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Joined: 6/5/2013
Posts: 7
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I'm starting this to receive and give help with the beginnings of stories. if you're like me then you create a beginning, seem happy with it and move on with your story. Then, you start to show your story to people and maybe they have issues write off the bat. so, you take another look at the beginning and tweak it a little. A few comments later and you've re-written your beginning five times and you're frustrated because you've written sooo much more than the beginning and would love feed back on your latest chapter but that stupid beginning keeps getting in the way.
Needless to say I'm in that situation. my first beginning was wordy and lack luster, I've changed it a couple of times. the beginning that people on this sight have reviewed was apparently too confusing because it started with dialogue of people fighting, and since i didn't introduce the characters nobody wanted to stick around to figure out what was going on *sigh*. i just posted a brand new beginning and really need feedback. part of hates beginnings simply because so many books drag in the beginning, i guess i just sort of expect it and brush it off if someone says that about my writing, especially when i try to make it exciting but people don't care simply because i didn't use the first sentence to tell you who everyone is and what's going on. okay i'm done ranting. feedback would be nice and i would be willing to reciprocate!
So if you have issues with those pesky beginnings that stop you from finally reaching the end- go a ahead and vent and/or ask for help!
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Joined: 7/3/2013
Posts: 19
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Can you post the link and/or name of it? I'd be happy to take a look.
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Have you completed your first draft yet?
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Have you written your entire story yet? If I were you, I would write the entire thing and then reach out for feedback. I think if you let your work out too early, then you'll be second-guessing everything the rest of the way and you'll never finish. I have the same problem. I have rewritten the first scenes of my WIPs so many times, mostly due to over analyzing the material myself. One of my WIPs was 60,000 words when I decided that the beginning needed to be restructured. It was a disaster. I ended up going through the entire manuscript changing so many things, by the end, I was drained and didn't remember where I had left off and lost rhythm.
I keep clicking on your name and can't seem to get to your profile. Like everyone said, post a link here 
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Most of these discussed problems can be avoided by having your novels produced in drafts. I prefer three drafts. The first draft should be nothing more than a word dumpster. Everything even remotely related to your novel should be pushed pell-mell into that first draft without ever once looking back. As for plot, perish the thought, as Bret Maverick used to say. It is absolutely important that no editing be done until you have begun the second draft. The computer is a marvelous machine, but its ability to edit on the run produces a lot of bad writing. Once in the second draft plot can be implemented, characters moved around, created or expunged, and given a first proof by a competent outsider, who will see errors and typos better than you or anyone in-house. The third draft gets the novel dressed for the ball. The characters who have made it safely to the third draft will have developed minds of their own and will not let you play God with them.As for playing God, it's a bad idea anyway. Allow those characters you created offer solutions to problems you might deem insoluble. With living, breathing characters on your side you are no longer alone. Enlist their aid; exploit their skills. And if you have to kill them off, do it with humility and kindness, for even in death they are contributing heavily to your novel's transcendence.
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