Author: Yang Chen(314)
A few days ago, someone asked me, "No matter if it's an essay or a story, an excellent beginning will always make people want to continue reading. But, what should I do if I don't know how to write a beginning?"
Of course, there are many ways to answer such a question. The simplest answer of all is a beginning that acts like an introduction. This is quite similar to a synopsis. You could just directly tell the readers about your overall plot, who the main character is, what his identity and background is, and what situation he's currently in…
To help you understand this even more directly, let me simply give an example. Let's say that I'm going to write a xianxia story about an originally powerful individual taking over someone else's body. Then, I could write such a beginning for my story.
"I… I'm actually still alive? Didn't I perish in the heavenly tribulation and become nothing but dust?"
Wang Xiaoming's mind was in utter chaos. He could clearly remember that he was the leader of one of the four major sects, the Xuantian Sect. He also clearly remembered that he had been cultivating for three thousand years already, and had finally reached the peak of cultivation upon which he would meet with a heavenly tribulation before ascending to heaven. However, he was ambushed right before the heavenly tribulation, and was forced to undergo the tribulation despite having serious injuries. In the end, he perished with his entire body shattering under the tribulation's lightning strike.
Yet, what was with his current situation? Not only was he perfectly well and alive, all his limbs were there and he could tell that he was completely unharmed.
"Wait a minute, my hand…"
Wang Xiaoming suddenly discovered that his originally thick and muscular hands had now transformed into a pair of soft, white, and tiny hands.
"I actually transformed into a young child!"
With such a short and simple introduction, the readers will learn that your main character was originally someone at the peak of the power level system in your world, and that he has now entered another body. If you wish to have the readers understand more about your main character's current situation, you could continue like so:
Right when he realized he was now a child, countless scenes flashed through Wang Xiaoming's mind. He immediately realized that he had indeed become a young child. However, he hadn't returned to the past when he was still a child. Instead, he had reincarnated into the dead body of this boy who just happened to have the same name as him.
In fact, this young boy who was also named Wang Xiaoming had quite a similar fate befall him. This boy had also been ambushed and died while in a critical period of his cultivation.
Of course, the difference was that the young boy had only been at the very beginning level of cultivation, while Wang Xiaoming himself had been at the very peak.
Finally, at the end of all of the original body's memories, there was a fat little face with a vicious expression. Wang Xiaoming knew that she was the person who had caused this young boy's death.
"Since I've received a second chance at life through your body, I'll accept the karma of this body as well. I shall take revenge for your sake," Wang Xiaoming thought to himself.
This is an example of how you can continue by introducing the main character's current situation. Of course, my example here is a rather simple one. When you write your introduction, you could add a few more details describing the setting. Use simple and short sentences to help the readers understand what they need to know about your story.
Once you're done introducing the necessary elements of your story, the beginning of your story will naturally be completed by itself. After that, you can simply just develop the rest of your storyline however you like.
Still, I need to give you a reminder that such an introductory-type beginning is typically not very interesting to the readers by itself unless your topic is something incredibly innovative. The example introduction I just gave you about Wang Xiaoming's story might have been quite impactful a decade or so ago when reincarnation stories and stories about the powerful becoming weak again weren't popular yet. But in today's era, such a beginning is nothing more than filled with clichés.
This type of beginning is perfectly fine for introducing your story. However, it's usually not good enough to attract a sufficient amount of readers. If you directly start with the main storyline after this example introduction, and your main storyline is also a step by step type, that'll make your story quite boring.
This is why if you wish to be popular, you can't rush at such a time. Don't be in a hurry to create the next step and hurry on with the storyline. You should instead focus on just what you can do to attract readers.
If you don't have any particularly innovative thoughts, then a paragraph that's filled with self-fulfillment, that starts a new storyline or a new factor, will be the most generally useful type of thing to write.
To continue using the example of Wang Xiaoming's story, we could have the main character acquire a sudden flash of inspiration. Perhaps he could borrow the power of the heavenly tribulation that still hasn't left his body, and use the special relationship between his powerful soul and the heavenly tribulation to summon lightning into his body, using a special method to have this body of his which hasn't even finished the first stage of cultivation to surpass ten power levels. And with such a coincidental miracle, Wang Xiaoming obtained a wondrous cultivation technique that nobody has ever possessed before.
Then, with the power gained from this, we could have the main character use his experience and knowledge to toy with Wang Xiaoming's enemy, giving your story its first small climax.
By this time, you've pretty much done everything you needed for the beginning of your story. You can write steadily after that and take it step by step or however else you like, officially beginning your main storyline.
Author: Yang Chen(314)
I already introduced what you should watch out for when doing your story's introduction in previous articles. Still, people keep asking me for further advice, so I might as well add some additional pointers in this article.
The questions I've been asked have all sorts of topics, such as "Does the first three chapters of my novel need to have a cheat?", "Does the beginning of a modern story need to have a conflict in the beginning?", "Is it alright for me to write a suspenseful beginning for a xuanhuan story?" and so on. Actually, when you think about it carefully, all these questions are the same question at its core. And so, the answer to all these questions is the exact same.
Actually, no matter what type or genre of story you have, the beginning has two major responsibilities. The first is to introduce your story, and the second is to attract readers.
There's really nothing much that needs to be said about the first responsibility. Now then, the second responsibility of your beginning is what all authors need to think about. Every single theory, method, and technique begins from this point.
So, this type of question can actually be answered the same way every time – Is the beginning interesting? Thrilling? Will it attract readers?
If the answer is yes, then it's a good beginning. If the answer is no, then it's a bad beginning.
For example, if you're asking whether or not to have a cheat power appear in the first three chapters of your novel, we should analyze if the main element attracting readers to your novel is the cheat in question or not. If you don't have it in the first three chapters, will the beginning still attract readers? The answer should be obvious. In that case, we can come to a conclusion that it's not absolutely necessary to have a cheat in your first three chapters, as long as there's other elements that can attract readers to your story, your beginning should be perfectly fine. And if the main attraction of your novel is the cheat power, then using it in the first three chapters to attract readers is an acceptable solution as well.
To use another example question, the one regarding whether it's alright to have a suspenseful beginning for a xuanhuan story, we can answer it this way: "Is suspense what your readers are here for? Is the suspense sufficiently appealing to help retain readers?" If the answers to these questions are yes, then your beginning is perfectly fine.
All such questions about the beginning of your story can be answered in this fashion. We can all actually resolve our own doubts by asking ourselves.
Actually, there's so many possible beginnings for webnovels. You can use an extremely repetitive cliché, or you can try coming up with a brand-new type of beginning that nobody has ever used before. Of course, no matter what type of beginning you try, there's one huge prerequisite – it needs to be interesting.
Obviously, in order to fulfill the requirement of being interesting, the more unique your beginning is, the better. Still, please remember that you absolutely can't neglect the prerequisite of being interesting. You can't just try to make an original a beginning as possible; you must first ensure that your beginning is interesting to readers.
If you as an author lack the ability to come up with something original that is also interesting, or if you actually lack the ability to judge whether your own beginning is interesting or not, then no matter if it's "Having a cheat power in the first three chapters," "Starting off with a conflict right at the beginning," or "Chapter 1 – Breaking the engagement, Chapter 2 – Leveling up, Chapter 3 – Face slapping", these clichés and experiences become incredibly important.
These are all frameworks created by authors that came before us. These frameworks aren't meant to restrain our writing, and there's no need to follow these frameworks to the letter. These frameworks are just like training wheels that young children use when learning how to ride a bicycle. They can help us to ride steadily when we still don't know how to bike, but who still needs training wheels after we become older?
For these frameworks, or perhaps I should call them clichés, we should assess them logically without needing to worship them as divine or seeing them as eternal unchanging maxims. Nor is there a need for us to look down on clichés or loathe using them.
We should simply treat clichés as tools to be used if we wish it. If these clichés and experiences are useful to us, then we can try using them. If not, then just simply leave them aside.
I believe that should be the best writing mentality of all.
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