Some help with my new novel?=)

[WinterDusk14]

I'm not sure how to start it off. Its basically about a man who suffers one tragedy after another. He goes back to his home country and decides to take a road trip (as he realizes that of all his travels, he hasn't been around his own country).

So I got two problems...

1) How should I start the story? A lot of things are coming into my head, but I don't know which is the right one. Should I start with a tragedy that almost took everything away from him? Or can I start somewhere in the middle on his road trip, each tragedy would come as a flashback?

2) This is the first non-fantasy/sci-fi/horror novel I'm about to write. And, I don't really know what genre this goes to. >_>;

Thanks so much in advance!

[Cliff Face]

How much story is there between that first tragedy which almost takes everything from him and the start of the roadtrip? I'm assuming it's about tragedy, but the plot is probably about the road trip.

If there's only a short amount of time between that opening tragedy and the road trip then I'd say you'd be fine starting there. I'd shy away from the constant flashbacks if you could, because it seems a bit unneccessary or at least somewhat jarring.

As for genre it could well be literary. It doesn't sound like a mystery or thriller, nor a romance (unless you left that bit out? It still doesn't sound like traditional romance anyway, not with all the tragedy) nor anything else that would scream genre, so I'd say mostly literary. But only you can know, as nobody has had a chance to read it and wonder which genre it is. Probably you can write the whole thing without having to worry about what genre it is, and only decide when you do your first read through of your first edits.

That's about as much as I can help without further details...

[kaitie]

For me, the main question would be what's the main part of the story? What's the main conflict? You mention the character going on the road trip, and my guess is that's going to have to be the brunt of the story. The tragedies are what lead up to him going on this experience, right? So my main question would be what is it that happens on the road trip itself? What kind of conflicts does he face? Obviously, he can't just be going along and having fun and everything is going great as he sorts things out without any difficulty.

My personal, without knowing anything more, take on things would be to show the final tragedy leading up to him going (or the aftermath of it), and then having him go.

The biggest question, and probably the hardest to answer, is going to be how much of the tragic past is going to be important and necessary to know. Essentially, it's going to end up being backstory (unless you're doing a Slumdog Millionaire sort of thing where the story itself is the backstory and it's just told in the form of flashbacks). That means that when it comes down to it, most of that is probably not going to be incredibly necessary to know, or at the very least it might not be necessary to show in detailed flashbacks.

I mean, if the backstory just serves as an impetus for his going on the road trip, that could be summed up relatively easily in just a few lines. This is obviously not how you'd do it, but having a guy talk to his buddy and saying, "My dog died, my wife left me, my business burned down, my mom has Alzheimer's, and I just found out I've got Huntingtons. Yeah, you could say I'm a little depressed."

See? You wouldn't necessarily need flashbacks to any of that stuff at all because it's all backstory. It could be that there's a particularly tragic aspect of his past that's the hardest to overcome, and maybe that's something that you just sort of hint at for awhile and then reveal (via flashback, dialogue, whatever) later on as well.

This has been rambly and maybe hasn't made sense. The most important question, however, is going to be what is the story itself about in your mind. If it's about him going on the road trip and healing, chances are you won't need to bring in as much of his tragic past as you think. Just showing how those events have influenced his life, the kind of person he has become because of them, will give more characterization than just telling the story on it's own, IMO.

Hope this helps some.

[Danthia]

I'm with Kaitie on this one (as I so often am lately). It'll depend on what this story is about. You have a premise, and strong motivator for driving your protag, but what is he after in this story? Why does he go on this road trip? What does he hope to accomplish? That will probably tell you where to start it, as books typically start right before the protag makes the choice to act, and that choice sends them on the path to the resolution of the story.

I'd suggest starting in one of two places:

1. The final tragedy that makes him say "forget it, I'm taking off on the road" (or the tail end of it depending on how much you want to show that event)

2. Him setting off on that road trip with his goal fresh in his mind as to what he's trying to do.

I suspect his past is just back story and motivation, and you don't need to see any of that. It can come out as the story unfolds and he deals with (or is confronted with) events from his past.

I do something similar in my book. My protag is a war orphan, and she lost her family, went through some really bad stuff. She thinks about the things that happens from time to time when it relates to her current problem, but readers never see those events happening.

I think a lot also depends on whether or not the tragedies are just his back story, or elements of the current plot. People can be motivated by their past, but that really has nothing to do with the story at hand. But if he's trying to solve some problem that involves his past, and he's actively engaging in elements of that past, then they'd be more important to the ongoing story. (Did that make sense?).

Totally random example that hopefully works better... say your protag saw his wife murdered in front of him. He takes off on a road trip to deal with this. That past will affect his actions, but the road trip will have it's own goal - to put the past behind him. He's not out there trying to find his wife's killer, so the past isn't part of the plot, it's just a motivating factor for the protag.

[justAnotherWriter]

My answer to this is trust your instincts. You're the only one that knows this story, the only one that can decide where it has to begin. Just sit down and start writing and see what happens. If, as you do it, it doesn't work, then that's your instincts telling you that you started in the wrong place.

In my experience, a story exists in your subconscious long before it is fully known to you, and the only way to let that story come out is to think less and write more. This doesn't work for everyone, but it has consistently worked for me.

[Lady Ice]

Do tragedies happen to him on the trip? Or is the trip a reflection on the tragedies that have happened to him?

[WinterDusk14]

Well, the first thing that came to mind about the protag going out to his road trip is for healing. Start a new life, since the last tragedy pretty much destroyed everything. Eventually I guess I'll come up with something more solid to back up the purpose of the road trip.

I guess I'm going to cut out the flashbacks, unless I come up with a creative way how to use it or if its really necessary.

Thanks so much for the feedback guys. I just got a couple of potential ideas to flesh this story out more. Its going to be long and fun ride to write this.=)

[WinterDusk14]

Do tragedies happen to him on the trip? Or is the trip a reflection on the tragedies that have happened to him?

In a way, some tragedies will happen while he's on the trip. But it wouldn't be as devastating than what drove him to go on the trip in the first place. I suppose. Since I think if you've hit rock bottom, I don't think anything else could hurt you... or am I mistaken?

[JayG]

What's the inciting incident, the point which a stable lifestyle changes enough to require a departure from that lifestyle? Begin a few pages before that, so we get to know the protagonist, and can appreciate why he reacts as he does, and agree with it as a solution.

If you're taking him on a road-trip be careful that you don't end up writing a chronicle rather than a story.

[Jamesaritchie]

You may not know the best way to start the story until after you finish the first draft.

Just start it the best way you can, and finish the first draft. Only then will you know how well the opening stands up.

[James D. Macdonald]

I'm with James Ritchie -- just start. You may not know the first chapter until after you've written the last.

[cate townsend]

My answer to this is trust your instincts. You're the only one that knows this story, the only one that can decide where it has to begin. Just sit down and start writing and see what happens. If, as you do it, it doesn't work, then that's your instincts telling you that you started in the wrong place.

In my experience, a story exists in your subconscious long before it is fully known to you, and the only way to let that story come out is to think less and write more. This doesn't work for everyone, but it has consistently worked for me.

I totally agree with this. Once everything is on paper, it might become clear which scene to start the story with.

[Phaeal]

You may not know the best way to start the story until after you finish the first draft.

Just start it the best way you can, and finish the first draft. Only then will you know how well the opening stands up.

Yup. You'll have a much better idea of the structure to use once you have material to impose the structure on.

[shaldna]

Just start. It doesn't matter where because you will probably change it later.

and as for genre, don't worry about it until later.

[Lydia Sharp]

I'm with James Ritchie -- just start. You may not know the first chapter until after you've written the last.

This is kind of what I was thinking. You need to have a basic idea of your ending before you know how to start, and even then, you still might have to change it once the first draft is complete. So just get to writing it and see what happens.
As far as genre, it's hard to say based on what you've stated. But I understand your confusion. I just started writing outside of speculative fiction in the past year, and I felt like the cliche' fish out of water. I can honestly say now, though, that it was the best thing I could have done. Stretching out of your comfort zone almost always has beneficial results. Good luck to you!

[Stew21]

You may not know the best way to start the story until after you finish the first draft.

Just start it the best way you can, and finish the first draft. Only then will you know how well the opening stands up.

I'm with James Ritchie -- just start. You may not know the first chapter until after you've written the last.


Yep. Agreed completely. Where I start a book in first draft is never what the beginning is in Second draft.

Just start writing. Keep writing until you get to the end. Figure this stuff out in draft two when you have a whole story to work with.