Spontaneous Derivation

Photography: tanakawho

Beginning a story is like planting a seed. The problem is that people want to see flowers.

And can you blame them? You’re competing with hundreds of other books out there. How can you convince people to stick around and watch your little seed grow?

Like beginnings, such a task is difficult. After all, it’s not like you even have buds yet, much less a stem or roots.

That’s why you need your seed to be interesting.

To that end, here are some basic Do’s and Don’ts.

Don’t choose common-variety seeds.

These are your standard, tired, lifeless openings: red flags that your story is pedestrian in nature, or, at least, will be pedestrian for the first 500 words, or even longer. Few people (or agents/editors) are going to wait that long.

These snorers include:

• Character wakes up to sound of alarm clock, and goes to brush their teeth. Normal day ensues.
• Character wakes up in a white room, and starts a long internal monologue as nothing threatens to happen.
• Weather occurs. No characters show up for 500+ words.
• Character goes somewhere normal. Nothing out of the ordinary happens. (Most often, we can tack “Ever.” onto the end of this.)
• Gimmicky, overused beginnings. Dandelion seeds are only interesting on first sight.

Don’t use the same seeds as all the others in the seed box.

Of course, sometimes it’s to your advantage, because people who really like those kinds of seeds will automatically gravitate to that box.

But much of the time, it’s not, even if your beginning is as odd as a coconut. For if your coconut looks like any other coconut in the crate, why would a reader pick yours instead of the first one they come across—or one from a seller they’ve done business with for years?

Don’t just decorate a common-variety seed.

People will stick around for a little while to marvel at a little neon-orange seed covered in sparkly glitter, but when it soon turns out to just be another daisy, they’re going to leave. And know better than to pick you up again.

Don’t hand out seed advertisements, brochures, or order forms.

People don’t care about the history of your seed. Especially if they don’t know who the heck you are. Your seed is your actual beginning—not its genealogy, not its history, not its parentage, not how you traveled across three continents to buy it, and certainly not a mere promise that a seed will eventually come along.

People just want the damn seed to start growing.

Do find something different.

Did you know those seeds on the left existed? They’re not the kind you can find by popping over to the local Rite-aide and browsing the seed packets.

Not only are these more difficult to find, causing you to spend time searching afar, but they might even be more difficult to grow than your usual daisies. And some may never grow a particularly interesting flower at all.

You’ll need to experiment. But the results will be rewarding. And different. And, to a reader who has never seen such a thing before, intriguing.

Don’t use something that doesn’t look like a seed.

This is not really a contradiction to the previous “Do”, but a caution not to go overboard. Don’t confuse your reader—don’t ever confuse them, in fact. They must have at least some idea that this is something that will grow.

Don’t use something that isn’t really a seed.

Should be obvious, but sometime it’s not. To whit:

• Don’t use small rocks or pebbles. They can look interesting, but they don’t actually grow anything. See some of the snorer openings above.
• Don’t use mostly-grown plants. Yes, they can be interesting, but it’s hard to ask someone to stick around and watch something grow when it’s already pretty much grown. It’s the development, the transformation from seed to plant to flower, that’s interesting.
• Don’t use Mexican jumping beans. Starts as seed, which doesn’t grow, though it does pop around interestingly. Ends as disgusting flying insect emerging from seed all in one go. It’s unexpected, yes, but it’s definitely not what your customer wanted.

More links for your enjoyment.

There’s quite a few, but they’re all good. And since first impressions are hard to shake, bookmark and come back.

• Story Beginnings - 10 to Avoid by William Merkle
• Openings: What Happens Next by Sherwood Smith
• Craft: Openings (Begin as you mean to end) by Kate Elliott
• Hooking the reader (and hopefully the editor) with the first 13 lines by Kevin Andrew Murphy
• Beginnings Part One and Part Two by Joe Nassise
• On the Slushiness of Slush by Gerard Houarner
• All Books Have Genders by Neil Gaiman
• Opening paragraphs of recent PODs that yielded an abbreviated read at POD-dy Mouth
• What you should, and shouldn’t, put in the first five pages of your manuscript by Hilari Bell
• Better Beginnings: How to start a presentation, book, article… at Creating Passionate Users. Strongly recommended for all writers, fiction or non-fiction.
• Great Beginnings at Redlines and Deadlines