{"id":1001,"date":"2012-02-06T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T17:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=1001"},"modified":"2012-02-06T11:00:22","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T17:00:22","slug":"start-the-damned-thing-already-just-not-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=1001","title":{"rendered":"Start the Damned Thing Already, Just Not There"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s talk about The Sound of Music<\/em> for a minute.\u00a0 Maria is, without a doubt, the most decorated sing-off opponent the Nazis have ever faced.\u00a0 She also had an engaged naval captain thinking naughty thoughts about somebody who belonged to a convent, so she had that going for her.\u00a0 (I guess.)<\/p>\n

But when it comes to advice about getting the ball rolling, I think Maria might have taken one too many spins around the top of that hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s start at the beginning, a very good place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to storytelling, if you\u2019re starting at the beginning, you\u2019re probably doing it wrong.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a term in writing known as \u201cin medias res,\u201d which means \u201cinto the middle of things.\u201d\u00a0 I like to think of this approach as parachuting a reader into a situation already in progress.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard discussions about stories that introduce characters first thing in the morning as the protagonist is either waking up or getting ready for their day and that this somehow represents the character\u2019s birth to the reader.\u00a0 In my opinion, it sounds like a lousy way to start.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s better if a reader feels like they\u2019ve stumbled upon a character who\u2019s already engaged in some other pursuit.\u00a0 This way feels more natural to me.\u00a0 Like in life, your reader should be introduced to fully-formed people, and their character will be revealed through actions, speech, and (when given the benefits of fiction) thoughts.\u00a0 You don\u2019t typically learn the backstory of everyone you meet in the real world.\u00a0 You have to put your time in, stick around for a while, and give people the chance to open up a little.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see any reason to change the rules just because you\u2019re dealing with fictional people.<\/p>\n

Now you might be saying to yourself, this sounds great at the beginning of a story, but once things really start heating up, you can\u2019t just drop your reader into the middle of the action anymore.\u00a0 To that, I would say good story pacing is as much about what you leave out as what makes it onto the page.<\/p>\n

I have a chapter in my current work in progress that ends with the protagonist getting mugged in his office apartment.\u00a0 Does the next scene start immediately following the attack?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 I pick up the action a day and a half later.\u00a0 We\u2019re on to new events, new adventures, and I can sprinkle in any important details a reader might have missed in the time gap.\u00a0 I\u2019ve noticed that most of the times when I\u2019m struggling with how to begin a chapter it\u2019s because I\u2019ve started too early in the action.<\/p>\n

I know there are some who would argue the benefit of all this exposition and backstory.\u00a0 If you feel the need to write those things, do it.\u00a0 These set pieces certainly have value for you as an author in that the more you understand about your character and setting, the more informed your story decisions will be.\u00a0\u00a0Just don\u2019t be afraid to cut them from your final manuscript.<\/p>\n

Beware of anything that sounds long and explanatory.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t maintain the forward momentum of your story, it\u2019s probably just you on a hillside, spinning in circles.\u00a0 And that path is fraught with nuns and Nazis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s talk about The Sound of Music for a minute.\u00a0 Maria is, without a doubt, the most decorated sing-off opponent the Nazis have ever faced.\u00a0 She also had an engaged naval captain thinking naughty thoughts about somebody who belonged to a convent, so she had that going for her.\u00a0 (I guess.) But when it comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[101,739,767,787,970,1038],"class_list":["post-1001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechanics","tag-beginnings","tag-nazis","tag-nuns","tag-openings","tag-scene","tag-sound-of-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}