Writing Isn't For Wimps: Part 1

"Easy reading is damned hard writing." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

And ain't that the truth! Writing is not for the faint of heart. Much of what a writer does only seems easy because the reader never has to do the work it took to make it look that way. And the work seems most daunting when you open a blank page on the laptop or computer, or when you turn to a clean leaf in your notebook.

Because writing beginnings is hard. No joke.

Most human beings approach the word 'beginning' as though it is a well-documented path mapped by all those who went before in whatever endeavor they are starting. But as I'm sure you've discovered, nothing in life is that simple. So I know you're already fully aware that beginnings are complicated things.

Take this blog post, for example. I started with the quotation because this is an essay (of a sort). Easy, right? I decided that this quotation will be the foundation for all the posts I'll do for the next few weeks because the English teacher in me knows there's far more to this statement than meets the eye. If I were still in the classroom, and I asked my students to write a paper on this, I would expect a whole lot more analysis than most of them would anticipate.

Starting with beginnings. Because in case you haven't noticed, I'm still in the beginning stages of this post. We have just barely passed go.

So let me state the obvious right out of the gate. All beginnings are not created equal. Some are more 'beginning' than others. Which is fine, as long as you understand that when it comes to writing stories, you can begin anywhere. Let me say that again.

You can begin anywhere.

What a revolutionary idea! Mind-blowing, frankly, especially for folks who continue to think inside the box the English teachers of the world have all drilled into them. Don't even bother to deny it. I'm holding my hand up to say I'm as guilty as the rest of y'all. And then forgive yourself if you're one of that crowd because Lord knows, without that basic structure, some of the stuff you'd have to plow through and give a grade would probably prostrate you. Students need the structure that prescribed and ordered writing assignments provide, ones where the work must begin in a certain way.

So thank God storytelling isn't like that.

Now, don't get me wrong. Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's like life...we're born, we live, we die. What I'm arguing here is that where you put the 'beginning' is entirely up to you. It will depend on what impact you want to make on your reader, or what message you want to give them, or whether you want to reward them in advance for finishing the reading by giving them the pay before they've done the work.

That's why some writers start at the end (an ironic turn of phrase, no?) and go back. That's the flashback technique. They give you a part of the ending at the front end, then loop their way back to complete it through a large flashback that is the body of their story. And it's a brilliant technique if it's well handled. A spoiler or two at the start to whet your appetite for the main course because let's face it, the HEA is the icing on the cake, and most readers of romance novels want all the luscious, meaty bits that precede dessert.

I've used that method a time or two, and I will likely use it again. The trick is not to give away too much so the reader says "Well, done and dusted. Next!" and moves on without reading. I don't spend all the time I do writing engaging characters for them to be brushed off like lint off your tuxedo because I was stupid enough to give everything away in the 'beginning'.

Flashback stories use what I like to call a 'crafty' beginning. And there are other crafty ways to begin, which allow you to choose a starting point and go from there. And that's where the idea of a 'beginning' gets interesting again.

Will you be rehashing, through dialogue and direct narration, the entire life story of your fifty-something heroine, for example? That could take a while and bore your reader to tears. It would be smarter to choose a moment in her past, if you need a historical foundation for what will happen going forward, and engage us in it with her. Or perhaps you'll choose a moment in the present, where she's involved in an activity that will allow you to introduce us to her without beating us over the head with it. In current writing parlance, that's called 'info-dumping'.

Which brings me to what to say to begin. How will you actually begin? What will be the first words in the story? Will it be a conversation or a description of some action? Will there be profanity? Prayers? Something in the middle? All of these choices and many more qualify as beginning in medias res, which is Latin for in the middle of things. Another clever way to start your story. Also, who will be in this beginning? Only one main character? Both? Any secondary characters? Other creatures that will become important as the story unfolds?

And then, of course, there's always the why of things. Why will you start where you do? Why will the story begin when it does? Why will these be the characters to introduce us to your story? Why dialogue and not direct narration, or vice versa? Prologue or not? Quotations at the start of each chapter or not? Chapter titles or just numbers, or both? And if yes to titles, why?

All good questions which, if you're doing the beginning 'right', will come back again with every revision and editorial pass of the novel. And even when you think you can stick a fork in the beginning, it probably won't really be done...but it'll be good enough to pass muster. Which is really what you want...a beginning that keeps your readers going, that leaves them wanting more because it passed the test for engagement, thoughtfulness, ingenuity, humor, or whatever it is you're setting out to achieve in your work.

Wow! I never meant for this to be a lesson on writing novel beginnings, but hey, I go where the Muse takes me. Or, as Popeye would say, "I yam what I yam."

Let's get started then, shall we?

By the way, the three sentences above this one, which I've offset in two paragraphs, would have been a great beginning. Trust me on that. Except for that pesky quotation...