Starting a story?

Question

I am re-writing a story I wrote a long time ago. I like the story a lot but I don't like the beginning.
In the beginning of my story my main character is writing in a journal. They are pretty much writing their life story up until the time that they are writing the journal entry. What is a better way to start this story?

Answer 1

If you start off with a character writing in a journal, you'd better have the character flashback to whatever it is he/she is writing about in a hurry. Make that entry full of suspense, action, or have or leave an open question that will be resolved at the end of the story. Opening a story with the main character writing in a journal is okay; but it better mean something to the reader immediately, or the reader will simply close the book you wrote and pick up something else.

Answer 2

The first pages are critically important in a fictional story. If the reader opens at page one and doesn't get hooked, they're likely to put it down and try elsewhere. Start your story with action. If your character is writing about something that happened, let the reader think he is in the middle of the action right now, not writing it later. Make the reader want to turn the page and see what happens next. Don't 'info dump' ie give us a large amount of information about the character at first. Trickle out the facts. Let the character tell us about himself - don't have the writer (you) state the facts.

Best luck

Answer 3

you never want to be too obvious with the character introduction. see if you can work their story in latter in bits. not knowing anything about your story, i can't really give you a beginning, but I'm always told to start in the middle. just drop people right into the action. a lot of publishers who a reading a newbies story will only read the first line, so it has to be a good one. oh and if I'm stuck with a beginning, a lot of times i start with them waking up. i just think it is in general a good way to start a story, and you can show a lot about a character by how they wake up, and their morning routine.