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Q&A How to think of a good beginning?

If you feel that choosing an opening is the only obstacle to writing a story that will just flow quickly and easily once you have done it, then just write some placeholder text and move onward with...

posted 6y ago by robertcday‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:19:12Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37481
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar robertcday‭ · 2019-12-08T09:19:12Z (almost 5 years ago)
If you feel that choosing an opening is the only obstacle to writing a story that will just flow quickly and easily once you have done it, then just write some placeholder text and move onward with the rest of your story.

Just write: 'Here is the first sentence of my story.' Then write the other sentences.

Two justifications for this:

1. It will get you away from the terror of the starting gate and onto familiar territory of the racetrack
2. Whatever you write will probably get deleted in the editing stage (trust me, I've been there).

Alternatively, here's something different (but perhaps more time-consuming) to try: write out the first ten openings that come to mind (don't bother with the other 999,990 ideas you say you have), get your literary friends together and read them out one-by-one for them to vote on.

Either way, it gets you writing - and this should be your goal here.

Good luck with your story.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-07-06T10:45:34Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 3