The Beginning

Sometime during school, you might have heard a common sense saying that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Probably from your English class, your creative class, etc. Well, yes. There needs to be a beginning, a middle, and an end. In a way, it's similar to the Rule of Thirds in an art class. Usually about every third of the scenes, there is going to be a major point of interest. In other words, a "climax." Your plot all comes down to composition.

The Beginning

 This is going to be a short topic, so keep up.

A certain editor says to make your first six pages as interesting as possible. Some say in three or four pages. Nonetheless, the beginning is probably the most important element in story composition. Why? Well, if you don't pique the reader's interest in the first few pages, you are going to lose that reader. So you better make it as interesting as you can so that the reader will keep reading. In a range of 300-1000 words, you need to set up your world and characters immediately.

Most authors would recommend starting off with an action or a line of dialogue to bring in character involvement immediately. With proper pacing and description, you can create your initial setting in a short and get us to know about important characters right off the bat. And also, to begin your plot.

Do NOT start off with a huge wall of text spouting out blatant exposition. If you don't remember what exposition is, it's background information regarding what led to the events of the story. You heard of "Show, don't tell?" Well, put it this way: all exposition is is "telling." There is no action going on, no characters interacting, and it just tells what happened in the past. Think of whatever fantasy and sci-fi movie in your mind. Does it start off with a long backstory before we get to the story? In most cases, that is not a good storytelling practice. You might bore your audience before you even show them your main protagonist.

So, do the following for the beginning of your story:

• Introduce the reader to at least one character
• Set up your time period and location through the magic of description
• Give a plot point
• Complete one scene
• Avoid massive exposition (it's okay to insert small snippets of exposition to help develop the setting; however, don't just force them out. You want your story to sound natural.

 That's all I have to say about that for now, so I will go to another important next time: characters. Until then, let me know if you have any questions.