How Should A Book Start? (And an Ellie Sweet giveaway!)

by Stephanie Morrill

Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and the Ellie Sweet books (Birch House Press). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.

(This is the second installment of a new series, Writing a Novel from Beginning to End. You can read the first installment, How do you know if your story idea is The Idea?, here.)

So, you've had an idea. You're pretty sure it's a good idea, maybe even the best idea you've ever had. As I said last Monday, one of the ways I figure out if I really want to write a book is by diving into chapter one. But how do you know where to start the thing?

If you're hoping for a concrete answer, I don't have one, honestly. The beginning of the story, for me, is a gut thing. I usually won't start writing until I know what I want my opening scene—and even my opening sentence—to be. I don't often deviate from my original choice either.

Other writers are different, though. Many writers tend to write their way to the opening scene. By which I mean they may write a chapter or two before hitting the right place to open. If that's you, don't be discouraged. We all work differently.

While I don't think there's one right way to start a book, I do believe there are several traits of strong opening scenes. When I'm working through the opening of my story, I try to incorporate these five things:

Open with the main character.

This isn't a hard and fast rule but rather a personal preference. Maybe it's because I'm a character-first author, and I tend to write in first person, but I like the readers' first experience with the story to be with the character who will play the largest part. 

Open with the character's status quo.

For a reader to understand the journey our main character is about to go on, it's helpful to see what their life is like already. Before I can encourage Rapunzel to go running off with an outlaw, I need to see just how desperate it is up in that tower. To support Katniss's quest against the capital, I need to experience the misery of District 12. 

What about a quieter book where we aren't fighting to a literal death or running away from evil fake mothers? In Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, chapter one drops us into a bus scene. Park is wishing he'd brought louder music so he didn't have to put up with the inane chatter of his classmates on the bus. He's feeling desperate for his sixteenth birthday to come so he can escape these people. We have only a page or two of this—that's all we need to see the mundane rhythm of Park's life—before Eleanor gets us the bus for the first time.

Sometimes you don't even need the page or two that Rainbow Rowell supplied in Eleanor and Park. In some stories—I did this in Me, Just Different—you can instead drop us in immediately after the change has been set in motion.  (You can read chapter one of Me, Just Different here if you want to see what I mean.)

Hint at why the journey is necessary

The way to make your story believable to an audience is to make your character's motivations clear. Why are they doing what they're doing? In Frozen, we can forgive Anna's impulsive engagement to Hans because we've listened to her sing "For the First Time In Forever" and "Love is an Open Door." We see that Anna is desperate for a connection with someone.

The opening scene of your story should at least hint at why your character will have to do what they do. In The Hunger Games, we see right away that Katniss is the provider for her family and that she deeply loves her mother and sister. She's already sacrificed a lot so that Prim won't have to put her name in extra times for the reaping. But still Prim's name is called. And because of the masterful opening of this book, we know Katniss will volunteer, and we know why.

In The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, the book opens with Ellie being humiliated. I picked this opening

because I wanted to reveal something about Ellie and her friendships. These are friends she's outgrown. People she's friends with out of habit and routine rather than a true bond. She feels like to survive high school, she just needs to put a brave face and turn inward.

Pick something that—however subtly—changes the trajectory of the character.

Continuing with the example of The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, this moment is a starting place of sorts. Ellie is minding her own business, waiting for her math class to start, when Chase, a boy she doesn't know at all, announces to everybody that Ellie has a crush on the new boy at school. 

Despite Chase putting about two seconds of thought into his actions, this is a moment that changes everything for these characters even if they don't realize it.

We often hear to "open with action" which I think is fine advice. Certainly it's better than opening with long-winded descriptions of the main character's wardrobe or paragraphs of back story. But I find it more interesting to start with change.

Get us as close to "the journey" as you can.

In The Hunger Games, Primrose's name is drawn at the end of chapter one. Katniss is on a train out of District 12 in chapter three.

Certainly Suzanne Collins could have chosen to start us back a bit further. Maybe she could have included an awkward scene between Katniss and Peeta at school so we would already understand the tension between them when his name is called. But it certainly wasn't necessary. She gave us all we needed.

Likewise, I suggest the same to you. When does your character start on their journey, the one that will change them? Try to drop us in as close to that as you can.

And don't be afraid to use trial and error for your first scene. Sometimes the only way we know if an opening will work is to write the darn thing!

What's your favorite opening scene in a novel? Why do you think you like it so much?

Because I talked about Ellie in the post, and because the books have gorgeous new covers, I'm going to give away a paperback copy of your choice of the Ellie Sweet books! (For U.S. residents only due to the unfortunate realities of pricey international shipping. Though, if you live outside the states and would be happy with an ebook version, you're welcome to enter.)

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