get Inciting About: The Inciting Event

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The inciting event. You can’t talk about how to write good openings without someone mentioning it. But what exactly is it and how do you make it work for your novel?

What it is: The inciting event is that moment early on in your story when things irrevocably change for your protagonist. The event that sets them on the path that will become the novel, the major conflict, the whole reason someone picked up the book in the first place.

Where it is: Within the first 30 to 50 pages of your manuscript. Now, this doesn’t that mean it has to come between pages 30 and 50. Just somewhere between page one and 30, or page one and 50 (for longer novels). Some books require a little more set up. If you have a larger word count, the first 50 pages might work better for you. A smaller word count, 30 pages is more than enough time to get to the inciting event.