First Page

Denerick

I used to write a little fanfic back in the day and write the occasional short story for my own amusement also. I think I have improved drastically over the last 6 months, my narrative style is less flappier than it used to be and I've got over the tendancy to describe every little flower, fly, and fecker that encounters the protagonist. Again I emphasise, nothing too serious, I just find writing to be a decent and useful outlet.

One of the things I find most annoying though is the first page; I never know how or where to start. I actually do a bit of a 'drop off', I write as if I'm in the middle of my little short story and skip the first half altogether! Its rather absurd... Any tips on how to devise the first part of a story?

Memnoch

I think first sentences are harder than the first page. You're always striving to try and form the perfect opening. The best advice I can give is, just write what you are most passionate about, write the story and just go from there, don't over think it.

In novels the first three chapters are often the most revised. Not only because they are the bits you send to an agent, but also because the more a novel takes shape the more you understand the story and can readjust and push things around accordingly.

As redundant as this might sound... start at the start.

bigsmokewriting

Denerick wrote: »

One of the things I find most annoying though is the first page; I never know how or where to start. I actually do a bit of a 'drop off', I write as if I'm in the middle of my little short story and skip the first half altogether! Its rather absurd... Any tips on how to devise the first part of a story?

That's actually a good technique - quite often the first couple of pages (or first chapters of a novel) are what end up being cut because they're doing TOO much setting-up. You can always go back when the rest of the story's finished and figure out what details you need to include in the 'beginning' in order to have the rest make sense. It's not about how you write it - it's about what you end up with.

EileenG

It's a good idea to start in the middle of a scene.

I'm inclined to start writing and get the story down, then go back and pare away anything which slows the start, and think about the perfect opening line.

IsMiseLisa

I'm a fond believer of deleting the first and last paragraphs. Often, they're unnecessary.