In most modern novels there is a moment near the beginning where the main character ends up thrown into a large conflict, or a new and completely different world, or looses his parents or something like that. The purpose of that is to start him off on an adventure all on his own, or with a new group of friends that he meet soon after that moment. I personally hate this moment. It is filled with characters being overwhelmed by the turn of events, being overwhelmed and in denial and then coming to grips with it but the part that I hate is the denial part, or morso, I hate writing that part. It just doesn't feel right to me. So how can i kick my character off on his adventure without the denial? I've come up with a couple ideas but i'm not sure which one is best so can you please tell me which one you like more and why or give me another suggestion on how to do it. 1. The main character runs away from home, this way he leaves his old family and friends without a moment of denial when the parents die or kick him out 2. The main character lives in an orphanage and when he is to old he has to leave. Because when all orphans reach that age they go out on there own it is no surprise that he has to as well 3. the book begins after his moment of denial and so you only hear about what happened to him when he explains it to someone, you don't see the denial
I like number three. It gets to the meat of the story. And, since you don't like reading that kind of scene, you won't want to write one.
That merely depends on the personality and beliefs of your character. There are real people that can easily accept sudden changes in their lives, no matter how drastic it is, without being overwhelmed. *points to myself* Adapting to the situation is a different matter. Perhaps your character has always wanted to leave, but could not or did not want to do so until an event forced his hands. In this case, it would be an opportunity for him, so he would naturally welcome it.
Does your character necessarily need to go into denial? All the books I've read recently have been about characters born into stark adversity, so when more of it presents itself their survival instinct is triggered and they just get on with what needs to happen. Street smart characters are like that, they know their lives are always precarious and so they know when it's best to just clear out and save themselves too.
