Question: How to begin my story?
i have to start with history, or else my story wont make sense, but ive ben told dont start with history. So how do i go about this?? xx
Relation Questions:
Answer:
Perhaps start writing from where you need to just to get your ideas down. It's always best to get a hardcopy of what you're thinking about, the rest is all a long editing and refining process.
After you're comfortable and have the history down and can -focus- on the story, THEN you can define the perfect spot where you want the reader to come in.
The previous comment about 'in the middle of things' is correct.
You need a 'hook' for your reader. Bring them in with excitement, something to grab the attention, a mystery, or something else that you know would make -you- want to continue reading. I personally give a book in the bookstore a two page read. If I'm not in by two pages, I'm afraid I wont be.
My favorite author, John Galsworthy, talked about the psychological moment. Start by showing your characters at a crucial moment in the story, and then fill in the background later. The ancient Romans had an expression, "in medias res". It means in the middle of things. That is where your story can begin.
Exposition is what you mean by history. This means telling the reader what happened, instead of showing it through action and dialogue. Too much exposition is never a good idea, at the beginning of a story or anywhere else. Let your story tell itself without your interference as an author.
Civis Romanus
once upon a time;)
It depends what the story is about. I wrote a ghost story and started off with a couple buying an old house that had a legend attached that dated to the seventeenth century.. They looked up the history of the house in the local library at which point I filled in my legend which of course was fiction. Sometimes if the historical part is not too long it can put at the start of the story with the main character or someone else in the story reading about in a diary or other documents.
Good luck with it because I love stories that start with a story from the past.