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ysabetwordsmithA friend asked, "How do you choose the starting point of your fic/story?" Here are some thoughts...
Types of Opening
First, there are two common types of opening:
* Ab ovo means "from the egg," and ab initio means "from the beginning." This type of opening lets the story unfold gradually from an early point, often right before the interesting things start happening. It is sometimes called a "slow build" or "slow burn" beginning. This works for most kinds of story. It is particularly popular in romance and the "cozy" subgenres meant for relaxation. It also appears in speculative fiction intended for a wide audience who need more setup than experienced fans would.
* In media res means "in the middle of things." This type of opening starts abruptly, often with an action scene. The characters and reader may know little or nothing about what is happening or why. This approach works well for certain types of story, such as mystery or adventure, where unexpected things may happen. It also appears in speculative fiction intended for fans who already know the genre. In particular, fanfic may start wherever the author wishes, on the premise that readers already know the canon.
There are also some less-common types of opening, including but not limited to:
* Reverse chronology, or inverted narrative, means telling a story backwards. The "end scene" of the story appears in the "beginning" position, and the "beginning scene" of the story appears in the "end" position. It usually applies to stories that involve the past in some way, such as time travel, alternate history, historic period, or memoir (including character memoir) stories.
* Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative means telling a story out of order. Usually that means out of chronological order, but there are other ways of organization such as spatial too. While more challenging to write or read, it suits a few cases such as surrealism, dreamscape, exploring a historic event for which people discover fragments out of sequence, or some sorts of time travel.
* 21 Plot Shapes and the Pros and Cons of Each explores a lot more narrative patterns, some of which also have their own unusual types of beginning.
Think about the types of opening. Does one appeal more than the others? Does one suit the kind of story you want to tell? This step can help narrow your focus. If you're not sure, try the slow build approach, which is the easiest and most common option.
Searching for a Starting Point
Now consider the story you're telling. You have an idea in mind. Maybe it's a character like "A girl who..." Maybe it's a scenario like "Two hunters pursue the same prey." Maybe it's a fork in the road like "I took the one less traveled by." Maybe it's a spectacular ending like "There was an Earth-shattering kaboom!" From there, work your way toward the front of the story and look for a good starting point.
* If you're writing cottoncandy fluff, curtainfic, kidfic, slice of life, or other cozy fiction then usually the best beginning is a slow build. These stories often start in the morning or with some other peaceful scene. Sometimes they have a little "aha!" moment or pleasant surprise as the character is going about their routine. It also works in milieu fiction where the setting is basically the main character and everyone wants a leisurely look at it. Be careful about the slow build setup in an adventure story: if you make it too comfortable at the start, readers may not want to get off the couch and actually quit reading rather than break the mood.
* If you're writing mystery, horror, suspense, or other tense fiction then a good opening is right around the first clue that things are about to go terribly, horribly wrong. At first it can seem like a cozy opening, because the details are often quite small -- a snapped twig, the crickets falling silent, the glimpse of a moving shadow. Then all hell breaks loose.
* If you're writing romance, smut, or other relationship fiction then the opening scene typically features an encounter between the 2+ main characters. These are often subdivided into meet-cute for positive and meet-ugly for negative encounters. However, it's not limited to these genres; some others like adventure may throw together characters in abrupt ways.
* If you're writing time travel, temporal mechanics, some types of dimensional or portal fiction, dreamscape, surrealism, dadaism, or other squirrelly stuff then you need to account for a nonstandard storytelling flow. Sometimes you have an obvious starting point as the character(s) will encounter a transition of some sort. However, the nonlinear nature can sometimes make the beginning hard to find. It can also make the beginning irrelevant. Just grab whatever piece of the story is in reach and start writing.
* If you're writing fanfic or alternate history, very often there is a divergence point between your version and the original. The time-travel card game Chrononauts calls this a Linchpin, and the changes it creates are Ripplepoints. Start such a story either at or just before the first Linchpin.
* If you're writing fanfic, you have an extra advantage: look at how your canon and its genre typically begin stories. Then try that approach.
* If your story involves a critical piece of information or an object such as a MacGuffin, then the arrival of it typically makes a good opening scene. A letter, a phone call, a newspaper article, a package, a weird artifact -- all have so much plot potential!
* If your setting is unusual, the story will probably benefit from a "zoom" effect such as many movies use. Show a wide view of the setting, a medium view of important plants or animals or places, then a closeup to focus on something important to your story such as a main character. When your story takes place on the back of a massive turtle, a world tree, a generation ship, etc. then your readers need to know that right away.
* If your characters experience something sudden or confusing, and you're writing for genre fans who are used to this sort of thing, then you can take the readers along for the same ride as the characters. Dump them out of a spaceship, throw them through a portal, have them kidnapped by mysterious figures, they wake up with no memory, someone dying grabs them by the necktie, that sort of thing. This appeals to readers who like excitement and/or puzzles.
Don't Hesitate to Start
If you still can't find an ideal beginning, don't worry about it. Just start writing. You can figure it out later.
Don't be afraid to write out of order. Start with whatever grabbed your attention in the first place. You know the climax? Write it. You know the ending? Do that. You're obsessed with that one scene in a favorite canon? Rewrite it. You can fill in the gaps as you go along.
Don't worry so much about finding the "perfect" starting point that you never actually get started. Start somewhere; start anywhere. If your first-readers tell you that the beginning is too slow or boring, you can always cut to the chase later. If they tell you it's confusing, you can add more background up front.
Just slap some words on the page. Many folks find it a lot easier to write once they break the blank-page tension. Start with the title if you know it. Put down the character names, setting, any ideas you have for events to include, your list of references if you keep one -- anything to build momentum. You can do this.
Further Resources
5 ways to start a story: Choosing a bold beginning
50 tips for (fanfic) writing
How to Become a Fanfiction Writer
How "In Medias Res" Actually Works (& When to Use It)
How to Start a Short Story
How to Start a Story: 10 Top Tips From Literary Editors
How to Write a Great Beginning Hook
How to Write a Great Opening Chapter: a Revised Checklist
Introduction to a Series of Posts on Worldbuilding in Fiction
The Line Forms Where? Knowing Where to Start Your Novel
A Long Strange Walk: A Guide to Fanfiction Writing
Plotting in reverse
Story Structure: 10 Popular Structures And How To Use Them
Story Structure: 11 Popular Plot Types Explained (w/ Examples)
What Happens on Page One: 30 Ways to Start a Novel
When a Story is Best Told Backwards
Writing -- how to articles from wikiHow
Writing Good First Lines: Think Theme
Writing Stories Forwards, Backwards, Outwards and Inwards
Types of Opening
First, there are two common types of opening:
* Ab ovo means "from the egg," and ab initio means "from the beginning." This type of opening lets the story unfold gradually from an early point, often right before the interesting things start happening. It is sometimes called a "slow build" or "slow burn" beginning. This works for most kinds of story. It is particularly popular in romance and the "cozy" subgenres meant for relaxation. It also appears in speculative fiction intended for a wide audience who need more setup than experienced fans would.
* In media res means "in the middle of things." This type of opening starts abruptly, often with an action scene. The characters and reader may know little or nothing about what is happening or why. This approach works well for certain types of story, such as mystery or adventure, where unexpected things may happen. It also appears in speculative fiction intended for fans who already know the genre. In particular, fanfic may start wherever the author wishes, on the premise that readers already know the canon.
There are also some less-common types of opening, including but not limited to:
* Reverse chronology, or inverted narrative, means telling a story backwards. The "end scene" of the story appears in the "beginning" position, and the "beginning scene" of the story appears in the "end" position. It usually applies to stories that involve the past in some way, such as time travel, alternate history, historic period, or memoir (including character memoir) stories.
* Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative means telling a story out of order. Usually that means out of chronological order, but there are other ways of organization such as spatial too. While more challenging to write or read, it suits a few cases such as surrealism, dreamscape, exploring a historic event for which people discover fragments out of sequence, or some sorts of time travel.
* 21 Plot Shapes and the Pros and Cons of Each explores a lot more narrative patterns, some of which also have their own unusual types of beginning.
Think about the types of opening. Does one appeal more than the others? Does one suit the kind of story you want to tell? This step can help narrow your focus. If you're not sure, try the slow build approach, which is the easiest and most common option.
Searching for a Starting Point
Now consider the story you're telling. You have an idea in mind. Maybe it's a character like "A girl who..." Maybe it's a scenario like "Two hunters pursue the same prey." Maybe it's a fork in the road like "I took the one less traveled by." Maybe it's a spectacular ending like "There was an Earth-shattering kaboom!" From there, work your way toward the front of the story and look for a good starting point.
* If you're writing cottoncandy fluff, curtainfic, kidfic, slice of life, or other cozy fiction then usually the best beginning is a slow build. These stories often start in the morning or with some other peaceful scene. Sometimes they have a little "aha!" moment or pleasant surprise as the character is going about their routine. It also works in milieu fiction where the setting is basically the main character and everyone wants a leisurely look at it. Be careful about the slow build setup in an adventure story: if you make it too comfortable at the start, readers may not want to get off the couch and actually quit reading rather than break the mood.
* If you're writing mystery, horror, suspense, or other tense fiction then a good opening is right around the first clue that things are about to go terribly, horribly wrong. At first it can seem like a cozy opening, because the details are often quite small -- a snapped twig, the crickets falling silent, the glimpse of a moving shadow. Then all hell breaks loose.
* If you're writing romance, smut, or other relationship fiction then the opening scene typically features an encounter between the 2+ main characters. These are often subdivided into meet-cute for positive and meet-ugly for negative encounters. However, it's not limited to these genres; some others like adventure may throw together characters in abrupt ways.
* If you're writing time travel, temporal mechanics, some types of dimensional or portal fiction, dreamscape, surrealism, dadaism, or other squirrelly stuff then you need to account for a nonstandard storytelling flow. Sometimes you have an obvious starting point as the character(s) will encounter a transition of some sort. However, the nonlinear nature can sometimes make the beginning hard to find. It can also make the beginning irrelevant. Just grab whatever piece of the story is in reach and start writing.
* If you're writing fanfic or alternate history, very often there is a divergence point between your version and the original. The time-travel card game Chrononauts calls this a Linchpin, and the changes it creates are Ripplepoints. Start such a story either at or just before the first Linchpin.
* If you're writing fanfic, you have an extra advantage: look at how your canon and its genre typically begin stories. Then try that approach.
* If your story involves a critical piece of information or an object such as a MacGuffin, then the arrival of it typically makes a good opening scene. A letter, a phone call, a newspaper article, a package, a weird artifact -- all have so much plot potential!
* If your setting is unusual, the story will probably benefit from a "zoom" effect such as many movies use. Show a wide view of the setting, a medium view of important plants or animals or places, then a closeup to focus on something important to your story such as a main character. When your story takes place on the back of a massive turtle, a world tree, a generation ship, etc. then your readers need to know that right away.
* If your characters experience something sudden or confusing, and you're writing for genre fans who are used to this sort of thing, then you can take the readers along for the same ride as the characters. Dump them out of a spaceship, throw them through a portal, have them kidnapped by mysterious figures, they wake up with no memory, someone dying grabs them by the necktie, that sort of thing. This appeals to readers who like excitement and/or puzzles.
Don't Hesitate to Start
If you still can't find an ideal beginning, don't worry about it. Just start writing. You can figure it out later.
Don't be afraid to write out of order. Start with whatever grabbed your attention in the first place. You know the climax? Write it. You know the ending? Do that. You're obsessed with that one scene in a favorite canon? Rewrite it. You can fill in the gaps as you go along.
Don't worry so much about finding the "perfect" starting point that you never actually get started. Start somewhere; start anywhere. If your first-readers tell you that the beginning is too slow or boring, you can always cut to the chase later. If they tell you it's confusing, you can add more background up front.
Just slap some words on the page. Many folks find it a lot easier to write once they break the blank-page tension. Start with the title if you know it. Put down the character names, setting, any ideas you have for events to include, your list of references if you keep one -- anything to build momentum. You can do this.
Further Resources
5 ways to start a story: Choosing a bold beginning
50 tips for (fanfic) writing
How to Become a Fanfiction Writer
How "In Medias Res" Actually Works (& When to Use It)
How to Start a Short Story
How to Start a Story: 10 Top Tips From Literary Editors
How to Write a Great Beginning Hook
How to Write a Great Opening Chapter: a Revised Checklist
Introduction to a Series of Posts on Worldbuilding in Fiction
The Line Forms Where? Knowing Where to Start Your Novel
A Long Strange Walk: A Guide to Fanfiction Writing
Plotting in reverse
Story Structure: 10 Popular Structures And How To Use Them
Story Structure: 11 Popular Plot Types Explained (w/ Examples)
What Happens on Page One: 30 Ways to Start a Novel
When a Story is Best Told Backwards
Writing -- how to articles from wikiHow
Writing Good First Lines: Think Theme
Writing Stories Forwards, Backwards, Outwards and Inwards
(no subject)
Date: 2026-01-10 11:16 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2026-01-10 06:17 pm (UTC)