on Live Write Thrive:

Openings are a science unto themselves, be they openings for an entire book, for a chapter, or for a scene. One principle, however, is generally agreed upon: it is best to open with something happening. So let’s look at what’s involved with starting your scenes with a bang!

It’s true: too often we start reading (or writing) and nothing is happening.

Long explanations. Chapters of backstory. Characters sitting and thinking—about the past, the present, the future. Actions that lead nowhere. Weather.

Oh, the weather.

And then, finally, we write our way up to where the story really takes off—several paragraphs or even whole chapters after we begin.

The problem here is that while we are getting warmed up, readers are trying to enter the story world—and if they can’t get in soon enough, if the opening bores them or feels irrelevant or rambling, they are liable to move on before we do. All the way to a different book.

When we consider the immensity of history, information, and world creation most writers are trying to fit into two hundred or more pages, it’s not surprising we need to work up to our stories. But readers won’t toil through pages of preparation, information, or meditation before the story really begins. They need to engage, to get immersed in the action and become intimate with the characters quickly. Some say within the first page.

So when you edit, it’s time to take a hard look at your opening. Begin in media res—get to the good part. Engage readers right away through dialogue and relevant action, all of it building up the scene’s purpose. Raise questions. Use characters and emotion to invest actions with meaning. Stir up tension. Intrigue. Mystery. Excitement.

Find where your story begins, and do as the king in Wonderland once told Alice: begin there.

And keep in mind: thinking does not qualify as something happening. Not only that, but many times this type of “sittin’ and thinkin’” scene is so loaded with backstory that readers don’t know when the real story begins—or worse, they don’t care.