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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27856
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27856
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

"I want to hook the reader by displaying the danger and darkness of my world"

This is a very common idea about how to engage the reader, but it has a fundamental flaw: Darkness and danger are not interesting unless they happen to someone we care about.

Look at most successful novels and you will see that they do not work this way. Picking HP and LOTR as examples (because they seem to be the thing we can guarantee everyone here has read: how far do you have to get into HP before you even hear the name Voldemort? How far do you get into LOTR before we find out what the ring is and what needs to be done about it?

The answer in both cases is, quite a way. So what is happening for all those page before we get to these points in these books? We are getting to know the main characters and to understand the desires that will shape their quests once they begin them in earnest, and the character that will govern how they pursue those desires.

This is the proper beginning of any story. A story is the story of someone, some person with a particular character and particular desires. The story begins by establishing who they are. Good stories do it thorough incident, but it is not the central drama of the story.

Good writers have to learn to do this stuff and do it well. They have to have the skill of creating the defining incidents as well as the inciting incident and the climactic incident. Writers who are not confident in their skills may not feel they are up to this part of the story process, and want to skip ahead to the "good bits". But the truth is that there cannot be any "good bits" until the characters are well established. It is our engagement with the characters that makes the good bits good.

If we should not be using flashbacks for this purpose, when should we use them? I'm going to suggest a principle, but I can't say that is based on exhaustive study or thought, so there may be ample grounds to modify or refute it, be here goes. I propose that the proper starting point of a story is the establishing of the desire that drives that characters. ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.") But it is possible that there may be events prior to the birth of desire that will shape the later development of the story. If that is so, a flashback, or a frame, seems like an appropriate mechanism to use to supply those details when needed. But using a flashback to jump back from the climax to the establishment of desire should never be necessary and will usually be unwise.

Original score: 9