At the moment I'm trying to establish how I'm going to go about writing my novel. My question is whether it is good to introduce events right off the bat, or should I develop it a bit, allow the readers to get to know the main characters, before setting them off.
I've always liked the idea of incorporating character descriptions as the story progresses, and in a natural not-obvious way. I suppose it depends on how soon the reader needs the information, however. Nate
Normally I'd say start the novel off with events, because that's more likely to catch the reader's attention than slowly introducing the main cast and going nowhere for twenty pages, but if you have particularly interesting characters (or the story is particularly focused on them rather than any particularly dramatic external events) then you would introduce them first. As lipton_lover says, if you can do both at once that's probably optimal.
We can get to know them along the way, through the events of the story by how they respond to them. Besides, what's the point of a first chapter if all it does is tell us who the character is, but has nothing to do with the rest of the story, otherwise?
You should start with a gripping crisis and then let the other events unfold naturally. Don't dump too much information at the beginning.
I agree, you want it to be catching but at the same time you dont want people putting down the book because they dont know who's who! Maybe incorporate a little snapshot of who the character is as the event is unfolding.
Lol, don't mean to sound redundent, but I agree. In my book the MC's love interest gets introduced within the first five pages, and they're together by the tenth. Twilight's on again off again drove me crazy, so I did the opposite. )
One good approach is to begin the story with a character facing a problem or challenge. It need not necessarily be the main character, but it should probably be a mahor character in the story. This helps develop the character, and also starts the story with a degree of tension to hold tre reader's interest. Also, you want to start a story raising questions in the reader's mind, not answers he or she has no need for yet. Unanswered questions keep the reader interested, invested in the story to read more.
