Perad

I write short stories, with each story the reader is thrown into the action with the first sentence. My first line is usually something along the lines of..

"Get Down!" Screamed a skinny scientist as he dove on to the floor.

"Warning, Warning, Warning"

Perhaps the main character being hit by a car.

Is this a bad habit? When i start a story i am finding it more and more difficult to break readers in gently.

aspiring

No, it's a good habit. It means you'll hook the reader straight away.

mwd

Yeah, you want to start with something engaging. If you're taking time to describe the characters and the setting and what colour their eyes are, then you're probably starting the story too early.

Mike C

Get your favourite books down from the bookshelf, and read the first paragraphs. Are they boring?

Cecil B DeMille always said he liked to "Start with an earthquake and work up to a climax".

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Fantasy of You

I agree with Mike in that you should check out your favourite books. I do think it is a good habbit to start with some sort of action- even if it isn't there immediately, but I do think it is a bad habit to begin with the same type of action.

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aliceedelweiss

Since I'm a short story person, I think I may be able to help. I agree with everyone above. Action is good, just not the same action.

I don't start with action, though, I have the habit of starting with dialog. It's just so much easier for me, I can put myself right into the story and then I'm not fighting over whether it is a good beginning or not. So for, All my beginnings have caught on...(note the few people who bug me if I've written anything new...) But I sometimes wonder if that is a bad habit, because I have heard some people hate that.

I don't think starting with action, or dialog in my case, is ever a 'bad habit'. I think it depends on if you can pull it off; make it good, original, and tasteful. If you can do that, I don't think it matters how you start. Just hook them, but make sure to keep them in through the whole thing, never get boring.

Alice

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Ilan Bouchard

There are thousands of ways to open up stories. I find dialog is a bit low-brow and lacks subtlety, but it's a different kind of writing style.

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Fantasy of You

I sort of agree with bouchard. It is just a personal preference, but I would much rather know who character is first, before I am told he speaks.

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imrhati

"Fight now, explain later." sorry i forget who that qoute belongs to...

starting with fighting is a good hook, usually the opening just needs to be interesting. Many writers have openings that make their reader start asking questions. Just make sure that your hook has bait

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aliceedelweiss

Very good advice Mr. Hat! I've never heard it said that way...

Alice

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imrhati

i think that one is qoute worthy actually.

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Fantasy of You

There are other ways to hook the reader than using a fight scene.

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aliceedelweiss

I think it boils down to the readers opinion.

The writer can do what ever the hell he wants, but if the reader doesn't like dialog or fight scenes at a beginning and prefers description of a setting or the introduction of a characters, than that is how the reader will choose what to read.

Thats what I do with books. If I read the beginning and its too slow for me, I put it right back down even if I did like the synopsis on the back or the inside cover. it's very unfair but a lot of people do it.

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Ilan Bouchard

If I like the writing style, the story can begin with anything. A hook is usually a gimmick to suck the reader in; if the story is good, it can start with anything.

For example, look at any of the timeless classics. Most of them start off pretty slowly (for example, Frankenstein takes over a chapter to explain what drew the narrator into science).

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FrankBlissett

Ugh! The first chapter to Brothers Karamazov is loaded with run-ons. Dostoevsky, BTW, starts that one off with a family tree of the main characters. First sentence:
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a landowner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place.

Of course, after setting things up it makes for good reading - especially the "story within a story" parable of the Grand Inquisitor.

-Frank

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