Let's Start At The Very Beginning...

“Sing to me of beginnings, the excitement and enchantment they bring”

In my humble opinion, beginnings are the best part of any story.

For a writer, the beginning of your story is pretty essentially defining. It decides whether your reader is going to continue reading.

The rest of your story can be the most ground-breaking work in the history of time, but if the beginning isn’t any good, it means nothing.

Lot of pressure isn’t it?

One of you, my lovely readers, asked me about how to tackle the beginning of a story. In honest answer to that, there is no simple one response.

The beginning of a story should be treated with care. As I said, even if it’s not the most interesting part of the story, it is the most delicate and one of the most important parts.

And the even more structurally boggling thing is that beginnings can happen at all times in a story.

You’re probably thinking I’m a bit nutty after that statement as surely a beginning can only happen at the beginning of a story, right? Wrong.

If you think of it in terms of real life, our fundamental beginning is when we’re born. But after that, we begin many new chapters in our lives. Little moments in time that seem insignificant in the moment can become the beginning of a paramount change in our lives. So, beginnings are everywhere.

In my first book “The Past Never Dies”, there are three significant beginnings I would say: the beginning of the novel, the first time the main characters meet, and the beginning of their relationship (which ironically comes right at the end of the novel).

I’ve not got too much space here to go into all three, so this is the very first paragraph of chapter one (if you want to see the others, email me roxyxelle01@gmail.com):

“Every day is unlike any other. The opportunities and experiences we face can never be totally replicated. This is a fact; one that all people must learn to accept at some stage during their short existence on earth.”

Funnily enough, this was one of the first things I wrote when I began this story. And through the countless edits I’ve done of this story over the years, I’ve always kept this as the beginning of the story.

You’ll notice that it doesn’t mention anything about the characters, setting, plot or actually anything about the novel itself.

I suppose it’s my philosophical attempt at being an omniscient narrator. You all know I love giving out advice, so I couldn’t resist giving out a small piece of wisdom.

Now, although it may seem a bit random taken out of context, this piece of advice is essential to the story. What it means is effectively ‘seize the day’.

This short paragraph is not only the beginning of a novel, but it’s also the beginning of a journey. For my characters, for you as readers and for me as an author.

Serena and Alex demonstrate this over the course of this novel – their lives change completely within the space of a few days and will never be the same. Without even knowing it, they start their story together, and I’m still writing that story nearly four books down the line.

I really hope that when you guys read this story, you will love these characters as much as I do, and you will follow them on their journey.

And as for me, these characters have been a vital part of my life since I was 12. I could never have imagined how much these characters would mean to me. How I would develop my writing craft with them. How they would be the first characters I would ever publish in paperback. How they would help me discover that my dream was to be a storyteller.

So, when I wrote that little paragraph back in 2013, I didn’t realise how true it was. Seize the moment and see where it takes you.

But you know what? No matter how many times you write a beautifully, magical beginning, it’s never going to be as special as the reality.

For years, I’ve believed that reality is never going to be as good as a story. Up until a few months ago, my life was pretty stereotypically boring; I’ve never been any good at stepping out of my comfort zone and taking risks. As a result, life was mundane and repetitive.

I even wrote this in my diary a couple years ago: “I have never liked reality. It’s always very boring and plain. Escapism is far more enriching than reality.”

Recently though, I realised that that isn’t true at all. A real-life beginning can be more magical than the beginning of a story ever could be. It’s exciting and inexplicably glues a smile to your face.

And the best part? You don’t know what’s going to happen next. As the writer of a story, the magic is always slightly diminished as you know where the story is going – or at least you have a vague idea.

When something begins in real-life, you know nothing. So, you go with the flow and embrace that happiness, excitement and ‘wonderfully weird’ newness.

Here’s to the magic of beginnings, both real and fictional.

#beginnings #magical #writingtips