Hello! For the past few weeks I've had this story bouncing around in my head. The problem is it follows a bunch of kids who have been in an unusual situation for years and are finally beginning to understand and take control of what's going on. I don't know where to start the story! I've written over 10,000 words beginning at different points and told from different characters' points of view. Beginning with action makes the ending feel rushed; beginning anywhere else feels exposition-heavy and laden down with descriptions and backgrounds and lots of telling, not showing. I just don't know how to start in a good place! Any ideas on how to begin?
It's hard not to start with exposition and all that stuff, for me at least. Everyone always says that showing is so much better than telling, as if telling is a sin. My own story starts with like a page of exposition, which I don't think is horrible. You gotta give background to the story you're about to start, do you not? And having it slowly and gradually blended into the story seems surreal because we don't think about the history around us outside of history class. It just is. So in your story, it should just be. Nobody thinks back to how the governments or their country was formed. They just live with it. So I don't think to start off with exposition is the most awful beginning to a story, just make sure not to drag it out for super long.
Yes, usually the beginning is one of the last thing you'll write, or at least you'll go back and change it, probably many times. Don't worry about it for the first draft.
If you already know the plot lines for each character, I would really narrow down what each character's arc is. I mean, really define them. I guess there could be flat arcs too, but there must be some character who comes to a decision and the outcome depends upon that decision. That critical moment should be counter to the character's nature (or it's predictable, not good). So I would define those characters in a way that made their natures true. I'd start out the story in a way that locked that nature in place. Then the plot weakens it, and the crisis breaks it. And I guess even if it was a flat arc (think Sherlock Holmes) in which the MC isn't going to change, I would look at the crisis not as a crisis of character but a crisis of setting. I would set up a situation, with the MC & co present, in which the setting is incontrovertibly of one nature. Whatever it takes to start the story, you're keeping the reveal in mind. Whoever is resolving the crisis gets the first scene, or at least is a part of it. And when I say crisis, that doesn't necessarily mean high-action. It can just be emotional and hit very hard. One of my favorite stories is "Rabbit, at Rest." (Sorry, forum readers, I'm talking about it again . . .) Its ending is fairly mundane (Rabbit shoots some hoops, thrashes a teenage baller old-school), but it's the decision to do so that's important. You a have a very nasty, but very nuanced main character who's stuck in his ways (flat, no progression), and the danger of his final decision is mentioned many times early on. Much of the story revolves around it. It's about reclaiming youth and holding tight to vices because they're also your strengths. The story ends with the ultimate loss of family, and so it begins with the family coming together when Rabbit picks them up at the airport. There's a logic to that start/end that's very pleasing. (John Updike was a sincere genius. RIP) That's how I would look at it. The ending always shapes the beginning.
Figure out the first thing you know about the story and the last thing you know about the story. Then start figuring out details that go in the middle. Keep working. Ask a lot of "why" questions. Why does this happen? What does it lead to? What complications does it cause? What goes wrong? Keep expanding until you have a good handle on the entire thing. Learn how story structure works, it can be a guide to what kind of questions you should consider and what kind of ideas you should brainstorm. Like any skill, it takes a lot of practice and hard work.
You start by writing. You write your Shitty First Draft. Later you rewrite it several times until it's good. You can change anything in your rewriting rounds. The rule for SFD is this: don't get it perfect, get it done.
What you're trying to figure out is essentially should you start with an exhibition or with the rising action. Well, let's look at the pros and cons. Opening with Exhibition: An exhibition opening is basically a show of where the character is before the story actually starts. If they go to school every day, than your exhibition will show them going to school, essentially. If they live in a totalitarian government, you might show them going through checkpoints. If they're a scientist studying a toxic planet, you might show them putting on a bio suit. They're typically favored by sci fi and fantasy, particularly the dystopian genres because they're so effective in establishing the status quo and trends., because these types of stories tend to depend a lot on immersion. Often, the character's journey is an external one. They're easy to show what makes the character so different or even the same as everyone else. The cons are is that it's easy to make them drag on longer than they need to be. I think of all the parts I rewrite, my exhibition parts are rewritten the most. Because as you progress the story, you start to say "Okay, I thought this would be important to show. Turns out, it's not." Or you might add a bit more. When enough is enough is different for every story. The Giver had an arguably long exhibition, but it was appropriate for what the writer was trying to do. Comparatively, the Hunger Games had a brief exhibition because anything longer really wouldn't have told us anything more than what was already said. A couple things that make writing an exhibition difficult: - Planned sequels. I have nothing against writers making a story with the plans on turning it into a series, but a lot of writers fall into the trap where they use the exhibition to also set up the sequels. And that's just not a good way to do it. Right at that point, readers are trying to figure out if they even care about the first story. - Trying to establish too many characters. If you don't know who your main character is or you don't really have one, it can be difficult to do an effective exhibition. I would argue ensemble casts aren't a good candidate for exhibition. -Not ideal for first and rough drafts. And that's because you probably don't even know what the story is about yet. So it's hard to determine what would be beneficial to reader and what should just be left unmentioned at that point. So, if you're on a first or rough draft, and especially if figuring an exhibition is feeling like a slog fest for you, go ahead and skip it. It's okay. No really, it is! There is always a rewrite where you can add it in later if you feel it might be of benefit. Don't kill yourself starting this story this way if you don't want to write it anyway. Opening with Rising Action Rising action is the beginning of the tension and they're often typically favored (though not limited to) horror and psychological thrillers. Basically it's used for any story that develops its characters more by how they act instead of where they go. For example, a person creating a horror story might start with the kids standing outside the haunted house with their flash light, contemplating whether they should really go in. There's no exhibition on who these kids are and there's no benefit in having scenes before they get to the haunted house. Short stories also enjoy these types of openings. You already seem familiar with the pros. They are very easy to create that initial hook and pull the reader into the rest of the events. And they are perfect for stories that involve some kind of mystery that needs to be solved. (Let's back track a bit before I go any further. Now, I want to be very careful. A story that starts with a lot of action is not necessarily starting with rising action. The film Gladiator started with a battle sequence, but that wasn't rising action. Because that battle essentially had nothing to do with what happened later. It was an exhibition showing the main character's daily life, which was basically conquest of the Germanic tribes. And a story with rising action doesn't necessarily start with a lot of energy. The example I gave above is not exactly a high energy opening. But it isn't an exhibition either.) But this is not ideal in certain types of stories. Not saying it can't be done, but saying it typically doesn't work. Stories that require a lot of world building for the conflict to make sense. You might start with that rising action where the hero is facing the dark lord and it's all great and exciting. But then the action sequence is over and now you have to explain things. And then, before you know it, you end up with the same slog fest you were trying to avoid by jumping into the rising action. In fact, it's even worse, because on top of having a boring explanation, people also don't care about your characters either. So it becomes this double whammy of bad. This was one of many problems with the Phantom Menace. It started with this action sequence about space taxes... and that's all you know... That's because Star Wars requires world building to be effective as a story and they kind of forgot when they just jumped into action. EDIT: I said "Exhibition" instead of "exposition." Well, it's too much to change so just know I meant exposition.
Oh my GOODNESS, thank you so so much for such a detailed outline!! That was an incredible explanation and you offered such interesting analysis and insights that I'd never seen or defined so clearly. Thank you so much!! That was amazing (and amazingly helpful)!
Thank you. I actually forgot to mention what constitutes an exposition vs rising action. An exposition ends where a rising action begins and that's normally where a decision is made. Remember, stories typically begin where something happens, someone makes a decision (usually the protagonist but it doesn't have to. Antagonists also can make that decision), and then the rest of the story is essentially what happens after that decision is made. For example, in the Hunger Games. It starts out with Katniss hanging out with Gale. Then comes the reaping. Prim's name is called, and Katniss says that now famous, "I volunteer as tribute." That's the end of the exposition and everything after that is the rising action. The classic play Romeo and Juliet. That exposition ends when Romeo and his friends decide to crash the Capulet party.
