(Posted by chris the cynic)
So it seems like this new unit of time has just, sort of, begun. Right after the last one ended. Imagine that. Here I thought that when the calendar ended the world was supposed to end (and for those who didn’t catch it, apparently it wasn’t funny since you didn’t catch it but that’s a Mayan Calendar joke.)
So, the topic for the day is: Beginnings. (Although I find myself wondering when I’ll be able to fit a “Middles” open thread in if not on Wednesday.)
I’m not sure about beginnings, on the one hand I’m tempted to say that I’m as bad at them as I am at getting to endings, on the other hand the ability to have an In Medias Res beginning means that anywhere can be a beginning as long as you get the backfill in before everyone starts scratching their head wondering what’s going on.
And the two most recent bits of fiction I’ve written are something that’s arguably a beginning, and something that definitely is.
So maybe I don’t have as much trouble with them as I think.
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From a fiction-I-don’t-write perspective, or a stories-that-aren’t-mine perspective I suppose, I don’t think beginnings are all that important. So long as it isn’t bad enough to make you turn away from the story, a mediocre beginning isn’t going to be much hindrance to a story that has a really good middle and end.
When flipping through channels I’ve come to movies that were halfway over, been drawn in, and on seeing the first half found that I didn’t really miss out on much. There was a time when whenever a new science fiction series came out I operated under the assumption that the first two seasons would suck, and then they’d find their feet.
If one contrasts missing the beginning with missing the middle or the end, the beginning really seems like the most missable part. The middle makes up the bulk of the work, the ending is what puts it all into perspective, the beginning is just something you have to get through. Yes, it introduces the things that will be important in the middle and the ending, but it’s in the middle and the end that you’ll really come to know them.
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And as far as things other than stories go… I suck at beginnings. I’m absolutely horrible at them. I’ve never been able to figure out how to make myself start things. Even things that I know are incredibly important, it’s like turning the key in the ignition and having nothing happen. The car isn’t going to move.
Once I’m underway I’m usually pretty good with keeping on going with a project, unless there’s a gap so long that that returning to it is like beginning a new thing, but actually getting started in the first place I am very, very bad at.
One bit of advice I’ve seen given to new writers: when you’ve finished your book, erase the first chapter. Start in the middle of things, rather than laying out all the details before the action gets going.
I have a fascination with transitional stages. I’ve run a zombie apocalypse game a few times, but rather than being the approach usually taken in role-playing games (i.e. “OK, the walking dead are everywhere, civilisation is gone, where do we go to survive”), it’s set earlier: at the very moments the outbreak starts, with the player characters in the small town where it’s happening, and potentially able to stop it at that point. Similarly with something like the Battlestar Galactica setup: I’m more interested in how people get from one steady state (interstellar civilisation) to another (rag-tag fugitive fleet) than in what they do when they’ve got there.
What this tends to mean in practice is that my transitional narrative ends just at the point where a conventional one would think about beginning…
One bit of advice I’ve seen given to new writers: when you’ve finished your book, erase the first chapter.
I should be careful how I say this because if I say it wrong it’ll seem like false things are true. So, first let me say that that is not the definition of starting in medias res. That out of the way, if you follow that advice your finished work will pretty much, by definition, start in medias res.
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Start in the middle of things
That is the definition of starting in medias res.
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I have a fascination with transitional stages.
I’m more or less the opposite. I’m not against transitional stages, but given that every story I see seems to be one, I’ve actually written a post about how I’d like something different for a change.
But that’s more about transitions in groups and relationships than in the world, which is more what you’re talking about.
A beginning of sorts–just took my first half-Celexa. Hopefully this will help me pull out of being in fight or flight for most of my waking hours (and a good portion of my sleeping ones, as well).
Chris, I agree – I think that like all short-form writing advice, it’s not intended to be followed slavishly, but to point up a mistake that many beginning writers make. I suspect it’s related to spending too much time showing off the research one’s done in worldbuilding, rather than getting on with the narrative.
I was indeed thinking about transitional settings rather than groups – I’d be quite happy with a story where an established team deals with potentially major changes to their world, for example.