any tips to start perfect beginning to a Young Adult novel?

[Horserider92]

I'm writing a novel and I have ocd where I have to write it in order. I know everything about my story (beginning middle and end), but I just can't seem to get a catchy first page. I mean I really want to get a first page so that it hooks the reader in, but doesn't give soooo much away.

So any tips?

[Sage]

My tip: don't worry so much about it in the first draft. Start writing, and worry about that catchy first page later.

I don't know if this will help but a couple of agents blogged about opening pages that caught their attention (one is Danthia's):

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2010/01/opening-pages-that-caught-our-attention.html

[MLC23]

After editing my current manuscript at least ten times, I don't worry about the beginning anymore, when I first write. Don't let the first page stop you from writing your story. You can go back and fix it later. (Plus often where you think you should start, isn't really the beginning, but you won't know that until you write the book.)

[elissa]

yeah, my current method involves writing a first draft and then realizing my story actually starts like 2-4k past where I started it the first time around. someday I think it would be nice to cure this issue, but I guess I need to warm up and play with my characters a little before they open up and tell me the real story.

[Momento Mori]

I suffer from a similar problem.

My advice is to focus on getting your story down on paper first and then worry about nailing the language during the edits.

MM

[DrummerGirl]

Everything they said. :D

I am on at least my tenth edit (lost count ;) ), and just wrote my first chapter last week (after realising my inital first chapter was a bit blah). But I needed that initial chapter to get me going. So just get started and then you can make it perfect later :D

The other thing I do: read first chapters lots of my fave books. See how they hook me in.

Lois Lowry said: Always start on the day that it is different.
I think about this one too, but on my current one, no major event occurs, I am introducing the MC and her best friend, to set it up for inciting incident in chap two. (my first chapter is only 800 words - I tend to have short chapters :) )

[maddicharmed]

I suffer from this exact problem. No matter what I must start at the first chapter and then get everything else written. I could happy perfect middles and endings, but if the first chapter is crap it just bugs me lol.

I have to learn how to just write and not care how stupid it must seem. Maybe we can learn together lol.

[LynKay]

I think about the story a lot and outline it before I start writing it. The beginning always suck until at least five or six edits into it. I think like everyone else said, you need to write everything out and then during the editing process, you'll be able to think of something amazing. I guess it takes time to really know your story, and the way you're telling it, so it's difficult to write an amazingly powerful first line on your first draft... At least that's what I think. *nods*

[Danthia]

For me, openings should...

Capture the essence of your narrator, whether it's first or third person. They're the ones telling the story and I like to make that clear from the start. Someone is telling this story and it's not a bland, faceless voice in the background. And it's someone interesting enough to want to get to know them better.

Show off your voice. Voice is so critical to a story, and it can even make up for some shortcomings a novel might have (or stuff you worry it might have). Great voice can't be learned, but it can be developed.

Give a sense of the character's immediate problem. Start off with a bang, so to speak. It doesn't have to be a "hit you over the head" type line, but something that hints at the conflict at hand, either externally or internally.

Pose a question readers want to see answered. This might be as simple as who, or why, but if you can make your reader wonder about something right away, you've already got them hooked. How deeply you hook them is up to the next few lines and the rest of the scene.

I just blogged about this last week, so here's that post (http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-and-lot-more-than-ten.html) if you want to see the full post.

[ClaudiaGray]

Danthia's advice is very solid. I would add to it: Begin your story at the absolute last moment you can start and have the rest make sense. You don't need to introduce anybody having breakfast, starting school or the uneventful two weeks that follow. You need to start the day the ninja crashed into the cafeteria, or whatever other event actually kicks things into high gear.

[M.Austin]

Start with a high-tension moment. Don't start with someone waking up from a dream or looking in the mirror. Cut straight to action, you can start the MC introductions later.

[The Kidd]

Question: Flash-back yes or no? Is it too much like a dream sequence?

[Danthia]

No. Too much like a dream. And a flashback by nature is something that's already happened, so you're not starting in the middle of anything.

[The Kidd]

Thank you Danthia. It's key to the story, it's why the story even happens, so i'm going to have to think of something.

[Chris P]

What might be a fun is to have the story start at some event where all of the major characters are present, even if they don't know each other yet. For example, a concert or something a YA reader will find interesting. That way, you can introduce the characters and show how they behave. That way, we know them before the meat of the story starts.

[TereLiz]

I wrote a blog post (http://lesserkey.blogspot.com/2009/12/red-ink-blues-or-revising-your-novel_8940.html) about openings last month, where I talked about using a defining moment to keep the reader's interest. Here are some examples from that post--

Well, you could start by setting up a problem:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.
~ The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Holy crap! Murdered? I'd say that's a problem.

Or raise a question:

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
~The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

What? What did he do to deserve it? Was he always a naughty child, or did he recently do something very bad? I must know!

Or introduce a WTF? moment.

“When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,” Papa would say, “she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.”
~Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Uh, WTF? I'm going to keep reading to figure out exactly how the mother came to be a geek, and what that has to do with the title.

The thing is, the rest of your story has to live up to this "moment", so don't let your opening write a check the rest of your manuscript can't cash.

I'm with others, though-- don't stress until the first draft is finished, because the opening chapter will probably wind up with more changes to it than the entire rest of the novel. You say you know how it ends? Try to think of a way to use what you know about the ending to write an opening scene.

There's been a ton of great advice in this thread. Hope it helps you!

[indie_girl]

I always used to freak out when it came to the first chapter--or even the first few lines--and that kept me from continuing to write whatever story I was working on at the time. My advice is to remember what whatever you're writing now is just a first draft--it can all be deleted and no one ever has to read any of it!

Another thing that has really helped is realizing that maybe this isn't the beginning. Your story doesn't begin when you write the first word--in a way, it was always there, waiting to be written. In a later draft you may change around the beginning to start at an earlier or later scene. Your story and your characters have a life and a past, so don't get so dramatic about starting anything; it's not really the beginning, after all!

[DonnaDuck]

Just write the story and come back to it later, like everyone said. Yes, you need a good first chapter to hook the reader in but you probably won't even know where that first chapter is until a few edits in, like what's already been said.

I cut the first two chapters of my own novel entirely after a few edits. Sometimes you don't want to, but it's not about what you want. It's about what the novel needs.

[Lindzy1954]

I wrote a blog post (http://lesserkey.blogspot.com/2009/12/red-ink-blues-or-revising-your-novel_8940.html) about openings last month, where I talked about using a defining moment to keep the reader's interest. Here are some examples from that post--
Well, you could start by setting up a problem:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.
~ The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Holy crap! Murdered? I'd say that's a problem.

Or raise a question:

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
~The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

What? What did he do to deserve it? Was he always a naughty child, or did he recently do something very bad? I must know!

Or introduce a WTF? moment.

“When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,” Papa would say, “she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.”
~Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Uh, WTF? I'm going to keep reading to figure out exactly how the mother came to be a geek, and what that has to do with the title.
The thing is, the rest of your story has to live up to this "moment", so don't let your opening write a check the rest of your manuscript can't cash.

I'm with others, though-- don't stress until the first draft is finished, because the opening chapter will probably wind up with more changes to it than the entire rest of the novel. You say you know how it ends? Try to think of a way to use what you know about the ending to write an opening scene.

There's been a ton of great advice in this thread. Hope it helps you!

This is very helpful. I have to admit I am writing my first YA novel right now, journeying in from the world of Children's and I have been tormenting myself about the 1st chapter. I don't know if any of you have done this or have any opinions about it, but my main character uses the first chapter to set up her background and vaguely introduce her "problem". The bomb, per se, doesn't drop on the reader until the last sentence of the chapter. Is that too late for what would be considered - the hook?
Lindsay
website/blog http://www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com

[Tan]

I suffer with this as well. I tend to start too slow and then I don't know how to revise it later because everything I said was NEEDED in my story. Ugh.

[DonnaDuck]

This is very helpful. I have to admit I am writing my first YA novel right now, journeying in from the world of Children's and I have been tormenting myself about the 1st chapter. I don't know if any of you have done this or have any opinions about it, but my main character uses the first chapter to set up her background and vaguely introduce her "problem". The bomb, per se, doesn't drop on the reader until the last sentence of the chapter. Is that too late for what would be considered - the hook?
Lindsay
website/blog http://www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com

If the first chapter is, for the most part, a total infodump of the character's history, I'd recommend scratching it and starting with the bomb. Chances are the backstory can be woven into the plot more seamlessly than full-on telling right from the beginning. The whys and hows will answer themselves eventually but remember, when querying, you have the first five pages, at most, to hook an agent. They're not going to wait around until the end of the chapter to find out what's about to happen if the rest of the chapter isn't compelling enough to get through. So either make it insanely interesting or start your chapter at that last line.

[Lindzy1954]

DonnaDuck, good point. I have to say though, that I have read through my first chapter so many times and it definitely has more than basic set-up going on. There is action, subtle mystery surrounding my main character's past and the book's central antagonist is introduced in a tense scene. Although the big surprise isn't until the end of the chapter, I still think there is plenty of intrigue to drag the reader in. By the way, I posted the entire first chapter (synopsis is posted first) on my website and would welcome you to review it and let me know if I likely need to consider a serious overhaul! Thanks in advance if any of you take the time to do it, I am making myself crazy over here. Here is the link:
http://lindsayncurrie.webs.com/yaproject.htm