Writing Tip: Story Beginnings

According to ‘How to Write a Good Hook & Start Your Novel with a Bang!’ by BookBub:

Startle readers with the first line. …
Begin at a life-changing moment. …
Create intrigue about the characters. …
Use a setting as the inciting incident. …
Up the stakes within the first few pages. …
Introduce something ominous right away. …
Set the mood. …
Make your characters sympathetic — and relatable — immediately.
Draw in the reader with a strong voice
Start at a moment of confusion
Don’t get bogged down with exposition
End the first chapter with a killer cliffhanger

Author Jerome Stern writes in ‘Making Shapely Fiction‘:

‘In the first draft of a story, no rules apply. You write and write, ideas come, characters change, situations grow, dialogues take off, speeches become scenes, and surprises occur. … After this first draft exists, then you can bring to bear some of your critical faculties and see what you can see about your creation.’

‘The Art of Fiction’ author David Lodge asks:

‘When does a novel begin? The question is almost as difficult to answer as the question, when does the human embryo become a person? Certainly the creation of a novel rarely begins with the penning or typing of its first words. Most writers do some preliminary work, if it is only in their heads. Many prepare the ground carefully over weeks or months, making diagrams of the plot, compiling c.v.s for their characters, filling a notebook with ideas, settings, situations, jokes, to be drawn on in the process of composition. Every writer has his or her own way of working.

Hope you find this post useful. Let me know in the comments if there’s something you’d like to add about your own experience of writing a story beginning.