Rachel Starr Thomson

For today’s post I’m going to plagiarize my own e-mail again. I received an e-mail from a writer friend who’s trying to start a new novel and facing a few blocks before he even gets going: he’s wondering about whether to kick the story off first or begin by informing readers of a few important facts, and also whether to write in first or third-person. Since you may be facing some of the same questions, I thought I’d share my thoughts with you too!

Don’t start by introducing the important facts. Sneak them in once you’ve already kicked off the story. Otherwise you’ll be writing one of those prologues that publishers dislike and many readers skip. The important principle is “show, don’t tell.” Make us like these people, make us care about them, and draw us into their tale before informing us of any back story. I’d advise writing a first chapter that centers around a situation, around action and relationship, more than it does around explanation or discussion of the past. Once you’ve hooked readers you’ll have plenty of time to explain things.

As to POV, that really depends on where the story will go and how you want to tell it. Would it benefit from the perspective of a single character–an old man’s perspective or a young boy’s? At any point will you want to write scenes you can’t write in first-person (for example, one of those “meanwhile, in the villain’s camp” scenes that are so popular in movies)? Maybe most importantly, does either of your main characters have such a strong voice that it wants to tell the story?

You could try writing an opening (or some other arbitrary scene) in both and see which feels more natural before you keep going.

My friend’s e-mail was timely; in revising The Advent I’m finding that the first chapter does too much explaining and not enough drawing in. So I’m going back to look at the first chapters in Worlds Unseen and Burning Light and why they worked, and I’ll have a look at a few other novels and writers today (probably while I’m hanging out at Starbucks and Chapters, where I hope to get a lot of writing done this afternoon)!

Which brings me to another piece of advice:  if you’re having a hard time starting your own story, you might try reading someone else’s. Inspiration and insight crop up in strange places, or you may just find that reading another person’s words is all the motivation you need to start writing your own.

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