I've been working on a fantasy world for a very long time now. I have plot, characters, locations, items, history, and much more. However, I've found that for all my research I'm not actually a skilled writer and everything I try to write myself doesn't measure up to any of the scenes I've experienced as an avid reader. I realize that I'm trying to compare myself to people with perhaps a dozen or more successful books and professional editors but the perfectionist in me is preventing myself from enjoying my own writing. Thus I need advice and second opinions to invigorate me with confidence. So down to business. The main character is a young nobleman that loses his father to the corrupt politics of his homeland and is forced to flee across the sea to a neighboring country. The plot line generally revolves around what happens to him as he explores the world. However, I'm unsure about when and where I should begin the story in this sequence of events. I could start from the very beginning and describe everything as it happens or I could start after he has already left and slowly fill in the details of his departure. Which would be better from a storytelling standpoint?
Starting a novel but how do I begin?
Starting in media res (in the middle of things) is a nice way to catch the readers attention.
So starting In Media Res and then returning to the beginning is a good hook? I'd read that it was harder for a beginner to pull off well.
Writing in general is hard to pull off! don't be scared of it tho. I'm defiantly a beginner as well but the more you write the better you get. The more difficult you try to go with it, even if you hate it, will be good for you as a writer! I say go for it!
Some good advice I heard is to start as close to the action as possible. Not necessarily in media res if that's too difficult, but just so that there's no filler scene to start things off. Whatever big thing happens that changes your protagonist's life/kicks him into action, start as close to that as possible.
what @writelikeyourerunningoutoftime said. action is key in the first scene (any scene actually)
My gut response to beginning the story was having the main character being chased by assassins through the streets of a city. Barely dodging death several times before the reader even knows his name.
that seems like a cool way to start it. Good luck
group
@"The Enigmatic Wayfarer", I was going to suggest the same thing! What I like to do if I'm stuck is watch of read something in the general area of my writing. So if its' a romance I'll watch a romcom and see if there are any tropes that I enjoy. Then I'll rewrite the scene with my characters and my own spin without revisiting the inspiration. Usually when I am done the scene is totally unrecognizable from the inspiration. One of the best books I read in High School was "How to Read Literature Like a Professor", for how dry it sounds, it was actually pretty funny and gives an in depth analysis on how high fiction should be read (and by proxy, how it should be written). But one of the first chapter says something along the lines of "No story is original. All stories are connected and pull from one another, all back to the first story ever told. And the first guy was probably off his rocker." You are more than allowed to pull from other media sources! So in this particular case, have you seen the Dreamworks movie "The Road to El Dorado"? The opening scene sounds like it could be just the spark you need (but other than that, it's just a great movie) … just found the scene I'm looking for. Give them a gander and see if that helps! Good luck!
Ironically this movie was mentioned in a Spanish presentation I saw today on Colombia and I was talking about it with some people at a role-playing session yesterday. I've indeed watched the movie before but it had been years and I'd generally forgotten about how it started. I remember someone once saying that this movie is best summarized as a rouge and a bard going off on an adventure. Since my main character is indeed a Bard, his initial instrument is taken away early on and spends a great deal of time gaining and losing them over the course of the story, this would fit rather well. He isn't a criminal but he does end up traveling with someone that fits the role of rouge to a tee.