Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A The problem with beginning

The opening lines generally set the tone of the book. Why are you starting with your protagonist running? Is that the theme of the story, are they running away from something physical or emotiona...

posted 5y ago by Matt Hollands‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:16:05Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40426
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Matt Hollands‭ · 2019-12-08T10:16:05Z (over 4 years ago)
The opening lines generally set the tone of the book. Why are you starting with your protagonist running? Is that the theme of the story, are they running away from something physical or emotional?

Take the first line from Pride and Prejudice:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"

That is indeed the main motivation of Bingley, Mr Colins and even Darcy and Wickham. It's also the preoccupation of (most) of the female characters. The opening line sets the expectations of the reader for what is going to follow.

So my answer is to think about the overall theme of your story and write a beginning that informs the reader of the journey they are about to embark on. The art is doing that without being blatantly obvious about it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-11-30T10:06:19Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 11