Tuesday, December 8, 2009
New Beginnings
Musical Influence of the Week: In The Middle of the Night- Track Fighter- Between Lies and Melodies.
Okay, so that's what I've been up to lately. Meet the outside of our "new" house. We're in the process of giving it some TLC but I love it.
Every story has to start somewhere. Lives being born. Relationships blossoming. New homes. Babies. Somehow when I was being built, someone forgot to put the "Ability to write beginnings" chip in me.
Give me a middle. Tell me to write a blind ending. I can sit down and pound out twenty thousand words before I know what happened.
Now, you tell me to start something and a cold sweat settles over me.
Don't get me wrong. I've managed to write beginnings before. They suck. Horribly. I have a friend who once told me, "I don't know what the deal is with you. It's like the first 1500 words of when you start cold on something just suck. And you know I love you, but your beginnings suck."
I would rather stand on the corner of Ninth and Cherry at midnight in a vinyl mini skirt and halter than write a beginning.
Beginnings are about knowing how much to share and when to share it. I'm an info dumper. I like to put everything and the kitchen sink in the beginning. You can't do that unless you want a reader to go running in the opposite direction.
I need insider tips. What sort of tricks do you use to pound out a beginning? Who writes the best beginnings that inspire you? And be honest, are you a beginner, middler or ender? Which do you find the easiest?
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58 comments:
Congratulations on the new house!
I've never had a problem with beginnings. My middles tend to sag though.
Your house looks adorable! I hope you have many years of happiness there and make lots of memories.
I adore beginnings. Things sort of pop up and I start w/o any idea where I'm going at all. The writing's fast, the mood gets set...then, reality sets in and it's a slog. Right now I'm trying to write the last 5000 or so words and it's just not happening.
Congrats - what a beautiful new house! I hate the process of moving, but once you get settled, I'm sure it'll be wonderful!
I have the opposite problem. I tend to just jump in without explaining anything, and end up with very confused readers *g*.
But the best advice I heard for info dumping in the beginning was this:
1. Write it out, and info dump as much as you'd like.
2. Go back, and take out everything that's backstory and put it in a separate word document
3. Go through your backstory and pick out the things that are vital that your reader know. Take those vital things, and write them out in ONE SENTENCE
4. Finally, take all your vital one-sentence points, and scatter them back in to your manuscript, which should now be significantly shorter and more streamlined.
I like the house, Sin! Congrats! Are you going to get in before Christmas?
I'm afraid I can't help with your beginning problems. I suffer the same affliction. I write scenes and moments and have a hard time figuring out how they got to that moment. I'm also a huge info dumper. I think it stems from me always trying to get everyone to understand where I'm coming from. Good Luck!
Great advice, Hal. That's definitely a keeper.
Congrats on the new house, Sin! It's beautiful! Good luck giving it TLC. Housing projects can be life-consuming. LOL!
Beginnings.... Ugh. But I'd probably say, Middles... ugh too. Endings usually come out ok, but beginnings and middles are tough for me.
I've got no really good advice. I think it's easiest to start with when the h/h meet, but I'm not sure that's always possible. And I've read plenty of books where they don't meet right away. Though one rule I heard recently was that they should meet in the first five pages. (I'm going to ignore that one if I have to.)
Renee, I will hire you to write my beginnings and I'll write your middles. LOL
Thanks for all the well wishes on the house! It has been time consuming for the most part which is why I've been scarce on the blog lately. We moved in last week but we're still in the process of working on parts of it and painting and unpacking but it feels like home. :)
I suppose this should've been my question. How do you know when it's actually the beginning? It always feels like I'm starting right in the middle of something. I never know where the right place to start really is.
Maggie, I'm like that towards the end of the middle and starting into the end. It happens so fast for me that I forget how to breathe until I type that last word. If only I could find a way to harness that for the beginning.
Also love the house! Congratuations!
I'm not good with beginnings either. It's the area I think I spend the most time with - both writing and studying how to make it better. Hal's advice will go in my file on beginnings too. Great tip for helping with that info dump problem, which seems to be the culprit!
I think I pretty much begin with the beginning and end with the beginning. It changes several times. And it's not so much that I have a hard time writing a beginning, it's just that it's bad. :) I like Hal's step #1 because it seems to give permission to info dump. Fix it later, by whatever method.
My first beginning I accept is going to be a prologue. It may help or not, but I analyzed this to death in a blog post http://everythingofinteresttoaromancewriter.blogspot.com/2009/11/beginnings-and-prologues-working-my-way.html
I've often heard (from all the studying!) the most common mistake is that "the first three chapters are often unnecessary and can be cut without harming the story one bit." Or it's the first chapter or the prologue. I guess all this advice is saying is that I'm not alone.
Getting to the final beginning hook is what I still have to figure out. That smashing opening line. Dialogue or prose? Either way, the goal is to involve the reader at once. An example (not mine!) from an essay (from 1989: Jane Castle, a.k.a. Jayne Krentz - later a.k.a Amanda Quick?):
"Don't stop now. This is just getting interesting." The voice out of the darkness was as cool and deadly as the sound of a revolver being cocked. It had precisely the same effect on Brenna Llewellyn. She froze, one jeaned leg already swung over the sill of the window. She was trapped.
I love that beginning! Talk about packing a lot in and introducing the heroine at the same time. Eventually, I might get to the hook, but I can't think of it cold.
Sorry about the long post!
Sin - I usually ask myself what the first thing my reader really needs to know is, that inciting incident that kicks off all the other action.
That is super general though and probably not at all helpful....
Hal! Awesome advice. Since writing isn't going to happen for me anytime the rest of this year, I'm going to put it to good use over my Christmas/New Year's break and see if it helps.
Irish, we've moved in. Happened last week. Then I finished painting the kitchen over the weekend. So we're semi-functional for now. LOL
I have the same issue. I tend to write pieces and fragments of scenes and conversations to learn my characters and then while I know them extremely well, it's hard to convey that into a beginning.
So I know what the first thing the readers need to know about Sadie and Kiki's series. I just skipped it accidentally when I was starting out. It's just do I add in the skipped part and leave what I wrote or do I scratch what I wrote and start over to retell the story. Beginnings are just too damned confuzzling.
Here is another question that arises for me. Do I really need to worry about the H/H meet early on when the series is more sister based than H/H based. I mean, there is the H/H story baseline as well, but it's not center stage. Kiki and Sadie's series is more mystery/suspense based than romance based. Think more like Evanovich like than traditional RS.
How do you know when it’s actually the beginning? It always feels like I’m starting right in the middle of something.
I think you're doing what you're supposed to - start right in the middle of something.
But I can see how that causes problems later if it's not the right starting point. I've heard it's when something is changing for the hero or heroine. It might be their first meeting.
Great house, Sin! I hope you are better at unpacking than I am. I moved sixteen months ago, and I still have unpacked boxes hidden in the back of closets.
I love beginnings. I'm always so filled with hope and excitement at that stage. The ideas and the words come easily. I love them so much that I keep writing beginnings of new projects rather than finishing old ones. :(
Housing projects can be life-consuming.
And divorce altering. Be careful.
Gorgeous house. I cannot wait to see it. (Okay I realize I could have seen it last week, but I was making Holly's christmas gifts for her co-workers instead.)
Beginnings. I'd rather do a beginning, I think. I suck at the middle. I can usually do the beginning and the end, but the middle is torture. (Can you tell I'm in the middle of my book?)
Being I grew up on Julie Garwood historicals, I usually like to try to do provocative one-liners as my opening. I don't like to do huge paragraphs of description--I'd rather try to launch the reader into the middle of a scene, usually the prequel to the Inciting Incident that introduces my characters are the most sarcastic people in the world. (I usually succeed at this.)
In the endings, I either get to make people kiss or shoot somebody, either of which makes me happy.
But the middles are awful. Mainly because I have characters constantly internally reflecting like When Harry Met Sally 24/7. It gets boring...and my stories don't include death threats or major action. Basically my middles are boring.
Incidentally it's a good thing I enjoy writing beginnings. I wrote about a dozen "beginnings" to Redemption; and at least a half dozen for Girl on the Grecian Urn. Adam & Eve's "beginning" used to be "Eve's Diary" in the Garden of Eden, but it's been slashed and now the beginning is a transcript from a marriage counseling session. Which I'm sure aren't actually recorded but is somewhat humorous nonetheless. And it probably provides too much backstory. We'll see.
And the first couple chapters following have been re-written and re-written, but being this book is taking a while to spit out, they have to be re-written to keep in tone with the newer stuff.
Regardless of all my re-writing, I'd still rather write a beginning. Because I love to read beginnings. It's like the beginning of a relationship where you first fall in love and everything is glittery and beautiful and so so funny.
The middle is where you realize they're not really as brilliant as you thought; and the end is where you think, Ah, they saved it...how great!
It’s just do I add in the skipped part and leave what I wrote or do I scratch what I wrote and start over to retell the story.
STOP. DELETING. EVERY. THING.
I love them so much that I keep writing beginnings of new projects rather than finishing old ones.
Clearly Janga and I are in the same club.
Do I really need to worry about the H/H meet early on when the series is more sister based than H/H based.
And stop worrying about this too! Just write the series. It's awesome.
Melissa, okay I've saved the blog post for further review.
The whole thing about beginnings give me eye twitches and nose bleeds and nervous ticks. The hook. The right place at the right time. It's like a well thought out plot and we all know how much I love to plot stories. *twitching*
PS You don't need a divorce if he accidentally falls off the deck.
Hells, you could come over tonight. Manda and I are going to be working on some stuff so I'll be there after work.
Janga, I'm great at unpacking. It's called going to the dump and going to the donation pile. *laughing* This is why I shouldn't be allowed to unpack. I would rather give everything away.
I wish I felt that way about beginnings. I feel that way about an ending. I'm always filled with anticipation and hope to get it just right. The beginning just feels too slow for me.
That accidentally falling off the deck is what I'd recommend; however, Weirdo Boy #2 (from yesterday) informed me that Missouri is a no fault state, so it actually behooves a girl to divorce here because she can take him for everything he owns, alimony and child support, EVEN if you make more money than he does.
Yes, I can totally see myself claiming for alimony. *laughing* Just call me a desperate housewife. LOL
Melissa,
I’ve heard it’s when something is changing for the hero or heroine.
Interesting. I don't know if I've ever seen it put that way but it makes more sense to me in that context.
And Hells, I haven't had a chance to delete anything lately. Gotta write something to delete it.
I'm removing your delete key from your computer!
(Which would be more of a threat, if I could actually do anything to my computer other than open word documents and accidentally download viruses.)
The beginning just feels too slow for me.
What if you write your beginning like an ending? Not so much trying to build something, but from a perspective of what you already know. Imagine if the characters got a glimpse of what they want (how their life would change) in the first chapter?
My heroine in my WIP wants her whole life to change. The first chapter is a glimpse of what she wants. Adventure, or at least trying to have an adventurous spirit. (Then things crash and burn (too good to be true), but that's middle and ending is realizing her dreams.)
Lyrics to the Foreigner song are one of my influences in this story....I can't stop now, I've traveled so far. To change this lonely life... I want to know what love is. I want you to show me...
Maybe Kiki or Sadie get a glimpse of what they want, in the beginning? And then you rip it away?
Sin, sounds like a deal.
Seeing something in the future is a part of the paranormal element in their series. Sadie sees glimpses of things, fragments, but she's been drugged out for so long, nothing makes sense. Kiki doesn't want anything. She doesn't allow it.
But I like this advice. *hm* I must think of a way to implement it.
Over 30 comments before lunch. Do you people not have JOBS?! LOL! Okay, I'll catch up later.
I'm just totally amazed you actually posted a picture of your house. I mean, that's not the super secret pirate ninja tart kind of thing you do. We could locate this house on google maps with that satellite stuff and actually find you? I can't believe you posted it.
About beginnings, I say write something. Anything. It's all going to be fixed later. And there are writers who say they have no idea what the beginning should be until they've written the end. So you chop off the first 100 pages. (Yes, I've done this.) You probably still learned something writing those 100 pages that you needed to know to write the characters and the rest of the story.
Just throw the words out there and fix it later. Hell, start ever rough draft with "It was a dark and stormy night" (which would fit your stuff so well.) It'll be changed later.
Bo'sun, remember she doesn't believe in fixing. She believes in DELETING. It's all or nothing with Sin.
There are fifty different ways to my house. Don't think I'm taking Hells the same way more than twice.
If you can find the ability to track my house down by satellite and Google GPS, I'll give you a gold star. But you have to use just the image. You can't cheat even though it's the pirate way.
And I have a job. I'm sitting at my desk right now. The weather is crap here. No one is venturing out so finally for once in the past month, it's quiet enough to log into the blog. :)
Yes, well I'm an all or nothing kinda ninja.
Hell, start ever rough draft with “It was a dark and stormy night” (which would fit your stuff so well.) It’ll be changed later.
I'm going to do this. LOL It makes total sense to me.
After all the advice (my own included) of fixing it later, I wonder if anyone has created the opening hook from the get go and stuck with it?
It begins on a cruise ship...80 degrees, Mazatlan...
Actually, that be sorta in the middle.
I like me beginnings, then me CPs read them, me mentor reads them, me sis reads 'em.. and I get tol'... take out the prologue...make the dream sequence a prologue...elimate the first three chapters...this is where the story really begins...Wow, you destroyed California!...change this! No, change that!
Sigh. Advice gives me a headache. And I'm errin' on the side a' not 'nuff info I fear... From one extreme ta another... Info dump, info hoard. Ya can't win.
Is any a' it right? No idea. I start where I start and pray it makes sense. I often slice stuff offa the beginnings I began wit'. Me middles sag... I am 50 now, I have earned me saggin' middle. And I often step off a' cliff at the end. Oh, it's the end! Yipee!
Congrats on the house, Sin! Looks so...normal. I was expectin' black out shades, or bars on the windows, a steamin' pit at one side a' the yard, ropes hangin' from the second story fer a quick get away... Ya gots ta hang a target somewhere wit' stars stickin' out a' it...
I know, I know...give ya time!
Didn't we have a guest that said they actually used the hook they started out with in the beginning?
I must find this person and lock them in my dungeon for further analysis.
Chanceroo, I had to burst everyone's bubble but I'm horribly contemporary and normal. LOL
But someone did get me a target to hang in my office. And a nice little board that says, "Demons are a Ghouls best friend."
You cannot have ropes hanging out a window for a quick getaway...that means someone can climb up just as easily and sneak into the house.
No, Sin is more likely to have one of those purses made of cable where you hook one handle to something secure, then jump out the window and the cable unwinds slowly enough to balance your descent.
I was expecting more black though. However, this is a better disguise, if you think about it. This house looks like everyone else. You'd never find her. A black house and a steaming pit would draw too much attention.
Exactly Hells. My house blends. I didn't even paint my office black. *raising eyebrow* I painted it grayish blue. I'm going for sleek stylish tranquility.
Ah, that be true. I be lookin' fer a great congrats on the new house pinate when I leave the ship taday... Let me think, what might that look like??? Maybe I can find a monkey...
Though a steamin' pit might be mistaken fer a malfunctionin' septic system... A real hillbilly camoflaugue technique...
I do like startin' a story wit' a good hook. Why I started A Caribbean Spell by destroyin' California... Bwah ha ha!
Fabulous house! Congrats!
I have no issues with beginnings but I'm stuck at this middle part. I don't think it ever occurred to me to just go and write the end. Then again, I don't know if I'm the type of person who can just skip from step 3 to step 30 and not get freaked out!
Steph, a control freak. I understand that. I always know the end before anything else. Which smacks of plotting, I know, but for me, the ending is always clear as a sunny day.
I can't wait to buy a house, simply because it's going to be fun to shock so many people because a) it's not a pirate ship and b) it doesn't look like Hogwarts.
What? You have TASTE?
LMAO Chanceroo, when are you getting back? I need to mail you something (though I have to find what I'm supposed to mail you first).
Wait until you see the kitchen Hells. It's my favorite room.
I can't see you in any other kind of house than a pirate ship.
Didn’t we have a guest that said they actually used the hook they started out with in the beginning?
I must find this person and lock them in my dungeon for further analysis.
Please do! I'm daydreaming about all the time I could save to waste later.
And I'm wasting a lot of it now. It's not so much that I have a sagging middle, but a malnourished middle. LOL It's hungry for words. Now I have most plot problems resolved, the story is complete. I have to do the work, but it's so darn perfect - - in my head. :)
I have serious house envy. I want my own house SOOOOOOOOOOO bad. I was going to buy next year, but if I move (as in "across state lines AGAIN") it'll have to wait at least another year. *sigh* My luck, it'll be when all the housing prices shoot back up. LOL!
I'm in the inciting incident crowd. If you're starting in the middle of something, you're probably starting in the right place.
For instance, your heroine is a bank teller. At the beginning of the story, the event that throws everything into a tizzy, is her bank being robbed and her somehow looking like an accomplice on the whole thing. Now, you could start with her getting ready for work that morning, a day like any other. Let the reader get to know her for three or four pages.
OR, you could start with the line, "This is a stick up, don't make a sound or you won't live to make another one."
Now, which one would hook the reader?
There is nothing like having your own house. I appreciate it so much more, especially after renting last year and renting my house out. Then the renters let the pipes freeze. Yes, it is possible to total a house. Extensive renovation and I'm still thinking it's weird that all my walls are white - again. The one thing I said years ago was that if I ever owned a house I'd have color on the walls. Now they are all white and bare. It's so hard to bring myself to put nails in new plaster! Hope you have fun with your house, Sin!
I always think it's kind of unfair that the beginning has to have such an explosive hook. In some movies, thinking of maybe True Lies, (Jamie Lee Curtis's character finding out her husband is a spy) I like how the ordinary becomes extraordinary. But I can't really remember how exactly that movie began. Did they open with Arnold's character being a spy?
I do have to say that I always, always start out my stories with tons of dumping and explanations. But the stories I LOVE to read start with the “This is a stick up, don’t make a sound or you won’t live to make another one.” exciting first line. I like being plunged into the chaos and getting my backstory as I go.
The more I think about it, it would probably be easier for me to start in the middle and work my way backwards cause I seem to do that anyway.
Chance, I've got huge vacation envy right now. I'm looking out my window at a freakin' blizzard and wishing I was sipping a Margarita with you right about now.
Congrats on the new house!
I agree with everyone - just write and you'll maybe toss the entire first part and start a little later in the story than you expected.
My current WIP starts with the hero hearing the heroine cry out when she's being attacked in a park.
My other project I started with prompting from you pirates starts with the heroine having a shit day and then taking us back through the last week that led her to that point.
Now, the one that starts with the action pulls you right in but I hate to say I love the one some might call an info dump! Having the character looking back on her events somehow gives me the distance from it happening to write it more freely. I think it's helping me get it out, and then I can go back and write the beginning with it actually happening in the present.
I'm still new to this, so we'll see how this develops!
I be back on Sunday, the 13th... But won't really be back on line full time until Monday. Ha! That is funny, lost it while packin'?
I can't wait ta download a few a' the pics from yesterday's tall ship sailin'... I even got ta take the wheel and didn't run that fair ship ta ground. The tall ship Talofa...wonderful day!
I wish ya all could be here wit' me!
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