Secrets of Writing: Beginnings

How you begin any story is important. You have to interest people from the start. There’s a good chance that some potential reader might pick up your book in the store, read the first page, and decide if it looks interesting. You have to nail them on the spot. You have to make them go: “I gotta buy this!”

So when you sit down to think what that first page is going to show, think of it as the money shot. That first page has the potential to sell your book. It also sets the tone. It can also be used to establish the premise or a theme. In FORREST GUMP, the first image we saw was a floating feather, which was a metaphor for one of story’s themes.

If you do a splash page, you should try to think of an original and interesting opening. One they will pay attention to. Jack Kirby was great with those back in the sixties. When I was a kid, I would grab his comics off the rack just to see what the opening shot was. He always came up with something that made you go “Wow!”

As a rule of thumb, your story should begin in motion. Events should be taking place which are going to upset the balance of your Hero’s life. As we discussed earlier, the first act is going to be relatively short. And the turning point of the first act is going to throw the protagonist headlong, directly at the conflict. So you might as well get the ball rolling from panel one. Start in medias res. Use action, conflict, mystery or humor to get us interested in what is going on. Make the audience wonder and care who the people are and what is going to happen to them. Hit the ground running.

It’s not a bad idea to show the Hero’s life is already in a state of flux. Either he’s between jobs, his wife hates him, there’s no money coming in and he might have to move, something that tells us he’s ready for a change of some kind. Change is what life is all about and stories are metaphors for life. Remember?

Having the balance of things upset at the beginning gives it inertia from panel one. You can then propel the story further along with every panel there after.

In monthly comics it’s hard to have the character’s life in upheaval at the beginning of every story, so many writers try to do it by leaving cliff hangers at the end of the previous issue. This keeps the momentum going, but if done improperly it can also ruin the energy of the story. If you start out with a slam bang at the beginning you have to top it by the end. There’s no way to keep doing this month after month, so it’s not wise to fall into that trap.

Normally, the way to get momentum going in the beginning is with the Trigger Event. Which just happens to be our next chapter.

Rising Action

When a story begins we usually enter into a series of events known as rising action. These scenes establish the momentum of the story from the beginning. The events in this part of the story are a logical progression of what was set up at the start. We’ve met some characters. We’ve been given a rough idea what they want to do. Now they are setting out to accomplish their goals. And naturally, these goals just happen to be in direct opposition to what some other characters want. Or, if it’s a story about internal conflict, what the hero’s inner self wants.

The rising action serves to build the story’s energy toward the first big reversal. The Turning Point. In the midst of all this is Trigger Event, which is the force that starts the whole ball rolling.

The rising action phase of the story needs to be really compelling because this will determine if you’ve hooked the reader or not. If the audience isn’t hooked in the beginning of the story, they may put it down to read later. So already, you’ve bored them. The story isn’t interesting enough for them to keep reading.

If that’s the case, you’re in trouble.

Take a good hard look at the beginning of your story. Is it really exciting? Is it really interesting? Don’t think that a shot of some guy blasting a machine gun at us is exciting. It’s not something we haven’t seen before. They were doing that kind of shot in 1950s war comics. Exciting isn’t just action. Exciting is something that sucks us in. That draws our attention. It can be a naked body. It can be an unusual sight. Or...it can even be a shot of action. But we’d better care about who is involved in that action. Remember the rules of conflict.

The rising action scenes also establish the mood of the story. As we discussed before, once the mood is set, you have to stick with it until the next act. And even then, don’t make the mistake of confusing the audience. There must be a pervasive mood to every story.

You should also use the action to tell us who the characters are and why they are in opposition to each other. In the first act we need to know who the hero is, what he’s after, and why he’s not able to get it. Who the villain is and why they’re in the way should also be clear.

When introducing the villain, make sure his first scene is really interesting. The villain is the linchpin of the story. He has to grab the audience’s attention in a big way.

REMEMBER: Start with momentum and keep us interested from the first shot.

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