I need a little help starting off my novel

I'm a new writer and I need a little help to start writing my story. If you have any writing tips, you can post those too.

This what I planned out so far...

I want to write a novel series, with each book have a separate plot and be set in a different time in the in-book history. The main genre will be fantasy, but the sub-genre will always be different with each book. The setting will always be set in this little city-state called Aetheria, which is will develop with the series. The overarching theme of the series will be Dualism and how perspective can really alter a story.

Each book will have a counterpart (If that makes any sense), sharing the same overarching story, but with a different protagonist, characters, plot, and theme. The protagonist of one book will the 'hero' in their book but the antagonist in the counterpart book and vice versa, resulting in gray and grey mortality. All the books will be in the first person point-of-view.

Now all I need to do is choose between starting point A, B, or C.

A. Start at the very beginning of the timeline. In AD 0, an island city gets attacked by an invading Roman army. Most of the city gets wiped out, but the survivors were when they were teleported to another realm, by that witch (who was really a sprit in human form) who was to be executed that day. The survivors have to work together to build a new home and unfortunately get into conflict with the sprits inhabiting this realm. The protagonists are currently undetermined, although the witch might be one of them.

B. Start ten years before starting point C. There is a rebellion, which aims to get rid of the monarchy of Aetheria. The protagonists are the leaders of a small army unit, with one on the side of the government and the rebellion. The catch is that they're brother and sister, who went on different sides due to their ideals. As the war drags on, they begin to realize their actions, Order and Chaos is the theme of the two books.

C. Start at present day. The protags are an anti-social, knight templar, snarky vigilante and a cloudcluckoolandish, enthusiastic, over-thinking private detective in training. They are trying to track down a serial killer, with a body count over 20, while trying to find the meaning of life. They eventually cross paths, become rivals, and craziness ensues. They come across upon the antics of their fellow city-dwellers, and soon the dots begin to connect.

So, write down below the starting point that sounds the best to you.

And thanks to all the people who took time off to reply!

:3

I like Plot Point B the best, only because that suggests the most obvious structure to hold what you're going for (the "mirror" stories where each one is flipped) but whichever one you're most excited about writing is likely to be where you should start at.

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I'm not exactly sure of the format of the whole, complete story line, so I would say go with what you think would work best for the story.

I like the idea of mirroring; reversing might work too (like start with C and regress to B...). Or you could go A,C/C,A , B and use B to bring the two events together. Some ideas to play with.

edited 12th May '15 6:43:11 AM by Coujagkin

At the risk of giving a non answer, write the story that you want to write. All three of these sound like very different stories each as opposed to being different variants of the same story. They all sound like fine plots. Create your characters to flesh out the plot and have at it. Pick one. Or pick all of them, write one book after the other. It really is all your choice.

I agree. One idea isnt inherently superior to another- the quality is determined by how well you write it. Try writing all three, until it becomes clear that one is just more interesting or more compelling to you than the others, then focus on that one.

Piggybacking on that, is there one idea or set of characters you already find more interesting? Or even just better formed in your head? Because I strongly suggest starting with the clearest idea first.

People write out of chronological order all the time. Don't let that hold you up!

Piggy-backing on that piggy-back: hell, some people write the sequences in the actual book out of chronological order.

Have a clear scene in mind that's half-way through the book or is the final showdown but can't think of how to actually get the book started? Just jump into the scene you can write and keep doing the ones for which you have clear ideas and sooner or later the immersion in the work will make the opening scene clearer in your mind.

It doesn't matter what order it was written in when it's all assembled.

If you have any clear scene from any of those stories. Write it. Get going. You may stale on it later but have a great scene from one of the other stories in your head - so write that instead.

Repeat until one or all is/are done.

Piggybacking on that piggybacked piggybacker...

Nah, I don't have anything else to add yet. I just like the word 'piggyback'.

edited 13th May '15 2:28:36 PM by Tartra

And I'll just attach myself to the human tower full of crazy and add that for as long as you make it make sense, it doesn't matter whether you follow the time-line or jump on it from place to place like a scalded cat.

Though if I were to choose which of the ones you'd proposed I'd write first if I were the one doing it, I'd start with the last one, the one which chronologically comes last. Generally, I prefer to tackle stories chronologically if the characters remain the same or if the protagonists switch but important characters from the previous stories remain important in the later stories and thus if it can actually be called a sequel, and do the reverse (go back in time when switching stories) when it's a series of stories in the same world that does not share any important characters between the books; keeping to that means it is easy to see if a given story has the same characters of importance as the one before it, which in the long run might be a good thing.

But I'd only choose like that because it's what I prefer. I've read enough achronological stories to know that I do not think them automatically worse because of it. The only things that matter are whether they are written well and whether the author's style is something I like.

edited 13th May '15 2:50:43 PM by Kazeto

Thanks for the replies

I'm thinking of starting with Point B, as it's the story that most appeals to me the most. It's mainly because it's a altered and darker version of a story that I wrote in 4th grade and because I there's a lot I can do with the plot. So far, I think of making the story take place in a medieval setting with a little bit of every culture and some steampunk mixed in. I already created my characters, using the people I know (and I'm not going to lie) and my childhood toys as the basis of their personalties. I have a vague idea of the plot, and I'm currently going through all my previous writing to get some ideas. The titles of the books will be Order and Chaos.

The split storylines will be handled like this. I will divide the cast of characters by if they are chaotic or orderly by nature. Then I swap some of the characters to the other side for diversity. Lastly, I'll come up with some subplots to bring them together. Now all I need is a good reason for them to oppose each other.

As for the order of the books, I'm going to set it aside until the 10th chapter. I just don't know what to do yet.

Lastly, I would like to say that I'm good at making characters and settings but bad at plot. So, do you mind giving any plot tips?

I'm going to start writing my first chapter of Chaos tomorrow and I'll report back to this thread when I'm finished.

Reading option B, it seems to me that you pretty much have the plot. Decide on the climax and it's resolution, then start listing scenes.