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/lit/ - Literature

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5149615 No.5149615 [Reply] [Original]

I don't know how to start writing the beginning of a story. Any tips?

>> No.5149620

>>5149615
"Once upon a time..."

>> No.5149624

It was a dark and stormy knight

>> No.5149626

>>5149615
think of a story as a window of time inside your characters' lives. Start with one of your character gestures before the story starts "happening" to them.

>> No.5149627

Hi. How's everybody doing tonight?

>> No.5149629

>>5149615
I am the lion. I mean, I can be the lion... I suppose.

>> No.5149634

>Someone must have been telling lies about [character name]

>> No.5149649

>>5149615
>I don't know how to start writing the beginning of a story. Any tips?
Ask yourself what you want to convey to through your writing.

>> No.5149659

>>5149624

It was constructed out of human entrails and the deranged paranoid fears of recovering meth addicts. And one day, it broke out of the laboratory. It was the worst of times and the best of knights.

>> No.5149695

>>5149615
Why are you even writing?

>> No.5149704

Start in the middle.

>> No.5149709

>>5149615
It was the day my grandmother exploded...

>> No.5149811

>>5149615
start at the end

>> No.5149820

maman died today

>> No.5149821

I'm begging now, its about an oldman and his store...

>> No.5149827

Start on the side

rotate topwise

>> No.5149836

Start with your character waking out of bed

>> No.5149861

>>5149836
Die.

>> No.5149873

>>5149861
:^)

>> No.5151070

>>5149615

1. Step 1: Develop a set of characters and motivations, friends and enemies, goals, etc. https://marinersoftware.com/products/persona/
2. Step 2: Map those goals into the overall arc of the story. https://marinersoftware.com/products/contour/
3. Step 3: Convert the entire story arc into an Aeon Timeline with individual events for every story event http://www.scribblecode.com/
4. Step 4: Synchronize Aeon Timeline with Scrivener to convert all story events into individually named Scrivenings (documents) and begin filling in all of the writings now that you have your event sequences, characters and event titles to go by. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

This is how to do it in the 21st century. 20th century writers need not apply.

>> No.5151302

>>5149615
When the inspiration arrives she should find you working. Don't be romantic about it. Write. Create characters. Make a script. Imagine the place and write it.

>> No.5151311

>>5151070
Sounds like a big waste of time since good literature is not about plot but prose, style and ideas.

>> No.5151315

The ram had been gone for a long time I thought. Maybe it had fallen into a crevice and died or gone way off the track where they were searching.
Anyway I had stopped caring a long time ago, the ram wasn't ours, my father only wanted to impress Goði Sven who took his side on a minor issue last year.
This is my very first draft of my novel, it's a YA story about a Viking that has to abandon his farm. What do you think /lit/?

>> No.5151316

>>5151311
>good literature is not about plot

O_o

...

o_o

........

O_O

/lit/ has gone to shit.

>> No.5151343

>>5151316
>impleging it hasn't already happened.

>> No.5151352

>>5149861

why is that? seems like a perfect place to begin

>> No.5151358

>>5151070

interesting links bro

>> No.5151405

>>5149615
Read Aristotle on Poetry,

He praises the Iliad for it's focus on a single topic: the wrath of Achilles, its beginning and end.

Therefore, choose a topic with clear boundaries.

He also says that writing should be such that sections cannot be rearranged.

Therefore, take your topic, and give it a clear trajectory from its beginning and end. Let Uncle Joe unexpectedly call to visit when it is essential for him to call to visit, like the messenger from Corinth in Oedipus. This is artificial, but reality does not make for good stoies in itself; that's where art comes in.

If your topic is not historical or mythical, and is just a general interest in a certain mood, place, personality type etc. then consider what the simplest events that would display this are.

Aristotle says to focus on plot before character, as plot reveals character. I believe this is one of his most solid insights. Consider mythology. Do myths go on at length about their characters' quirks, what their favourite flavour of ice cream is? No. They are defined not only by what they do, but what they undergo.

Postmodernists are rolling their eyes, but I'm not convinced their favourite authors are capable of writing a "plain" story without resorting to their usual gimmicks and gushes of irrelevant detail.
I'm not some kind of literary Puritan, though. I consider this a solid foundation for more diffuse and "quirky" writing that everyone should know.

>> No.5151444

>>5151405
I suppose I should address the actual topic of this thread.
How to start?
Find the start of your plot's trajectory.

The Picture of Dorian Gray opens with the painting of his portrait, and a fateful conversation.

Hamlet opens with... Guards chatting? But then they see the ghost whose message eventually starts the plot; the guards bring the audience onto the stage, and their shock becomes our shock.

Macbeth opens with people talking about Macbeth, who later comes on stage with his character already outlined by the gossip about his actions; the gossip gives us a sense of expectation.

Etc. I think a little tension building like Shakespeare does would be a good idea.

>> No.5151454

>>5151405
Dude...

I'm this motherfucking bitch right here: >>5151070

And I just want to call out your post as fucking excellent shit... SHIT!


Okay, okay, I'll drop the thug language.

Anyway; what you're saying here is exactly what my writing tools are focused on.

The core questions of ANY book are the following two questions:

1. What do I want to say?
2. Who am I writing it for?

Both questions are intricately interlinked.

For example; if you are writing a memoir for the love of your life that explains your road through life and how everything changed when you met her - then by all means show details from your earlier life and give your past life and 3-dimensionality. But *don't* *ever* go on unnecessary detours.

It's about remembering WHAT you want to say and WHO you are saying it for. When you know the target reader, you know *exactly* what parts of the story matter to them, and should craft *everything* around that core story.

Sure, this may mean that you have to PAINFULLY let go of details that are *incredible*, simply because they have NOTHING to do with the core story and just lead the reader on an irrelevant detour that slows down the story and makes them lose interest.

In the interest of great stories, do exactly what Artistotle said. It is also something that I've realized independently: The greatest stories focus on a single subject and never, ever lose sight of the goal. They get from A to B and have the DISCIPLINE to limit the story to what *truly* matters for the intended reader.

You'll be doing them a disservice if you, like a lot of modern (shit) authors, blend in a ton of digressions. It just makes for a dragging, awful, disjointed, unfocused read in the end...

So just drown your precious detour/distraction babies (no matter how good the anecdotes/ideas are) and keep only the elements that actually *truly*, *deeply* matter to the core story.

>> No.5151488

>>5151454
I'll look into your stuff. It's nice to meet someone with similar tastes... Or should I just say "someone with taste"?

>> No.5151491

>>5151454
>>5151070

The first two tools (Persona for generating characters and Contour for filling in the 3-arc timeline) are only necessary if you are starting a story from complete scratch, without any ideas already in your head.

If you already know the story you want to tell, you can jump straight into Aeon Timeline and map out all of the events. Use descriptive titles, like 12:45 AM "Inspector Monroe arrives at the crime scene" and 12:50 AM "Monroe finds the burnt cigarette on the ground"

Then, when your entire story is mapped out in Aeon Timeline, do a sync to Scrivener and it will automatically turn all of those event titles into a chronologically ordered list of sub-documents, like this:

"Inspector Monroe arrives at the crime scene"
"Monroe finds the burnt cigarette on the ground"

Next, simply go into each sub-document, chronologically, and write a few paragraphs about each event, ensuring that the ending of one sub-document flows smoothly into the beginning of the next.


This "plan out the core plot, define the events and their chronology, and fill in the blanks in the end" workflow ensures that your story makes complete chronological sense and it even allows you to do things the mind cannot handle, such as juggling an infinite amount of parallel timelines with complete accuracy if you are so inclined.

As you do your writing, you will of course become inspired and realize "Well, this cigarette butt is cool and all, but what if he also found a knife?" - and that's no problem.

Just create a new sub-document (called Scrivening) inside of Scrivener, title it "Monroe finds the bloody knife" (or whatever), and then set its metadata to have a date. Next time you sync, Aeon Timeline will pick up the newly added (from within Scrivener) event.

When it's time to publish, you hit "Compile" in Scrivener and it takes all of the individual sub-documents and builds an ebook, PDF, whatever you want.


Keeping all text split into freely re-arrangeable sub-documents is freedom. It provides perfect overview and you never again have to deal with monolithic monster documents where the whole story is in one file from start to end.

It helps you tell a better story with a clearer overview, and it's surprisingly very, very fast and timesaving once you get into this habit.

>> No.5151506

>>5151488

Your post made me happy, since absolutely every part of it rang true.

Writing a great book isn't about cramming it full of every tiny little idea you have; it's about finding out who it's for, what you want to tell them, and keeping only the elements that matter - and then making those elements truly shine.

I've explained a bit about the tools/workflow here: >>5151491

>> No.5151507

>>5151491

this is really good shit man, i mean a lot of people are gonna claim that the lit they want to write doesnt fit into this scheme but I think this will help me a lot, specifically this

>Keeping all text split into freely re-arrangeable sub-documents is freedom. It provides perfect overview and you never again have to deal with monolithic monster documents where the whole story is in one file from start to end

sounds wounderful

>> No.5151509

Start with the Greeks

>> No.5151528

>>5149615
>>5149615
et drunk get fuck get knife get into your sisters fighting girlfriend and stuff. Just do it broman guy! :))

>> No.5151530

Start with a scene that sets the tone of the story.

>> No.5151531

>>5151507

The Scrivener workflow is fantastic.

It doesn't enforce any rules, and lets you create any folder/document structure you want.

For instance, you could do something like this:


..(Folder for current story Arc) EARLY LIFE
....(Sub-folder for current chapter of Arc) Trouble on the Horizon
......(Sub-sub-folder for current sub-segment of current chapter) All the Time
........(Individual scrivenings with descriptive titles only for your own use/reference) Parents escaped war-ridden Warsaw as refugees
........They found love in each other in a small village
........I was conceived on a stormy night

etc etc

Then, when you compile the document, you can tell Scrivener "Okay, the top-level folder is just for my own reference, so ignore that. Take 2nd-level folders (such as "Trouble on the Horizon") and treat those folder names as chapters for table-of-contents and formatting purposes (outputs a title with the chapter name, page headings, etc). Treat 3rd level folders as sub-chapters (output their titles in a small font inside the chapter, to provide nice, logical sub-chapter breaks). And finall "Treat 4th level scrivenings (documents) as the main story and join them together.


There is complete freedom in how you compile. Here is a perfect tutorial that shows the power of Scrivener's near-unlimited Compile feature:

http://jeremyleejames.com/writers/scrivener-how-to-compile-with-style/

>> No.5151541

>>5151507
By the way... the most important thing when using Aeon Timeline is to never, ever cram multiple events into a single event entry.


BAD: "Inspector Monroe arrives at the crime scene, finds the burnt cigarette and the bloody knife"

Because when exporting such an event, you will then become stuck with a rigid formatting where that particular sub-document *has to* deal with all 3 subjects. You then completely lose the power to re-order them individually.

Instead, always make sure they are separate events: Arriving at the scene. Finding the cigarette. Finding the knife.

Then you can suddenly decide that it's more dramatic if he finds the knife but no other clues... and then... cigarettes... of a brand that's not from around here...

So you simply drag the cigarette event / document to come after the knife document. You wouldn't have been able to do that if you had jammed multiple events into one.

>> No.5151560

>>5151531
>http://jeremyleejames.com/writers/scrivener-how-to-compile-with-style/

As a sidenote, the author of that compile article is a talented writer and all of his novels are written using the compile workflow (check the free preview):
http://www.amazon.com/Jequon-Part-One-Nephilim-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00JGGMBME/ref=la_B00JXQ8C34_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405112923&sr=1-1

>> No.5151563
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5151563

>>5149836
>Start with your character going to sleep

>> No.5151567

>>5151560
If anyone is unaware, the free freview is opened by clicking on the book cover.

>> No.5151571

>>5151563
>>Start with your character going to sleep
>>Then everything happens.
>>Then end with "it was all a dream lol" - and nobody was surprised, ever.

>> No.5151606

>>5151316
>actually reading for plot and not the ideas that the plot is used as a vessel for

>> No.5151617

>>5151606

Just give up.

Plot is as important as ideas.

And just a headsup so you know that I value my time: I will not reply to you regarding this, if you decide to keep arguing about it.

>> No.5151846

>>5151617
>valuing your time yet spending it on 4chan

>> No.5152473

what the hell, really? The beginning is the best part! First you have to do a lot of research on your topic or theme. Then you have to make some interesting characters. If your bad at that you can base the character after yourself.Then give your character a problem or an interest so you can get the story moving.

>> No.5152480

Start by talking about Nietzsche. Jesus, it's so hard for me to get into Unbearable Lightness because of that intro

>> No.5153490

>>5152473
How about starting the beginning in Europe, 1926, when a small Norwegian girl is born right between the wars. When she is only 13, the second world war is in full swing and she is forced by the invading Germans to work for them (a very common situation for teen girls), which causes her to be hated by her fellow countrymen for helping the Germans even though it was against her will. She flees East to Sweden and first ends up in a refugee camp, before finally making it to the city where she ended up meeting and falling in love with the man that became her husband. Their first baby was a miscarriage that died only 2 weeks prior to birth... but then she finally gave birth to my mother. Continue tracing the equally troubled story of my mother until we finally get to my own birth - and *then* by chapter 3 you're reading the memoirs of my own life, and how I met my wife and had our own kids and created our own legacy.