One of the biggest issues I see when editing manuscripts is the story starts out slow. So many authors struggle with where to start their story, and most people need to cut pages in the manuscript’s beginning during their edits. So how do you know where to start for the best opening? Today, we are going to unpack what makes a slow beginning and how to find your manuscript’s starting point.
Before we get into it, I want to mention that this post is not about writing a good opening scene for your book. I already wrote on that, which you can read here. This post is about the first quarter of your novel when things are set up and start rolling.
What Makes A Well-Paced Story Beginning?
There are two key elements to writing a story beginning that compels readers to keep turning the page: change and causality. I would like to point out this is true for the whole book, but it often gets missed at the story’s start because authors are too busy setting up the world and characters. While the setup is essential, there needs to be a sense of importance and movement to hooks the readers.
1. Change
Let’s talk about slow starts to books. I think this concept is often misunderstood. When I mention a slow start, I’m not saying writers need fast-paced action scenes or characters accomplishing major things right off the bat. You don’t have to start with a car chase, theft, or break-up. A book’s slow start has less to do with what is happening in the story, and more to do with what is changing in the story.
When I edit manuscripts, I look for moments when the story shifts. When does an event alter the protagonist’s life? Where are irreversible decisions made? What places are the characters forced to change how they live or think? These moments are all shifts in the story, and every shift increases the pacing of the novel. If the protagonist can get through the first quarter of the book and not have to change his life, then the story has started too early. If he only has to shift once or twice, then the beginning is too slow. When change is forced on the protagonist and that change creates a domino effect of more changes, then you have a well-paced start to a novel.
2. Causality
Beyond creating shifts in the story, a book’s opening needs to directly impact the rest of the tale. If what they do in the first quarter of the book doesn’t directly link to what happens in the rest of the book, it’s not the right place to start. For every scene, you should be able to answer this question: How does what happens here cause what happens next? If a scene is just someone thinking, then it won’t cause anything else to happen. Getting up and doing a morning routine most likely won’t affect the next scene. If a woman walks her dog and then gets fired for being a bad cook, the dog walking scene should be deleted. It doesn’t link to being fired from a restaurant.
The best way to check for causality is to create Therefore Statements. A woman walked her dog and arrived late to work; therefore, she was fired. Therefore, she couldn’t pay her rent. Therefore, she had to move into her brother’s house. Not only does each scene affect the next, they are also major shifts that force the protagonist to change how she lives. Nothing in this story is a crazy action scene, but it’s still a fast-paced start to the story.
Finding The Story’s Starting Point Before Writing
When trying to pick where the story should start, use the concept of causality and work backwards from your core conflict. If the central conflict for the example above is falling in love with her brother’s roommate, then we’ve placed her right where she needs to be—in her brother’s house. We don’t need to start with her breaking up with her old boyfriend, talking through it with her friend, etc. We just need her in the same space as her brother’s roommate, which means we start with her losing her job and being forced into a new living situation.
Example
Let’s look at a full example. Say the core conflict is a boy must defeat ghosts that haunt his new school. What is the first step to this plot? He realizes the school is haunted. How does he realize this? He notices several odd occurrences. What was the first one? He sees the mirror in the boys’ bathroom crack on its own. Why was he in the bathroom? He was hiding from bullies. Why were bullies after him? He’s a new kid and his mom made him wear an embarrassing sweater vest that day. Why is he a new kid and wearing the vest? He and his mother used to live with his grandmother, but she passed away and they had to move. His grandmother made him the sweater vest.
Now, we could ask why did his grandmother die, but does that directly relate to the ghosts at school? No, it’s just backstory. How she died has no direct link to why he’s standing in the bathroom to see the mirror crack. Her death caused their move, but it has no direct link to the core conflict. So, we stop there.
The start of our novel is him entering school, being embarrassed about the sweater vest but refusing to hurt his mother by not wearing it (a short way to hint at the backstory with grandma). Then he encounters the bullies and hides in the bathroom. The inciting incident (when he realizes the ghosts are causing the odd things and he must stop them) can happen in a couple of chapters. By showing the mirror cracking in the first chapter, we are hooking readers with something intriguing and setting up the core conflict.
Finding The Story’s Starting Point During Edits
Now, if you are a pantser who doesn’t plan out the story before writing, that’s okay. You will simply need to go back and find the story’s starting point after finishing the first draft. Honestly, most plotters with their outlines still sometimes need to go back and find the right starting point during edits. It’s natural for authors to overwrite the story’s beginning as they develop the world and characters and then need to cut some of it later.
During edits, examine each of your scenes and ask if there is a shift for the protagonist. Does something change the way the character must live now? No, then that scene may not need to be there. If yes, ask if the scene and its change directly cause the next scene and change. If not, figure out which scene directly leads to the core conflict and get rid of the other one. Keep doing this until every scene in the first quarter of your book has change and causality linked to the core conflict.
Example
Things are always clearer in the editing phase when you can see the whole story laid out before you. Looking back at our example above, maybe a scene with the boy bemoaning geography class slipped into our story. It created good character development for us while writing, but does it change anything or cause the next scene to happen? No, then we need to cut it.
Even if we plotted what we thought was the perfect starting point, it may not hold up when the story is finished. Looking over our first draft, it’s possible the mirror cracking isn’t as powerful as another odd occurrence that happens four chapters later. Perhaps, we need to cut the mirror scene and start with the other occurrence.
Writing is about finding the story; editing is about streamlining the story so there is a coherent and impactful plot and character arc. Through change and causality, you can create the perfect story beginning.
Final Thoughts
It’s not uncommon for writers to cut the first fifty pages of their manuscript after writing the first draft. While writing, those pages need to be there to guide the author, but readers don’t usually need them. Find the first scene that has change and causality linked to the core conflict, then ask yourself what would happen if you started the story then. You’ll be surprised how much sharper and impactful the story’s start will be once the fat is cut away.
Thanks for reading!
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