STARTING A STORY
Fred Rayworth
I ’ m a member of the Rayne ’ s Writers Research group which I think is a Yahoo group and I get lots of e-mails a week , most of which I just file away for future reference . Some strike my interest while others I could care less about . One came up this morning , as I write this ( Saturday ) and it was a thread about never starting a story with the weather . Someone said it ’ s cliché . Oh boy … I have my own theories about starting a story and I ’ ve covered them before while talking about the First Page Read from a conference . Then again , there ’ s never enough talking about starting stories , so here is one perspective , and probably rehash a bunch of what I might have said in previous articles .
EVERYTHING IS A CLICHÉ
Let ’ s get the oilyfink in the room out of the way right off ( by the way that ’ s elephant in Popeye speak ). While he was trying to avoid them , I told another guy in Absolute Write Water Cooler while discussing his ghost story , that everything is already a cliché . I said , “ Just follow your muse and don ’ t worry about it .” The same could be said for starting a story . The big difference is don ’ t start with “ It was a dark and stormy night .” That ’ s just asking for trouble . Also it is passive and doesn ’ t start from a character ’ s point of view unless it ’ s first-person . That ’ s one cliché you don ’ t need .
Okay , agents will tell you they ’ re sick and tired of opening a story with weather , looking in a mirror , bla bla bla … those scream cliché . Oh , and don ’ t forget dialogue ! Never start a story with dialogue ! Oh , and how about a half dozen or more other things .
In other words , it ’ s literally ( pun intended ) impossible to start a story . “ They ” want you to find an impossible way to start your story because they ’ ve seen them all . A great way to get inspired , right ? Say you find a unique and inventive way to do it , then what happens ? Soon it will be tomorrow ’ s cliché ! Then , it ’ s back to the original clichés which now become new again .
START WITH A SPECIFIC CHARACTER AND ACTION Don ’ t worry about clichés and start with action . Dive right into something
or just plain bored with everything . It ’ s especially true with the short attention span generations that have been developing over the past few decades . However
Fred Rayworth
A man of many talents
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WRITERS ’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
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WINTER 2017