Knowing where to start a story (or even a scene) is a fine art. Too early and we bore the reader. Too late and we confuse the reader (and then have to wedge in that much more backstory later). With backstory, the central issue is usually starting too early—we know these events will influence the story, but we still don’t want to start before the story “really” does. So how can we tell which events are backstory and which are story-story?
Two ways I can think of are focusing on:
- who our story is about (the protagonist) and
- what our story is about (the theme or the central events).
Take Hamlet, for example: when the play starts, the story events are already in motion—his father is already murdered, and his uncle has already married his mother. But Hamlet’s story doesn’t start until his father’s ghost appears to call for vengeance, and that’s where we join him.
Now, we could have started out watching Claudius plot and eventually murder Hamlet Sr., and marry Gertrude to assume the throne. But Shakespeare’s story wasn’t ultimately about the betrayal of family—it was about the consequences of inaction. Hamlet was his protagonist. (And that kinda made Shakespeare’s choice easy, since he needed Hamlet off at school when his dad was killed.)
Author Chris Roerden offers some more advice on where to find the beginning:
It’s where the first sign of trouble appears.It’s where a change threatens to upset the status quo. Mystery author and literary agent Jack Bickham says, “Nothing is more threatening than change. . . . Identify the moment of change, and you know when your story must open” (The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, 11-2; from Don’t Murder Your Mystery, 54).
Naturally, the backstory will set up the opening situation, as it does for Hamlet. Usually, at least some of those circumstances of the story created by the backstory should be quickly explained. We’d be awfully confused if it took a quarter of Hamlet’s story to discover that his dad is dead and his mother has already remarried. Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to explain everything in the opening lines. Backstory is more powerful when we save it as long as possible.
What do you think? How do you choose when to start your story?
Photo by Tom Magliery
This is not exactly clear. It sounds like you’re calling for the story to start with the Inciting Incident/Call to Adventure. I’ve read a bunch that suggests it starts with a “problem statement” where the character once again fails at achieve a major goal, essentially highlighting the main conflict of the story. It’s a microcosm of their life, and a foreshadowing of the journey to come.
Now this depends a lot on genre. Mysteries usually start with the crime, whether it’s in a prologue or told by the client who enters the PI’s office. But that’s still what I call the problem statement.
Show the character struggling, then present them with an opportunity. I’m not sold on the change thing. I’m more sold on starting with the defining conflict.
I think you’re talking about the same thing. The first sign of trouble, as Roerden says, isn’t the same as the Call to Adventure. And Roerden and Bickham don’t say the first sign of trouble has to be the first line. Sometimes it is—but that still might not be the call to action.
I think it’s good to start with a character failing, but I wouldn’t interpret what you’re saying to mean the first line of the story should be the failure—the beginning scene or chapter(s) can show the whole effort and failure.
The key here is, if there’s a litany of failures here, why choose that failure to start with? And the answer, I think, is because that particular failure is different in some way: it represents change. The character gives up or changes or sets a new goal.
(Actually, mysteries often start after the Call and may show little to no refusal of the Call. In mysteries, there’s usually a second incident which makes finding the perpetrator a more personal quest for the detective, but that might not come until plot point one or even the mid point.)
Yeah, I’m talking first scene, not first line 🙂
Start with the “last straw” as it were.
The character is at their wit’s end and is in a place to be receptive to change.
AFA mysteries, I want to write one at some time but I don’t read many and don’t know the story structure that well so don’t quote me on anything. 😉
Exactly. I probably should have gone into more depth above, but I was trying to save something for today.
My favorite book on writing mysteries is How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N. Frey, and I think that’s where I got that concept from. (The book quoted in the post is great for revising mysteries, IMO.)
Looking back over my stories, I have to admit I didn’t always pick the right spot to start my novels. After 5 bad openings, I finally got that “Big Change” in the life of the protagonist work best. Hamlet didn’t start with his father’s murder, for good reason. The story isn’t about the murder. And what works in movies doesn’t work in books. Visual aids make it easier to get hooked faster. When we read a book, we have to allow words to transform into images. On screen it happens instantly. So why don’t everyone make movies instead of books? For obviously reasons, one being it’s cheaper to write.
Thanks for all you do, Jordan. Your blog is awesome. Can you imagine if writers like French, Fitzgerald, or James had had the resources of the internet?