Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.
I’ve often found starting a piece of fiction can be more problematic than finishing a first draft. How come? Knowing where to start is a crucial component to any story and every writer knows the opening lines, especially the first one itself, have to be strong enough to hook the readers in to want to read the rest of the tale. So no pressure then!
Also knowing I want to write, say, a 500 words story and I want to keep it light, I still need to work out who my character will be and how they will deliver on the theme of light. Getting started then is key.
I’ve developed a few ways of getting around any initial hesitation with starting a story and hope these help. I would say though the key point is not to worry about getting your starting point “wrong”. It just matters you’ve made a start.
The starting point can be improved later when you’ve got your story down and can see, for example, if you cut the first two or three paragraphs, what follows after that would make a more powerful beginning. But you cannot know this until you have written something. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve done this on my own work.
Knowing Your Character Well Enough
For me, this is crucial. I need to know what my character is like in terms of attitudes and likely actions. I need to know something about where these things come from too. By knowing these things, I can see what my character is likely to do and say and from there, I can start working out consequences and reactions (from other characters and my readers). Nearly always, I start my fiction this way. I often use a simple template to help me work things out.
I find names helpful here too. They can be great indicators of age and/or social status (though I have to watch for where certain names come back into fashion again).
What I don’t find helpful here at this stage is knowing what the character looks like. I tend to hear a character voice, then I can picture what they might look like. I know other writers like to have an idea of what their characters look like and then work out the character voice. Either works and it is a question of figuring out what works best for you. But to give you an example of a rough template and how I begin to get to know a character, see below.
Example:-
Character: Ethel Crooks.
Main Attitude/Origin of it
Snobbery/is covering up a far from prosperous background and much prefers to be seen as a lady of the manor type.Main Likely Behaviour
Giving herself airs, brags about getting branded posh clothes (though won’t say she got them from a charity shop).Likely Consequence
Someone, a friend or a neighbour, is likely to catch her out (probably at the charity shop).Likely Reaction from Others
May laugh at Ethel or, if nice, sympathise with her wish to better herself and stress there’s no shame in using charity shops. The charity benefits for a start. Might lead to a toning down of the snobbery act from Ethel.
Just jotting that down has given me a basic story outline already, which I can use directly or add further improvements to as I see fit but you will see I’ve got off to a good start here.
When Set A Theme – Competitions
The main time I don’t use the above method for a story is when I’ve been set a theme for a writing competition. I start here by writing down possibilities from a theme. For example, let’s say the competition theme is love (aah!). What could I do with that, given it is a timeless theme, always will be, but I want to avoid the perils of cliche?
Again, I use a template to help me work out some ideas. I then put these aside for a while, come back to them later and the idea which has the most impact on me after that break is the one I will write up. If an idea still grips me, it has “legs” to it and I can “run” with that! Once I’ve got the idea I want, I can then start fleshing out my “star characters” for the tale.
Theme: Love
Ideas
Look at other types of love, other than the obvious romantic one.Do use the obvious romantic one but think about how I can make my characters stand out so the theme seems fresh. (I could take a fantasy route here and not use characters from this realm but where love still matters).
Have a character look back at their life and realise how loved they have been or how they’ve missed out on love. Either works though the latter is likely to be on the sad side.
Due Process -v- Creativity
Does having a process by the way mean formulaic writing? No. I’ve found it has made me more creative because it makes me think deeper about what I want the story/characters to do. Each tale I come up with has to be fresh and potentially gripping to a reader so I cannot be formulaic. There has to be something distinctive about each story of mine to make people want to read them. I’ve found the way in here is to make the characters stand out.
Does that mean I love all of my characters? No! I can think of a few I’d have a few sharp words with if I could meet them for real.
I do understand why my characters are the way they are though. That has always made a fantastic starting point for me with drafting a story.
Word Count as a Starting Point/Story Structure
Yes, really, it can be useful to know what word count you have to “play with” at the start. I write 100 word stories for Friday Flash Fiction and the good old drabble, as the 100-worder is known, was my way into flash fiction in the first place so naturally I have a soft spot for it. I know from the start here I will have to focus on one character and one moment in time as I won’t have the word count room for more. I then have to work out what moment in time is so important for my character there should be a story about it. But there’s the starting point…
Writing the longer short stories (usually 1500 to 2000 words or thereabouts) for magazines, competitions etc again makes me think about the story structure. I do allow roughly one third for the story start, a third for the middle, and a third for the end. The start introduces the character and their problem, the middle dumps them right in it, and the end sees the problem resolved.
Just knowing this helps me get started on a story. Story structure is one of those strange things which many don’t notice, but when you come across a story which doesn’t work for you, it will often be due to the structure not working. It will be things like the writer hasn’t followed through well enough on the promise of the opening or the ending is fantastic but the opening is not strong enough so potential readers don’t get to the ending at all.
Conclusion
Stories are wonderful to read as well as write. The best ones stand the test of time. But every writer of every story ever has wondered where to start. Some start with the plot and then work out the characters to suit it. Others like me find starting with the character usually works best and the plot springs from them.
It is good to have a couple of ways in which to start a story though. It means if your usual way isn’t quite working out, you have something to fall back on (and I’ve never known more than one way in to “not work”).
Happy writing!
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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