Jun
Beginnings
A beginning is quite important, it sets the tone of your story, and hopefully catches the attention of the readers.
Personally, when reading I like a story to get started. I don’t care much for a lot of prelude, I want something to happen, and preferably I want the hero and heroine to meet fairly soon. Not necessarily the first few pages, but if I’ve read 50 pages and they still haven’t, I imagine I would grow bored. A prologue is fine by me, since it usually serves a good purpose in setting the mood or setting the scene for what is about to happen.
When writing, I’m a bit particular. I have this .. thing. I like to start my books with a sentence that’s (hopefully) a bit funny, or simply catches your attention. With the manuscripts I’m writing now I’m intentionally starting each one with the name of one of the main characters. I couldn’t tell you why, I just think it’s fun. (The manuscripts all deal with four siblings, so they’re slightly related.)
Do you have a particular way that you start a manuscript? Or does it vary? How do you prefer your books (as a reader or writer), do you take some time to get it started, letting things unfold slowly, or do you prefer when things get right to it? How do you feel about prologues?
I’m slowly starting on my third MS, and while I do have my first sentence (I even have the first sentence for the fourth MS already!) I haven’t quite figured out how to make a few things in the first chapter make sense, without making my heroine seem TSTL. Sure, she’s impulsive and sometimes to rash things, but some of the ideas I had were definitely pushing the limits. So I’m revising the ideas to make her seem less.. well, stupid 
Funny you should mention this. I am BIG on starting the story quickly. In my current (and, well, so far only) WIP, my hero and heroine meet in the middle of page two.
I don’t even like to muck around with prologues, although not being willing to do any back story in a prologue or the first few chapters and jump right into the relationship does present some challenges, especially when it comes to laying out the characters’ GMCs. I know one thing that keeps coming back from my CPs is questions about why some tangential character did this thing or that thing.
For example, my heroine’s father left her an estate she is permitted to manage without her brother’s interference (he’s a duke) but specified in his will that she’ll lose the estate if she marries without her brother’s permission. So then the question is, why did her father do that? How come he trusted her to run an estate and not to marry the right guy? Does she have a history of falling for the wrong type of man? And the answer is just that he was afraid she’d be a target for fortune hunters if men thought they could get at the estate by marrying her, so he wanted her brother to look the fellow over first and make sure he wasn’t just after her for her property. Which is also the big thing she’s afraid of, internal conflict-wise, so her father actually understood her fears and was responding to them with that stipulation. She just doesn’t see it that way. But getting all that out there without a big info-dump. Yikes! It’s hard!
But anyway, back to openings…
Initially, my first paragraph wasn’t all that exciting though. It was sort of scene-setting. After multiple revisions, the first paragraph is:
“Blast!” Lady Rosalind snapped the leather-bound ledger shut. Staring at the figures would not make her situation any less dire.
So, maybe the first SENTENCE doesn’t get your attention, but the first three should. At least, that’s my plan, LOL!
June 29th, 2006 at 5:04 pmBarbara, I think you can incorporate that background info with having a piece here or there probably. But you’re right, it’s difficult. I had to cut out a lot of background dump in my first MS, and felt really bad doing it, but eventually it turned out all the better *lol*
Most of the times I think it’s not the first sentence that matters, as much as the first paragraph. My first sentence usually leads into a funny first paragraph
But the whole sentence thing is just one of my own.. well, quirks? *lol*
Emily
June 29th, 2006 at 6:34 pmBarbara, I like the opening of your WIP, if I picked up your book at my local B&N I’d want to know want situation is Lady Rosalind dealing with.
Beginning are definitely important, the writer needs to bring me into the story right away.
Isabel
June 29th, 2006 at 9:51 pmHmm…this is a good question. I prefer the story to start right up. I don’t need the h/h to meet right away, but I do need what’s going on in the first few pages/chapters to be pretty darn entertaining. But I saw what Emmie said about her story starting out with a sentence and then going into a paragraph, and now I’m curious. I haven’t looked at the beginning of my WIP in a long time, but it has been (nicely) suggested that I drop my prologue. And that’s ok, but now that you guys have me curious I went back and looked. I traded:
“We’re all going to die, Lord Rader!” (the prologue start) for
Jonathan glanced down at the crude picture in his hand. He held the thin paper up to the moonlight, grateful for the celestial presence at this late hour, and compared the childish sketch to the stone cottage in front of him. His destination was identifiable only by a squat chimney dividing the house into two sections and a large blob that might have been a tree. Or perhaps a horse…he looked more closely. Perhaps it was a well.
which is the start of chapter one. Granted, the prologue was a very action-packed chapter and chapter one is a sneaky, spy-like chapter, but still…me thinks I’m going to need to rework my “new” first line!
June 29th, 2006 at 11:00 pmLacey, I think that paragraph is hilarious. Very well written, but I love the last part about the large blob.
June 30th, 2006 at 5:06 amEmily