Starting in the Middle: Five Ways to Start Your Novel (short story, script, etc) so You’ll Stick With It

 Starting in the Middle: Five Ways to Start Your Novel (short story, script, etc) so You’ll Stick With it by Theresa Gauthier

You’re a writer starting a new project. Your workspace is ready and waiting, your computer or notepad or typewriter or digital recorder is sitting atop your desk and you sit down and—

That’s it. You have no idea where to start. Maybe you’ve got some idea what you want to write. Maybe you’ve
gotten an outline prepared or just a few words jotted down on a napkin. Regardless, the words just won’t come. 

The exhilaration of starting your project has given way to fear and panic. 

There are more reasons for a writer to be stymied on just how to begin a project than there are writers. There are too many good starting points teeming for attention in your head, and you just can’t choose. It could be that you’re worried about The First Sentence. Writer’s are always being told how important that first sentence is to hooking the reader. The weight of it might make it too intimidating to ‘put pen to paper’ so to speak.

Here are some work arounds—options for how to start when you don’t know where to start. 

Keep in mind that starting a project means this is a first draft. Anything you write can be changed and may be changed over and over again in subsequent drafts.  Where to begin when you understand that nothing is written in stone?

You have options.

1. In medias res—start in the middle of things.  You know where your story is going. It’s probable that there’s at least one scene that stands out in your head. (But that scene’s in the middle of the book! There’s so much I have to write first!) Even if your scene isn’t your intended opening, if it’s the strongest part of your narrative at the moment, write it. Just the act of writing it, of diving into the world you’re creating will spark more ideas and may even help you find the opening you crave.  

2.  Instead of the beginning or the middle, start at the end.  I’m not talking about having your pet project begin at the end. I’m only talking about writing that first. Start with some dramatic no matter where it falls in your eventual, finished narrative.  If the ending is all you know for sure or if you’re just itching to get to write the climax, then starting there makes sense. Write the ending and decide later if your book starts that way. If you like the scene but not to start, then at least you’ve gotten it down on paper (or computer screen). If you like the way it works out, if you find you can add to the tension by being misleading about your climax so your reader thinks it’s going one way but then you switch directions afterwards, then you’ve made a step in the right direction.

3. Starting your book at the beginning—literally at THE BEGINNING. I read a James A. Michener book (Hawaii) that quite literally starts at the beginning. I can’t recall now if it was the Big Bang or the formation of the Earth, but either way—it’d be hard to start before that. Or would it?  Remember that you don’t have to use everything you write, but giving yourself the freedom to start so far ahead of where your primary story begins may give you a deeper understanding of the world you’re building. (But all the best advice tells you not to do that!) Give it a try as a writing prompt if nothing else. For every time someone tells you not to do something or to do it a certain way, you’ll find successful examples written prose that did the opposite of what “they” advise. Don’t let the naysayers win.

4. Starting with a character other than the protagonist. (But I love my protagonist!) Maybe you’ve got your hero/heroine/protagonist in mind, but you’re having trouble getting it written. Find another character to give you a different perspective. Someone who knows or watches the protagonist—or even the villain or the protagonist’s opposition—it could help you flesh out your story and shine a light on your characters. It could show you sides of your characters that you had never considered. There’s a lot to be said for turning your story on it’s ear this way. Would the average person, glimpsing your protagonist from afar, see that person as a hero? A villain? Something else? There’s a series of books that features short stories from the Star Wars universe written from the perspective of minor characters in various scenes. I love this series, because often you get a glimpse of the heroes/heroines/protagonists but you see how their more memorable actions impacted the lives of the “background” characters. Try it out. Even if you don’t end up using it, you stand to learn a lot about your characters and the world they inhabit.

5. Starting with the victim. Starting with a character who ends up murdered is a good way to set your scene and tone in a murder mystery or thriller. (That seems mean!) Make that victim seem like it might be the protagonist, giving the character background, friends, a name, a job, a history, then when the the character is killed, you’ve got a lot of details the reader knows but the protagonist must discover. This could give your storytelling a twist you might not have considered. The Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho starts this way. In a departure from the film standards at the time, the story follows a character whom the watcher assumes will be the protagonist only for her to be murdered. It’s a twist, but it’s memorable, and it might open up your story to a lot of possibilities you could have missed otherwise.

None of these are guaranteed to make your opening better, but there’s a good chance they will inspire a deeper insight into your world, your characters, and into your preferred method of storytelling. Writing is one of those professions where you get better the more you do. These starting points will give you so much fodder for your stories, that they just might uncover ideas for related stories—or unrelated ones—sequels, or brand new stand-alone stories. You never know what will spark an idea. A turn of phrase, an image, some off-hand remark you put in a characters mouth might just spark an idea that your imagination will not be able to leave alone. Let it run wild. Embrace every option that presents itself and you just might find that compelling first sentence you’ve always hoped you would write.