Thread: How to start up a story.

Maybe i'm the only here who feels this, but i always have a hard time starting my story. I can get a good prologue started, but i have trouble starting on the actual action. Any suggestions on this?

Start with chapter two? And then write the opening last?

Heck, you can write the ending first, if you want, then write backwards. There's nothing that's forcing you to write chronologically.

Or if you find yourself starting chapter 1 over and over, like editing yourself before you've even got into it, then stop doing that. Just blindly charge ahead for a few chapters, see where you end up. I'm not sure you can judge the merit of your opening until you've finished the story. Then you can go back and fix it.

I've never written a prologue, and I've never understood their purpose. Consider that I've written very little fiction so I can speak only as a reader. Prologues annoy me. I usually skip them, read the first couple of chapters, then go back and skim through the prologue to see if there's anything there of value.

Just start telling the story. Your problem may be that you are using up your energy creating a prologue.

this is my prologue

He looked onward to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, holding a single rose . The sun was shining high above the clouds, like a monarch—one that had not incited the wrath of his people. He walked into the Grand Basilica, and went into the abbey, the Necropolis of French Kings. He went to the crypt of King Louis XVI, and his Queen, Marie Antoinette. Upon their graves were their effigies. They were kneeling, with grave faces. Louis XVI was looking forward, while Marie was looking down, both of them in an eternal pose of prayer. Within the crypt, there were the small remains of the former King and Queen, taken from a mass grave after the horrors of the revolution died down, and King Louis XVIII of France had ordered for the remains to be found. He walked past the grave to a memorial to Louis XVII, the king who never ruled. After his mother, Marie Antoinette, died, he was held in a prison cell. Under those conditions, he was said to have died. Now, all that there is a shriveled heart in a vase. It sits below a profile carving of the face of the young Dauphin. The man smiled, a small crack along his face. He put his hand to his chest. No beat could be felt. His heart was not there, after all, it was sitting in front of him.

it was the first seen that comes to my head. After this, i go through a series of flashbacks which are supposed to create the main body of the work. The main part of the flashback themselves will revolve around events that started 2 years previous that lead him to the visit in my prologue. Other flashbacks explain the background of the characters when events involving the past are mentioned. Is there any suggestion as to how to make a solid beginning.

Frankly, speaking as a reader, that's an awfully slow start. I would probably skip that and look for the beginning of the story.

(I once read a series that always started with a paragraph from somewhere deep in the heart of the novel, then immediately moved onto the first chapter, no explanations or anything of that sort at all)

I don't know if this helps or not, but its almost better to not do a prologue at all. You risk driving readers away if its too complex, if it turns out to be boring, or if what its explaining is too far-fetched to be taken seriously. If you must have a prolouge, work it into the narrative of the first chapter, without even mentioning that it's supposed to be a prolouge. Case in point, the first Harry Potter book starts out like that.

Originally Posted by Lamperoux

After this, i go through a series of flashbacks which are supposed to create the main body of the work. The main part of the flashback themselves will revolve around events that started 2 years previous that lead him to the visit in my prologue. Other flashbacks explain the background of the characters when events involving the past are mentioned. Is there any suggestion as to how to make a solid beginning.

Here's a suggestion: Pick out some event of central importance to your story and show it happening in 1,000 words or less. Make it as dramatic as possible, and then end the scene in a way that will raise an emotion within readers. That's chapter one, or maybe the prologue. The important point is that now you can move the focus to your main character. It's time for him/her to respond to the dramatic events of the first chapter.

The first part reads as though the basilica is holding the rose, qualifying phrases need to go next to what they qualify.
The last part reads as though "He" and Louis XII are the same person.
scene-seen.

Make it a bit more punchy and less impersonal and use it for the start, forget prologues, I never read prefaces, introductions or prologues unless the book was good enough to make me go back to them when I have finished. If the book won't stand alone I ditch it and try another, there are more good books out there than I can read in my life so why bother with the ones that make it hard work?

Sorry, off topic folks,

I am not having a problem Sam

No, it's been sorted, Olly. See the thread elsewhere for clarification.

Lamperoux -- The first problem is that you're using a prologue as a means to introduce back-story. Since your prologue is going to be the first thing people read (actually, believe it or not, most readers skip prologues on the assumption that they're extras and not part of the main story; I would scrap it altogether and start with chapter one) you need it to be interesting, engaging, and have a hook to make the reader read on. Right now, and I'm going to be brutally honest with you, yours reads like a history essay on the lives of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVIII.

A close friend told me to start a novel by having an earthquake, dropping a bomb, or throwing your reader into the middle of a war. That's actually solid advice. One, because it puts the reader in a position where they're intrigued and have to read on. Two, because it introduces your characters in a life-or-death situation and allows their personalities to shine through in their actions. And three, because it's suspenseful and interesting.

Your first chapter is the all-important one. It's what they call the "money" chapter. If it doesn't interest the reader, they won't buy it.

i'm changing up my first chapter. i'll try to post it when i finish

I actually thought that was an interesting prologue, just needed maybe some minor editing. Of course, I know the back story of the French Revolution a bit, so maybe that's why it was easy enough for me to follow.

To answer your post's question, it might help to work on a basic outline, even a very bare bones one where you put some ideas down for sequence of action, developments, etc. And also write out some ideas about your main characters - their backstory, their motivation in this story, their obstacles.

You won't have to stay married to any of this if you want to change it, but this helps you start out with some idea of what you want to write about and where you want to go. Which helps you write longer, and the longer you write, the more you start to understand your characters and just generally become immersed in your own work.