(no subject)

[shalanna]

Fellow NaNo pursuers, here's a good test to see whether you have begun your tale around the right point. Sometimes you have some throat-clearing to do, or you find that a few pages in is where it really starts happening. I finally got over that, but it's interesting to look at the stuff you can set up in the opening.

(Don't go back and edit now. If you are still kind of floundering a bit, though, here's some stuff to think about as you begin.)

Begin your story in the middle of an event or setup that soon (if not immediately) plunges your main character into a provocative incident, sets up a choice or challenge, or introduces suspense. Get the story rolling.
* Introduce the main character (and possibly allude to other important characters)
* Open a story question (you always have to have a story question going! When one is answered, another must be raised, up until the wrap-up)
* Indicate the thrust of the story, and don't trick the reader (opening with a gunfight implies we have an action book; it's false promises if you then go on to have a slow love story)
* Show clearly the challenge for the main character
* Set the tone and mood
* Show revealing inner thoughts and feelings of the protagonnist
* Foreshadow subsequent pivotal events of the plot
* Establish a subplot that may drive character change

I always think a good hook is not some wild action scene, but something that's intriguing enough that a reader wants to read on. "What? That's interesting."

"An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate." de Chateaubriand