It sounds funny to say this, but the beginning needs to be in the beginning.
By that, I mean the story starts either when things deviate from the normal, or just before. Personally, I like to find the deviation moment and take two steps back from that. This puts the deviation moment roughly right at the end of my first chapter. A good hook. An encouragement to keep reading.
Some writers will pull a scene from later in the story to be their first chapter. Don’t let it confuse you. This isn’t the beginning of the story (what actually happened). This is a tactic for plot (how the story is presented in the book). And it can be used to good effect.
In a mystery, a good writer wants to obscure most details. But, there have to be enough to ground the reader. Enough to let the reader know that something is drastically wrong.
In my book, On the Sly, the first chapter ended with the discovery of the body. We didn’t know who he was, why the body was there, what had happened to get the guy killed, or much else. We basically only knew where the man was killed. But sometimes we don’t even know that much.
In my second Sylvia Wilson book, Sly as a Fox, the only thing we knew about the mystery by the end of the first chapter was that Sylvia’s brother had gone undercover and was missing.
So, when you have only one detail to release at a time, you play it up to maximum effect.
Science Fiction and Fantasy are quite different. In both of those, you have to show your reader the world (which is some other-type Earth or planet/station). This can be difficult because you don’t want to infodump (load tons of dry paragraphs with world details). These things have to be carefully laid into the story like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs.
Instead of building what’s happening, your focus is carefully building your world. Pick a couple major details that are different from the normal Earth your reader knows and layer them into the action of your story for a couple or three paragraphs. Then pick a couple more and do the same thing. You’ll also likely have some drastically different world details that you might wait to mention until partway into the world building, just so you don’t suspend reader belief. Build up to the part where people walk on the underside of the world’s crust too.
In Sentient, I spent the first chapter introducing the plants and animals of the planet, Colossus, all while slowly leading the reader in the action to the moment of “Oh gosh, someone’s dead”. The focus was the planet. Then in the second chapter, we focused on the body and bringing out more of the other characters.
Romance involves delving deeply into the emotions of the main characters in the beginning. And how lonely they are. Even if they don’t know it.
Another thing about the beginning, your first few chapters have to be like a hook on a fishing line. Details are important. A reader doesn’t like to picture a horse pulling a cart (because you didn’t describe them at all, so they assumed what they knew), and then discover in a later scene that the horse has six legs. It’s a jarring moment and bounces the reader out of the flow of the story.
Use metaphor and simile to the best effect. The sky isn’t just blue, it’s the color of chasms in the coldest icebergs.
Be precise. Be colorful. Be memorable.
Begin.
wendylkoenig.com 