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 How to start a book off?

The most important thing to remember when writing the opening of the story is that you have to keep the reader interested. If it bores the reader, there is a high chance that he or she will put th...

posted 12y ago by Yehuda Shapira‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:08:42Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4795
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Yehuda Shapira‭ · 2019-12-08T02:08:42Z (over 4 years ago)
The most important thing to remember when writing the opening of the story is that you have to keep the reader interested.

If it bores the reader, there is a high chance that he or she will put the book down.

This does not mean starting straight off with the life-changing events; in fact, those events will feel fake if there is no build-up. (Not to mention that the reader might not understand what's going on - another reason readers put down books!)

Bottom line, though, is that it depends on many factors.

By the way, you can post possible openings here and ask for critique.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-01-11T08:00:52Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 2