Those first couple of pages.

Try reading a book in your genre. I know that helps me if I get stuck.

Skip the beginning and start somewhere else. Then, use the later scenes to craft the earlier ones.

Let the scene be too quick. Let it be all tell, no show. Let it sound typical, dull, amateur. Let it be whatever it needs to be in order to finish the scene, get to the next scene, write that one and repeat until you get to the end.

I agree with letting it be quick just to get it over with. You can fix it later. The first few pages are always the hardest for me. A few paragraphs isn't enough; I have to write a few pages before I can get into the flow.

Agree with those above who say just write it quick. Quite frankly, by the time the book is done, you should probably seriously revisit those first couple chapters anyways, no matter what condition you think they're in. Too much can happen over the course of writing a story for those first chapters to remain unscathed by the modifications we make to plot and characters during the course of writing.

Good luck.

Cyia is right -- That's what I do, just write and the rest will come.

I find what MMConway mentioned helpful to me too. Reading always helps me.

Try dropping the scene. I find whenever I have a particularly hard scene to write, skipping it is the best thing. When I began my book, I was going to begin it with a rescue, except I didn't know how to write it, so I skipped it and began with the next scene and go back to the rescue when I had a better idea -- I never did. But it flows smoothly and probably better than if I had gone with my initial plan.

One method is to leave the editing until after the whole work is done. It feels painful but I found it helped me to write because I knew I wasn't editing or even reading over much until the end.

I hate the first page. Once I get to the second or third chapter I'm fine, but that first chapter is killer, especially the first paragraph. I have so much trouble starting a book and usually rewrite the beginning more than a dozen times. Here is what I do about it: Make a list of every possible way the book could start. Then scratch off the ideas you hate. Play with the other ideas. What if you started this way, what would happen? Once you know exactly how it should open you have to find that first sentence, something that grabs the reader's attention. For me, this is the hardest part. I like to listen to music and live the scene over and over inside of the character's head. I let them talk and eventually the first line comes from that.

I wrote my first page in a notebook. Said first page is still with me three months later, edited, but still the same.


I love writing first pages, you have no rules, nothing you need to follow. It is where your creative side can shine!

I have the same problem even when I am writing non-fiction, but usually only with the first sentence and paragraph. I have changed the first chapters of quite a few books nine or ten times before I was satisfied.

I write out of order. Try that.

Belle_91 said:

Thanks for all of the advice! i started this on Sunday night, and still have only got 2,000 words. Usually I'd be onto chapter two by now! It's just frusterating. I just thought I would have gotten the hang of it by 2,000 words, you know? I've had this idea for awhile, but it seems to be cursed, because I never get the right start and always give up on it.

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I had a similar problem with the story I'm working on now. I knew exactly what I wanted to write about, but started it and restarted it maybe a dozen times and never got past five pages. The story refused to flow for me. One day I decided to free write and not worry about controlling where it went or what the characters were like. I let the prose be as crappy as whatever and let myself get into the characters' heads, promising myself I'd worry about cutting whatever sucked later. Much later.

I still cringe when I scroll past the first few pages I wrote in mid-August.

When I got out of my own way, I quickly discovered that this story, which I always had thought was set in the Nineties, actually took place in the early Seventies. I now have a completed first draft in one character's POV and am working on another key character's POV for NaNoWrimo. My point is, what was an idea in my head for a very long time is now a full-blown manuscript and then some.

Celesta said:

One method is to leave the editing until after the whole work is done. It feels painful but I found it helped me to write because I knew I wasn't editing or even reading over much until the end.

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This. I know there are plenty of people who are successful editing as they go, but the OP's complaint is that she's not getting anywhere. This is probably the best approach for her to try.

This may sound really silly, but have you considered starting writing with "Once upon a time there was (a person) who etc etc"? This gets the ideas on to the page and leaves the hook till later.

Belle_91 said:

So, I've had this idea for a book for a couple of years now, yet everytime I try to write the beginning, nothing seems right. I've written two other ms, and while I usually have trouble writing the first paragraph, once I get going I usually write 1,000 words within a sitting. Just like that. Now, I can barely squeak out 500. I keep going back over it, and while I think my writing is good, I'm afriad the scene is too quick. I just can't seem to sit down and write like I used to.

Any tips for my dilemma?

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You need to do one of two things; either drop your idea or re-frame it.

There's a good reason for the roadblock here -and it's probably because your idea is too ambitious and it needs to be boxed in.

back story

Here's a thought. Instead of starting at the start of your story action, the way all the how-to books suggest, try starting well before. Try with back story, how your protagonist got where you want him/her to be. This is a sure way of getting to know the character while working with him, and it may set off all sorts of directions that you never expected.

Just keep writing. Because at the end, you'll probably think it's great, or find it easy to edit it to your liking

Belle_91 said:

So, I've had this idea for a book for a couple of years now, yet everytime I try to write the beginning, nothing seems right. I've written two other ms, and while I usually have trouble writing the first paragraph, once I get going I usually write 1,000 words within a sitting. Just like that. Now, I can barely squeak out 500. I keep going back over it, and while I think my writing is good, I'm afriad the scene is too quick. I just can't seem to sit down and write like I used to.

Any tips for my dilemma?

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I know the feeling, but from what I've heard you'll likely change the beginning even if it is perfect, once you've written the next 100k. And I also know that "I just can't write like I used to" feeling but I can tell you from experience it only gets worse the more you avoid it. Conversely, write and it gets easier to reach that level you're used to.

I agree with summer that editing is easier than erasing what you start with over and over.

An idea (works for me, may not work for others, worth a try):

I keep a blog of free-flowing poetry/prose that is way too rough to publish, though I often see some gems of ideas in there that are good, or images I like.

If you want to check it out it's in my siggy.

I know you can't publish stuff you print online in a blog, so there's no pressure for it to be good. If you keep up with it, one post a day (doesn't have to have a certain length or anything), it will make you more comfortable and sharpen your writing with the cameras off.

Just write. Write a terrible first scene. If you really edit in the future, you'll scrap the original beginning anyway and write a new one that's 1/10 as long.

Never, ever shoot for perfection until you're on your fourth or fifth or fifty-fourth edit! Drafts always suck.

Oh, and never edit before your draft is complete!

This is a really helpful thread, as I'm in the same boat. Have a story in my head and I can't get it out because I hate the first few paragraphs that I've re-written 10 times! UGG.

Maybe you don't need that first scene that you find so hard to write.

Even so, I'd skip to the next scene that seems vivid in my mind. Even if it's the final scene in the book.

The point is to write - write anything, something just to get the gears turning and the juices flowing.

(I hate that expression, juices flowing.)

My motto is: I can fix it in editing. (Of course, then you actually need to fix it in editing. Also, don't produce TOO much garbage or you'll never go back to it.)

Still, with the promise (curse) of more work later, go onward. Write the piece and make it fit later.

Writing is like a tree, it will spread in millions of directions unless pruned, but if you look at the trunk, you see only one large path.

If you have a scene in mind, write that. See where it goes and what questions it brings up. Answer those questions, explore where it goes. You'll have more scenes than you know what to do with.

Don't worry about starting at the beginning, that will write itself when the time comes.

Don't think of it as a beginning. Think of what has just happened before that first page and start from there.