Help!: An author's dilemma (Little long)

[Guest]

I'm a longtime poster on the General Board. I don't normally come here, seeing as how I've never submitted a story to Lit, but I am an aspiring writer, and I'm posting today seeking input on a thorny problem.

I'm 24 years old, and for the last year I've been working on a novel for young adults. I started writing it while I was deployed to Iraq, and at the time it was a daily escape for me from my situation. I was bored, I was unhappy, and this story was initially intended to be a way to pass the time.

It blew up into far more. It became the biggest thing I've ever attempted. It became GOOD--I could look at it, and see the cohesiveness of plot arc, the roundness of character development, and for the first time in my life, I found that I had written something that pleased me. A story about growing up, a story about class and culture, and about rising above one's past. A story with positive messages, believable dialogue, and grounded characters that--regardless of the story's fantastic nature--were ultimately deeply human.

I've been home from Iraq for nearly four months now. I've kept writing. I'm approaching the four-hundred page park, and I'm nearly finished. I've come to believe that this book needs publishing. It deserves to be published. I look at what I have produced right now, and I know that--with time and a little patience--I can find an agent willing to accept my work.

I look at what I have written, and for the first time in my life, I am pleased. I am happy with the story I have committed myself to. But as I prepare to finish this, my first novel, I edit my work and find that there is ONE area of the book whose flaws I cannot deny.

The beginning.

It has seemed that every agent out there asks for the first fifty pages or so. I haven't submitted yet, but I plan to start work on that soon, but the fact is, I CANNOT FIGURE OUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BEGINNING. I don't know. Once the voice gets flowing, it works, but for the first three chapters or so nothing I have tried has worked. No device, no adjustment of pace, no subtle massaging of event chronology. I've been through four separate beginnings to my story, and all I can think is this: If my beginning is all that a potential publisher will see, the story will never get published.

I'm serious. I'm going insane over this. I don't have any other friends who write, and least of all none who have been published. I have bled over this book. I have drank over this book. I have locked myself into a room, leaving it only to eat and use the bathroom, all to finish a particularly difficult portion of the story. I have cried--FUCKING CRIED--at the death of a major character.

Authors, how do you deal with this? What do you do when one aspect, the most important aspect of your story, is never good enough? I have tried everything, and still no trick of my craft is enough to pull my beginning together. I am beginning to despair. None have been able to make it past the opening of my story, and it kills me.

I've never been the sort of person to dream of commercial success. But I care about this story. I care about its characters. I have struggled through some of the worst times of my life to produce this thing, and all I want is for one young person to be able to read it, and maybe in the years to come, write me, saying "This story meant something to me."

Authors, what do you do?

 

[rgraham666]

Welcome to the AH, Siddhartha.

Your best bet is to find a couple of crit partners and/or editors. They'll look at it with fresh eyes and come up with ways to make your work better. Make sure you reciprocate.

Another good thing to do is just put the damned thing aside for a while. With some distance you'll lose that too sharp edge and it will be easier to look at. Your subconscious will probably work on the story and fix up the beginning.

Glad you made it back from Iraq OK.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Here's my guess; you use those first three chapters to introduce your characters, provide all the details about where they come from, how they meet each other and how they begin this adventure. You probably give us lots of history about the world they inhabit-- be it our modern earth or a fictional place-- before you get to the meat of the story.

What happens if you make chapter four the first? You will have to take elements from those first three and replace them-- introduce your characters while they are in the middle of the action, and only offer background information at points where the reader might really be wondering. This makes for a more dynamic construction, and gives your reader something to puzzle over whilst enjoying the adventure and learning to love your characters...

I cannot say this strongly enough; YOU NEED AN EDITOR. No first time writer has ever produced a perfect novel on his own I don't know of any writer, ever that has self-edited reliably.

and welcome to the AH!

 

[Guest]

Here's my guess; you use those first three chapters to introduce your characters, provide all the details about where they come from, how they meet each other and how they begin this adventure. You probably give us lots of history about the world they inhabit-- be it our modern earth or a fictional place-- before you get to the meat of the story.

What happens if you make chapter four the first? You will have to take elements from those first three and replace them-- introduce your characters while they are in the middle of the action, and only offer background information at points where the reader might really be wondering. This makes for a more dynamic construction, and gives your reader something to puzzle over whilst enjoying the adventure and learning to love your characters...

I cannot say this strongly enough; YOU NEED AN EDITOR. No first time writer has ever produced a perfect novel on his own I don't know of any writer, ever that has self-edited reliably.

and welcome to the AH!

The story is divided into five parts, each named after a different phase in the life-cycle of a tree (plant symbolism plays a heavy role in this story). The issue I have is in part one.

Honestly, most of the other characters aren't introduced until far later in the story. However, the first six chapters detail the circumstances which render her an orphan. After that, protagonist is delivered, battered and traumatized, into her new family. It is her attempts to fit in with this family that provide the bulk of the conflict throughout the book (Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Aldous Huxley's "Island" were heavy influences.)

Once I got her to that point, the story flowed like wine, but the first two chapters, really, are the roughest. I can't figure it out. It's not a huge issue right now--I'm too close to the four hundred page mark right now, and I want to make the most of this creative burst I'm in--but it WILL be an issue later. And that's what concerns me.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I like to begin with a BANG!

I began one book with a swimmer captured, cuffed, raped, and drowned in the first chapter.

I'm writing a novel about a hurricane, and the first chapter is about two detectives who are shot in the head. One dies, and one is in the hospital when the hurricane strikes.

An adult incest novella begins with a funeral.

Another book of mine begins with a detailed hanging.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

The story is divided into five parts, each named after a different phase in the life-cycle of a tree (plant symbolism plays a heavy role in this story). The issue I have is in part one.

Honestly, most of the other characters aren't introduced until far later in the story. However, the first six chapters detail the circumstances which render her an orphan. After that, protagonist is delivered, battered and traumatized, into her new family. It is her attempts to fit in with this family that provide the bulk of the conflict throughout the book (Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Aldous Huxley's "Island" were heavy influences.)

Once I got her to that point, the story flowed like wine, but the first two chapters, really, are the roughest. I can't figure it out. It's not a huge issue right now--I'm too close to the four hundred page mark right now, and I want to make the most of this creative burst I'm in--but it WILL be an issue later. And that's what concerns me.

I agree with everyone who says to get a good editor. I'd just try to go with the flow of writing while you can and try not to get bogged down in self-editing. Self-editing and second-guessing will always ruin any momentum your story has. Eventually, if you hash it out too much while you're writing, you won't be able to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. Just write the story and then worry about your opening later.

It may be fine and you're too overwhelmed to see it right now. If it's not fine, it may be easier to put it together when your story is finished. I can sympathize, as I've always been one to obsess over openings myself. It can drive you to distraction, but if the story needs to be told, it will find a way.

 

[sr71plt]

Here's my guess; you use those first three chapters to introduce your characters, provide all the details about where they come from, how they meet each other and how they begin this adventure. You probably give us lots of history about the world they inhabit-- be it our modern earth or a fictional place-- before you get to the meat of the story.

What happens if you make chapter four the first? You will have to take elements from those first three and replace them-- introduce your characters while they are in the middle of the action, and only offer background information at points where the reader might really be wondering. This makes for a more dynamic construction, and gives your reader something to puzzle over whilst enjoying the adventure and learning to love your characters...

I cannot say this strongly enough; YOU NEED AN EDITOR. No first time writer has ever produced a perfect novel on his own I don't know of any writer, ever that has self-edited reliably.

and welcome to the AH!

Bingo. I work in publishing. The number one advice given to those submitting work for the first time--work that seems to be promising--is to lop off those first couple of chapters and look for places to fold in necessary backstory, unobtrusively and, as they say in the marketing world "just in time," after the action is already well started.

 

[Luke's Angel]

Your first chapter(s) should be devoted to pulling in your intended target market. You have to know who you are writing the book for and what they want from your chosen subject matter. If your intended readers aren't hooked in by the start of the story they aren't going to bother reading the rest of the book. Forget about your plot. You need to provide a hook which will keep your readers reading. Then you can run with the plot.

Give your readers what they want. Give them something new and interesting and uniquely you. Introduce them to your world and your characters and do it in such a way that they are charmed and thankful for being shown something so memorable.

Your target market is young adults. What do today's young adults want from your subject matter? Why don't you ask people you know who are in that target market? Know your intended readers. Give them what they want.