The Importance of Beginnings by: Joanna Roddy

Story beginnings have been tricky for me. When I started editing with my agent, that was one of the first and hardest things I had to work on. At one point she said, "Your main character wakes up thinking about chess. So we think he's a chess geek. Is that what you were going for?" My adventurous hero with a burning desire to travel the world with his archeologist grandpa? No. Chess geek was not what I was going for. I was just trying to get him to an important scene as quickly as possible. Back to the blank page for me.  

Something I've learned since then is that the beginning of a story has more weight than the rest of it. Your reader is trying to orient themselves to the world, to the characters, and to your voice. The first few things your character does and says DEFINE that character for your reader. 

The beginning of your story is like a resume, trying to get your reader to hire you for the job of temporary entertainer--and if that reader is an agent or editor you want to work with, then you want those pages to shine. 

As I entered a season of ruthless and wholescale editing, I noticed how the Pixar movies that my kids watch are so tightly written. Everything has a purpose: humor, plot, character, or setting, and usually several at once. In a 100 page screenplay for an audience with a notoriously short attention-span, there is no dross. And within the first few minutes, you clearly understand the main character, the world they live in, and what they want.  

Pixar screenplay writer, Michael Arndt, made a YouTube video about Pixar's approach to story beginnings. This is just packed with great ideas. Have a look if you have a few minutes.

His basic formula for the very beginning of a story:

1. Right away, introduce your character, the world they live in, and show them doing the thing they love most.

2. Show that they have a flaw, which flows out of their grand passion--some way in which they take it too far.

3. Show clouds on the horizon--some hint of the conflict or emotional challenge the character will face for the rest of the story.

He goes on to explain the rest of Act 1, by the end of which your character has a goal and has set off on the journey of the rest of the story. He summarizes: "So your story is coming out of your character's deepest desires and their darkest fears. The thing they love gets taken away from them and the world is revealed to be unfair. To put things right, they have to make the journey that is the rest of the film. And by the end of the journey, hopefully they'll not only get back what they lost but they'll be forced to fix that little flaw they had when we first met them."

Formulas can be prisons or wings, depending on how you work, but as a jumping off place, I found this advice super helpful. 

How do you start a new story? Do you use a formula or have any advice to offer? I'd love to hear!

What Might've Happened

The above is an attempt to make a face from some items plucked from my windowsill. I found all these things in remote corners of this amazing planet, and there’s at least one personal story attached to each of them.

But those stories are interesting mostly to me because I’m the one attached to those objects. Yeah, we could debate that. I do read and love lots of nonfiction.

On a canoe trip I found this

 and this 

on top of a bluff. 

Pasque flowers are the first to come out in the Spring in Interior Alaska and the fish head is probably up on the bluff from an Eagle carrying it. (There used to be an active Bald Eagle’s nest on the bluff close to where I found the fish head.) Now, I could have left well enough alone. I mean, finding Pasque flowers and a fish head are both pretty cool, but instead, I did this.

I heard the prolific YA novelist, Richard Peck speak a few years back and he said something like this:
           
A story is not what happened. It’s what might have happened.

Sometimes, for me at least, simple wisdom, like the quote above, is just what I need to keep digging. To try to see beyond what I’ve already seen. To keep reaching toward what my story is becoming. To remain open to what might have happened.

And to remember that yeah, this is my story, but it needs to be way bigger than me if I want readers to connect with it.

Considering Common Themes in Middle-Grade Books

So there I was, reclining in my favorite recliner, kicked back, drinking coconut milk straight of the coconut while my rare albino lemur purred gently from her perch on my shoulder. 

My ten-year-old strode right up to me and he was like: Dad...
And I said: Yes? 
And he said: I finished that book you gave me.
And I was like: Well? Did you like it?
And he was like: I did. The characters rocked. I liked Benjamin Winklesauce the best. He was pretty funny.
I laughed. My rare albino lemur laughed. And then my son said: But I really enjoyed the theme of the story.
I sat right up, he had my attention.
"Go on," I said.
"Yeah," he said, "the characters never gave up, even when things were super hard."
"So what was the theme? What was that story about?" I took a nice long sip of coconut milk, right out my crazy straw. 
"Perseverance, Dad."
I spit coconut milk all over him. All over the wall. All over my rare albino lemur. He'd nailed it. He'd boiled down the story to one word, to the driving theme, to that question writers get asked all the time: what's your story about?

LOYALTY

And while our stories have more elaborate pitches, or layers, involved, they are often just components of the theme that sits at the heart of our story. Boil it down...WHAT is your story about?

Now, while my son is very smart (straight A student, EXCEL program...yes, I'm bragging), turns out he was cheating. Kind of. ;) In his reading/writing class, the students were learning about common themes in books. They were even given a handout. And, since we're in the business of writing FOR middle-grade readers, I thought I'd share with you those themes our audience is learning about and receptive to. While we should never resort to becoming didactic, it IS important to understand WHAT you are writing about.

In fact, author David G. Allen says it best: "For me, not knowing your theme until you're finished is like using a scalpel to turn a kangaroo into Miss Universe - there will be a lot of deep cuts, and there's a high chance it won't work."

So, here are the themes from the handout:

• Acceptance  - "These books have characters who respect & accept others' differences and beliefs."
• Courage - "These books have brave characters who have the strength to overcome a fear or accept a risk."
• Perseverance - "These books have characters who never give up, even when facing difficult times."
• Cooperation - "These books have characters who work together to solve a problem or achieve a goal."
• Compassion - "These books have characters who want to make those who are suffering feel better."
• Honesty - "These books have characters who find that it is best to always tell the truth."
• Kindness - "These books have friendly characters who are generous and considerate of others."
• Loyalty - "These books have characters who trust each other and never turn their backs on their friends."

COURAGE

So, what do you think? Are there any themes missing? Anything to add to this list? I think Love is missing (yes, even for middle-grade...maybe especially for middle-grade; discovering young love). What else? And what's YOUR story about? Can you boil it down to a theme? Can you think what that milk-sopped ten-year-old boy might say about YOUR book?

 Let's hear what you have to say. Don't be shy...I'm out of coconut milk. You're safe.

Looking Through the Lens: How to Craft Your Story One Snapshot at a Time

Writing a novel is a daunting task. Facing the enormity of what you are setting out to do can cause you, the writer, to lose yourself in the midst of your story, or to abandon it altogether. Let's face it, the blank page is a scary place, a snow-covered field with not a single footprint to disturb it. We take our first few steps, chin up, shoulders squared, eager to blaze our way across the expanse... but there are a LOT of blank pages between us and that final sentence of our novel.

I think that many writers get caught up in pre-determining their story acts, or plot points, or where chapter breaks are, or parts, or even if you are a scene writer, where those scenes fit into the mechanical construction of your novel as a whole. It's easy to slip into a macro view, where you have one foot in the scene and one foot ready to step into the next. Sure, it's important to know how scenes link, and to be aware of transitions and arcs, but I contend that the writer who recognizes and writes the quintessence of each scene will find his story does this naturally.

There's a moment in the new Ben Stiller movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," where elusive freelance photographer, Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn) is camped out on the side of the Himalayas. He's waiting to take a picture of a snow leopard, what he calls a "ghost cat" (due to its seemingly innate ability to avoid being seen or captured on film). Sean is sitting there, has been sitting there (for days maybe), watching, waiting, observing a particular spot through his telescopic camera lens. When the cat finally appears, Sean just watches it. He doesn't take the picture. He captures it in his mind's eye. When Walter asks him if he's going to take the picture, the conversation goes like this:

Walter Mitty: When are you going to take it?
Sean O'Connell: Sometimes I don't. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don't like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.
Walter Mitty: Stay in it?
Sean O'Connell: Yeah. Right there. Right here.

(Dialogue courtesy of IMDB)

In this movie, Walter is trying to find one misplaced negative. Number 25. The quintessence of life. One shot that captures the perfect embodiment of Life Magazine. Ok, so what does this have to do with writing? It struck me that I could approach writing the same way. If I could approach each scene as a complete stand alone snapshot, a truly encapsulated moment, without the distraction of the rest of the moving parts, I could put together a novel that ensures every part of the story has been written with my absolute best approach. If you allow yourself to focus in on only that one scene, study it, appreciate it, find the quintessence in it, the beauty, the emotional resonance, then you can put together a novel. In order to write a good story, a story that will impact your readers, leave it lingering in their heads and hearts, you have to be emotionally attached in some way. You have to invest a piece of yourself in the story. Like Sean O'Connell, you have to write for you first, personally. Why are YOU writing THIS story. If you can write each scene, each glimpse through the lens for you, first, you'll give your readers something worth reading.

So, make yourself a list of potential shots. Camp out on the side of the mountain and watch your scene.

Spend time with it and truly understand the quintessence of what you are looking for, what you are looking at. Do this with each scene, each "shot." And then, at the risk of total mixed metaphors, you'll have a series of polished pearls that, together, will string into a complete necklace: your novel.

One snapshot at a time. One moment that leaves its mark on you. One scene, in a series of eventual scenes, that says, "I am Number 25."

To echo Sean O'Connell, find that moment, be in it, and "I trust you'll get it where it needs to go..."