"... and how to begin?"

[Softouch911]

Writers have to "presume" the story we will write is interesting. So how do you begin?

Once you know who your character(s) will be -- whether they are to be flat stereotypes or round, interesting "people" -- how do you give them something to do that is interesting for a reader to read and, more immediately important, interesting for you to write?!

What I like to do is to move my characters into a situation where I'm not sure of how they'll feel or react. That makes me work for credibility and to create a "believable" plot as my people work their way through a situation that feels strange and challenges them.

An example: a handsome professor at State U. interacts with a beautiful co-ed in his class. They are attracted. Two stereotypical characters and motives to begin with. If I have them meet in his office to discuss her grades .... readers will likely start to yawn and I'm left writing another forgettable chunk of porn.

But, just off the top of my head, let's say they don't meet because of the class. Let's say she works in a local mall store. One day while she's leaving work, she sees him leaving the mall, too. He doesn't notice her watching him and following him; her car is parked near his. Backing his car out , she watches him run into the fender of an expensive car. No one is around but her. He gets out of the car to look at the fender.

For me, their conversation from this point on would be more interesting and more telling than one about grades in his office. I don't know where it would lead them, what they would say ... and the characters, challenged and out of their element, would need to get "real."

Of course there are many, many other elements needed to create the tale, and I'll be glad to share some case studies if it will help the conversation, but I'm curious --

how do YOU begin?

Respectfully,

ST

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Well, here's an example of a story I've started.

The bell let out a bright chime as Anne walked into the bookstore. She stopped and scratched, Phoenix’s, the book store cat, ears.

“Good afternoon Anne.” Mr. Lempke peered over the top of his reading glasses. “So nice to see you.”

Anne managed a small smile. “Good afternoon, Mr. Lempke.”

She began to peruse the shelves of the book store. “I see you have some new books.”

New books, the newest book in Mr. Lempke’s store was probably at least thirty years old.

“Yes.” He smiled from a desk that was probably an antique when seventy year old Mr. Lempke was still a young boy.

Anne enjoyed the store. It was quiet, and had an organized sense of clutter. A couple of large, leather chairs sat in the corner waiting for anyone who wanted to sit and read. There was no espresso machine, just Mr. Lempke’s old coffee pot and a stack of styrofoam cups.

The store smelled old, it smelled of old paper, and old leather. There were no set hours of business. Mr. Lempke opened when he wanted, and closed when he wanted to retire to his small apartment above the store. He wasn’t a rich man, but neither was he poor. The store made enough that along with his Social Security, and the returns on his investments he was able to live a comfortable, but simple life.

Books were his love. His store full of old books was his life now. He watched as Anne wandered about the store with Phoenix following her.

“I think I have something you might like.” Ira Lempke remembered the box sitting on top of a file cabinet.

“Oh?” Anne turned and walked over to the desk.

“Yes, I saw these, and I thought of you.” The old man beamed as he set the box down on his desk and opened it.

Anne peered in. Her face lit up as she pulled the first book from the box. A ballerina graced the cover.

“Anna Parvlova,” her voice was hushed and full of reverence for the dance icon.

Anne was a dancer. Dance was her passion, her love, and her life. At twenty-six she had become the prima ballerina of her company.

Ira Lempke felt a glow of happiness as he watched Anne look at the first book page by page. Anne didn’t know it, but Mr. Lempke had seen her dance. He had thought of Anne when he had attended the estate sale and found the box of dance related books. Tears had formed in his eyes when he thought of the slight, young woman. She always looked so frail to him, like a porcelain doll, but on the stage she was a being of beauty and grace. Writers used words to describe beauty, painters used the palette of the rainbow, and dancers like Anne used movement as their page and canvas.

Anne looked up at Mr. Lempke after looking at a few more of the books. “I love them, how much do you want for the whole box?”

“Would ten dollars be too much?”

“Mr. Lempke, they’re worth more than that. How much did you pay for the box of books?”

He pretended to try to remember. He knew exactly how much he had paid for the box, it had been forty dollars. The bookstore owner wasn’t interested in making a profit on this sale, he had bought the books for Anne. He would have cheerfully given them to her if he had thought for a moment that she would accept them.

“I think I paid twenty dollars.”

Anne reached into her purse and retrieved twenty-five dollars from it. “Will this do?”

“Yes, that is more than enough.”

“Should I have them delivered?”

“No, I’m on my way home. I can carry them.”

 

[Softouch911]

That's a neat opening, alright. But I guess the question was confusing ...

After all the basic decisions are made, where do you begin in the process of writing?

Better?

If not, maybe someone else can give it a try.

Respectfully,
ST

 

[drksideofthemoon]

That's a neat opening, alright. But I guess the question was confusing ...

After all the basic decisions are made, where do you begin in the process of writing?

Better?

If not, maybe someone else can give it a try.

Respectfully,
ST

I think the first thing I try to do is set the mood and tone for the story.

 

[Verdad]

I'm the last person who should say a word on this topic. I agonize over openings so much that most ideas never come to fruition just because I can't decide on the opening.

It's a great thread topic, though, and I'll be following with interest. Perhaps I'll chime in later, too, if only on purely academic basis.

Best,

Verdad

 

[drksideofthemoon]

I'm the last person who should say a word on this topic. I agonize over openings so much that most ideas never come to fruition just because I can't decide on the opening.

It's a great thread topic, though, and I'll be following with interest. Perhaps I'll chime in later, too, if only on purely academic basis.

Best,

Verdad

Openings seem to come easy for me, whether they are any good, well, that's an entirely different subject.

 

[Penelope Street]

After all the basic decisions are made, where do you begin in the process of writing?

This is a little difficult for me to answer because I'm not sure what all the basic decisions are. My starting point is almost always an issue or dilemma that confronts a character. By establishing the character's desires in the opening, I hope readers will consider how they might react or behave in a similar situation and thus begin to experience the story through the character's eyes.

I'm pretty organized with my notes and my computer folders and my little tape recorder, but when it comes to following a recipe for writing my stories, I don't. Sometimes I start with the opening and just write the story in sequence until the conflict is resolved. In these cases, rarely do I know that much about the characters when I start writing and I have no idea where the story will take them. With other stories, I create an outline and then write the scenes in whatever order suits me- usually the most interesting scenes first. In rare instances, a story just grabs me and demands my full attention, but more often I'm working on multiple stories at the same time. Regardless of which pattern I follow, the first scene I write is almost always the opening and most the time the first line I write ends up being the initial line of the tale. I'm not sure if that's a good thing!

Did I manage to answer the question in there somewhere?

 

[drksideofthemoon]

This is a little difficult for me to answer because I'm not sure what all the basic decisions are.

I felt much the same way. I basically just start to write what I hear in my head.

I'm pretty organized with my notes and my computer folders and my little tape recorder.

Show off! I have no notes, or tape recorder. I do have a computer folder with all my stories though. All I have is my muddled mind.

Did I manage to answer the question in there somewhere?

Much more eloquently than I did...

 

[ninefe2dg]

But, just off the top of my head, let's say they don't meet because of the class. Let's say she works in a local mall store. One day while she's leaving work, she sees him leaving the mall, too. He doesn't notice her watching him and following him; her car is parked near his. Backing his car out , she watches him run into the fender of an expensive car. No one is around but her. He gets out of the car to look at the fender.

Or...could be an embarrassing place neither would want each other (or anyone else) to see them at (like I dunno, the dermatologist's office)...nothing says hot like having a polyp removed.

My opening lines are almost always somebody talking, which for that first moment is has zero context...

Examples:

"I'm hungry"

"Steve, would you please stop aiming at the deer?"

"Cut!" (though I s'pose that one's easy to figure out!)

"You wanna what?"

So, there's a suggestion for line one at least ...good luck w/ the rest...

 

[Softouch911]

Yes, the question is being answered, though y'all have some of the same confusion that i experience with it:

where the story begins
vs
where I begin the writing

The story begins itself (for me) sometimes from an image, often from a person, an idea from the news, yadda yadda yadda. I have a file of story ideas -- things that appeal to me covering a gamut of my imaginative terraing. It has nearly a hundred separate ideas, each of which could become the best story of all time. You know.

But where the story begins, and where I begin writing it are two different things. Where i begin writing has, over the years, settled pretty much on defined characters found in a challenging situation, pretty much like the first example offered by Penelope Street:

My starting point is almost always an issue or dilemma that confronts a character.

Some of the other ideas mentioned include freewriting ... which I also use, but I'm old as the hills and divide the whole process up, and freewriting usually is part of invention for me. Writing comes afterward, when I know what I'm saying and where I'm going.

Multi-tasking has never been good to me.

I have a story idea now that may be an example. It's just a sentence, and it's been in my file for nearly two years --

"Salvonica watched South America gradually break apart as it floated slowly past her window and bumped against the warm sand."

I'll have to begin the freewriting part of this idea -- no idea why it intrigues me -- with a character study of Salvonica since I have no idea who she is ... and in my imagination Salvonica is a "she."

Then I will need a situation. How will she handle it if .... and that is where my writing will begin.

I was just curious how you all handle it. I write 8-14 hours a day, most of the time, so if I want to be productive it helps to have a clear process at hand. And I suspect, though I don't know, that if I were to start in a different way or at a different point, I might conclude with a different story.

I've never tried it, but that might be interesting in itself: begin the same idea in three different procedural ways.

By the way, for me the first words of the finished story are often the last I write, but not always.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Respectfully, ST

 

[Penelope Street]

Where I begin writing has, over the years, settled pretty much on defined characters found in a challenging situation

If there's a major difference for me, it's that the characters are likely to be undefined when I begin. In the example with the student, the professor, and the mall mishap, I would probably start my thought processes with two unidentified characters at the scene of an accident and then decide the story will be interesting if they are student and professor.

 

[angelicminx]

Generally I get an idea and type it out. On some projects, I've developed the main character first and figured out some of the scenes. On others, I've got the scenes I want and come up with the characters. Sometimes, though, I've got 'voices' in my head that won't leave me alone until I type what I'm told to type. Most of the time, the initial story is crap and needs a lot of polish. Considering the score on my latest submission, I'm not good at polish.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Generally I get an idea and type it out. On some projects, I've developed the main character first and figured out some of the scenes. On others, I've got the scenes I want and come up with the characters. Sometimes, though, I've got 'voices' in my head that won't leave me alone until I type what I'm told to type. Most of the time, the initial story is crap and needs a lot of polish. Considering the score on my latest submission, I'm not good at polish.

I'm not good at Polish either... Sometimes dyslexia can be so much fun...

 

[Otto26]

I generally start with a premise that can be summarized in a single sentence. Even better is if I can get it down to two words.

Example: Complicated vengeance.

Fleshing that out a little gets me: A woman who has been abused (date raped, fired) by her boss summons a demon to help her exact her revenge.

That's enough for a quick stroker, but I prefer a story. So where's the story in this?

Complication: The woman is angry, but she's still principled. Rather than killing someone to offer a blood sacrifice she offers a sexual sacrifice. But that makes the bond weaker, so it must be renewed. The demon must obey the woman, but she's got to maintain her control by constantly renewing the bond.

Now I've got a plot with interesting characters and I'm ready to start writing. How does this story start? Well, the meat of the story is in the relationship between the woman and the demon, so I don't need to write what happened between the woman and her boss. This really needs to start with the demon entering the story. How does it continue? She needs to establish her control of the demon and reveal the need for the bond to be renewed. After than she needs to get the demon into the target's circle of acquaintances so he can do his work. What's his goal? To ruin the boss's life: destroy his marriage, take his fortune, lose his job, make him feel helpless and ashamed. How does it end? The demon and the woman have been intimate during all this. The demon has never been summoned or controlled in this way and he's become infatuated. The woman feels a connection too, but she's still bitter and has to decide between letting go of her hate or completing her revenge. Will she send the demon back when his job is complete?

NOW, I'm ready to start writing. For the actual beginning I like to throw people into the action and try to grab them. If I can get them to read a paragraph I can get them to read a page and once I've done that they'll either be hooked or the won't. So I might start with something like:

Lillith tried to relax herself, to delay the inevitable, but the humming waves of pleasure were too fast and too strong and she keened wordlessly as the orgasm overtook her; loud cries of delight were strangled into inarticulate whimpers. She fell back against the floor, gasping for breath with muscles that had no interest in trivial pursuits such as breathing. It took her several minutes to find the strength to open her eyes and another minute to focus them. She rolled unsteadily to her side and looked at the gate she'd painstakingly inscribed upon the floor.

He, very obviously he, was looking at his body. He looked up when he felt her eyes upon him and his eyes were filled with both recognition and confusion. "What... what is this... Mistress?" he asked.

Beyond that I just keep writing. That's how I start.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

How To Begin...

Make it interesting. Grab the reader quickly. I just got back from vacation and was amazed how poorly written and edited some "professional" novels are!

So, how to grab quickly? Maybe start with a question unanswered, a situation that begs for an explanation, a character that compels readers to want to invest their time to learn more.

I'll share a message I just received, it's up to you if you want to read the story that left a reader intrigued...

Comments:

Hello I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your story "Castle
Keep". I had read other stories before, but none had me wanting to keep reading to find out what happened next. I really enjoy your writing style. I had no idea that I enjoyed the "Erotic Horror" until I read your story. Now I can't stop.

Thanks Again

 

[Softouch911]

NOW, I'm ready to start writing. For the actual beginning I like to throw people into the action and try to grab them. .

Thank you, Otto26.

We seem to do pretty much the same thing. It's the unusual situation for a character that begins the tale. Once you do, as you described, know the character, the conflict, the general direction of the plot ... all of that is preparation ... the writing can begin.

And there's no reason, as you say, to begin with background or what we know or even what we might guess, but put them in a challenging situation (which will create reader interest as you point out) and let them figure out how to handle it.

Thanks for adding your insights.

ST

 

[Softouch911]

Maybe start with a question unanswered, a situation that begs for an explanation, a character that compels readers to want to invest their time to learn more.

Have you ever ended up going back and changing the start of the story after it is "done"? I've sometimes thought I had it altogether, "finish" the story, then figure out a different beginning would be a better place to begin .... though it wasn't where I started writing.

For you, is the beginning of the story the same as where you start writing? That has sometimes happened to me, but it just as often "begins" somewhere else.

Best wishes,
ST

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I don't ever recall changing the beginning of a story. I do very little by way of changes to any of my stories, except editorial in nature. Just about all of my 91 posts here are the first drafts, and quite a few have done well.

Not that it can't be done, however. That's just my experience.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Have you ever ended up going back and changing the start of the story after it is "done"? I've sometimes thought I had it altogether, "finish" the story, then figure out a different beginning would be a better place to begin .... though it wasn't where I started writing.

For you, is the beginning of the story the same as where you start writing? That has sometimes happened to me, but it just as often "begins" somewhere else.

Best wishes,
ST

No, I've never gone back and changed the start of a story. I seem to always have a strong sense of where the story begins....

 

[Softouch911]

I do very little by way of changes to any of my stories, except editorial in nature. Just about all of my 91 posts here are the first drafts, and quite a few have done well.

Lol, we're quite a bit different!

I'm on the fifth draft of a novel. And most of my stories have taken quite a few more.

Finding the right word which, as Emily Dickinson described it, is "adequate" is part of the fun and all of the challenge.

Of course I'm a control freak.

I just now finished revising a story to change pov from a third person immediate to a third remote. It got rid of loads of exposition and added a lot of conflict and tension. Of course it took three days to pull it off, lol.

One of the publishers I work with has an authors (Yahoo) group and on it we were recently lamenting how long it takes to revise when on deadline. This weekend I'm going to a writer's conference and will meet Bob Mayer again -- He publishes so much, I'll ask him his strategies on this.

Sorry I babbled on, but this is interesting to me as I've heard many other writers say the same as you ... just don't know how to do it.

Respectfully, ST

 

[AsylumSeeker]

For me it boils down to time and patience. I have too many ideas and too little time to lavish so much on one story, so I write and move on quickly to the next. And I have certainly grown as a writer in the process. It's weird for me to pick up and continue an old series because my style has changed significantly over the past 2 years. Observant readers can probably notice these changes.

 

[Softouch911]

Well, you're not alone. In his heyday John O'Hara used to brag that he published his "rough drafts." Of course he only wrote stories once every 3-6 months, so the tale was working in his conscious/subconscious for all that time and came out fully assembled.

For me, it's back to revision.

Best wishes, ST

 

[Newstart]

How, where?

For me the salvation has been word processing.

If I'd had to start at the beginning and work through to the end in long hand I'd have never even started, let alone finished.

As it is I can start with the germ of an idea and just let it grow, adding a bit here. filling a bit there and the growth becomes organic, almost random as I add a bit of passion, a new character, some description or a stroke.

I have an idea at the moment.
It's just three lines - start, middle and end but I doubt that the finished piece will bare any resemblance to the fleeting thoughts that gave me the original idea.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Lol, we're quite a bit different!

I'm on the fifth draft of a novel. And most of my stories have taken quite a few more.

Finding the right word which, as Emily Dickinson described it, is "adequate" is part of the fun and all of the challenge.

Of course I'm a control freak.

I just now finished revising a story to change pov from a third person immediate to a third remote. It got rid of loads of exposition and added a lot of conflict and tension. Of course it took three days to pull it off, lol.

One of the publishers I work with has an authors (Yahoo) group and on it we were recently lamenting how long it takes to revise when on deadline. This weekend I'm going to a writer's conference and will meet Bob Mayer again -- He publishes so much, I'll ask him his strategies on this.

Sorry I babbled on, but this is interesting to me as I've heard many other writers say the same as you ... just don't know how to do it.

Respectfully, ST

Like AS, my stories don't change much after the first draft. And I never had searched for the just the right word.

Maybe the big difference is that it sounds like you publish for profit, and I just write for the sheer enjoyment it brings.

 

[Penelope Street]

I'm not sure writing with an eye toward publishing has that much to do with it. Most of the time, I write for the sheer pleasure of it too. When free to create at my own pace, I'll let my stories sit for several months without even looking at them; then each gets at least one major rewrite. Although I don't tend to change the openings much, nothing is sacred.