The time has come to begin your story. You've gone through the four ways to explore your idea and you know you have a story but now what? The story must begin somewhere.
Now you could begin with a few paragraphs of exposition and many stories begin that way. One problem is that exposition is telling not showing. To make your story sing, you need to have action and action can always be found in a scene. What scene do you want to bring to your readers?
There are several places where you can begin your story. One is a moment before the change to the norm of the character's life occurs. Something like "She felt a change in the air. This sunrise blossomed like none she had ever seen. Now that makes a dramatic opening. The reader will wonder what will happen.
You could begin a moment after the change has arrived. Starting with something like this. The problem was what to do now. Why had she been the one to find the body? That brings some curious reaction on the reader's part.
Or you could begin in the middle of the action. She steppedinto the room and stumbled over the body. Now that's something to spur the reader on.
All of these opening scenes would stimulate th reader to continue reading. That's what a writer wants. People to continue reading their stories. So consider your opening and if possible find a scene that brings action into the story.What you are doing is taking the focus character of the story away from their normal life and casting them into an adventure. There are other things to consider in story openings that will be explored in the weeks to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment