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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36356
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36356
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

## Wait.

I am a discovery writer, meaning, I do not outline or plot or plan ahead, except in a minor way. I often don't know where the first Act ends, or what complications and setbacks will arrive, I definitely do not have a list of characters, or attributes, or histories. I invent them as I go.

### Before ever putting fingers to keyboard,

I come up with my stories by imagining a strong character, and her dilemma, and some "partner" for her to interact with in the story. (villain, friend, boss, lover, teacher, parent, or some combination). She will generally have something she is exceptionally good at, and something she is rather poor at.

Her dilemma is going to be first introduced or described near the 10% mark (of total pages). She will undertake her mission (to solve the dilemma) near the 15% mark, she must engage with her partner in some way by then. The first Act will end near the 20-30% mark.

I don't know, when I begin writing, all the details of this, my story is simple enough to carry in my head. I don't have a page count, I just know these % are (IMO of course) how good writing happens to turn out.

So what I need is a good scene that can introduce my character, who she is, give the reader some idea about what she is good it, and what she is NOT that good at, but through the lens of her thoughts and feelings. I want them to engage with my character, even if she is a superhero, NOT through a high action scene (I think those are boring without knowing who the characters are), but definitely **doing** something from her normal routine, still having some kind of throwaway conflict (e.g. being late for work, having no hot water, her car won't start). This isn't life threatening or changing. In every time period, on every planet, every person struggles with minor conflicts.

That is my opening scene. That is how I will introduce my hero to the reader, she is proactive (doing something) and it has to be interesting enough to pull the reader into her "status quo" world, this is the stuff she does every day, how she reacts and deals with conflict, how she has fun, perhaps who her friends are and who she loves. That is what I want to show _before_ I put her in the blender. The opening scene is a **leader** that draws the reader in so she will give a crap about our hero's dilemma when that disrupts her life.

I don't begin writing until I think I know what that scene is, what my hero is doing. The first word on the blank page is always my hero's name, she is **_doing_** something physically active (not sitting and thinking, not philosophizing). I may change that sentence around, but my hero's name will be in the first sentence, doing something physical.

The reason I don't have a problem with the first page, or first many pages, is because I have imagined how my first scene begins and how I accomplish my goal of introducing the character.

I do not jump into her story-driving dilemma. We need to build her character a little, build the world a little, and build **why this dilemma will matter to her** , why she cannot just walk away from it. Give yourself a few dozen pages; in an 80,000 word book, this should be _roughly_ 8000 words; at the standard of 250 words per page, from "first word" to "beginning of dilemma" is 32 pages.

While you are building these foundations of your story, do not forget **conflict**. It can be tempting to just start dumping characteristics and world facts and all that, but resist that. As a rule of thumb there should be conflict on every page, be it misunderstanding, disagreement, violence, something gone wrong, something of sub-par quality. The toaster doesn't work and she improvises with the broiler in the oven. Or the milk has turned and she just glopped lumps of it onto her bowl of cereal, so she is going without breakfast. Or this is the reason she stops at the donut shop on the way to work, and meets Jack standing in line there.

Create conflict, it creates new actions and new decisions. The conflict can foreshadow the main dilemma, if that is possible. Typically that is _also_ something that has gone wrong in her life, so you might be able to find a domestic problem that resonates: A stove top oil fire, easily extinguished but making a big mess, for something later described as a metaphorical fire (like a revolution or hostile corporate takeover): It is up to her to extinguish both.

When you sit down to that blank page, already have in your head your introductory scene, and your hero's introduction action, and ... type her name.

Original score: 26