In my Fantasy WIP, I pretty much have all the major points in the middle and the end. I've even started to outline the accompanying work. The characters and their arcs are for the most part planned out and the villain is pretty developed as well. The problem is writing the beginning. I've written several drafts of the opening chapters and they just aren't really clicking with me. It just comes off as too contrived and it's really hard to get the main character really involved with what's going on without going with the whole "burning down the village" cliche. The basic story is that an evil from over a thousand years ago, an evil that caused a war between humans, gods and demons that literally tore the world apart and knocked back civilization back several centuries, has returned somehow. The Gods fearful sends out a young priestess to track down the hero who defeated the evil in order to restore his power so he can fight the villain again before things gets worse. Problem is an accident causes the MacGuffin to activate and transfer the power to the protagonist who has no prior history or involvement in any of this. He joins the cause anyways because he's been reading legends and tales all his life and is initially thrilled to finally be a part of one but soon learns that being a hero isn't as easy as it is in the stories.... It all sounds well and good, but I just can't think of a proper accident that would springboard the plot into action. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.
I'm having a lot of trouble understanding what you are talking about here. Could you try to explain this again, I'd like to discuss it.
I would start witht the accident that caused the activation and transfer of powers. It seems from your describtion that that is the inciting incident, the thing that changed things and what the story revolves on.
A couple thoughts. Firstly, as AmyHolt suggested, the accident that transfers the powers would be a logical starting point. Secondly, are you sure you want to have the random farm kid with a big destiny plotline? Not that it can't be good, but it's been done so often, you'll need to do something special with it to make it interesting. Best advice would be to make it clear that training actually does matter, and this kid is behind in important ways and struggles as a result. You can't learn swordplay in a couple months and be able to hold your own against people who've been doing it all their lives. Similarly, an ordinary farm kid won't understand political intrigue the way a kid from a noble family would. Too many stories forget that both of those are skills learnt over a lifetime, not a few months. Your hint about how it's not as easy as in the stories makes me think maybe you've already thought of that. If so, great! Another thought - you could make it that the protagonist's home isn't so idyllic, and he wants to leave for his own reasons but has nowhere to go. Then all you need to do is show him an escape route by joining the adventure. You could for example make him an orphan, living on the street picking pockets (this would also give an excuse for him to have learnt some useful skills for adventuring). Or an abused kid who's only staying at home because he gets fed there.
Trust me I've thought of that. He gets his ass kicked a good portion of the time and only win a few fights through fighting dirty. Plus he screws up several missions because he just doesn't get the big picture. He really doesn't get it until near the end, but even then he's not as good as his trainers or handlers.
