Anna Staniszewski

What makes a good beginning? It might seem hard to pinpoint, but there are a few specific things your story beginning should (and shouldn’t do) to draw in the reader and establish the story. Here’s a list of things to aim for, and to avoid, as you’re crafting your beginning.

A story opening should:
1. introduce your main character
2. begin at (or near) a moment of change
3. introduce (or hint at) conflict, whether external or internal
4. give the promise of upcoming action
5. leave the reader asking questions and wanting to know more
6. give a sense of the emotional state of the character(s) and/or that of the time and place

A story opening should not:
1. have too much backstory
2. use heavy description
3. focus on minor characters
4. lack clarity on who is telling the story
5. contain words or sentences that are unnecessary or overly complicated
6. use gimmicks or clichés

Here’s a short and sweet example from Neil Gaiman’s Coraline of a beginning that draws us in with its first sentence :

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

Looking back at the list of “dos” this opening fits almost all of them. Considering how much it tells us, the sentence is deceptively simple. Here is an example from a book that’s not quite as plot-driven as Coraline. It’s from The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages.

Dewey Kerrigan sits on the concrete front steps of Mrs. Kovack’s house in St. Louis, waiting for her father. He is in Chicago – war work – and she has not seen him since the Fourth of July. It’s almost Thanksgiving now. She looks toward the corner every few seconds.

This opening might not be as straightforward as Gaiman’s, but we still get a lot of information. We meet our main character, learn about her father (who is a very important part of the book) and get a sense of place and maybe even time. The last sentence also shows us that Dewey is impatient or nervous, so we have a glimpse of her emotional state. Not bad for three sentences, right?

The main thing to remember for a story beginning is that it needs to be clear. You don’t want your reader struggling to understand what’s going on or having to reread sentences to figure out what they mean. The opening should be inviting and direct, and it should already give us a sense of what the story is going to be about.

• Categories: A Closer Look, Craft, Writing Rants