Ways to NOT start a story?

Are there some tips you could give on how not to start a story?

Do not wake up in a featureless white room. Stories done that way almost never are quality.

In Medias Res that planly doesn't make sense and just confuse the readers.

edited 17th Mar '12 6:59:43 PM by FallenLegend

Exposition based Prologues. Learned that one the hard way.

what is in media res it doesn't have a page?

In Medias Res

edited 17th Mar '12 6:18:05 PM by MrAHR

I would generally discourage openings that are in a significantly different style (or focused on completely different characters, etc) than the rest of the story for less-established authors. If the style is good, readers might get disappointed by the rest. If the style is bad, readers might not stick around to find out if they like the rest or not.

Ditto on exposition. If you have exposition, at least have something significant going on, or present it as an intriguing backstory, a la Five Flavors Of Dumb.

Don't make the start a certain moment in time, then spend a whole chapter leading up to it unless you're SURE you can maintain momentum.

Exposition - That shows that the author does not trust their readers to understand the story. Sure, sometimes you need to introduce a specific topic, but there are many devices that can be used instead of exposition. Personally, I like to open my stories with dialogue already in the process, and framing devices are pretty good too. In medias res isn't bad in my opinion, but its also a pretty broad term. There are some good "in medias res" openings like Reservoir Dogs for example, where it takes place after a heist, and some pretty terrible ones as well.

Don't start it with a scene that turns out to be a dream, unless the dream is actually relevant to the story. It's far too common for writers to do that because they want an arresting opening scene, and then back out of it with an All Just a Dream reveal.

Not necessarily disagreeing with anything said here, but I think you should start it however you like and fix it when you're done. The important thing is to start. It's altogether too easy to sit around fretting about how to get started.

An author's note talking about how brilliant the story is and how you don't want to hear any negative criticism about it.

Other than that, I'd say knock yourself out.

I'd say that — if your story is full of universe-specific terms (like l'Cie or Fal'Cie) — then you should ease your readers into things like that. Don't throw a bunch of words at them and expect them to understand immediately; either make it fairly obvious to intuit what those things are, or (again) gradually educate the reader over the course of the story in a reasonable amount of time.

Ah, I was looking for an excuse to poke fun at FF 13 again...not my favorite game, that.

edited 18th Mar '12 10:49:47 AM by Voltech44

Don't say, "It was a dark and stormy night."

Goddammit

edited 18th Mar '12 8:21:02 PM by MrAHR

I totaly didn't use that....

It's fun to play with occasionally (that might be getting overused itself, but YMMV), but it's definitely not something that should be done straight.

One issue discussed in creative writing courses is the use of a nameless protagonist. Writers sometimes use this trick to make the protagonist seem more mysterious, and when his or her name is finally revealed, it's supposed to produce some feeling of astonishment in the reader.

One famous literary critic mentioned that his Intro to Creative Writing students had a nasty habit of making stories where a little boy circa early 20th-century Germany does something insignificant in the background while the protagonist is doing something important, and that insignificant little boy turns out to be Adolf Hitler. It sounds cool at first, but it's been done to death, much to some people's surprise.

Granted, introducing a nameless protagonist or a nameless minor character (who will eventually become significant) can work well, but it's a delicate technique that many amateurs cannot replicate. Especially in the case of protagonists, just tell us her damn name and then get the story going. I can recall a few exceptions to this rule, one being a first-person short story involving a woman with Multiple Personality Disorder. Her name changed sporadically with her mannerisms, and I enjoyed the story for its authenticity. It certainly helped that the colleague who wrote it was a graduate student in psychology. But again, that takes special skill and an ability to recognize the appropriateness in introductory-style anonymity.

edited 18th Mar '12 10:20:05 PM by Aprilla

^ As a caveat, I think you can create good effects by not naming your characters from start to finish.

Agreed.

Avoid naming your first chapter "The Beginning." Just, please. Please find something more creative.

Also, don't introduce tons of characters all at once when none of them are going to be immediately important. The reader will become confused on who's who, forget who's talking, and become lost in all the action. I strongly recommend only introducing three important characters max, and then bring in the others gradually. Give them a moment to shine, become an individual character to the reader.

As a follow up to the featureless room: No amnesia, please.

You know, funny thing is, I can't remember ever reading a story that began with the protagonist waking up in a featureless room (although I can remember ones where they had amnesia).

edited 18th Mar '12 11:37:58 PM by nrjxll

Seconding this.

Although the only amnesia one coming to mind here at 2:21 AM is a Final Fantasy.