Let’s face it. The first scene of your story is like the front door of your house. If it’s dingy, dusty, falling off the hinges, and covered with bric-a-brac and dead ivy, no one’s gonna want to come inside.
But it it’s well lit, clean, and organized, folks are more likely to take a step inside.
I’ve written a number of stories, and have gotten a lot of advice on how to start a new story in the most appealing way. And quite often, the way I choose to start it initially and the final beginning are very different.
Some of the advice I’ve gotten:
- Start with short sentences to make it easy for the reader to enter the story
- Start in the middle of the action
- Change the starting part of the story
- Add more exposition to ground the scene
- Cut out some of the exposition – it’s getting in the way
- Clarify a question/confusion that’s keeping the reader form moving forward
Not that there’s a “formula”, per se, for writing the perfect intro, Every story is different. But what advice have you gotten or given for the perfect first scene?