What makes a good book beginning

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Skip to content. Pin What if nobody reads it? What if your writing is terrible? Who are you to think you can write a book? I'm writing a book to grow my business I'm not interested in building a business. I'm writing a book to make an impact. I want to write a quality fiction book that entertains people. Benefits and Costs Explained. Pre-Writing , Writing.

Comments From The Community. What is Self-Publishing School? What do you think? Comment navigation. By getting some attitude in your prose. By getting voice. Here is a list of 20 excellent first paragraph strategies and how you can use them. On the third day of NaNo now and plenty of food for thought here. Must read through my opening lines again. Your comments are a real eye opener ,and though not an expert like you , I can certainly relate to everything you say.

Haven completed twelfe children stories two full lenght novels and a wast amount of fables , parabels and poetry , I can honestly say , that in future , I shall follow your advice to the books. Thanks a lot. Yes I agree with all of that. A gripping story with good characters is what I want to read.

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Passion extinguished. Fingers broken. Manuscripts burned. Files deleted. No more literary rule-breaking for me. Agents, editors and publishers — all happy. Just saying. That is what I was thinking! Harry Potter has prologues and it is one of the most popular books in the world. Also, I have read many fantastic books with descriptions in the first chapter. I am confused. This is good advice though. Yes, there are always exceptions to every rule. Can be harder to pull off. I think the advice in this article is mostly great, but a tad bit pedantic.

I agree with Library Momma — so many good novels start in the present tense and stay that way the whole way through.

Also, the POV one…are there exceptions? Like if the book is narrated in first and third person which, I know, sounds like a disaster. But there is a very specific mental-health-related reason for it. Of course there are exceptions! To both present tense and POV.

After reading your article and several others I have found this to be… quite a disastrous beginning for readers and critics. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Taliesin. Then take it from there. Just a suggestion. Cheers, Dane.

The overflowing cup had long reached its limit. Hot coffee was steaming as it plummeted to the floor. All eyes were fixed on the television above the counter. No one could believe what was happening. This information is helpful and spot-on. Thank you. My feelings are in the present tense as are my flashback dialogues and flashforwards.

In doing my current self-editing to cut copy, I am changing some of my past tense copy to present tense. Its the day they were born. Well, there are always exceptions to every rule. But the other option would be to simply place it later in the story. Telling stories non-chronologically should be the default, rather than telling than chronologically. I am deeply concerned by this post and the message it sends to inspired new writers trying to find their way into the literary world.

This one is your most damaging comment, since descriptions give the reader something to experience through their other senses. Description is one of the most valuable things a writer can ever employ. Who can forget such characters? Your personal preferences do not constitute rules by which other writers must operate. And making disparaging comments about writers who choose to start their books in any one of these ways is hurtful.

If you had presented this article as mere personal preference I would not have had any issues with it, but you wrote it as though you were the highest authority on novel-writing and that anyone who began a novel in one of these twenty-five ways was not as talented a writer, and so I had to speak up. Stories can start in any way and be wonderful pieces of literature. That is worth remembering.

Sure, there are many books that break these rules. And if you can pull it off, more power to you! It makes the reader curious IMO like they will wonder who are these people. I think it sets up the story better. I think there are lots of counter examples you could come up with — I believe I said that in the post. No argument there! For instance, if someone gave me an excellent opening that broke any of these rules, I would tell them that it was great! Try reading something outside your comfort zone.

The trouble is that most authors do not have the skill set of Kesey or Atwood or Wolfe. If you do have the skill set, go ahead and break all of these rules — no problem! These are not hard and fast rules but helpful guidelines for beginning writers. You seem to be someone who would recommend an average person start weightlifting with an pound squat. By following some guidelines, my goal is to help writers at the beginning of their career to avoid injuring their manuscript, and be able to publish a successful story.

It sounds bad, I know, but i just want to know if it could work. There are great exceptions to everything I listed on this list. Still, most beginning writers, when they break these rules, will do so badly. You have to learn the rules and learn them well before you attempt to break them. Or just write how you want about what you want. Better to start off with a cliche then not start at all. Here are 20 great first paragraph strategies. Any editor who unequivocally states what you do in other areas obviously has little to no understanding of how to write or why some stories demand certain things while others do not.

These are broad guidelines which are helpful to beginning writers. I would be the first to admit that there are many wonderful exceptions to these rules, and perhaps your book is one of them. Know the rules and break them if you want. This is a great article. Not just because of the depth of advice, but because you state it as it is, bluntly with no sugar coating.

No wonder more people want to get self-published if this is what constitutes for instructions by agents. Number 8 is remarkably uncontroversial. Name one published book that breaks this rule. Using your writing wisdom, choose to plop the reader right into the heart of the action. The reader opens your novel and finds himself right in the middle of a whodunnit scene link , and the murderer has just darted into the shadows.

Reject the urge to begin with too much back story. If you start off with too much exposition, you will actually bore the reader. But, after you introduce the character and the problem that the character has to now overcome, the reader will begin to care. Do not, I repeat, do not use chapter one as a glorified prologue. Chapter one needs to start with action. Chapter two can delve into back story but only if you must. Who cares? Oh , he or she is ready for a new adventure?

Excuse me while I yawn. Remember your first draft is just that-- the first one. The first version of your story is supposed to be a scattered mess. Your first draft is the place where you dump all of your ideas and create a basic narrative guide.

So, look at the first draft as you would raw ingredients. You may also rearrange the order in which you tell your story.

As I mentioned above, I recommend starting with the action. Just start writing.